dinuguan success, duguan sa bingo

It's fun fun fun, bingo time. I think this is going to be a regular saturday fun time for us..... for now. Well, everybody is into it because it's really fun. Not much much money to spare on it anyway. Last Saturday we were at Ate Mavic's condo at Meru again. Her place is really nice and spacious. I love the kitchen, actually every detail of the house. Everybody cooked Filipino dish, we were like in Kamayan restaurant.

Mine is dinuguan, i cooked not much of it as i was scared it will not be successful. But, they have loved it, i guess as they have said so. They are asking for a repeat performance.. LOL. I will post the recipe here I got it from the internet, but as usual, i changed something from it. Actually, my husband was requesting the night before to make it something like the tuguegarao's dinuguan. It's dry, and i don't know how to do it that way. Besides, some prefers and so do i to have a little bit of sauce in it. What I did half is dry and the other half with sauce. The one with the sauce was the portion i brought to our saturday gathering.

My day was as dark as my dinuguan, as i have not won a single round to our bingo session. Yeah, not a single one. Better luck next time......... Still had fun anyway!

bingo galore!

We were at RV's humble condo at Meru Valley last Sunday. It all started with kantyawan to see his unit and we have never been to Meru. We set it at lunch potluck na lang. I thought it would only be beth and family, ana and emong and us since we were the ones who made pasimuno. Meru is really a very very nice place to "look at". Tingin lang kasi to the max ang lalaki ng mga bahay, mansyon! Kyle has even said his heart is beating too fast as he cannot believe what he is seeing.

Anyway, most of the IR guys were there. Ate Erly and family - JR, Russel's, Emong's, Jeddah's, Ate Mavic and Ate Alice, well....... everything turned out "fine" with her. Sarap ng mechado ni Ate Erly, sauce pa lang ulam na, kasi nawala talaga ung main putahe... he he. Jeddah brought pininyahan manok, same as mine. Ate Alice sopas, which is supposedly for meryenda hindi na nakapaghintay. The famous pandesal of Ana, of course hindi mawawala. I didn't know that they usually gather every week for bingo. So after lunch they set the table and played the game. I joined in, of course... for fun. Jong, surprisingly joined in as well. I enjoyed myself, i felt relaxed and actually, we will have another session tomorrow at Ate Mavic's house.

Hopefully win ulet kami....

sarap buhay!

I picked up Ethan from school today, then my husband from work para mag lunch sa house then take the car this afternoon. My bunso usually don't eat lunch, he will just have his "dede" then eat everything later. After eating lunch I have the chocolate cookies as dessert, I asked Ethan to join me eating the cookies in our terrace. While eating and watching the birds around us and enjoying the sound of the water at the pool, hmmmmmm serenity... then my bunso said, "sarap buhay". I said what????? Then I was really laughing so loud. Then I became more aware of what surrounds us at that moment, overlooking the mountain, the trees, green grass, the pool, fountain, blue skies, birds, fresh air, then I looked at him really enjoying his cookies, I think that is what he meant by it. Whatever it is, with all these things, he is right. Ang sarap ng buhay!

Kuya's birthday

June 18, it was Kyle's birthday. He was asking me to invite some of his friends, but i told him not this time. It falls on weekdays and in addition to my 4 kids would be too much to handle. Saturday just cannot as well since it is usually a very busy day for us. We just had dinner at the Casuarina Hotel though. The kids just love having dinner outside, no matter where the place is, but a fancy restaurant/hotel will be a plus. They love the variety of choices for the dessert, can't wait to finish their meal to have a taste of everything on the dessert table. After the dinner Kuya insisted of buying a cake, he said it couldn't be called a birthday without blowing candles from his cake. So we did, we bought a small one from Strawberry bakeshop, the cake here is not so sweet, some comes with 2 flavours, hindi nakakasawa.

9 years old na si Kuya, matagal yata talagang mag mature ang boys. Haaaay, seems like yesterday when we celebrated his 1st birthday.

Cheers!

Tinamad ulet

It's really been a while since i sat down with my blogger. Got really so tied up with everything at home. Well, a lot has happened, Nadal got the title in French Open and now the Wimbledon has already started. I am really hooked with tennis now, just watching though. I don't think i am capable of playing it.

