I Heart Chuck!

CHUCK, that's the new NBC show that debuted last night and it was love at first watch. The show is Mission Impossible meets Beauty And the Geek, the difference is the Tom Cruise-like character died, which is good, and the beauty who is actually smart, works as a CIA agent and is adept in using knives to defeat her adversaries of the moment. The whole show is funny, not slapstick, but intelligent funny and action-packed. Read more here. Chuck, the lovable geek and social nerd, works at a BestBuy-like store and drives a tiny geekmobile. He shares a house with his sister and her boyfriend, also his co-worker and best friend is even geekier than he is. The dead guy sent him an email containing government secrets that got embedded in his brains when he opened it which will eventually lead him in coming episodes to work with the agents. My favorite scene: When Chuck and the girl were preparing for their date, in their respective houses of course, she was strapping on her ankle a thin belt full of small knives and wore 2 deadly metal chopsticks as hair accessory which she later used against a group of NSA agents while they were dancing in a club. Chuck did not notice the approaching men in black and that they were falling one by one except for one. But he wised up to the government agents' agenda, prevented an assassination, disabled a bomb, then went back to his job the next day. All in a day's work. Excellent show. I now have something to look forward to every Monday evening.

For the past 2 or 3 years I have been watching only a handful of the regular network's TV shows, Heroes, Medium, and Law & Order SVU are my favorites. There were no sitcoms or dramas worth my time. I occasionally watched Dancing with the (has been)Stars and regularly some of Bravo's reality series like Project Runway and Top Chef and the very funny Showdog Moms & Dads a few years ago. I think I'm the only person on this planet who hasn't seen a single episode much less a single minute of Grey's Anatomy, I got tired of Desperate Housewives pretty quickly, and lost interest in the second season of Lost.

The new TV season looks promising. The Journeyman is okay but has the potential to improve. I'm not sure about Bionic Woman but Ill watch it, Pushing Daisies from ABC is also interesting. Sitcoms are hopeless, though, nothing new that will make me watch. I miss Seinfeld. I'll continue watching America's Next Top Model and Beauty and the Geek, at least they're entertaining.

Apple Butter

I bought a lot of ginger gold apples last week and discovered a few days later that they were no longer crunchy, in fact they were already getting mealy. I don't like eating mealy apples, who does, but did not want to throw them away so I made them into apple butter. This is the first time I made apple butter and I am glad with the result. The best recipe in my opinion is this one.
It took a long time to cook but this apple butter is very good and sooo perfect with these savory cheddar biscuits. I used aged cheddar which gives a salty savory wonderful flavor to the otherwise bland biscuits. I'm now starting to like biscuits specially with sweet and spicy apple butter.;=)

apple butter on hot cheddar biscuits - sweet, tangy, & spicy + salty & cheesy

Pork Belly Cooked In Pineapple

Via Mare's Pork Jamonado
1 kilo skinned and trimmed whole pork belly
1 cup dark brown sugar
1½ tablespoons sea salt
¼ teaspoon instacure (saltpeter or salitre), optional
1 32-oz can pineapple chunks
2 cups pineapple juice
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves

• Combine sugar, salt and saltpeter. Rub the mixture all over the pork belly. Roll tightly from long side, tie with twine, marinate overnight.
• Put pork, marinade, and the rest of the ingredients in a large pot. Let boil, lower heat and simmer for 1 ½ hours.
• Transfer meat to a platter, let rest before slicing.
• Boil the remaining sauce for another 5 - 10 minutes to thicken slightly. Pour on top of sliced pork.

This is a very good dish. It's salty and sweet and tastes like ham with the addition of the cloves. I love it!

Notes:

1. It is difficult to find whole pork belly in groceries but finally found it in the Korean supermarket. The butcher will not cut the slab so I got the whole 10 pounds! I divided the slab into 3 pieces, made 1 into jamonado. The rest are in the freezer and will make bagnet (lechon kawali) later.
2. I don't think the saltpeter is necessary because there is no curing involved. I think this is added for the pink color. You can eliminate this ingredient altogether.

Via Mare Recipes On DVD

I just viewed a Filipino cooking for entertaining dvd, the food prepared by a pretty Filipino actress (Carmina Villaroel). All the recipes come from the restaurant Via Mare owned by Glenda Barretto who appeared at the end of the show for a brief period.The DVD is called Celebrate Special Occasions with the Best Recipes of Via Mare which I borrowed from Netflix.

The recipes that made me drool:

• Stuffed Queso de Bola
• Pork Pineapple Hamonado - I will make this first and will post it soon.
  
• Pastel de Lengua
• Stuffed Roast Turkey - The meaty stuffing looks so goood, I kid you not.;D
• Cassava Bibingka - I am not sure if I will find the same Filipino style cassava flour here in the US but will try to substitute frozen.
  

Other recipes:
Cuchinillo with Paella Stuffing
Lapu-lapu With Mayonnaise
Pears Poached in Red Wine
Strawberry Fizz
Kiwi Fizz
Tsokolate Eh
Salabat Tea

Although the whole cooking show is in Taglish, the recipes and procedures are shown in separate boxes in English. I highly recommend this dvd to meat loving Filipinos.