The kitchen is my playground, even when I'm lazy enough to cook...as long as I have my food cheats around.

I was going to finish off my last pieces of ready-to-cook meatballs from Rustan's (it's my first time to try their blend and it actually has good flavor). After preparing the rice grains for cooking, I placed a double broiler on top of the rice cooker. Should save me time and effort in cooking two different items at once.

While waiting for it to cook, I pulled out a can of diced tomatoes and sun dried tomato pesto. Grabbing half an onion from the fridge, I sliced it thinly. After sautéing the onion in olive oil, I poured the diced tomatoes and added a couple of teaspoons of the sun dried tomato pesto. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Pour the sauce on top of the meatballs, sprinkle with parsley and voila!

For some reason, decision-making becomes more difficult when you're given an opportunity to go on a free shopping spree. I was able to get a gift certificate from a US online store for the amount of a 3-digit figure (in US dollars). It was much worse than being a kid in a candy store. I lose my impulsiveness to buy things and end up analyzing the product against its value.

As I was going through the items in the store, I ended up choosing more items for A than for myself. That, plus the fact that the ones I was looking at would deplete more than half of what I could spend already! There's also shipping cost to consider as the items will be coming from the US.

A is a tea and coffee person. I learned how to drink hot tea from him as he would usually make one at home. There's a tea for drinking before a meal. Different one after a meal. Another one for a cold beverage use. As for coffee, it's an ongoing learning process for him.

He has these toys to play with:

The one on the right is a tea press that was given to us as a wedding gift. He'd use the whole thing for loose tea leaves and use the carafe only if he would brew one in a sachet. He would use the carafe for coffee before wherein he would buy ground coffee and transfer the amount he would consume into a sachet.

I'm particular about the things that he would look at when we would go out. We were in Dimensione at the Fort before when I saw him going through Bodum's line. Next thing he knew, he already has a coffee press. No need to buy the sachets anymore.

I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I do like the taste of a freshly ground one. One time we were in Starbucks, A asked me for a quick lecture on the impact of the grinding date to the taste of the coffee. We wouldn't buy ground coffee in Starbucks because we don't consume much coffee as well and the smallest pack that they have is 400g. So, I've introduced him to Rustan's coffee line. This way, he can try different flavors without having to buy a large quantity. Though I've noticed that it would still take him weeks to finish off 100g.  The flavor's become ho-hum by that time. I figured that buying coffee beans would be better and just grind a certain amount when needed. So I got him a KitchenAid coffee grinder.

As I continued to browse more items to purchase, I bumped into this one:

I've seen A grab this item a number of times in Dimensione, but wouldn't buy it. I've offered to buy it for him, he wouldn't let me. I think he's waiting for it to go on sale. At least now, we don't have to wait for the sale and would get the item for free. I also got one for myself. Cost of shipping to Manila for the 2 travel press is just the same as buying 1 here.

Now for the pièce de résistance:

As my support to his coffee exploration journey, I've added this DeLonghi espresso/cappuccino maker in the cart. I think that would cover it for him. 

So what's the thing about about going on a free shopping free? I ended up buying things not for myself. I don't mind anyway. As long as A's happy with it. Well, I still have some amount left to spend. Maybe I'll get myself that stick blender that I've been salivating for years.

All in all, i feel so blessed for being able to get these items for A.

Not that we actually have a food staple assigned to a specific day of the week, but we do have an ample supply of meatballs that will last until next week (thanks to Rustan's Shangri-la's buy 1kg take 500g promo). Having said that, A and Snuz are to expect meatballs and possible derivatives =)

Our major obstacle in looking for a place is finding one that would allow big dogs in the unit. Although some condos so allow pets as who can accommodate Snuz, the units are rather dim with not much source for natural light..

We do have our hearts set on 2 properties so far: Paseo Parkview in Salcedo Village and Galleria de Magallanes in Magallanes Village.

