Simple Christmas Feast

Several hours after Kuya E's 11th birthday celebration came Noche Buena and as always we had ours simple and fuzz-free.

Macaroni Salad

Macaroni Salad courtesy of Tito Arnel, it's not yet that awesome-ly good but he's getting there, hehe.

11 na si Kuya E!

I haven't been back in the food trippin' and food findin' grind yet, having a baby and rearin' one is very time-consuming, add it to the fact that I was forced to come back to work earlier than I wanted and planned to.  But I have several posts waiting to be published, with birthdays and holidays, and feasts and celebrations.

Here's Kuya E's 11th birthday celebration.

Choco Bliss

One of his birthday cakes, courtesy of Kuya B, Choco Bliss cake from Sugarhouse.

Baby A's 1st!

Baby A celebrated her 1st month with a bang, with two chocolate cakes (with her name on it) to boast of.  Thanks sponsors!

birthday feast

Family Celebration

I celebrated my --th birthday last month and I happened to celebrate it thrice with different people - family, friends and co-workers.  The first one happened on my natal day, spot on, hehe.  My family and I shared a simple thanksgiving dinner *smiles*, oh and I received my gift early, active, little Baby A on my tummy.

my birthday cake

Sweets aren't allowed but as it is my birthday, a cake is in order, I wasn't allowed to touch it though, they just let me blow a single candle to have my wish.  Pwede na rin, hehe.

Healthy Eating: Tuna Sandwiches

I have a story to tell, a very, very sad story if I may say, I am reaping what I had sowed my friends, the giving into sweet cravings and pigging out had taken its toll on my body, I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes *sad face*.

It might have been my eating habits or I might have inherited it from my tatay, or I'm just getting old and my body can't function that well with baby A inside, whatever the reason is I have to do some drastic changes for my baby and I.  First off, instead of cravings and that, I need to keep it healthy, no more giving into temptations.

So, from now on, I'll try (as hard as I can) to be super mabait and masunurin to the doctor's and my mom's and my hubby's and my son's orders, kahit na sobrang daming bawal at dapat gawin, sige, para kay Baby A, I'll do it!

Tuna and Cheese Sandwich

B-day at Home

One of Tatay Ilyo's earlier birthday celebration, it was just us with Ninong Boy and Tito Tony, oh I think Gene-gene was also there.

We shared two kinds of pancit - Bihon and Luglog (both homemade), two kinds of puto - Pandan and Salted Egg (bought from Malabon Public Market, hehe) and two viands - Pork and Tofu in Black Beans and Lumpiang Shanghai (cooked by Dete).  

It was a fun and filling night!  That's why I love birthdays, you get to eat until you can't anymore *lol*.

Red Ribbon's Chocolate Cake

Tita Belle's Day!

May is Tita Belle's natal month at syempre, tulad ng nakasanayan, may munting salo-salo para sa kanyang kaarawan, pero dahil medyo nahuli kami ng dating, di ko na nakuhanan ng magandang litrato ang mga putaheng inihanda ng kanyang pamilya, ang siste pa nga, di ko na rin inabutan iyong ibang putahe, hahaha.

Pinagsaluhan namin ang Pancit Luglog mula sa Pancit Malabon Express, Puto na may Itlog na Maalat, Spaghetti (na wala sa larawan) Yang Chow Fried Rice (Mike's version), Sweet & Sour Pork, Lumpiang Shanghai (na muntik ko nang di abutan), Piritong Manok (na hindi na talaga namin inabutan pero napatunayan ko na mayroon dahil nakita ko sa plato ng mga naunang bisita), Mocha Cake mula sa Betsy's at Coffee Jelly (na si nanay na lang ang nakatikim).

Nasiyahan naman kami dahil masarap lahat ng handa na inabutan ko at hindi ako nagre-reklamo na hindi ko natikman ang lahat, pero sana lang talaga nagtira yung mga nauna, hahaha...

Pancit Malabon

Cravings: Samgyupsal (Pork in Lettuce Wrap)

Just because I love everything Korean especially their food, though, I do admit to like it better the Filipinized way and also because expecting mothers need protein and vitamins, a regular dose (in this case serving) of Samgyupsal is in order.  Happiness!

Homemade Samgyupsal

Thinly sliced barbecued (grilled the old school way) pork plus loads of lettuce with some teriyaki and oyster mix as dipping, prepared, cooked and served with lots of love by hubby and son.  What more can a wife and mom ask for?

Nanay and Tatay's Day Again!

Another March celebration?  Not really!  It was just sweldo (salary) day and as it was still, officially, Nanay and Tatay's birth month, bro and I decided to have a joint celebration of their birthday, in an effort to shroud and justify our need to eat Crispy Pata on a Monday night, hurhur!

Baby's Crispy Pata

It's Tatay's Turn!

Have I told you that my Nanay and Tatay have the same birth month?  I guess I did huh, and even if I didn't, yet, my last year's post would have more than suffice to fill in the details, right *grins*?

Anyways, we didn't had that big of a celebration, it was just us! We had our usual Sunday family dinner but we sort of prepared dishes that pops like, it was his special day afterall *winks*. 

Tatay used to work as a chief cook in an international cargo ship, so imagine the gamut of dishes he had sampled and tried to create, add it to the fact that his love of food never falters.  But as we all know, age brought about ailments, whether we like it or not, and aside from the usual maintenance meds that oldies had to take, moderation or, unfortunately, sometimes a total ban from eating specific kinds of food have to be implemented.  But for his birthday, we let him have what he wants!  We bought two kilos of Lechon from Concepcion (Malabon) Market and transformed it into a Lechon Paksiw.  Sisiw lang pala magluto n'yan and believe me ang sarap ko magluto, hahaha!

