Cooking ... with a Twist!

giddy excited

2010-03-16T23:31:00.003+08:00

As mentioned on my other blog, tomorrow is my sister's most awaited graduation ball. Though as much as I wanted to, I can't accompany her inside the school ground, I'd probably just do my thing with taking photos of her and her friends outside, before they enter the venue... I hope the guys will have their bow ties fixed already for the photo op and the ladies on their wonderful gowns! Can't really wait to see the final touches my sister's make up artist will do to her... can you feel my giddiness?! of course you can! I've been blogging for the nth time her graduation and our preparation for the big day, you know! This is in fact one of my parents greatest achievement, to witness their youngest daughter receive her College diploma and all :D

mongkok dining

2010-03-08T15:08:00.002+08:00

Two weeks ago, my dad and daughter got to experience dining at Mongkok (dimsum and noodles house) at Shangrila Mall. We actually hesitated to try it first because there were like only five people eating and it was just a few minutes after twelve. Kind of weird, but we are craving for some Chinese, so there. Anyways, the food was good -though not the kind of overwhelming delicious, just fine. So why we went there? To check on the latest ipods and accessories, thinking of upgrade too. We also brought the damaged fossil watch of my sister at the repair shop on the same mall.

cakes and pastries

2010-03-02T22:14:00.003+08:00

One of my favorite subject to photograph are sugary based cakes pastries. I also got surprised to found out that there are number of those on my photo archive! Now that's literally sweet right? Anyways, as I was doing my hunt/research on affordable senior life insurance rates, I found a site that offers no sugar desserts that is made specially for the oldies and the ones who can't have too much sugar. Something I can take note of for my grand parents to try :D
Going back to cakes and pastries, let me share with you some of my favorite snaps of those! honestly, this post makes me crave for one! gotta hit the convenience store near us and see if they have a cake or anything like that available for sale! :D

my goshness!

2010-03-02T03:07:00.001+08:00

This can't be! my watermark action in my photoshop is not functioning! what the hell happened?! for one, I was able to use it like three days ago and was able to mark my photos so well, and two, no one is touching that program, not that the husband is not allow to use it but he opt not to click any program and softwares install on this laptop, he only uses mozilla browser. Great right? now who to run when things like these happens? no one! argh... oh God, I need my wrinkle crème now or else I'll look ten years older!

fab vacay

2010-03-02T02:13:00.002+08:00

My friends are already brainstorming on where to go this summer vacation. They wanted to do something unique, not the usual beach bumming thing and all. Something historic I suppose? as if time travel to the place where history was made of or something. I'll let them do all the suggesting but will for sure tell them about this fantastic Outer Banks vacation rentals that for sure they would love to try! Now that's the real example of unique and really fabulous vacation right?! Right!

summer time!

2010-03-01T11:01:00.002+08:00

It's summer time! And it officially starts today! well, for us it'll start on Saturday, my cousins started planning for our family get together/outing and we decided to set it on a weekday. It'll sure be a fun experience for us especially the kids, but first we need to get a bunch of joint pain supplements for the elders to take in order for them to enjoy and have fun too! you see a lot of swimming and running is up for us all so they gotta be prepared!

Foods and Friends

2010-03-01T10:13:00.002+08:00

How would you love to spend some good quality time with your friends over a hefty amount of delicious dishes?! Sounds great right?! Well, that's what we just had last weekend over at the latest spot craze in town for seafood feasting! it was a great and yummy experience for us who were able to stay until dinner and just lucky enough to witness the beautiful sunset of the Manila bay and a lot of side attractions too! Anyways, we made sure to take a lot of photos ( we dearly love the afternoon sun ) since the natural lighting was spectacular, we were able to strut a lot of pose with our sunnies on too! thus made us not too worried about our deark circles under eyes to be seen in the photo!
And by the way, the seafood feast was great! we were able to bring home a lot of leftovers too after :D

beach food!

