Another Drop Dead Gorgeous Affair

Yes, she's surprisingly 44!

It is ate Cielo's birthday and we organized a little party for family and close friends. Of course what's a party without food?! As usual, I take care of that department. And as always, my cuisine is the heart and soul of the event. Ehem.


For this party, as with any party in the past, I prepared the usual Pancit Sotanghon (that is after the fact that we just had Pancit Canton a week ago), Spaghetti, Crispy Pata (2 days ago, our dinner was Crispy Pata) and Roast Chicken. She never tires of eating them. Truth is, they're no party food for me anymore since we have them any day of the week! I wanted to prepare something I haven't prepared for them yet like Farfalle with spicy shrimp which is simpler to make but tastes way, way better than the usual tomato based pasta; Morcon, or Chicken Cacciatore para maiba naman. But Ate Cielo is not adventurous. So what happens is we eat the same stuff over and over again. Everytime. (Magreklamo ba?)

Despite the lack of adventurism in the menu choice, the party was another drop dead gorgeous affair. I compensated for the ordinariness of the food by slightly changing the flavor and the way the food is cooked. Like, what was supposed to be plain spaghetti, I poured cream cheese sauce and baked it. For the roast chicken, I made an Inasal version for a change.

Then i also made some baked potato to add a refreshing new item on the table. It turned out, everybody loved it!

All in all, we had five dishes on the table and the reviews were great. They raved over the baked spaghetti that one said tastes like baked macaroni (sweetie, only the shape of the pasta was different!). They couldn't stop munching on crispy pata made even more tender by pressure-cooking it with spiced water AND MILK. The baked potato was like pizza, my sotanghon this time is meatier with the addition of pork lomo to the usual chicken liver and breast.




But of course, party is not all food. The most important thing is that we had fun celebrating Ate Cielo's birthday with laughter and togetherness, wishing her more birthdays to come (that means more spaghetti, pancit and pata!). Hahaha!




Here's my version of Chicken Inasal:

Ingredients:
2 pcs Spring Chicken

For the marinade:
2 stalks lemongrass
1 thumb-sized ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 medium onion
1/2 cup vinegar
1 small pack Sinigang Mix (or, fresh sampalok if you can find)
2 tbsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup Atsuete oil

Procedure:
Mix all marinade ingredients together and turn into a paste using a food processor ( I used mortar and pestle) then marinade the chicken in the mixture for at least 2 hours. Overnight is best!
Insert the leaves of the lemongrass inside the chicken.
Roast the chicken in the oven for about 1 hour at 220C.
Take away the roasted chicken from the pan and a save the drippings and oil. Run through a sieve and put in a nice serving dish. The drippings are great drizzled over rice.

I cooked four big Crispy Pata.