Surprise, Surprise!

We surprised Nanay with a simple birthday celebration last Tuesday, March 18 when in fact, her birthday fell on Monday, the 17th of the month.  We, sort of, made it look like we (bro and I) were short on funds so we can't even buy her a birthday cake, she's already immune to us making a fuzz on her day so we decided to give it a little twist, a bit different for this year.

Red Ribbon's Dulce de Leche & personalized Yema Tarts

Granny's 81st!

Granny past away 11 years ago but that doesn't stop us from remembering and celebrating her birthday.  We weren't able to have a Christmas Party last 2013 so Granny's party became a birthday celebration con family reunion of sorts.  It was Kuya Toti's (uncle by my mom's side) idea *pointing at the round cake below* of letting us know that we're having a family reunion, too *lol*.

Orange Chiffon Cake by Betsy's courtesy of Kuya Toti

It was a night of fun and merry-making and it feels sooooo good seeing my cousins and nieces and nephews and uncles and aunts again, most of us live in the same barangay, but we seldom see each other, life and stuff just always gets in the way *grins*.

PIO's Lunar New Year Celebration

Our department (Public Information Office - Navotas) had our own lunar new year celebration, we even did ours prior to everyone else (Chinese or not), as Friday (Chinese New Year) was a holiday, we had our feast a day earlier, the last working day of January.

All of us decided to have lunch at the office to celebrate and, of course, to bond a little, with a hundred pesos per head contribution we were able to cook up a feast, not literally though, it was Kuya Josel's mother-in-law who did all the cooking and made our gastronomic fill possible.  Thank you po *channeling Chichay of G2B*, I'm a fan of the show, in case you care to know, hurhur!

Century Egg courtesy of Mickee

slabs of Lechon Kawali

Our Lunar New Year Feast

I sent my lunar new year greetings your way last Friday, January 31 with corresponding photos of us (son and me) and our simple feast.  I was kind of busy and not in the mood to blog so details of the said celebration is a bit delayed.

the round table, clockwise from top: pomelo&ponkan, oranges, chocolates, lettuce, pancit luglog, sweet&sour meatballs, siomai, camansi, tikoy, kikiam, bacon, relyenong bangus

relyenong bangus

Whole fish is a must in new year celebrations, I bought relyenong bangus as I, quite recently, learned to appreciate its taste, and sans the usual steamed ones.  I don't generally eat fish, so me loving relyeno at the moment is a welcome change in my family.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

From  my half and quarter-blooded Chinese family, we wish you luck, fortune, happiness, peace and abundance in all (material and immaterial) things.

Sabi nga ni Vice Ganda, maging kasing-sipag nawa tayo ng mga kabayo sa karera ng buhay.

Welcome Year of the Wood Horse!

Our Table on Christmas Eve

It has been a tradition (can a 10-year habit be called tradition?) in our family to celebrate Christmas eve humbly, it has been that way ever since my son came into our lives.  He was born a day before Christmas so his celebration would sometimes coincide with our Noche Buena or as we already had our fill on the afternoon of his birthday, we'll only prepare a few light dishes to share on the eve of Christmas.

Pancit Molo

Our table was graced with Pancit Molo, a well-known Ilongo dish, Sotanghon, a staple on our table during Christmas, Purefoods Jumbo Hotdogs, Frabelle's Pear Ham, Pines' Butterscotch and Revel Bars, Brownies (a gift from a parent from my brother's school, he's a teacher), and the usual Suman, Halayang Ube, Leche Flan.

E's 10th Birthday Celeb

The final piece of the puzzle, the final part of E's birthday series - the actual celebration.  I've mentioned in a previous post that I was sick when my son celebrated his 10th, so I wasn't able to rally everyone in our household and made them do what they had to do or what I want them to do (yes, I am an accomplished bully *lol*), so take-outs and people who care became our saving grace.

wacky shot, my fave in the loot

blowing his candle, just made his third and final wish

Welcome 2014!

Yet another year had passed and, subsequently, a new one graces us.  We forget the pains and kept the memories of the past year and hoped/prayed to make more wonderful ones this year as well as fervently wished that bad ones passed us unscathed.  Goodbye 2013, welcome 2014! 

From my family to yours, a happy, prosperous and blessed new year to all!

More delicious food to savor, more good places to visit and dine at, more gastronomic treasures to discover, better food photos (my fingers are crossed) and more blog posts to share - let's all have a blast this year!

Lunch Before the Attack

Viands and rice were cooked by mom, photos were taken by me, hur.  This was taken last Feast of San Roque, an annual celebration in our community, we were supposed to have lunch at my uncle's house but as we were too lazy to walk under the scorching heat of the afternoon sun, we decided to delay going a few hours and settled on some home-cooked, sprinkled with motherly love, meals.

It was our lunch before the food attack, fiesta ba naman eh *grins*.

Fried Pork BBQ

Super Late Post: Clan Party

All great stories come to an end, I had been posting super late blog entries about last year's holiday season and this will be the last.

To end the series, photos of our family's (from my mom's side) annual Christmas party, wait, can I say annually when it only started a two years ago, hmmm....

As usual, with my fam, a potluck party.  And I'm gonna let you in on a secret, I'm already excited and planning this year's party, I wanna host, hope I can make it through planning and over-analyzing, hahaha.

Pancit Malabon Express' Seafood Rice

super big serving from Sharra and Mike