For a working mom like me, there really are times when there is so much work to do that I couldn’t afford to cook something tedious to prepare. Kaldereta and the likes are definitely for the weekends. Well at least if we are not rushing to meet deadlines. It’s a good thing we don’t have a boss and home is just downstairs.
Here is a simple stir-fry recipe. I craved for cashew nuts few days ago and still have a pack which I bought at the neighborhood Russian store.
My sister requested for a chicken & mushroom dish for lunch so we grabbed some ingredients from the nearest supermarket & I cooked it following my instincts. I chose to do it the Chinese style, taking into consideration how I remember it ala-Ate Vi (Ate Vi as in Vivian), our Chinese interpreter. She lived w/ us for about 3 months during the infamous SARS period for health measures as we all self-quarantined.As she said, the Chinese style (meaning northern Chinese, Beijing included, w/c is so much different from the Chinese food we are so familiar with back home or in any other southeast Asian country) is to cook w/ lots of cooking oil over high heat to enhance the flavor of the food. To avoid splatters of hot oil, add a dash of salt on the oil before frying anything. I tried it, especially when frying fish & it is really quite factual. But of course I didn’t follow the ‘lots of cooking oil’ tip 
Never thought that I would be like some kind of a superwoman – a full-time mom & working at the same time. For some reasons, my son’s nanny won’t be joining us any sooner than expected so I continue to be his ‘school bus’, as well as the cook for months to come. With few projects that need to be checked from time to time, there would be plenty of occasions when I have to cook something that is easy to prepare as well as satisfy my small family’s appetite for food. An example is what I will share here – ‘fast food’ that’s ready in about 10 minutes.
My pork & peapods saute is actually similar to any stir-fry vegetable recipe except that the Italian herbs add a special flavor that doesn’t make the dish taste oriental. A trick I learned from a colleague who tried adding the same herbs to the simple ginisang sitaw or stir-fry string beans.