Here's the one in Paseo Parkview:

And here's the one in Magallanes:

What A and I both liked about it is that it has no obstructions and both units are facing the park. Although the one in Magallanes is directly in front of a park, it's a rather long walk to the place if you're planning on commuting. Plus, the unit won't be available until sometime in July or August. We don't mind the wait, it's just that condo admin has no idea yet whether the current tenant will extend.

Paseo Parkview is more commuter-friendly and closer to the business district. I don't think we'd have a problem looking for a unit here. We just need to show the available units to our geomancer so he could check out the chi in the space.

Other places we're considering are La Maison in Rada (available units in July), Greenbelt Mansions in Palanca, and LPL Manor in Leviste (no available units to date).

Wish us luck!

While trying to come up with something to eat for dinner, I decided to make dessert first since it's that time of the week to clean our fridge. There are 3 parts to this recipe: chocolate cookie crust, cheesecake filling, and the cherry topping. And here's the recipe. Remember, am just using our oven toaster for this and it doesn't have a thermometer. So I couldn't really say how high the oven was, but we have the one with a heat coil at the top and bottom.

Chocolate Cookie Crust
1 1/3c ground chocolate cookies
1/3c melted butter
dash of cinnamon

Pre-heat oven. Mix everything together in a bowl and pour into a 9-inch cake pan. If you don't have one, just use any oven-friendly container and pack about 1/4" high. Bake for 8 minutes. Let it cool.

Begin making the filling.

Cheesecake Filling:
8oz cream cheese
sugar
1 egg
vanilla

Beat together cream cheese and sugar. Adjust sugar amount to taste. Add in egg and continue beating until smooth. Blend in vanilla. Pour over chocolate cookie crust and bake for 12 mins. Let it cool.

Cherry Topping
bottle of cherries
water
sugar
cornstarch

Pour the cherries and the syrup in a pan. Add in sugar and bring to a boil. Dissolve a little cornstarch in water and add to the rest of the ingredients in the pan. When the syrup starts to thicken, turn the heat off. Let it cool.

Top it over the baked cheesecake and place in the fridge.

There's hardly a break time in making this dessert as you'd end up doing something else related to it while waiting for the rest of it to cool. 

I made mini versions also for "portioning" hehehe

As for dinner, well, I got tired from making the cheesecake that I just ended up cooking pasta and tossing in minced garlic and tuyo in olive oil =)

A has been complaining about his increasing waistline. I'd like to think that I had nothing to do with it as food consumption is all about having everything in moderation. The least I can do is adjust what I cook.

I thought of serving an open-faced sandwich for dinner and ended up with Sautéed Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions. Here are the ingredients:

sliced button mushrooms
minced garlic
caramelized onions (see recipe below)
honey mustard sauce (see recipe below)
iceberg lettuce (optional)

caramelized onions:
butter
olive oil
brown sugar
sliced onions
salt 
pepper

honey mustard sauce:
mustard (grainy or the plain yellow will do)
honey
cream or yogurt
worcestershire sauce

1. Prepare caramelized onions by combining oil and butter in a pan. Once the butter is melted, add in the onions and brown sugar. Cook for around 5-10 minutes until the onions have caramelized. Add in the garlic and mushrooms.

2. Make the honey-mustard sauce by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl.

3. Assemble the sandwich by spreading on the honey-mustard sauce on the bread. You could place iceberg lettuce before adding on the sautéed mushrooms and caramelized onions or you can add them directly on the bread.

I wasn't expecting it to actually give me a sense of fullness, but it was suffice to keep us from eating more than what we had on the plate.

Bon appetit!

With the hot weather and nothing to do at home, plus I haven't eaten anything yet for the day,  I started to crave for fresh lumpia. Closest one I could go to is Goldilocks, but I didn't want to eat chunky veggies today. Then I thought of DEC (Diao Eng Chai) in Wilson, but was lazy to take 2 jeepney rides.So I ended up going to Globe Lumpia House all the way in Raon (One long FX ride, but at least it's in an airconditioned vehicle).

