Pinaupong Manok

It's the last day of February and before we move on to the month of March, I'd like to share a recipe I learned from my brother -in-law several years ago, we call it Pinaupong Manok. This is always part of my menu every holiday season. The chicken is stuffed with butter, onion, garlic and lemon grass. The whole chicken (i prefer Magnolia chicken) is laid in soda (sprite or 7 up) and whole corn kernel. It takes 40-60 minutes for it to cook in low fire.

So easy to prepare yet so appetizing and yummy.

Plants and Flowers

Plants and flowers can add beauty to the house, whether it's indoor or outdoor. I envy houses with garden regardless of size, that's one thing you won't see in our 300 sq meter house. Yes we have big space in front of our house and there are four big trees namely mango, caimito and 2 chico trees that provides shading, however, you won't see grass and flowers place in planter boxes or any outdoor planters.

My sister-in-law and I attempted to plant small trees and flowers on plant boxes and slowly create garden, unfortunately, those plants died after a few months. I remember buying tomato and calamansi plants last year and the same thing happened, they all died and we accepted the reality that we're not skilled to grow flowers or any kind of plants, moreso, create a beautful garden. We may resort to hiring somebody to do the gardening and landscaping in the future.

After doing a little research in the internet, I learned tips and techniques on how to grow plants and flowers and there are numerous containers or planters available made of different materials like fiberglass, ceramic, stones etc. I guess for now, I'll be satisfied buying fresh flowers and placed them in a beautifully designed ceramic planter or vase.

Sleeping in a Bed of Heaven

My favorite Urban Zone host Daphne Osena is not only a great host and jewelry designer, she also personally design bed linens.  Her style is subtle luxury and discreet elegance and mostly, she uses calming earth tone colors and such color makes your home look more tidy and relaxing. Moreover, neutral colors bed lines will work best with any home and hotel wall paint color. Her bed linen collection is available at SM HomeWorld.

Everytime I am in department section of SM Mall, I usually visit the Home Section to check on bedding, pillow cases and comforter-set. I am fond of buying pillow cases that would match the color of the bedding collection I currently have. I am in fact, saving up for comforter –set that we can use during rainy season when the weather or climate is conducive to sleeping.  And for our bed, I’d like to buy side tables and an eye catching lamp would be on top of it. 

When Toots and I were in Cebu last year for a business trip,  we were billeted in Parklane Hotel and it’s a lot better compare to Peak Hotel we first tried during our first trip in the said province. The bed in Parklane is more comfy, it’s covered with comforter and beddings all in white colors. The feeling is like sleeping in a bed of heaven.

Want some Free Dessert?

After dining in a Korean resto Friday of lastweek, we decided to try the newly opened Tre' coffee shop located near our office. It took us a while to finally place our order because we got busy reading their menu posted on the wall right behind the counter, thinking at the same time if the taste of their frappe and coffee would parallel those of Starbucks.

The male staff in the counter asked us if it was our first time to visit the coffeeshop and we said yes. My friend Pao teased the guy if we can try one of their desserts for free for being first time customers. The male staff went inside to probably ask the manager on duty if our request is possible, he came back with a smile and informed us we should dine in to enjoy the free dessert.

The cinnamon caramel honey bread was served to us. It has a couple of sliced bread toasted with butter topped with cream and caramel syrup with lots of cinnamon powder spinkled on it...I so loved the aroma of cinnamon powder...it was indeed a SUGAR OVERLOAD night and HAPPINESS because it's seldom you get free dessert nowadays!

Get rid of Unwanted Mails

Everyday I check emails more than once and each time, I see unwanted emails in my spam folder. I never attempt to open them for online security reasons, but instead, I immediately delete them all at once, what's annoying is they keep coming back. I wonder how to get rid of those spam emails forever!

Recently, I discovered about catalogs that will help remove your screenname or other information that may be used by marketers or advertisers. Catalogs will give you an option to unlist your name from marketers to stop sending you advertising emails you are completely not interested in. What’s great about it is, you can avail some of their services for FREE.

