Hot Zambo Express

I saw a new product (or at least this is new to me) that caught my eye at the grocery store last weekend...

The Hot Zambo Express from Family's Brand really lives up to it's name... H-O-T!  And I mean hot, buti na lang the weather's kinda cold these days and one needs the heat. whew!  I can still feel the zing on my tongue and it's already been more than a couple of hours since I've had breakfast.  If you ask me if it's good enough to buy again... I'd say "yeah, if you're into the hot stuff" but I wouldn't recommend it for those who want just a bit of spice.  As for me, I wouldn't be buying any for me anytime soon, since hubby doesn't really go for hot and spicy foods.  But I would definitely recommend it to my sister, Mae and her Bicolano boyfriend who prefers chili by the dozen, hehehe!

Chocoholics

My hubby and I share our love for chocolates (but the intensity of his love for anything chocolate is much more evident that mine :P ), so when we heard about Magnum... a belgian chocolate covered ice cream, we definitely wanted to try it.

The Verdict:  It really is quite delish!  If it wasn't so expensive, I could probably eat two in one sitting.

Water Color

Last weekend, I let my son use his free water color set from Enfakid A+.  He had lots of fun, painting the coloring pages that I printed out for him.

Hubby and I got in on the fun too... Adam was so proud of his work that he put them all on display on our refrigerator door.  After that, he had nothing else to talk about but coloring the rest of the day.  Even during Sunday mass, he kept saying that he was going to show Mamu & Dada (my parents, his grandparents) all of his work and that we should print more coloring pages so he could paint more.  I asked him to be quiet at least during mass and we will do so... He was very good and quiet until the mass was finished that we rewarded him to a trip to the mall and his favorite arcade.  Afterwards, we had early dinner at KFC.

Breakfast

With all the rich food that we have taken in during the holidays, I just lost my appetite for the usual bread and butter or fried rice, eggs and hotdog breakfast.  It's a good thing that my mother-in-law brought us dried fish from Ilocos during her last visit with us.  So here's my breakfast for today!

Eating this, you really have to use your bare hands... it adds to the pleasure of eating "tuyo" dipped in spicy vinegar.  I know one shouldn't eat too much salty foods but when you eat it just once in a while, I don't think it would be that bad.  I just had a craving and had to fulfill it!

Pichi-pichi

Since my first taste of Amber's Pichi-pichi with cheese about a year and a half ago, I have always compared other pichi-pichi to it.  So far, I haven't tasted any that would surpass the cheese-topped goodies that come from Amber's.  And I am super thankful that Amber's opened a branch very near our place in Parañaque.  So now, whenever I get the craving for their delectable pichi-pichi, I wouldn't have to go far.  Just this Monday, after office, hubby and I went to Amber's to get 30-piece-box to enjoy for merienda.  We got to share it with Adam, my niece-Cheska, and my parents.  The kids loved it so much that we had to stop them from eating too much or they will ruin their appetite for dinner.

Gatadobo

A while back a friend gifted me with this delectable dish from a restaurant called Coconut House.  Since then, I have been wanting to visit the said establishment if only to get another dose of the tasty Adobo with gata but I have not had the opportunity to go there.  The craving was renewed however when I got to watch a feature from Carmina and Pekto's show, Day Off.  The Coconut house was recommended as one of the must try places when dining out.  Now, I also want to try their coco halo-halo... hmmm, hopefully, I'd be able to finally visit this restaurant this summer and try their mouth-watering goodies!

Comfort Food

Saturday morning turned out to be busier than usual... Hubby wasn't able to go to work due to fever and severe headache so before doing my usual Saturday chore, which happens to be tackling the laundry, I cooked breakfast for him first. It's a variation of a recipe I found from Miss Connie's website. This time, I just did the usual omelet instead of "cupcakes".

Then for lunch, I brought hubby to a recent discovery... Sen Lek Thai Noodles. We feasted on steaming hot bowls of Thai noodles before he took his medicines.

And then in the afternoon, as we are about to go shopping for Adam's diapers and stuff, the little boy asked to eat burger amd spaghetti from his favorite fastfood... McDonald's. Of course he had to order spaghetti and burger and also a hot fudge sundae... oh, and fries too! 

All in all, this day has proved to be a day of comfort food for the whole family.

Special Fried Rice

I was inspired with Ms. Connie's post and has always been a sucker for fried rice that I made this last night:

It is not actually Yang Chow because of the absence of roast pork but I added diced ham, green peas, cabbage, eggs, diced hotdogs and leftover longganisa.  My family loved it!

Refrigerated Cake (Peaches)

Since I was able to go home early yesterday, I had time to look at our pantry and see what I can "tinker" with... I found an unopened bottle of peaches which I bought a week ago (thinking I was going to have peach melba) a couple of packs of Graham Crackers and All purpose cream.  All I needed was milk and I was ready to begin preparing my refrigerated cake.