We watched the kids production last Sunday, 23 June. In the morning show, we just waited for Ethan's number then we went home. He was really not feeling well the day before that. Inspite of that, he had done his part and danced so well along with his classmates, parang walang sakit, katuwa! The kids begged of to finish the night show, so we stayed. I should say, the show was better than last year's one. The kids were so great, the costumes, as usual were all amazing.

piniñahan ni tita Joy

Kuya went to Jeru's house this afternoon to play with him. I guess he is already getting bored and already getting impatient trying to relate with my youngest son, Ethan. I let him go upstairs as he will not stop asking until i say yes. Around 6pm he came back with a plastic container inside is the pinañahang manok ni tita joy. As one of my kids' fave dish, they cannot wait any longer for the rice to be cooked. They settled for the leftover from our lunch. Hmmm yummy! Very rich ang taste ng sauce niya. All you can hear from our dinner table is hhhm yummy, hmmm yummy. Everybody was happy, thank goodness the rice was just enough. I will try to get her own recipe for this as this is entirely different from the way i cooked my piniñahan. The best piniñahan i ever tasted, guaranteed!

quote for d day

When on life's journey it becomes our lot to travel with criticism of skeptics, the hate of some, the rejection of others, the impatience of many, or a friend's betrayal, we must be able to pray in such a manner that an abiding faith and a strong testimony that the Lord will be with us to the end, will compel us to say, "Nevertheless, Father, Thy will be done, and with Thy help, in patience I will follow firmly on the path that takes me back to Thee."

Thanks tin....

tennis puyatan

I was never a fan of Sharapova, but the way she plays and her attitude on the court you can't help but admire her. She lost on the 4th round to her co-russian Safina. Wow! it's already so late at night, the game has even stopped for a while because of the rain at Roland Garros, France mega wait pa rin kami sa pag resume ng game. Sharapova won the 1st set at 7-6. On the 2nd set I thought Safina will lose the battle at score went to 5-2 in favor of Sharapova, of course. But Safina keeps on going. Safina is so strong, physically and mentally. She is very focused. She never gives up. Finally she got the 2nd set at the score of 7-6. 3rd set, decision, whew! coffee break muna kami ni daddy. As we got back on our couch with our coffee we cannot take our eyes off the tv as you cannot afford to miss a single shot both players are throwing to each other. Sharapova's scream as usual, is all over the court. The score reaches to 5-2 in favor of Safina, Sharapova's serve. I knew then that it will be Safina's game as Sharapova started mumbling before it reaches that point. She did it! Safina the number 13 seed defeated the no. 1 seed on the 4th round. Worth ang puyat, as this is the kind of game i will surely watch over and over again. Thanks to astromax i can now record the programs i want. Will keep you posted........

quote for today

“A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”

kuya may bago ng friend

Kuya cried when we transferred here in SkyHomes, though he loves the place so much. He said he will miss his friends from Sunway. I prayed so hard that he will be able to find someone here that he can spend his time with. At last, salamat po. Our new neighbor Joy from 2nd flr. wife of Richie from Finissar, they have a son named Jeru. An only child, turning 11 this year. Kyle is taller than him so ok na rin lang yung age difference nila. They sometimes go for a swim together, and just this morning Jeru asked him to join him for a picnic at the park. They were supposed to go there with their bikes, but sorry Kuya sira ang bike hindi pa naayos ni Daddy. They just decided to walk. They spent more than an hour at the park. When he got home he asked me if he can play with him again at their house. Hmmmm, i think they had some fun at the park. I love seeing him with his friends, specially pinoy. There are things now that he doesn't want to talk about with me and his Daddy. A friend will be a great help.

thanks tita nanz

Most of the time when things go haywire yung medyo malalim na ang concern i always turned to my friend Nanz, as i fondly call her. She and her family went back to the Philippines last year. We never stop the communication though, thanks to friendster. She is very open minded, level-headed, super makuwento at masayahin. There are things about her that has been misunderstood and i must admit naging isa ako doon. Thank God i got the opportunity to know the real her. Just few days ago, again, i seek for her advise. As i thought of the thing i have been going through is too much to handle, her words had helped me a lot to take the matter lightly, calmly and with the deepest understanding that still has inside of me.

