My grocery list would have bread listed always and most often than not, we have replenish our stock in the middle of the week. This is not to say though that we never ever come to a point where the bread goes stale. There are times when there’s just too much food at home that the bread is simply pushed aside. Like this week for example. Since we celebrated my 2 year old’s birthday, there was just too much leftover food for bread to play such a major part of our meals.

This morning, I found about 4 slices of bread leftover and confirmed from the package that it had expired a few days ago. Since I was hungry and I really did not want to let the bread go to waste I decided to come up with a plan to make the stale bread palatable.

• I looked over each piece and removed the parts where there was mold. These usually start at the edges of the bread.
• Then I spread each side of the bread with butter.
• I put a pan over medium heat and placed each slice on it.
• I let it cook until the bread turned brown or toasted. This took about 1-2 minutes per side, depending on how burnt you want your bread to be.
• Eat with eggs cooked sunny side up.

My breakfast was such a hit to my two kids, I did not notice that they finished everything before I even had my fill.

First celebration was at my parents house. My mom cooked tons of food as if I wasn’t able to eat for a whole year and she wanted to make sure I made up for it.

We had my favorite “Ginataang Kuhol” (snails in coconut milk), Barbecued spareribs, grilled stuffed squid and ensaladang talong.

I guess you could say I inherited my knack for cooking and eating. Of us 4 kids, I was always the one tagging along with my father to the market to buy food for the house. I remember that I was always watching him cook. Initially, I watched because my dad would ask me to. He always said it would do me good to learn how to cook. Eventually, I watched because I wanted to learn more. I always loved to play house when I was little and I guess that was as close as I can get to it.

I decided to do the same at home. I planned a special home cooked dinner for my family and some friends.

It was fortunate that I had the whole day off from work because it really takes a whole day to prepare for such a gathering. Although what I had planned did not really take that much effort, the time was prolonged by my two sons who kept wanting to get into the game of my cooking.

I had planned to make baked mussels and bruschetta for appetizers and just baked zitti for the main course. Of course dessert was leche flan.

For the bruschetta, I bought some sourdough baguette from the grocery, fresh tomatoes and quickmelt cheese. Here is how you can make these little bread delights:

Procedure:

Slice the baguette in equal size diagonals. Toast them slightly just so you can easily rub the surface with garlic without having the bread crumble. Then rub the surface with freshly cut garlic. Use your nose to determine when to stop rubbing. Next step is to sprinkle the bread with olive oil (others may just want to spread some light butter). I like cheese so I grated quickmelt cheese over my bruschetta. Bake them until the cheese melts over the bread.

Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes in small cubes. It will give some chunkiness to the bruschetta. Others may choose to place a large slice of round tomato on top. Either one is fine. Mix up your tomatoes with some herbs and olive oil. I used McCormick’s Italian dressing. Put a generous amount of the tomatoes on top of each baked bread. Serve and eat!

Mussels are a fairly inexpensive seafood choice but very good and used in a variety of dishes around the world.

When buying mussels, you have to remember to buy them from the market on the day that you plan to cook them. Keep in mind that fresh mussels tend to be tightly closed. Also, make sure that there are no news about red tide as it will be safe to stay away from mussels during this time.

How to cook baked mussels:

Procedure:

First cook the mussels in a pot filled with water. After the shells open, take the flesh from each shell and set aside.

Melt butter in a saucepan. When melted pour in lemon juice or calamansi juice. Taste the mixture to get your desired combination.

On the baking pan line up the mussels half shell and place one piece of flesh on each half. Pour just enough of the butter mixture over each half shell. Sprinkle each piece with grated cheese. Bake until the cheese has melted. Yummy!

Last one that I prepared was the baked zitti. For this dish, all you need are the pasta, the meat – ground pork or chicken will do, fresh tomatoes, tomato sauce, mushrooms, heavy cream, mozzarella, ricotta, and quickmelt cheese.

Procedure:

Sauce. Saute some garlic and onion in a saucepan. Pour in meat and stir until cooked. Next put in the tomatoes and the mushrooms. Cook until the tomato’s juice pours out. Next pour in the tomato sauce. Season with salt, pepper and herbs. For me, I always use basil leaves combined with italian seasoning. Make sure to season to your desired taste.

In a baking pan or pyrex tray, spoon some of the cooked noodles to make some sort of base. Then layer with mozzarella cheese. Next layer would be the tomato sauce mixed with cream. And then sprinkle with ricotta cheese. Continue to layer until the pan is full to the brim. Sprinkle the top with grated quickmelt cheese. Bake until the cheese has melted. Enjoy!

Part 2: I will tackle the leche flan at another time. Meanwhile… anticipate more goodness!