It only took 30 minutes to prepare the cake so after placing in the fridge, I still had time to play with a Adam for a while.  I guess I must have played with my son a little longer than I was planning to or maybe my cake was just that irrisistible that before I knew it...

...my brother has already sliced his share of it! nyahahaha!  Anyway, I was planning to put it in a nice serving plate and garnish it with the peaches I set aside specifically for that purpose and then take a picture of it, but this was the only picture I was able to take because as soon as my sisters and mom got wind that the cake was already sliced, they also took their share and ate it! :)

Charles Adam

The 26th of January marked my son's first birthday.  It started out quite normal for me, I went to work as usual and thought I was just going to have food delivered when I get home that afternoon (I was going to go home early to be with my son) but my Dad had other plans pala.  At around two in the afternoon, as I was already preparing to leave early, my Dad brought my son to the office.  He said he thought that since it was Adam's birthday he should be with me, hehehe, mainipin si Lolo!  Anyway, since he was already there, I just had food delivered to the office for a birthday treat cum "merienda" for some of my officemates.  And then we went home at my usual time off.

January 29, Friday, I brought Adam to Kids' Hair Salon in Southmall, Las Piñas to have his first haircut.

At first, I said "wow, ang bait naman pala magpagupit ng baby ko", because he was really just his usual curious self.  Slightly "malikot" but he was letting the hair-cutter do his job.  He was even watching the Barney video they provided.  And then after several minutes, he already lost interest in the video and started to get uneasy.  I tried to divert his attention to the toy car that he was sitting on and I succeeded naman for about a minute or so and then he started fidgeting again.  When I didn't carry him off the seat that he wanted to get out of, he started crying.  Buti na lang the staff there were really patient and always ready for such situations.  They gave him a lollipop and Adam calmed down again until his haircut was finished!  After his haircut, he looked even more like his father (if that was possible) than before!

Then on January 30, Saturday at 4:30 in the afternoon, we had a small celebration for Adam's first birthday at McDonald's in Sucat, Palanyag.  It was a fun affair that was shared by our relatives and close friends.  There were also blunders like the video camera loosing its battery charge just at the start of the party (I checked it a couple of hours before the party and it was fully charged, the problem was I forgot to turn it off, thus...) and the fact that I forgot to have the tarpauline layout I made printed but aside from that, the kids and adults had fun, the food was ample and as usual, yummy and the appearance of the mascots were a hit!  I'm still sorting through the pictures and video and should be able to upload them by the end of this week, for now, I am just so happy that I got to experience yet another parenthood milestone and am looking forward to experiencing more!  Thanks to everyone who helped make my son's celebration a success!

Strawberry Jelly

One of my absolute favorite desserts... That's why even though I don't often eat at Karate Kid, I still pass by their store just so I could hoard these!

Yesterday's Lunch

Yesterday, we had an office affair, and for lack of what to post today for my weekly meme, I am posting pictures of what I had for lunch during our conference hall blessing.

that's rice, veggies and quail eggs, beef with brocolli, and lechon

and this is chicken-macaroni salad and some of the stuff found in the salad bar like cheese, quail eggs, turnips and corn... I wasn't able to create a more elaborate salad side plate because the queue was long and I wanted to sit and eat already, hehehe!

Mitsado

Everyone calls it Mechado but I prefer calling it Mitsado because of the "Mitsa" or "wick" of pork inserted in the beef. It's one of my favorite viands to cook and eat! I have posted it's recipe in my other blog before so I'm just posting a step-by-step picture of it now. As I cooked it last Sunday when I had a sudden burst of energy and was able to prepare a feast for our lunch...

And here's comical hubby, very impatient and wanting to sample the dish even before I had time to take a picture of it!

Cheese Popcorn

Today, right after I got off from work, I went straight to the nearest mall... Quickly bought groceries for the following week and then bought this:

A bucket of cheese popcorn from popperoo!

Hubby and I made tonight a movie night and watched the DVD of Stephen King's "The Shawshank Redemption". I know it's an old film already but hubby has yet to watch it and since an officemate of mine lent it to me for the weekend, we decided to make a movie night of it. Of course by the end of the movie our hands were orangy yellow from the cheese flavoring of the popcorn and it was already time for an uber late dinner but it was fun. It's been a while since Charlie and I went out to watch a movie but this is better. We get to kick off our shoes and put our feet up and cuddle while watching the movie. We must do this again soon!

Hot Pandesal & Cold Milk

This was my late merienda yesterday as I was so hungry already when I got home from work but have yet to make dinner... I said to myself, dinner would be late anyway (hubby has overtime work so he would be coming home late) so I would have space to spare for a quick merienda. I ran to a nearby bakery and found newly baked pandesal so I bought some and just spread butter and liver spread in them as filling and washed them down with a tall glass of cold milk. Hmmm.... quite satisfying. In fact I was still a bit full by the time hubby came home so I wasn't able to eat as much of our pork adobo dinner, hehehe!