One thing I learned from all these is that sometimes when we make purchases online, we give out our personal information such as email address or phone number simply because they are needed to complete the transaction and delivery of the product we purchase online. Little did we know, some companies would sell those information to other companies who send us advertising emails found in our spam folders. To avoid or reduce unwanted emails, there is this service called UNLISTING SERVICE. Thank God such service was discovered and available. This will make our online experience a lot better.

Syry's 2nd Giveaway

Syry, my newest favorite beauty blogger is giving away beauty stuff as her way of thanking her loyal followers. I missed joining her first giveaway, so this time I wanna make sure I am in.

To have an idea what's in store if you wish to join too, take a look at the photo below or better yet, visit Syry's blog for further information.

Simple Family Celebrations

My family seldom celebrate occassions with a big party, invite relatives & friends with lots of food to share. Me and my siblings never demanded for a party to celebrate our birthdays. In as much as my parents would like to provide us party during special occassions, they could not afford it. We accepted and understood that. When I was little, I can vividly remember the whole family would dine in Nelson's Balloons in downtown Angeles City with yummy bibingka as their specialty on special occassions. My siblings and I would excitedly play in the see saw inside Nelson's Ballons right after eating pancit and bibingka while my parents stay in the table and chat, look at us while we're busy playing. The only time my parents threw a party was when my brother passed the board exam for Mechanical Engineers in 1998, and that's something worth celebrating.

Now, whenever there are family occassions, still there's no party but we all dine out or eat somewhere and try some specialties of different restaurants. Honestly, I like it that way, it's more intimate, convenient and hassle free.

Last January 09, my brother and his wife celebrated their 13 years of marriage. We had an early dinner in Extremely Expresso because my brother and our kids craved for pasta and pizza.

On February 02, mom turned 64 years old, she didn't want to go somewhere and eat, she preferred to just cook for the family since it was weekday and thought my father and my brother were tired from work to go out. She cooked pancit, chicken and cheese lumpia. I bought her flowers and Pandan cake from TollHouse on behalf of my sister who's in Qatar.

Acey's birthday was February 10 but we celebrated it last Feb. 13 which is Sunday. We had dinner in Max Restaurant in Marquee Mall because Acey's favorite is chicken and ate her share of Max chicken unswervingly, she almost uttered "Sarap to the Bones!".

Acey  in a "Sarap to the Bone" moment

Macapuno or Egg tarts?

My sister knew somebody working in a posh bakeshop in Qatar who have mastered making egg tarts, similar to the famous egg tarts in Macau. I haven't been to Macau but my friends raved so much about the egg tarts. When I saw photos of egg tarts in my sister's album in Facebook, I asked her to request for a copy of the recipe and days after, she emailed me it to me. Unfortunately, the oven in my mom's house is out of order so it is impossible to execute the tart recipe.


Yesterday, I dropped by at SM before I head to work to buy bread I can eat at work (on my second break)and entered Pan de Manila store. I bought cheese pandesal and saw the Macapuno tarts, I suddenly remembered my sister and the egg tarts we've been talking about. There are actually 2 kinds of tarts being sold in Pan de Manila, the Egg and Macapuno tarts and the latter is the only one available at that time, so I grabbed it, priced at 62 pesos for 3 pieces. I ate the two after waking up from a long sleep and the one left was consumed by Acey. The taste was okay but it did not meet my expectations, nevertheless, I still wanna try their egg tarts.
 

Egg tart from a bakeshop in Qatar

 Macapuno Tart from Pan de Manila

Manny's House in LA

Whenever a politician's property such as multi million peso house or luxury car/s is featured on TV or broadsheets, you can't help but raise your right brow and the intriguing set of questions will pop into your mind but seeing Manny Pacquiao's 4,500 square foot LA house, you are certain it's the fruit of his labor. The money he spent buying properties here and abroad came from his own pocket. Filipinos and people all over the world witnessed the success of Manny's boxing career. In fact, he received an invitation from none other than the President of the United States and probably talk about the humble beginnings of Manny Pacquiao and his plans about his boxing and political career.

Whatever material things that Manny Pacquiao possesess now and in the future, he deserves it. Let's all be happy for him and thankful for the Glory he brought to our country. 



Mabuhay ka Manny!!!