I just hope everything will be alright. Though i know that things will never be the same again, i am just hoping for the best specially to the person who caused this. I hope she will be able to realize the importance of the people who trusted her. I hope she will be able to embrace the families who welcome her with open arms to their homes. I hope and pray that when she has come to realize all these things it is not yet too late for her.

friday fun

Nona, our friend and mananahi, and her children, of course her father in-law "uncle" spent their afternoon here with my kids. They went for a swim and I think they bonded so well as they will be coming back next week. With them is Jeru son of my 2nd floor neighbor Joy and Richie from Finissar. I cooked spaghetti for the kids, of course for the mommies as well. They must have liked it as they can't stop asking for more..... or were they just tired and so hungry??? Nona requested for pork adobo, she ate it with rice, she said she liked it... hopefully.. (LOL) i forgot to prepare her tapao, in tagalog "balot". Anyway i will prepare chicken adobo next week. We asked Joy to join our "tsikahan" while the kids were enjoying the pool. It's fun talking with these two ladies. Joy living up to her name as she is full of "joy" with all her shared stories. She cracks a lot of joke. Nona on the other hand is the silent type, although she has a lot of stories to tell as well. Sometimes it just felt so good having some people to talk to. Sharing jokes, thoughts, etc. Mauulit muli....

quote for d day

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

Pork Ribs in Black pepper sauce

The first time I tasted this recipe in one of the Chinese restaurants here, it tasted like our Filipino food "lechong kawali". The sauce is closely the same, yet they use pork ribs. I went to the supermarket and look for a black pepper sauce. I found this "Life" brand and made an experiment on it. First time i cooked it i used pork liempo, my family loved it and it has been one of their most requested meal since then. I used pork ribs as well, but i used different cooking procedure. here it is"






1 kg pork ribs/pork liempo
1Tbs Ginger (chopped)
1 pc Onion (big) (chopped)
1Tbs Cooking Oil
2Tbs Vinegar
1/2c Black Pepper Sauce
1Tbs Sugar
2C Water
1c Mixed vegetable (optional)





Heat cooking oil in a pan, put ginger then onion. Put the pork ribs, saute until golden brown. Put black pepper sauce, mix for 2 minutes. Put the water, vinegar and sugar. Simmer until the meat is tender and the sauce thickens.



Note: for Pork liempo -

Roast/deep fry the pork liempo then chop. Mix water (reduce to 1c), 1/4C black pepper sauce, 1tsp sugar, 1Tbs vinegar. Saute ginger and onion. Put liempo, mix for about 1 minute, put the mixed sauce then fry for 2 minutes until sauce thickens.



Enjoy.....



You can choose your own brand of black pepper sauce in your nearest supermarket.

Pinoy - new lead singer of Journey

Wow! I just read from http://pep.ph/ other than my youtube favorite Charice Pempengco there is one more Filipino making his way to Hollywood. His name is Arnel Pineda the new lead singer of one of my fave bands Journey. He really sounds like Steve Perry. I watched his videos on http://youtube.com/e.com/ , talagang super nakaka proud. Here is one of his youtube video http://youtube.com/watch?v=xUWJ8bf09BU

Journey welcomes Arnel Pineda with "Open Arms" to their family as the bands new lead singer.

quote for the day

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

new-found chef

We usually eat outside every weekend. Our favorite is the Wooly at Canning Garden. It's not a typical restaurant with their own specialty, but a variety of everything. Here in Malaysia they call it hawker... in Pinas we call it turo2, but all food here are freshly cooked. Since the kids got their PS2 they kinda feeling "tamad" to go out . Much as I want to just rest over the weekend from cooking, i have no choice. Last weekend I was not feeling well, my husband volunteered to cook for dinner. It's fried "liyempo" and stir fry vegie (i still don't know what its called, but i will ask my suki on my next visit to bercham). Well, the kids and I liked it. I guessed he got inspired on cooking with all the praises we gave him so he cooked again last night, his own version of the famous filipino food sinigang. I requested the sinigang since i am having trouble with my stomach and i am craving for something sour. I only want the soup, but when i tasted his sinigang, in fairness it was really good! Can't help but to eat it with rice. Kiana got 2 serving of rice, so was Kuya, Kei requested for an additional serving for her usual 2. Ethan almost finished the soup. My husband got nearly nothing left for him. I am so proud of our new-found chef @ home. He said next time he wants to try some grilling, of course i will post it here. The kids and I are looking forward to have a taste of his next menu......

