Red Rice

crispy pork hock with steamed red rice and roasted vegetables 

There are various Philippine heirloom rice available to buy online but I find the prices of the rice too steep. I had to settle for the cheaper, at $10.00 for a 5-pound bag, Thai red rice which are sold in nearby Asian grocery stores. Thai red rice is a long grain non-glutinous rice similar to brown rice but the color of the bran is red. According to Wiki, only the husks of the rice grains are removed during the milling process, retaining all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals intact in the bran layer and in the germ. Red rice is a good source of thiamine, riboflavin, fiber, iron, and calcium.

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Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bacon! Yes, these cookies have crispy bacon chips and they go really well with extreme bittersweet chocolate chips. When I read about these unusual cookies I just had to make some. They are not too rich nor greasy; they're sooo good.

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Matcha Daifuku

We've been addicted to mochi ice cream since we first tried them 24 years ago. Nowadays we buy a variety of sweet filled mochi called Daifuku from the Asian store but mochi ice cream is still our favorite.

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Cider and Black

For Christmas last year we had a drink called Cider and Black, a mix of dry hard cider and blackcurrant cordial. Hard cider, which has the same alcohol content as beer at about 5% in volume, is becoming popular at least here in Virginia. I like the combination of hard cider and blackcurrant because it's very light and slightly sweet. It's a ladies' drink, I guess.

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