Filipino Forever

When I left My Philippines in 2007, my connection with my Filipino friends and family have been limited in more ways than one.

Living in Maine for over 7 years now, I somehow learned how to downsize and that includes my circle of friends. I'm not saying this in a bad way. In fact, I love it. Having just a couple of Filipino friends who I can call and visit anytime I'm having serious Filipino food cravings makes my life simple and uncomplicated.

Comfort Food - Recycled!

I'm cheap and lazy! Yeah, I am that horrible!

I'm cheap because I don't want to waste food. I don't want to throw out left-over food specially if they are still good and got lots of potential. "Potential" in food for me means recyclable. Well, it doesn't sound yummy, does it? Just read the whole post HERE. Now, I'm hungry again! LOL

Bringing Sunshine on Friday

Friday is my favorite day of the week because every Friday morning at work we have free breakfast.

It's one of the Sunshine Committee's projects to recognize and show appreciation for the staff's hard work.

GS Cookies Month?

I'm not really sure if there is such a thing as Girl Scout cookies month but I'm pretty sure that every year around this time, I get my order of boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I love them and my loved ones love them too.

So this year I got my fair share of that most-awaited cookies.

Only When

When it is like this...

Yah it is snowing again like crazy as of this writing.

Out-of-the-blue Craving for some Thai

It's raining outside and it's cold. I hate going out on this kind of weather. But I'm glad that the snow is all melted away.

Som Tum (Green Papaya Salad)

And when it is raining, I have nothing to do but think about food. Oh, if only I can drive to town to get myself some Thai food.

Steph's Bridal Shower Candy Bar

Last May, my step-daughter married her long time love-of-her-life boyfriend in an intimate family wedding at the Barn. But this post in not about it. (Spoiler ALERT! I will have a separate blog for the said wedding.)

This is about the bridal shower that we secretly planned for her. Her favorite sister H (she has only one sister. LOL) and most of her loved ones conspired to throw her this party. It was well-planned and as expected memorable.

I originally set up the candy bar by the window. But since it was around 4 in the afternoon and the afternoon sun was directly shining through that window, I had to find another place to set the bar up because the chocolates started melting.

And I realized the arrangement is too boring.

The first set up.

I made the tags/labels myself that match her Wedding Invitation (Another spoiler ALERT! I will have another blog about the invitations. So watch out!)

 The apothecary jar is a DIY that I found in Pinterest.

Who wants melted chocolate? No one, right? Unless you love chocolate shakes. So, I rearranged the dessert tables where all the goodies are placed and found the perfect space for my DIY Dollar Store apothecary jars.

Setting up the candy bar at the dessert table is perfect since everything sweet and yummy are at arm's length.

And most importantly, the table is placed against the wall so no melting happened.

Hmmmm... that tag is upside down. Didn't notice it until now.

Now, the tag was fixed. I did notice it after I took several photos. LOL

And the poor chocolates were saved from melting. And if ever they did melt... they melted in our tongues. LOL

My Shoe Fix

I have a confession to make. I love shoes! Oppps, I think you all know that by now. It's not a secret anymore.

I have another confession to make. Whenever I finished a race, I reward myself a pair of shoes. That one is new to you, isn't it?

Yeah, buying a new pair of shoes is a good motivation for me to sign up for a race and of course to train for endurance so I can cross the finish line. So this pair of shoes are well-earned reward for finishing a race.

I have one last confession to make here. I always buy on clearance so this pair cost me only $2.96. Yup, I just don't have the proof now because I already worn it so I removed the tag.

And that is true. I am not lying.

Early Halloween Party with Filipino Friends

Last weekends, Medy and I (together with Maya and Rich) attended an advanced Halloween Party with Filipina friends in New Hampshire. It was the very first Halloween Party I ever attended in my entire life here in the United States.

Just Kids and Adults in their Halloween Costumes.

I am not a party girl anymore but the fact that I will have a rare chance to have fun with some amazing Filipinos friends is indeed a rare opportunity to pass on. Not to mention that having to eat lots of Filipino foods that I have been craving for since I left my home country is a bonus.

Just a part of the dessert table.

Just part of the long buffet table.

The long line of pots containing Filipino Dishes.

The gracious hosts, ate Malou and Kuya Jude opened their home to us. Kuya Jude cooked up a lot of fun activities for the kids while ate Malou prepared lots of yummy dishes and treats for the adults. wink***

Kids helping Kuya Jude set up the Pinata.

Having fun hitting the poor witch head pinata.

Paparazzi moms lined up to take photos of the kids.

Spidey and Bat Girl taking a break.

Finally, picking up the rewards of hard work. Sugar rush alert!

My friends taking a break from eating for a photo opps.

The party I had to admit was fun and the food was delishhhhh! Good thing the weather cooperated. It was kinda chilly and cloudy but at least not rainy. It's Fall so I can't be whiny. We left with a couple of doggie bags from the dessert table and a heavy tummy. I need to go back to gym. Seriously!

A Birthday Party in NH

This is already a long-over-due post. I have been too lazy busy doing tons of stuff here and there and just knowing that alibi fact made me feel guilty beyond reasonable doubt. I've promised myself again to be more active on blogging but I guess I'm set to fail again one way or another. Hey, the sayings "History repeats itself" was coined for a reason, wasn't it?

