Photo of the Week: Happiness

Pahiyas Festival in Lucban, pancit habhab and the cutest pair of dimples in the world.

Pahiyas Festival of Lukban at Agawan sa Sariaya

Just helping BBK advertise a friend's business. In 2 weeks, I will be in Manila to witness the Pahiyas Festival for the first time. I love festivals, I'm a Cebuano and festivals are embedded in my spirit. Well see how this goes. :) I'm so excited.

For more info, contact me. Below are the deets:

Pahiyas Festival of Lukban at Agawan sa Sariaya

May 15, 2011

Celebrate the feast of San Isidro Labrador on May 15 and experience the most colorful fiesta in the Philippines! Walk along the streets of Lukban and see the colorful “kipings” used to decorate their houses or join in the “Agawan” at Sariaya after the 3pm mass and bring home some of the town’s vegetable and fruit harvests. Shop for food and handicrafts such as longganisa, broas, pianono de patatas, beautiful baskets, bags, and hats galore!

Tour Fee: Php1,700.00 per person
Package Inclusions: Chartered van or bus, travel insurance, lunch and afternoon snack, visit to the churches of Sariaya, Tayabas, and Lucban, old houses of Sariaya, old stone bridge in Tayabas.

(Photo Courtesy of http://www.lugaluda.com)

2011 Holy Week Escapade

I haven't blogged in like a week coz I had a crazy schedule. Now I don't know where to begin so let's just see those Holy Week pictures one more time, yes?

Biri Island Trip

6:00-6:15 -Allen to Lavezares (15 mins)
6:15-7:15 – Lavezares to Biri Island (1hr)
7:15-8:00- Breakfast, Hotel Search, Freshen Up
8:00-12:00- Tour and Photo ops
Magasang Rock Formation
Macadlao Rock Formation
12-1:00 pm- LUNCh ( Packed Lunch)
1:00-5:00pm-Biri Island Mangroves
Bil-at (say Bee-lut)
5:00-7:00 pm- Back to Hotel
7:00-8:00 pm- Dinner
8:00-12:00pm- Chill, Inom
12 midnight – lights out

Saturday

5:00 am- wake up call
5:00-6:00- bath time, private time, breakfast
7:00-10:00am- other island tours (solo drifting)
10:15am-10:30am- pack up
10:45-11:45- going to Allen
11:45-12:30- Lunch in Allen
12:30 – 2:30 –Allen to Legazpi, Albay-- Mayon Volcano, Photoshoot
2:30-6:00pm- Matnog to Donsol

6:30-7:30- Dinner and wait for our Original Nita Negrita “Jazzybelle Baustista”

Firefly River Cruise

Day 4:
Butanding-watching

Buffet Babies

I had an awful day in the office and I was had tons of things to accomplish so I was whining the entire time. Good thing Vince set up this wonderful dinner treat at Cafe Ilang Ilang at The Manila Hotel. We decided to have the 9-cuisine buffet. :) We love buffet. Everybody LOVES buffet. We're all SUCKERS for buffet.

Tuna Wanton Triangles

I had a few extra wanton wrappers and a can of tuna the other night so I decided to make Tuna Wanton Triangles. If you guys want something special to cook this weekend, you might wanna invite your friends over for some beer and a cool chick flick, and of course my easy to cook Tuna Wanton Triangles. It's yummy, it's easy, and it cost me about 50 pesos.

Here are the ingredients:

1 pack of wanton wrappers (medium size)
1 can Chili corned tuna
1 medium size red bell pepper
1 clove garlic
1 small onion
1 egg
1 tablespoon flour
salt and pepper to taste

Mince the red bell pepper, onions and garlic and add to the tuna and egg mixture. Add a tablespoon of flour to hold all the ingredients together. Put 1 teaspoonful of tuna mix to the wanton wraps and make small triangles. This makes up to 50 triangles. Fry until golden brown. This goes well with some sweet chili sauce.

Enjoy!

My Beautiful Bullshit Pancakes

You'll know it when I get too bored with my life coz I start to get weirdly inquisitive at cooking techniques. This week, I decided probe on how to cook the perfect pancakes. Pancakes may seem simple but you're wrong. Pancakes need the same amount of TLC and attention as an ordinary cake.

It took me 3 trials to come up with the perfect mix and the perfect how-tos.

I started with the most basic mix:
1 cup flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt or butter
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup milk
1 egg

Day 1: My pancakes were burnt and black, and there were huge lumps and air holes in the center. I didn’t get to achieve the melted-icecream-like consistency so the pancakes werent all round. Ugly.



Day 2: My pancakes looked better than yesterday, no burns, but most of them werent round as I wished. The holes were smaller and less conspicuous this time, but still I noticed a few lumps that tasted weird.



Day 3: I finally came up with the perfect consistency, and all of them were round. No burns. No holes. No lumps.

Some stuff that I took note of:

> There must be a mix and a wet mix. Separate the dry stuff from the wet stuff, and mix the dry stuff first by sifting them all together. Mix the wet stuff in a separate bowl and beat lightly. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and mix lightly.

> If you intend to use butter on your pan, put a small amount, let it melt, then wipe the pan's surface with a table napkin to get rid of the excess grease. The first pancake is the ugliest by the way. The succeeding pancakes will all be pretty, promise.

> Do not press your pancake. You'll know it when the other side is cooked when the bubbles start to dry up.

> Do not cover the pan. You'll trap the steam and your pancakes will be soggy.

There--- my beautiful bullshit pancakes. I'm so bored with my life.