2010-03-01T10:05:00.002+08:00

Oh my goodness, can you believe it?! today is already the first day of March! how time flies isn't?! And today marks the start of months long summer time here in the country! men, expect the beaches to be filled with booties and sexy bodies! how I wish to have the guts and will power to strut a skimpy bikini on the beach, if only I wasn't thinking about my flabby tummy. Crap, need to do some real deal work out as soon as possible! well, aside from my human growth hormone treatment that I'm thinking of getting to - read: hair fall problem.
Anyways, speaking of beach and summer getaways, let me just share with you dishes that often serve and enjoyed by the bay... (photo taken during our seafood dinner last weekend)

Sauteed garlic shrimp

garlic spicy crabs

stuffed grilled squid

Pasta all you can! at PenPen!

2010-02-19T19:11:00.002+08:00

Was trying to search about fat burner reviews a while ago when I happen to see this promo banner in facebook, an eat all you can pasta offering at PENPEN's Restaurant. If only this resto is located near us, I'd probably be there every Tuesdays of the week! You see, I'm a total sucker for Pasta and their seven sauces really sounds very enticing. Can't wait to try 'em soon. I wonder who can bring me there... anyone?! I'm free! and really craving for pasta! :D

105-C Scout Castor, Brgy. Laging Handa, QC :)

our Tuesday and Wednesday

2010-02-13T11:34:00.002+08:00

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, my friends and I had a grand time eating out, literally. We had so much food in a span of almost 38 hours! We started our meet up with coffee and ended up with another huge dose of joe - to practically keep us alive and energized.
Anyways, will post our whole lot of food trips, that of course I took snaps of! as in every dish that we had? photo shoot it was! of course, aside from all our topics that we discussed, from preparing our wedding, to reception, to photographers and how they charge now, to bpi training and other stuff that matters to us! ;D
We really had a grand time together, sans the no sleep and time to time downfall of our energy! :D

the queen has arrived!

2010-02-05T15:08:00.002+08:00

Hooray! today is such a happy day for us twitter friends, why? because our friend Glo has arrived from Boston (wonder if she even had to get a service from cross country movers or something)! That only means one thing... meet ups!!! woohoo! can't hardly wait for our grand get together on the 19th and 20th consecutively. But aside from that dates -Aggie, Glo and I are also set to meet on the 9th and 10th of this month also, this time a girl bonding dates it'll be, from lunch to coffee date, dinner and a girly night out at nearby comedy bar to cap off the night. And then morning after, we'll go straight to our place and have brunch and a little chitchat too. Then we'll head to Tagaytay with kids for dinner! whew. Jam packed schedules eh?! you bet! :D

Olin's 3rd Bday Foods

2010-02-05T01:48:00.002+08:00

My daughter's 3rd birthday party was the simplest. We opt not to throw a huge and expensive one and decided to celebrate her special day the way we did last year, on her second. And pretty amazing because she never mind at all, a simple house party attended by her two cousins and some neighbor's kids too. The only thing she asked for is for a PINK HELLO KITTY CAKE! (and not a dip bar, of course :D ) that of course I got for her :D
Mom prepared spaghetti, grilled chicken, spring rolls, hotdogs with mallows and fruit salad. While I bought mini cakes and ice cream for the kids and the young at hearts!
So here is our table set up right before her party started... see the balloons? I made those too! pure labor of love for our little one :D

Philippine Official Holidays

2010-02-05T00:51:00.002+08:00

To be honest, I need to keep a holiday list of dates for the whole year so that I wouldn't forget.. and these holidays are must be remembered since it is during those times that we get to see everyone in the family... or have their ski vacations scheduled or something!
Anyways.. here are 2010 official Philippine Identified Holiday ... it'll be the dates when we will be preparing special dishes that everyone will surely enjoy!

Jan 01 - New Year’s Day
Feb 22 - People Power Revolution Anniv (Mon nearest Feb 25) **
Apr 01 - Maundy Thursday (Holy Week)
Apr 02 - Good Friday
Apr 09 - Araw ng Kagitingan
May 01 - Labor Day
Jun 14 - Independence Day (Monday nearest June 12)
Jul 27 - Iglesia ni Cristo Founding anniversary ***
Aug 23 - Ninoy Aquino Day *
Aug 30 - National Heroes Day (last Monday of August)
Nov 01 - All Saints Day (Monday) *
Nov 29 - Bonifacio Day (Monday nearest November 30)
Dec 24 - Special Non-Working Day *
Dec 25 - Christmas Day (Saturday)
Dec 27 - Rizal Day (Monday nearest December 30).
Dec 31 - Special Non-Working Day *

