I’m posting the Food Quote Meme on this blog this week just because this was our funniest meal time this week. Earlier this week I made pork chops and spinach for dinner. It was an uneventful meal, one that we have at least once a month because it’s fast and easy to prepare after I get home from work. While we were eating dinner, my daughter received a picture text from her Aunt Sherry. Her Aunt Sherry and cousin Valerie were at Roy’s Hawaiian Fusion having dinner and they sent a photo of their entree, Rustic Grilled Pork Tenderloin (photo #1).

My daughter Jade, like most of us in the family, loves food. We become most animated when talking about food. So to tease her, her aunts would sometimes send her photos of what they’re eating especially if it’s something really good or if it’s something that they know she would drool over. So when my daughter received photo #1 in the middle of our mediocre pork chop dinner, she picked up the biggest pork chop from the pile on the platter in the middle of the table and plopped it onto a similarly shaped plate as the one the tenderloin was served in, and sent it to her aunt.

Sherry and Valerie had a good laugh over that humongous piece of fried meat in the middle of the plate (photo #2), with Valerie texting back with: “OMG, what the heck is that?” By this time, we too were all giggling while we were eating. Sherry and Valerie were at their table at Roy’s too, giggling over the comparison and attracting the attention of other diners with their silliness.

A few minutes later, they texted again. This time with a photo of their dessert (photo #3), Roy’s Famous Chocolate Lava Cake. Well we hadn’t finished eating our pork chop dinner yet and I didn’t cooked anything for dessert anyway. So we were scrambling for ideas on what to send them next. Then we had an idea! Jade pulled out another square plate and drizzled some Hershey’s chocolate syrup. I grabbed an apple from the bowl at the center of the table and cut it in half then plopped it in the middle of the plate. Jade took a photo (photo #4) with her cell phone and sent it back to her aunt and cousin. They texted back, “OMG, we are dying here!!! This is hilarious!”

We were also laughing so hard, I had tears in my eyes, imagining those two in their fancy schmanzy restaurant and Jade had a comeback for every dish they sent. LOL! Her Aunt Sherry made the collage of the photos they sent back and forth and she said, “LMAO during dinner was priceless….. made dinner more fun and enjoyable!”

It sure did. We had a great dinner and I bet we didn’t even pay as much as they did.

I’m giving away a $25 Kroger Gift Card! - sign up to win by August 8. Click on the link for details.

Have you tried Breyer’s Smooth and Dreamy Ice Cream Bars and Sandwiches? It’s hard to believe they are lower in fat and calories than regular ice cream. Read what we thought about them and how they were devoured in no time.

And now that we’ve taken care of our body’s hunger, let’s take care of the mind. If you like poetry, you’ve probably already heard of Alexander Pushkin. I recently had a chance to review My Talisman: The Poetry and Life of Alexander Pushkin and found myself intrigued not only by the poems but also by the story of the poet himself.

It’s salad season! The days are longer, hotter and sunnier and I’m loving it! Several salad posts are in our kitchen and more in the line up. If you like the bitterness of greens, you may want to check out these two salads’ raw and cooked versions of Turnip Greens.

Filipinos have a penchant for creative nomenclature. That means we can get really creative when it comes to naming things. Just look at some of the names of small business signs anywhere in the Philippines and you’ll see what I mean. So it is only to be expected that this creative naming also extends to food.

Breakfast basics for most Filinos is fried rice (Sinangag) and eggs (Itlog). Most Filipinos would have rice and eggs for breakfast everyday with only the addition of a variaty of viand such as longanisa (Filipino sausage), tapa (marinated beef), tocino (marinated pork), daing (dried fish), tuyo (dried sardines), bangus (marinated milkfish), or pusit (dried squid). So when you’re in a restaurant ordering breakfast, you would combine the name of your viand with the name of the basics, sinangag (fried rice) and itlog (eggs). For instance, if you were to have the marinated pork, it would be ToSiLog - a combination of Tocino, Sinangag and itLog. You get the idea, right?

So far, I have made a couple of SiLog breakfasts in our kitchen. First, my husband’s favorite Filipino breakfast meat, Tocino which is pork marinated in soy, sugar, vinegar, salt and pepper.

The second SiLog dish I made is TapSiLog, short for Tapa, Sinangag and Itlog. Filipino tapa is beef marinated in lemon, soy and black pepper.

This is my husband’s close second favorite. But the best way he actually likes this is stirfried with onions and peppers ala bistek, for dinner.