yes we can..erm...i think

when i was 9, the first time i went to united states, and went straight to my aunt's (my mom's sister) who has been living in maryland for more than a decade already. she didn't have a child then but only a husband, and she got this freezer at her basement, and it was full of ice cream. ben & jerry's!

it was love at first sight.

i got fat after that two month vacation with my dad. all we did was eat eat eat eat eat. and i can finish one flavor, one sitting, while i watch tv.

still for the past visits, i never fail to try a new flavor. now its actually available here. but its kinda expensive. i saw at rustan's supermarket in gateway, cubao.

i stumble upon this site today, scoopalicious. and saw this post. funny. yes, pecan! i remember i did watch the whole cycle of events during inaguration day of obama.

its so patriotic. hahaha!
:)

sweet stuff all day!

*isi, nikka, charlene, kate, anna, pj

ok so far i haven't really decided what to talk about in this blog. i have just been posting my old food photos at foodbuzz and kind of bored and getting fat. hahahaha! due to this blog, you would see why i am getting fat and lazy.

today, i finally get to blog some stuff i got from my good homebaker friends. we met up yesterday at tiendesitas (i really like this place, full of stores and full of foodies and delicacies all over the philippines, its a one stop shop with really everything. more like, organized place to buy stuff from the philippines)

so it was me, kate, charlene, nikka and anna and pj. with my son and nikka's daughter. you could say this is like the first admin meet up for 2009 of FHO (our homebaker's group)we had late lunch and kate was good enough to bring our orders, well, her hand-me-downs of baking equipment since she will be migrating to singapore soon. my son and i arrived first, because i came from my previous culinary school, and got some recommendation letters from our chefs. we had our first sweet bite there, our pastry chef gave my son a chocolate cupcake.


*my son and nikka's daughter

kate arrived after my son and i had our lunch. she gave us a box of chocolate cupcakes again with chocolate frosting on top! my son just couldn't get his hands of it, so when i opened it, he just kept on picking the icing. it was good (i ate one last night) too sweet for me, though. kate, i am sorry i wasn't able to take anymore photos of your cupcakes because my grandfolks and my brother ate it all last night!!! they didn't even bother to leave one for my son! hahahah!

charlene arrived next and she surprised me with an eco-friendly bag with a box of butterscotch bars inside! yay! i was so excited! i kept that bag already from the others hehehehe! you know how i love butterscotch. i ate one last night and surprised me again, it had choco chips in it. super delicious, sweet bites.


*charlene's gift of butterscotch goodness

nikka arrived and then anna and pj to our surprise came in a little after. it was a fun day, full of stories about baking and just about food!
:)
i gave them ube from good sheperd tagaytay. i like the good sheperd there than the one at baguio. the ube at tagaytay is like ice cream. i heart their ube goodness!

so after all the talking, pj and i saw the stall of tita lynn's flavored suman (glutinous rice cake wrapped in banana or palm leaves, a native delicacy) i love love love love this suman when my mom brought home a few last month. i actually love suman, even the ones from antipolo, the one wrapped in palm leaves which we even fry.


*tita lynn's flavored suman

i bought some home yesterday and i ate some for breakfast. i love the langka (jackfruit) and the coco mas flavors.

and i saw this jar today on the table. coco jam! super good to spread on a hot pandesal (dinner roll of the philippines hahahah!) i think my mom brought this home.

award day tuesday!

miss so cal pastry chef has awarded me this lemonade stand crown award today!

so happy tuesday!

thank you so so so much miss so cal pastry chef!!!

so now i have to pass this award to my favorite blogs i love love love~ (for this 2009)!

namely,
dunkin cookin the semi-homemade way

trav's gone gluten free!

tangled noodle

creative confectionery

bytes from texas: one longhorn's adventures

happy home baking

my food, my recipe

no special effects

our awesome planet

maman and gourmand

cake artisan

happy awarding tuesday!
:) well for me, at least.

jason berwick

*beetroot linguine*by jason berwick

when i first joined flickr, jason berwick was the first one i encountered. since i am into food photography, he has been one in a million food photographers i really, really, really admire.

i even had a few emails with him, i am such a fan.

he had shown me so much creativity and openess in food photography. he maybe far away but he has been touching my eyes in such awe because of how he treats food styling at its best.

i never seen some of his ingredients in his photos in real life. since he came back from not posting alot to share in flickr, i was so surprised about these pink pine nuts. i have never seen pink pine nute in my entire life! also the beetroot linguini, that's so cool!

