Sunday, May 31, 2009

Dradog


Dralion, a mythical beast, half dragon, half lion



Dradog...aka Poe, Popot, dirty filthy dog, who is incaple of drinking neatly from his dog dish :-)

Hubby and I watched Dralion when we were in Melbourne. Dralion itself reminded me of my puppy Poe. They both look cute and mischievous.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Lunch with a Childhood Friend

My family used to live in Quezon City. We lived in a small apartment on a hilly portion of the city. I remember it quite clearly. We rented the corner unit just beside the garden with Camias, Avocado and Chesa trees. The house at the corner across the street was occupied by a family with three little girls. The oldest, Michelle, was a very close friend at that time (I was four, maybe five years old). We lived there for five years. In those five years, everyday was spent with my childhood friend Michelle.

My family later moved to BF Homes and contact with Michelle, was limited to occassional visits to the area (we didn't have a landline then, cellphones and internet were yet to be invented). Until finally when we settled in our new lives (high school, college, work and then married life)we lost contact. Well, there's a little social networking site called Facebook, and she tracked me down about a week ago. We decided to immediately meet at Trinoma after over ten years of not seeing each other.

While waiting for Michelle to arrive, hubby got busy eating an ice cream "burger" at Sebastian's. Vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate chip cookies and then rolled into more chocolate chips and nuts. Yeah, that was hubby's breakfast together with a piece of apple pie from the drive through on our way there.






I am simply posing with the product, not eating it :-)





Anyway, I digress. Michelle, hubby and I had lunch at Abe. Abe being a Campangan word for "friend" or "companion". Very fitting wouldn't you say? We had very nice selection from the menu. Mangga't bagoong, Crispy Tadyang. Sinigang na Hipon and Chicharon Bulaklak. Yeah, our cholesterol probably shot up as we finished our meal, he he he.







After our meal, hubby was gracious enough to Michelle and I alone to talk in Starbucks, and he went his merry way to surf the net somewhere else.



I had so much fun talking to Michelle reminiscing about our childhood, talking about our families and friends, jobs, our spouses, our marriages and the stuff that we did for the past two decades! Yikes, I keep forgetting I'm in my 30s. Sometimes I feel like I just got out of college. Anyway, I found out Michelle and I still have so many things in common, it's quite freaky in a fun way :-)

It was such a happy afternoon. I should have more afternoons like that.

As hubby and I were about to leave, we chanced upon Red Mango. A youghurt shop that I've heard about that's been getting quite a buzz. We checked it out as well, but mostly because hubby can't turn down ice cream (or frozen youghurt) even if his life depended on it, he he he ;-) Hubby had the regular kind in medium size with three fruit toppings of mango, banana and water melon.





I had the small green tea youghurt with almonds and muesli. I loved it!



What a perfect way to end such a happy afternoon :-)

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mother's Day Celebration 2009

First of all, I would like to greet all the moms out there a belated happy mother's day. To my mom, I love you and I am so happy that God chose you to be my mother. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Our mother's day celebrations by tradition is done in LP, it was like that when my lola was still alive and this year, we are missing one mother. My cousin Annie who is in Canada, happy mother's day to you too.



My mom is usually the "star" during this celebration (after my lola has passed on). She usually cooks something special to show off her culinary talents :-) This year, she combined two of our favorites in one dish. Kare-kareng Lechon Kawali. The title says it all. We've all been trying to cut down on pork but Mother's day was a free pass for everyone, no guilt. My mom made three kilos of lechon kawali for just nine people. Yep, three kilos. It was so good! My mom's kare-kare sauce is famous from the world over (well, Manila, USA, Canada and China). This was a great hit. Hubby would even brag about mom's kare-kare to his colleagues.



We had some other healthy stuff too, like this vegetable lumpia with togue, green beans, potatoes, kamote and carrots.



Mussels soup, baked cream dory with a parmesan crust.





Of course being the dessert ninang, I made a Black Forest Trifle.



Our family is so blessed with such wonderful moms who nurtured us and who will continue to nurture future generations with their love, support and understanding.



What would be the world like without moms?!.....................utter chaos :-)