All are regular holidays; marked appropriately otherwise
* special non-working days are:
** a special holiday for all schools.
***special national “working holiday”

smoothies recipes

2010-02-01T23:57:00.002+08:00

It's the second month of the year already! how time flies so fast! I wonder how my jobs will be for this month.. hope it's gonna be good and great!
Anyways, I'm doing so much blog renovation (if that's what you call it), trying to post juicy entries so blog hoppers can learn.
Anyways, let me just share with you this smoothies recipes I found online.. pretty good for the kids and the young at hearts too!

Banilla Shake:

1 ½ cups skim or 1% milk
1 peeled and sliced medium banana, frozen (Wrap sliced banana in plastic wrap or place in a freezer storage bag. Freeze several hours or overnight.)
½ tsp. vanilla extract, optional
¼ tsp. almond extract, optional

In a blender combine all ingredients, except cinnamon. Blend until smooth, about 20 seconds. Pour into glasses and garnish with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon, if desired. Yield: approximately 2 ¼ cups.

Blueberry-Orange Whirl:

1 12-ounce package frozen blueberries, unthawed, or 2 1/2 cups fresh
8 ounce low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In an electric blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. Yield: approximately 3 ½ cups.

Very Berry Smoothie

1/4 cup berries (your choice!)
4 ounces skim milk
6 ounces calcium-fortified orange juice

Blend together all three ingredients until smooth. Yield: approximately 1 serving.

True.

2010-02-01T14:04:00.002+08:00

Tyler Florence's Cook book

2010-02-01T03:48:00.002+08:00

Look what's included on my just-arrived loot box from boston...

A yummy Tyler Florence's cookbook! My friend Glo told me that it's supposed to be given to someone who won on one of our online raffle, but, what the heck! it's with me now.. so I'm keeping it! (evil laugh) well, until they remember :D
Anyways, aside from this coveted book, I also got most of my kitchen loots like hand mixer, pyrex bowls, dinnerware sets and some more items like humidifier filter, towels and tools set for dad.
So there, actually, I just wanted to brag this cookbook thus I made this post :D ... gotta go now!

food for thought

2010-01-23T01:16:00.002+08:00

And the return of the food meme's are the latest trend in blog world eh?! Of course nothing will beat the acne scar removal posts on every single blog too you know! :D Anyways, finally decided to bring back the food answerable questionnaires, on where else?! food blogs of course!

Breakfast
Who was your childhood hero?

>>>Superman!

Lunch
In your opinion what is the world's greatest invention so far?

>>> Toilet Bowl!

Dinner
What time do you typically get up in the morning and what time do you usually go to bed?

>>>730 am and I go to bed around 2am

Midnight Snack
What was your last thought?

>>>my headache

Recipe for the Week
(instead of your recipe for life, what is it just for this week?)
>>>be true to yourself

four foods

2010-01-23T00:56:00.001+08:00

I definitely missed answering meme's and tags.. was too busy doing other things online (reading and researching about web directories and it's uses) and offline.. anyways,

Here are this week’s four questions.

#1. What kind of pretzels are your favorite?
>> the soft and chewy one with cinnamon and sugar!
#2. What’s your favorite way to eat pancakes?
>> hot with lots of syrup!
#3. Do you make garlic bread from scratch or buy frozen?
>> We buy from the bakeshop
#4. Share a recipe that calls for mozzarella cheese.
>> spaghetti and pizza

thanks for the coffee! :D

2010-01-22T22:41:00.002+08:00

My system is full of caffeine, I should be worried as hell, but then again, I am not. In fact, (thanks to my dad who came home for his two months vacation) my sister and I were able to hoard starbucks bottled coffee! a way lot cheaper from the supermarkets and gasoline convenience stops too. So there, been so sosyal and all for a few days now (lol) - and yesterday was able to drowned myself with a grande (or was it venti) sized iced macchiato! that made me at my happiest you know :D
Anyways, I gotta start picking up from where I stopped reading about this book on healthy livign, and shall continue wonder if or does nutrisystem really work and all...