Anyway, last September (tons of Older-Posts-Coming-Soon ALERT!) Medy tagged me along to a Filipina friend's birthday party in New Hampshire. I was a little reluctant to go for 3 reasons. 1. I only know a couple of people she mentioned that might be there. 2. I'm on a strict diet. And 3. I don't want to drive.

But Medy knows how to talked me out into doing things I don't want to do. 1. She insisted that I should come since the birthday celebrant Mhel asked her to bring me with her and that she will introduce me to other Filipinas there. I have been here in the U.S. for over 6 years now and I only know a handful of Filipinos whom I consider friends. I get invited to parties and get-together a lot of times too but I usually turned them down because I'm usually busy during the weekends due my races. Good thing I have no race that weekend.

When Filipinos get together, no matter what part of the world they are... parties will not be the same without food. Well, yes any race or nationality for that matter when it comes to parties food is always involved. But we are not talking about hotdog, burger and ice cream here. 2. We are talking about TONS of FILIPINO FOOD. A whole table of deserts of all kinds (high sugar level ALERT!). A long table of Filipino dishes that I craved for so long. And another table for additional dishes that kept on coming and kept on cooking. In short, all the food I miss so much!

And 3.  New Hampshire is a neighboring state. It's pretty much like Maine in almost all aspect except in "taxes". Yes, we love to go shopping in NH because - no taxes on goods. wink* The venue was about an hour drive from Maine. And Medy said the magic word - You are not driving! She knows I hate driving and she knows that the only way to convince me to go anywhere she badly wants to go to is to NOT make me drive. Poor Richard, good thing he is kind enough to drive us to NH. We got there just in time for lunch.

Well, we had fun eating, chatting, laughing, singing and crooning to our hearts desire. We all enjoyed belting our lungs out to a popular OPM (Original Pinoy Music). But the American husbands beat us in points singing TAGALOG songs. That one was really funny. We all had a laugh and enjoyed listening to their American accented version of Filipino music.

And of course, it will not be the same if we are not going to have a group photo. wink* We Filipinos are very camera shy. LOL.

So yeah, that was one fun weekend that I had last month. I went to a birthday party and glad that I did.

Californication Foodies (Part 1)

My California vacation in 2010 was one of the most memorable vacations I had. The highlight of the trip was basically food. Well, that and - shopping!

From the day I flew in from Maine to the time I was about to board the plane out of LAX... food was involved.

So to give you an idea of my food experience I decided to present my food-opportunity-of-sort with matching photos to drool on. LOL.

As soon as my cousin Joey and her most loyal boyfriend JV picked me up at the Union Station, JV drove us straight to Salu-Salo Restaurant where I had my first Pinoy food in California.

The next day, I had a hearty meal at a Thai Restaurant near Joey's condo unit with Carmen - one of my favorite students (shhhhhh) in High School.

After 4 years of being in America, I finally got the chance to have my favorite siopao from Chowking when I met up with my long time friend Ate Emz whom I have not seen for over a decade.

And during this vacation, I finally met in person 3 amazing "virtual" friends I met through blogging. My TSS Sistahs are no longer "virtual", they are for real and our friendship grown stronger and deeper.

Yes, this is only a partial treat of my food adventure in California. As the title says... Part 1 - therefor, you are in for more tasty treats as I will give you 4 parts of this tasty adventure of mine. Chow!

This is one of 'MERICA Posts Series. A regular post dedicated to my HOME away from home.

Read more about my 'merica HERE as I share my experiences in this land of amazing People, Culture and Traditions.

My New BFF

I am a great cook... not! Well, probably I am, in my own right, that is. I'm not a "cook-cook" but I can cook. My Sweetest loves my cooking or probably he is a good eater and doesn't care much about the taste of the food. LOL  My brothers love my cooking. Some of my friends love my cooking. And most importantly I love my cooking. Of course.

But since I don't have much time to cook, I would rather have someone cook for me. However, since I discovered my new BFF, I now enjoy cooking again --- the slow way.

Yes, meet my new "best friend forever"... the slow cooker.

And here is one of the dish I cooked with it - Pork Ribs with Onions and Pepper.

For recipe... click here.

Cravings... solved!

Last weekend I went up to see my friend Medy. And guess what... we had another eating marathon. I was craving for good'ol lechon but since it's impossible to get one here, I cooked lechon kawali instead with my version of sarsa ng lechon because we also ran out of Mang Tomas Sarsa ng Lechon.

The verdict! It was delishhhhh!!! For recipe click here.

The Veggie Salad Bar

The Veggie Salad Bar is not your grandma's salad platter. It's not even "old school" salad platter.

It's the level up in "salad" department. So yeah, I upgraded the salad bar into this new "veggie salad bar".

I'm trying my best to live a healthier life style so the salad bar duringHubby's birthday was a refreshing take to set up a different kind of salad platter.

Those cute glasses containers where I put the celery, baby carrots and cuke sticks are votive candle holders I got from the Dollar store.

The green and blue bowls are also from the Dollar store. They compliment the color theme of Hubby's birthday party.

Cutting the pineapple in this particular way made an artistic presentation for the salad bar too.

And I put the dressing in that blue goblet that matches the setting too.

At the end, I realized that this salad bar is not just an upgrade in healthier lifestyle but in party planning as well.