I love the fact that the kid is having food tech at school I am always looking forward to what he’s gonna bring home every Thursday afternoon.  Last week Antonio and 3 other boys baked pizza scone rolls.  He ate one at school and brought home apiece to show me.  He’s very proud of it!  I tasted it then let him finish it all.  It’s the 1st one from their set of recipes to try – their chosen theme named Spring Halloween.

Last week, he told me he must bring butternut pumpkin to school.  So this morning I prepped half a pumpkin for him – peeled, deseeded and cubed.  Lo and behold!

Isn’t it gorgeous?  I love the way he took this photo at school.  Two of them like the idea of scattered dry leaves… so creative these tween food blogger wannabes!

He came home with a container full of creamy pumpkin soup.  I heated it up and tasted.  Oh my God unbelievably yum!  Seriously it’s good.  I told him I’m not saying it because it’s my job as his mom but it really is good.  Below is one of the photos we both took at home.

Antonio initially suggested to use a recipe from my website, which is Filipino. In the end they followed a child-friendlier pumpkin soup from Kidspot NZ.

“I would like to say that me and my friends are happy about the recipes we are going to make at school.  Our theme is Spring Halloween . Next week, we will be making Mini Vampire Muffins!  I’ll be back next week! “ – Antonio ^_^

Update (18 Nov 2012):

Antonio cooked the dish this morning as part of our lunch – entree to go with Roasted Peri Peri Chicken.  As he was only cooking for three, we tweaked the ingredients as follows:

400g pumpkin cubes
1 small potato, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1 small onion, diced
8 1/4 cup chicken stock
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Prep time about 10 minutes and cook time about 30 minutes.

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.