Simple White Pasta Sauce

This is probably one of the first recipes I've ever learned. I got the idea from the editor of my first comics job, JR. Mercado, around 1992.

It is really very simple. These are the basic ingredients:

Cooked Pasta
1 can Campbell Mushroom Soup
2 tablespoons Cheez Whiz

Cook the pasta (spaghetti or macaroni or whatever you like). Cook the Campbell soup according to package directions, which would require you 1 can full of either milk or water. I prefer water because I'm lactose intolerant. Add the 2 tablespoons of Cheez Whiz.

And that's basically it.

However, you can consider this simply a base on which you can add more stuff in. You can chop and fry (or boil) some cold cuts, whichever you prefer. I would recommend bacon and ham. Tonight, so it would be more healthy, I used chicken ham and fish sausage. I chopped some asparagus lying around and threw that in the sauce. I boiled it for a couple of minutes to cook the asparagus.

Upon serving, I topped it with some Parmigiano-Reggiano (you can use parmesan cheese) and some chili flakes.

It's a pretty flexible dish. You can add whatever cold cuts you like, although I would advice NOT using those red hotdogs because the red color kind of leaks out and turns your white sauce red.

Or, you can opt not to have cold cuts at all. Totally up to you.

Adobong Puti (White Adobo)

"Adobong Puti" or White Adobo is basically the standard adobo without the soy sauce. However, the original form of this dish as cooked by natives of this country before the Spanish came did not include soy sauce. Natives mostly just stewed their meat in vinegar. Whatever the name of that dish is now lost to time, unfortunately, and when it was adapted later on with the addition of soy sauce, it came to be known as "Adobo".

I don't have access to what the original recipe was, so this is just pretty much a guess. I had some chicken that was meant for Tinola, but I finagled a few pieces to cook for this dish. That's probably why the amount of chicken I use is kind of inexact. But just add ingredients proportionally, and you'll do fine.

3/4 kilo chicken (I used legs and thigh)
8 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped (you can use less if you like)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tablespoon salt (or add to taste)
(It is possible to use patis or fish sauce instead of salt, but I chickened out from using it)
1 tsp whole peppercorns (I normally don't like using whole peppercorns because it's nasty if you bite into it, but I used here just because)
1 tsp sugar
2/3 cup vinegar (preferably native coconut vinegar)
Handful of siling labuyo leaves. (This is optional. I just tried it out because well, I wanted to. Turned out OK though.

Put all of that in a stewing pot and add enough water to cover the chicken pieces completely. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low. Do not stir this. Just let it stew by itself. Let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour until the chicken is tender and almost falling off the bone.

Serve on a plate and top with toasted garlic (optional). Of course, serve with rice.