What's Your "I Am Sick" Comfort Food?

So I've been sick since the last week of 2010 until NOW! The weatherman seems to be playing tricks on all of us. A lot of people I know right now, are sick or about to be sick. IT SUCKS! I've missed a couple of days at work because of this irritating cough. And while writing this blog entry, my cough is still bugging me!

So my question is, for sick days what is/are your favorite comfort food/s? Of course there's the famous LUGAW or Arroz Caldo (porridge) with chicken. Then there are the soups. The heat making your insides warm and you feel relaxed all at once. And maybe, you can hope that in an hour all your phlegm would have disappeared.

I decided to bump off my blog on our New Year's diner to continue on with my list of home-cooked meals that surpasses Christmas Eve and New Year's. I just wanted to share with you guys my favorite sick days comfort food.

NILADDI. Flat noodles with soup and some food coloring. This is a native dish, something that hails from our province in Cagayan Valley up north. Niladdi is an Ibanag term for noodles. The name may sound weird, but this is HEAVEN! Here's the super simple recipe, I'm sure anyone of you can do it!

Ingredients: Flat noodles, any kind of meat (chicken, pork, beef) and even shrimp, achuete (the red thing for the coloring), bawang (garlic), sibuyas (onions), patis (fish sauce), and water.

Instructions:
1. Saute the garlic and onions in a pot. Add the meat (chicken, beef, or pork) or shrimp.
2. When the water from the meat evaporates completely, put in the fish sauce. The fish sauce depends on how salty you guys want your soup to be.
3. Prepare the achuete by mixing it in water until it turns red. Once it turns red, pour the water into the pot. Use a strainer so that seeds won't go into the soup.
4. Let it simmer until it boils.
5. When it boils a little bit, you may add in water.
6. After you've added the water and it has boiled, add in the niladdi noodles.
7. Just wait for it to boil again. Then it's good to go!

I'm no chef. I actually dislike preparing/cooking food. But I'm willing to learn this just so I could cook it all by myself during sick days. I swear it's the best comfort food. Our helper had mastered the art of cooking niladdi. Maybe you should just ask her how she does it! :)

Lemme know what you're favorite comfort food is! Maybe there's another version of this soup dish! Lemme know!! :D

This Blogger Will..

CONQUER HER FEAR OF THE KITCHEN AND BAKE AND COOK!

Yep, you all read that right my dear friends! Inasmuch as I've been scared of the kitchen in all my 24 (about to be 25) years of existence, I will swallow my fear of getting burned or getting hit by popping or splashing, boiling oil, broth, water, or what have you.

My first shot at "cooking" was for Mother's Day eons ago! I told Mom I'd make her pancit canton, I think she thought it was the real deal pancit canton. But what I really did was the pancit canton from Lucky Me! She almost died laughing, and she only ate the thing because it was my Mother's Day present to her! So ever since then I swore to myself that the kitchen will be the last place I will be found in!

My inspiration came from 2 blogs I've been reading on a constant basis: Trip or Treats and my 4th year high school class adviser in St. Scholastica's College, Ms. Sunshine Quibilan-Mendoza. Plus, my high school friend, A, have also turned chef-y. So being the inggitera that I am, I thought why not join the bandwagon! :D

And since I've been eating out a lot with my friends, I thought why don't I try eating something I did myself. I love pasta, so that's a start. My former class adviser shared this really easy, somewhat fool-proof, pasta recipe. I'd like to try that first and feed that to Mom.

But my first attempt would be at baking. It seems easy and since I'm scared of getting burned, the baking seems to be the easier way for a rookie like me. Although I have my inhibitions, I SUCK at measuring, and I do not have the patience, I think I have a good shot at this. I WANT this to turn out good!

Come payday I have already made out a list of things to buy, especially for the baking. I'm actually excited to buy the stuff where you put the things in (trays?), the spatulas, the measuring cups and spoons, and of course the ingredients!

I promise I shall document the process and give out an honest evaluation of how it came out. Check out this blog for the outcome! :D

Wish me luck peeps! :)