Post Holiday Season

Christmas season is over and everything's almost back to normal right now. My entry today will be on several topics since a lot happened to me during these past few weeks.

1.) I can proudly say that my culinary skills have improved quite a bit this holiday season. I personally cooked most of the dishes for our media noche. I prepared the grilled spareribs, baked whole chicken, seafood pasta and the fruit salad. I will be sharing now my recipe for seafood pasta. I actually got it from the net but modified it to include common ingredients, so somehow it's my recipe.

ISSA'S SEAFOOD PASTA

Ingredients:
250 g shrimp
250 g crabstick or crab flakes
2 small cans (240 ml) evaporated milk
1 cup water
4 tbsp flour, mixed in 1 cup cold water
4 tbsp celery, chopped
2 bell peppers (1 red & 1 green), chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 clove garlic, chopped
1 bar Swiss cheese, cut into cubes
1 tbsp margarine
salt and pepper
500 g spaghetti

Procedure:
1. Melt margarine. Saute garlic, onion and celery.
2. Add flour, carrots, bell pepper, salt and pepper. Stir and cook in low heat for 2 min.
3. Add milk and water. Allow to boil. Stir occasionally.
4. In a separate container, boil shrimp and crabsticks. After boiling, peel shrimp and cut crabsticks into cubes. Set aside boiled water.
5. Add cheese to the sauce then add the shrimp and crab. Cook in low heat for another minute while stirring.
6. Cook pasta in the seafood boiled water then drain.
7. On a dish, pour cheese sauce over pasta. Bon apetit!

* Makes 7-8 servings

2.) Goals for shopping next Christmas: Shop early again for gifts. Make a strategy before shopping - list people and what to give them, set a realistic budget for each, choose where to buy
which gift, make a schedule.

3.) Over the Christmas season, I was also able to make considerable improvements in my website so I think it is now worth sharing it. My site is called Planet Hyun Hea and it's found on http://planethyunhea.bravehost.com.

My favorite page so far (because it's the page that took me the longest to make) is my page on Christian Bautista, so please do check it out on the favorite artists section.