blabbing and cuppies

2010-01-16T03:25:00.002+08:00

Just finished eating another bunch of chocolate cupcakes that I bought earlier today at the mall. The thing is, my daughter just had her fix of the butter icing and left the cuppies untouched. Now what to do?! eat them all so it wouldn't have to be here until tomorrow! men, this is major sugar overload! Oh well, that's what mommies are here for right?! alright then, gotta read this acne medicine article first while finishing my tall glass of iced tea and will hit the sack after.

backlogs and ehd thanks

2010-01-10T04:00:00.002+08:00

Still has so many food snaps to share, but then again I wasn't able to blog more than what I'm supposed to do. Anyways, will sure do when things aren't this toxic. Don't worry, those food snaps are being well kept on my external hard drive :D -- and speaking of ehd, thank good heavens for the one who invented this thing! it made everything for us bloggers and photo enthusiast's life really easy because we can now save our high resolution files and other stuffs without jeopardizing the memory capacity of our laptop unit! And for me, I thank dad for getting me a 1TB ehd! it really rocks!

Kathycot's Beef Salpicao

2010-01-07T14:47:00.002+08:00

Yes.. I am well, cooking again! :D After more than 7 long months of not touching anything in my mom's kitchen. So why the sudden change? I really don't know, felt like cooking today (aside from doing a whole lot of reading of term life insurance) so there, asked my mom to take the back seat and I took charged :D guess mom was quite impressed, i think :D
So here's what I prepared.. my very own Beef Salpicao! just added veggies to make it more of a healthy dish.. so without further ado, let me share with you my reinvented Beef Salpicao recipe :D

Ingredients:

3/4 beef tenderloin (cut into strips)
1 head garlic (minced)
4-5 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup liquid seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
cooking oil
1/4 bar of butter
magic sarap or real sarap :D

Directions:

1. Marinate the beef in garlic, Worcestershire sauce, liquid seasoning, magic sarap, dash of salt and pepper for 2-3hrs (overnight is better)

2. Saute your half minced garlic in hot oil, pour in the beef

3. Stir until brown (let it simmer on it's own sauce for a few minutes until the sauce thickens)

4. Add a bit more of liquid seasoning and salt ( if needed)

5. pour in the carrots, cauliflower and button mushroom - stir for a few more minutes

6. add in the butter and stir until it completely melts.

Serve hot :D

hit the treadmill!

2010-01-06T01:39:00.002+08:00

As I've mentioned earlier on my other posts, holidays has passed and so are the guiltless eating spree! Meaning, we need to get our butt up and head to the nearest gym and pick your favorite ellipticals or whatever you wanna call it and sweat out! Though in my case, I only have two options, to hit the treadmill or play boxing using our wii. Can't really enroll myself to a gym, the husband doesn't approves it, end of story. So there, without further ado, tata for now for I'll try to run for more than 30 minutes this time! Good luck to me!

Noche Buena

2010-01-06T01:23:00.004+08:00

Noche Buena and Media Noche had passed and I haven't posted about those! What a lazy food blogger I am! Anyways, as the saying goes, better late that never... here is what our table had on Christmas Eve...

Goldilocks roll mocha cake, leche flan, fruit salad and a plateful of bihon noodles given by our neighbor friend :D We also had ham and sliced bread - the yearly ever present pair on our table! Though this year I wasn't able to make my signature hot chocolate, I really don't know, maybe because it wasn't too cold during that time and we have our ever reliable heated blanket to keep us warm! But I believe it's because we are all too preoccupied with the princess's opening of gifts, thus made us stay bit shorter than the usual on the Christmas table.

So there, will post on our Media noche next :D

trips next year

2009-12-14T16:50:00.002+08:00

Friends over at twitter are talking about travel plans next year, and though as much as I want to grab those freaking affordable las vegas vacation packages which some of them will be getting, I just can't. First because we don't have enough money for an extravagant US trip yet and second, because we just can't go fly and be there for we haven't got a VISA to do so! Funny how I dream and wish on things that are just about near to impossible. So there, got to start planning for a more possible trip for us which is just somewhere Asia :D