Fettuccine Alfredo & Chicken Wings

Last night, after work, I went straight to my parents' house. The original plan was that I was just going to pick up the money and gift check from my Mom but hubby texted that I wait for him there because he has a basketball game after office hours so I'd be bored if I went home early. So I waited for Charlie to pick me up and then afterwards, we went to a Pizza Hut in a nearby mall. I feasted on Fetuccine Alfredo while hubby had Garlic Shrimps and Mushroom Pasta. Aside from that, we decided to split the Chicken Wings and Garlic and Sausage Pizza. O di ba? Super takaw kami, hahaha!

Mushroom Burger

Yesterday afternoon, my youngest sister, Mae texted me that they (My Mom, Dad and her together with a couple of my Aunts) were on their way to Tagaytay to look for a plant to add to my Aunt's already wide variety of collection. I wanted so much to come but since I had work, I was unable to. And then later, Mae texted me again that they were near Mushroom Burger already... and so I texted her back that if they came home without a "pasalubong" from MB for me, I would really, really be disappointed! Nyahahaha! It worked! Last night, I had a King Mushroom Burger straight from Tagaytay!

I have only good memories associated with this burger... As a child, we would always stop at the Mushroomburger joint whenever we're near it... On our way to visit my Aunt's family who lives in Batanggas, when we go to Tagaytay for day trips, or whatever. Basta, I have happy recollections when I think about eating a mushroom burger. Haaay, plus it's so sarap pa!

Busy Weekend

What I thought was going to be a relaxing and restful weekend turned out to be the exact opposite. Saturday morning started out normally enough with Charlie off to work by seven while I am still lingering on the sofa with my morning hot chocolate while reading a three-day-old newspaper (sorry, I don't usually read the paper, I get my daily dose of current information from the evening television news). And then my sister, Hazelle texted me inquiring as to what time I would be coming to our parents' house where we were supposed to meet before proceeding to the nearby mall so she could treat me to a meal at yellow cab. She just got her first paycheck from her new job at a call center in Mandaluyong and she promised me this treat a week ago so I replied that I would just take a bath and will immediately proceed to our meeting place. As it turned out, she was still at work when I arrived at our parents' house and so I had to wait for her for a couple of hours. While waiting, I played with Marian, my adorable neice, and when we both got tired, we fell asleep, hehehe! We (Me, my sisters, Hazelle and Mae) made it to the mall at around 3pm where we stuffed ourselves with New York's Finest Pizza which we gulped down with iced tea. By 4:30, we couldn't eat anymore and decided to take out the remaining slices of the 18" pizza and walk off the calories while window shopping. I was not able to restrain myself when I saw the adorable infant clothes and bought a tie-side shirt, pajamas, onesies, mittens and a matching cap and booties!

the baby stuff!

Charlie and Marian, posing before riding the bighorn which we used to go to my Grandma's birthday party.

The next day, Charlie had to do the laundry early in the morning (yes, eversince I got preggy, hubby has been doing the laundry while we still don't have help) because we were going to my Grandma's house for lunch to celebrate Inang Chayong's 90th birthday. The lunch prolonged until dinner as it has been a long time since we have had a get-together with my other cousins, Aunts and Uncles. When we arrived at our apartment at around 9pm on Sunday, Charlie and I were both so tired and ready for bed that I just ironed our Monday office attire and left the rest for the following day. The two days "rest" just wasn't enough to accomplish our weekend chores and have time left enough for R&R. But, tiring as it was, the weekend was quite a happy one... at least now, I could tick off several items from my baby shopping list and several of my cousins hinted at an impending baby shower for me...

Friday, Fry Day?

Thank God it's Friday once again... I can sleep longer tomorrow... We've already contracted someone to come to the house and do the laundry and ironing so that's two things crossed out on my to-do list for the weekend. The thing is, I have to cook dinner and I'm super tired from work already that I don't feel like cooking something more complicated than fried chicken... so, Fried chicken it is! Maybe I'll just make one of those instant soup to serve with the chicken so dinner wouldn't be so dry. Charlie would just have wait for a day when I don't feel so tired (or lazy) to taste another culinary masterpiece (ha!).

Tofu

A lot of people have been asking me what food I am craving for these days (that's eversince they found out I was pregnant) and I always say "it's varies quickly". That's because it does, one minute I like pizza and the next I like strawberries dipped in whipped cream... But one thing is constant for the past 4 or 5 days... Tofu! It's my favorite "veg out" food these days. I watch TV and I eat tofu, I watch a DVD and there it is... tofu again! I particularly like it deep fried into a golden brown so it's crispy outside yet still a little white inside and dipped in soy sauce mixed with vinegar, a little sugar, chopped onions and a dash of pepper.