My dad first brought me here decades back when he would drag me around walking for hours then bribe me with food. He said he used to take my mom here when they were going out (I hope his memory serves him right).

It's not much of a place. Found under the overpass stairs of Globe Building in Raon. One thing I'm fascinated about this place is that it only has 2 items on the menu - lumpia for Php16 and Sarsi for Php10. No such thing as food presentation and plating. No other branch exists.

It has an open kitchen upfront with a short freak show act of how fast manong lumpia maker assembles one unit. Believe it or not, they can sell around 500 pieces a day...just one item on the menu. Who would've thought!

Dine-in patrons would usually order a couple of pieces since one unit is just the size of a regular tanda (rice flour wrapper). Takeout ones order in last meal serving quantities. Which would explain the number of units they're able to sell in a day. 

Despite the very humble facade and setup, you'd see photos there of the owner with celebrities who have visited the place. I saw one with Charlene Gonzales-Muhlach and some other people whom I have no idea who they are.


Would I brave the distance and the heat next time just to eat fresh lumpia? Definitely. Now going there on a rainy day is another matter.
 

I've always been more particular about my hair when it comes to body maintenance. I give it a monthly hot oil treatment and even purchased myself a thermal cap so that I can do it at home.

I've tried another technique which basically just uses shampoo and baking soda. It's something you'd do once a month to cleanse your hair from chemical build up. Outcome of which would bring back the shine to your hair.

So here's what you do: put half the amount of shampoo that you regularly use and add baking soda to it in the same amount. Lather and shampoo on your hair. Best to use warm water first to wet your hair then rinse with cold water.

Now that's definitely not "shampoo lang yan" =)

While waiting for my blood test result to come out, I went to the Rob Place Ermita to kill time...about 7 hours of it. Anyway, so I was doing a LOT of window shopping when I saw that Beauty Bar has a sale nook. So I took a peek.

As expected, most of them are make-up. Am not a make-up person, but I do have my basic set. As I was going through the sale rack, I saw some items from their own line - hand lotion, shower gel, body butter, I think there were some scrubs too. There were 3 variants to choose from - lavender, orange ginger, and grapefruit & dewberry.

I really didn't have a requirement for any of those items, but when I saw the price, I figured that I could stock some up as emergency gifts should a need arise. The shower gel was on sale for Php100 from the original price of Php450. Hand lotion was around Php80 (forgot the original price though). Rest, I wasn't able to checkout as I was about to go hungry then (I turn green when I'm hungry). So I just purchased 2 bottles and left the store. 

Sometimes, good things come along when you're not looking =)

Our living room wall has been naked for years. I don't know what to do with it. Was thinking of placing a framed picture of a leaf or something similarly simple, but never really got myself working on it.

I was looking at charger plates in Megamall one time for no reason. I came across these banana leaf-inspired melaware that looked interesting - nice color and texture, plus it only costs Php72 for the big plate and Php32 for the smaller ones. I thought of using it to decorate our wall.

With my trusted 3M Command poster strips, (holds on strongly, comes off cleanly =P) I've attached them at the bottom of the plates and mounted them on the wall.

Not bad for the price and easily to clean.

Nice complement to our other living room wall too.

Since that only took a few minutes to make, I decided to tackle on the other walls of our abode and turned my eye to the bathroom.

We have an excess wallpaper from the mural in the living room, I've had one mounted on the entrance of our bathroom. 

To continue the mural theme in the bathroom, I decided to make a faux window using the remaining excess wallpaper, some A4 clear casing (Php28.25 each at National Bookstore), and poster strips (of course). 

Just cut the wallpaper to fit inside the clear casing (the clear casing itself has a paper that serves as a label. you can use that as a cutting template on the wallpaper). Place poster strips at the backside of the clear casing. Attach the "framed" wallpaper to the wall.

The best thing about this is that if I get tired of the wallpaper photo, I can just change it to another one =)