oxtail soup in black beans

This is another family's favorite. My mother used to cook this recipe using pork pata. I sometimes use the same meat, but usually i use beef ribs or oxtail. i don't know what it's called so i just named it oxtail soup in black beans. She cooks this without the green vegetables, so i thought of adding the green vegie ang i guess my husband loved it.

1kg oxtail /pork pata

1 cup black beans (soaked overnight)

5 pcs Medium-sized tomato

1 pc/L Onion

1L Water

2pcs beef Knorr cube (chicken cube will do)

2Tbsp Fish sauce

2 cloves Garlic , chopped

1 bundle spinach (any type of spinach will do)

Chopped onion and tamatoes. Put Oxtail in the pressure cooker together with the water, tomato, onion, beef cube, black beans and fish sauce. Cover and let it boil in 30 minutes or until the meat is tender. In a separate pan, saute garlic, put the spinach, saute not more than 1 minute.

Serve on top of the oxtail soup.

Ginisang Munggo/Green Beans

Munggo or Green Beans, I remember my neighbor back home, this is what she cooks every Friday i guess until now. I don't really eat munggo, I just usually have its sauce or soup. People cooks it differently, some got a bit of sauce, some cooks it just like a soup. Since this is one of my husband's favorite food, I tried to make my own version of it. Timesaver, simple yet a very tasty one. Here's the recipe...

1/4 Green Beans (munggo)
1/2 kg pork ribs/ pata / etc. (any meat bones you like)
3 cups water (depends on the qty of green beans
1-2 pcs Knorr Chicken cube
1 bundle Alukbati white (Australian spinach) or any green leafy vegetables you want
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 Tbs cooking oil

Put the washed green beans and pork ribs + the small onion (chopped) with the 3C of water and Knorr chicken cube in the pressure cooker, bring into boil about 15 minutes or just about its sauce thickens a bit. Cool it down. In a separate pan, saute garlic and put the Australian spinach. Stir it not more than 2 minutes. Put the vegetables on top of your cooked green beans when serving.

Note: if no pressure cooker, bring it to boil until the meat is tender. Maybe 15 minutes longer.
Pressure cooker is a big help, it saves a lot of time. It's worth the buy.

I will try to post its pix, next time i cook it.

french open

yebah! French open has started. I started watching tennis during the days of Agassi, I was not particularly into tennis but into Agassi (LOL). Everybody was so crazy about him, his long hair, the neon color wrist bands, head bands, his looks, everything. I was a big fan. Then I got over it and i just started watching tennis again here in Malaysia, when my husband started playing it and talking about it all the tiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmeeeeeee. In fairness to my husband, he is very good at it. I guess if he had given a chance and he started while he was young he can excel on it. Everytime there is a tournament, my H/P is so busy sending SMS of each others views with my tennis-fan pal Ana. Who will win this time? I'll keep you posted.

answered prayer for the Elona

I got a good news weeks ago, at last my friend beth's prayer and perseverance of getting into shape to have their second baby has finally come true. Everyone in the family is so excited. I was really thrilled hearing the news, as i myself have been praying for this baby as well. Beth and I met through our common friend more than 3 years ago. We even became neighbors for a year in Bandar Baru Tambun. She has one lovely daughter Raya who has been longing for a sister/brother and i guess this baby will be very lucky as Ate Raya is ever protective whilst still in her mom's womb. She's always been asking me to lend my youngest son, Ethan to them. Ethan had his 1st sleepover with the Elona. They really treated him as one of the family. They are the ones who are always there whenever I have to take Ethan to the doctor, if Jong is not around. Beth sincerely worries about him whenever he is not feeling well, for my other kids as well. They have always been around when the going gets tough. I am very thankful having friends like them.