Laslas.

Beautiful Bullshit Sweet n' Spicy Buffalo Wings

A lot of people have asked me about my Sweet n' Spicy Buffalo Wings recipe. I brought a big serving good for 20-something people in the office during Karen's birthday and all of a sudden I'm being bombarded by a lot of inquiries about it.

I should think of it as a compliment, I mean, no one would bother asking if they didn’t like it in the first place. :)

I don’t want to disclose my exact proportions (and the exact ingredients) coz it took me like 20 trials to come up with my own. But for friendship's sake, here's a little improvised recipe that I designed, and don’t worry, it yields almost the same results.

.



Chicken base:
1 kilo chicken wings
1 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste

Sauce:
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons kimchi sauce
Garlic, minced
Red bell pepper
Chili flakes

Mix cornstarch, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to make the breading. Bread the chicken and deep fry until it gets golden brown.

For the sauce, saute the minced garlic, red bell pepper, cayenne pepper and chili flakes. Under low fire, add in the soy sauce, kimchi sauce, honey, brown sugar, water and balsamic vinegar. Mix until the sauce gets thick. Add in the fried chicken and top with a dash of cayenne pepper.

There--- my Beautiful Bullshit Sweet n' Spicy Buffalo Wings.


*For orders, please contact me personally. Thanks!

Tibiao Fish Farm

My Beautiful Bullshit Tuna Alfredo

Today I decided to cook a pasta dish that I was so itching to whip up since last week. This was actually inspired from Chef Rosebud Benitez's version of the Chicken Alfredo Pasta, but I would like to add my personal touch to it by putting tuna instead of chicken.

While I was at the grocery store looking for ingredients, I had the toughest challenge of looking for the perfect penne regate, found none so I got tempted to cook carbonara instead.

I however went the extra mile to hop to Rustans and found the penne regate that I was really looking for so there, I saw the dreams of my Tuna Alfredo dish come to life little by little.

I gave it all my energy. No, I didn’t want to cook carbonara. Besides, I always have my biases on anything that has the name "Alfredo" on it. :)

Anyways, here's my recipe.

1/2 kilo penne regate
Chicken Stock
1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom
1 tall can evaporated milk
3 big cans of tuna or 1/2 kl water packed tuna
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
Red bell pepper

Preparation:

You know how to cook pasta right? Lets skip that and go directly to the sauce.

Blend the 2 cloves of garlic until you achieve a paste-like consistency. Saute the onions, bell pepper, garlic and tuna. Add the Cream of mushroom, then the milk and wait till it thickens.

There. My Beautiful Bullshit Tuna Alfredo Pasta whatever done in less than 10 minutes.

Talbog si Chef Rosebud :)

The Bunster Multigrain Cookies

Ingredients:


1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup natural brown sugar
1/2 cup organic sugar
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup + 2 Tbs white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup millet

Preparation:


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, or lightly grease.
Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda then set aside.


In a large bowl beat sugars with softened butter for 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and peanut butter. Add oats and beat at reduced speed until combined. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in millet, chocolate chips, and nuts. Scoop dough into balls on parchment paper, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.


Allow cookies to cool for three minutes before removing them from the baking sheet.

Inuman at Italiannis

Weekend Movie and the 3-Day Fat Flush Diet I Could Never Dare Start

I have once again defied personal rules last Sunday when boyfie and I went out to watch a horror movie. I have promised myself not to watch horror movies as I would lose sleep for the couple of weeks that would follow, but turned out that I didn’t have any choice but to say yes. Boyfie's a big fan of blood and scare and everything evil, that I didn’t want to spoil our weekend together, which now happens rarely as he's always on travel. Also, a part of me wanted to watch coz I saw the trailer plus I have the biggest crush on Ananda Everingham. I could just run a marathon of all his horror movies, just stare at his face for hours and not care about the stories at all.

Anyways, there. Mediocre movie. Bad story. Bad acting. Hot actor.

Boyfie and I have been planning to get into this 3-day fat-flush diet. I mean whatever--- We just wanna lose like 5 lbs or so. Our friends have been telling us that we're both getting fatter and fatter by the minute and it's not a cute thing.

Over the weekend, we stocked on fruits--- apples, bananas, grapes, pineapples and fruit juice (the one with L-carnatine that could burn fat). From the whole line-up itself you can tell that we were both desperate to lose weight, or at least not gain weight on the weekend. Weekends for me are the toughest, especially when boyfie cooks his killer pasta dish.

Anyways, we were both so ready to go on this 3-day fat-flush-fruits-only diet when boyfie decided to cook "a little pasta", then I offered to cook some chicken, and then we had ice cream and beer.

The morning after that, we cooked sardines and spam and eggs and inhaled a potful of rice.

At the end of the day, we just watched some of the bananas wilt, and the apples and grapes untouched.

I had like 5000 calories, gaddd Im in big trouble. Literally :)

Diet starts next week. Promise.

I guess I'll be up and kicking the whole night.

I'm still on sick leave and I'm bored to death. I went out of my room to have dinner at the nearest carenderia. I'm not hungry, but I need to eat something coz I'm still under medication. Instead of going to the carenderia though, I stopped to buy balot.

It's been YEARS since I last ate balot.

I ate one.

And then I added 2 more.

I had three balots all in all and I'm super full.

If stories were true that balot enhances erection, then I guess I'll be up and kicking the whole night. Bwehehe

Burp!

BURP.
BURP.
BURRRRRRRRP.

If you want to gain 10 lbs overnight, join my team. :)