Love is Red

Because I feel as heavy as that band after a month of cooking and gorging glorious food. How'd all your holidays went? Mine was fantastic (and still ongoing). My Christmas this year was extra special because I get to bake for the first time. You see, my Ma was a fantastic baker back in the day before work consumed all her time and I was too young to help. When I got old enough though, I developed a deeper interest in the stove than the oven so I never really got around to baking a cake. The most baking I did was macaroni.

A couple of months back I asked for an oven. What Ma did, she got our old gas oven fixed for half the price of a new electric oven which was alright with me. I spent weeks reveling at baking sites and pastry blogs, licking my lips, breathing heavy, (you get the picture) but not because I craved to eat it all. Instead, I craved to create. 

I was never a sweet tooth, that is true, and I guess I never will be. My palate prefers salty over sweet. I may have shared this fact in some of my old posts. I get light migraines when I consume too much sugar and instead of becoming all giddy and hyper with sugar rush, the opposite happens to me - I doze off - so it's no fun. 

But looking at these...

or this photo...

or this...

turns me into some sort of freak woman who wants to throw a mixing bowl up in the air sometimes and say 'ayooo'. For real, it can get outta hand! I think I'm going to blame it on that little inhibited artist in my brain just dying to create something so pretty like a cake!

December doesn't have to give you a heart attack.

By now, you must have noticed that I’ve been using this Safoco brand multi-colored vegetable macaroni when I whip up regular day pasta dishes. For one, it’s really cheap.  The last time I checked, it costs 31 pesos (less than a dollar) per 200g. Also, it cooks real quick (about 5 minutes in boiling water) and the texture and taste is just great and goes well with any sauce base may it be tomato, cream, or oil. Lastly, it’s made of vegetables! 

I’m crazy about pasta. It’s one of those home staples I couldn’t do without. There are just so many possible ways to turn it into awesome dishes so it never gets boring and it can easily be made into a complete meal.

I now interrupt this sort of sleepy blog.

You can actually track if my month had been busy or not by the number of posts in here. So, November had been one helluva busy time. A wedding, a friend's vacation here, two birthday parties, a gig and some side work I had to accomplish left me no time to make quality posts. I did a lot of cooking (via parties and gig) but without proper documentation, it just did not feel right to blog about any of those.

But there IS something bloggable that happened. I was nominated by Hungit Cebu's Jason to be a part of Best Cebu Blogs of 2010 and a few days ago, I got this news that I got into the Top 20. That wasn't the bloggable part though. Call me sentimental but man, I didn't really expect my facebook friends to shoot me up the ladder. I was shook to the core. I don't even know how to thank everyone but I did thank them and I am very grateful. I'm pretty much excited about that award's day (December 12) because it's going to be my first time and I really hope there's a long buffet table. Haharrr.

I started out this blog because I wanted to document my cooking, that's all (and some family and friends wanted the recipes). I have had a handful of blogs in the past, most are now inactive floating in cyberspace but this is something that would most likely to stay because I know there is no escaping the kitchen for me. As well as my other active blog, because there is no escaping the pen and paper for me either.

But really! This! A chance to get an award! I could only dream to win a badge for diy-eats. Call me old-fashioned but this blog doesn't have ads and I'm pretty set it will stay that way. As for being prompt, 2011 should be a promising year!!! (via new year resolutions LOL) Also, no matter how busy December is going to be for me, I'll be posting yumyum stuff I promise y'all!!!

Here's to a Merry Christmas!

♥ Chef Shak ♥