*pink pine nuts*by jason berwick

i hope he compiles every photo he got in one book, and i will definitely buy that book! if only he accepts apprenticeship, i would gladly to join in, just so i will get all his tips in food photography. hehehe! he is a chef too, by the way.

:)

foodbuzzzzzz

and so i became a featured publisher!

yay!

so happy!

a good way to start the year!

more and more foodies to come
:)

so i guess i will be requesting (or demanding hehe!) to vote for me
and join in foodbuzz! really great site to learn so much about food from all the food bloggers around the world!

thanks FOODBUZZ!
:)

cakespy's happy gifts!

miss jessie of cakespy very thoughtfully and whole heartedly gave me freebies that came along with these paintings.



i am such a happy girl when my folks finally came home from the US, and brought home these stuff for me. since it is expensive to let it ship here in manila. so instead i let miss jessie send it over at my aunt's house in US.

i was so surprised that miss jessie even gave me gifts and a lovely note.

i think i am the first here in manila to get cakespy's merchandise. hehehe! i hope cakespy will get more fans from here. i mean, alot are into baking cuppies nowadays.

miss jessie, i love love love these super duper cute paintings and of course the bookmark, and the two greeting cards and that lovely note you sent me.

thank you so much! one of the best xmas gift of 2008!
:) second was the new laptop.

*hmmm... me think i should get the cakespy apron too....next time!!!

my son's 3rd birthday/new year's eve/happy 2009!!!

i got sick, december 29th, ranting i shouldn't be sick today,not when i need to do so many things for my son's bday, so i started drinking the sekem flu tea (like four times, hot, so my colds and flu will be gone before my son's bday) i went to my favorite market, "suki market" and bought everything i need. i even got a haircut that day just so i will look good for the new year hehehe!
i marinated the beef that night. i wasn't able to sleep well that night.

december 30th, the day before my son's bday, i prepared everything. as in everything. pre cut the ingredients for the salad, the garlic sauce, the lemon butter sauce, the cucumber raita, the marination mixture for my seafood, and cut all the vegetables needed to make the kebabs. that night, i finished doing all the beef kebabs. i was still sick, so i just managed to do what i think is enough for my son's bday.

december 31st, i woke up so early today just so i can get the freshest shrimps and lapu lapu fish for the seafood kebabs. filleted the fish and took off all the skin and head of the shrimps and made them into kebabs and put in the marination. i actually got time to take a bath and even rest, since i was still struggling with my nose. i started grilling around 11am. since my target was lunchtime. some of my relatives were early to get in here, and my uncle bought one whole lechon (this is one of the best, promise. i grew up eating this lechon being cook right before our eyes at this house nearby, it comes with the best lechon sauce too!) my uncle was the one who cut and serve the lechon. i managed to finished grilling when everybody got here. i really enjoyed the outcome of the kebabs, was really really delicious!(that was everybody's feedback) i was really happy with my garlic sauce too and the salad really went well with the rest of the food.

so my menu was only rice, lechon, seafood and beef kebabs, and the greek salad. i was trying to be greek hehe!

our dessert was the wall-e cake.

i can't imagine he's 3 now.
next year again...

:) this is my only time to show my wonders in cooking a cuisine, every birthday of my son. i don't really have enough time to make these everyday (besides i only get my budget for making alot of food during the holidays)

HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY 2009!

we got a lot of food, so this will also be our new year's eve foodies. hehehe!
ok, now i have to rest, before all the fireworks take off later around the neighborhood...