busy morning

Just finished my ironing. It took me 4 hours only the kids clothes alone. My husband's clothes and mine i bring it to "dobi", ironing/washing services here. I used to have someone, a filipina married to a chinese guy here, also my friend, who comes here once a week to do the ironing. I cannot keep up with the schedule though because i need to take her back home in the afternoon. The kids just got back from school at that time and they just want to rest and don't want to go out anymore, i just cannot leave them on their own at home. So here i am, need to sacrifice for the kids. My ever reliable Philips flat iron have been serving me for 4 years now. Though Ate Alice felt differently about it, I still keep it. It is lightweight and it automatically turns off when it's too hot already and turns on when it cools down a bit. Just resting for a while, and will do the cooking afterwards. I will cook tinola for lunch, though this is not one of their favorite dish, nothing much to cook, nothing much in the fridge. It's Friday, one week supply is almost finished. Gotta get going..........

Resort living

We just transferred to our new home last January. It is like a resort if there would only be a room service here. The name is Sky Homes. I fell in love with the place the first time i saw it, and so were the kids. I resent the thought of living in a condominium before with only 1 particular reason, as to where will i hang my clothes for drying. Then i saw this place, that reason has already set aside as i have my dryer machine already which i have only used not more than 5x since we bought it. The place is so calm, well except for the noise around here because of the other units' renovations. Our unit is on the 1/F overlooking the luscious one of the mountains here in ipoh. The pool we can see from our bedroom and living room, and the sound of the fountain awakes us in the morning together with the humming birds around the place. We rarely use our AC now as it is cold at night. Coffee is at its best while sitting in our veranda listening to the sound of the water and the piped-in music downstairs. Usually at night, my husband will visit the gym for an hour or so trying to build some muscles. I, if time permits uses the sauna at night. The kids love water, its water water water. This is the main reason why we ended up here, they are so crazy in love with swimming.

Mothers Day @ Penang

We rarely went out for a weekend for outstation. This time we did by celebrating Mother's day in Penang. We stayed in Lone Pine Hotel. It is a low-rise hotel, number of rooms you can check at lonepinehotel.com. The ambiance is very relaxing. It is not too crowded as what a big and popular hotel nearby. The hotel visitors are mostly europeans and other asian foreigners like us. Not too much to do for the kids, only the pool and the beach. There are some sports activities along the beach though which my kids really enjoyed. My son, who is turning 9 this coming June tried the parasailing not with his Dad though, he was not even scared. There are a lot of things he wants to do, others he is not allowed yet because of his age. He is being adventurous now. He wants to try everything. They enjoyed the pool and for the first time, they had a time of their lives in the beach. My husband and I had our time of our lives here as well. One reason we do not often go out of town is because we cannot handle the kids, it is just useless as at the end of the day we are just so stressed out taking care of our 4 active kids. But here at lone pine, we were able to relax. We were just at side of the pool watching them, while reading or having snacks, talking. Best part of it, we were able to visit their bar at night as our room is just overlooking the hotel bar. After we had our drink, we leisurely walk at the hotel garden talking, laughing until very late at night. The kids are safely sleeping to our huge room, which by the way got it a very low rate @ cuti.com.my. At night you can visit the pasar malam just outside the hotel. it is a long stretch of different item at a very low price. If you don't want to eat at the hotel there are variety of choices of restaurant and even hawkers outside as well. We will definitely be coming back here, not too far, from ipoh to penang and very relaxing. I think that is what an idea of a great out-of-town weekend, to relax....

nadal won again on clay

Just finished watching the Tennis Game held at Hamburg tonight. It was a match worth having a late sleep on a Sunday night. I was never a Nadal fan nor a Federer, the Lord of Tennis as they say. I heard of Nadal being so great at clay, and Federer the number one tennis player hasn't beat Nadal on clay yet gave me more the excitement to watch the match. First set won by Nadal. I started losing hope as the score reached to 5-1 in favor of Federer. Hey, how can you recover on that score when on the other side of the court is the number 1 in the world? First time i saw Federer, well since i got an interest watching tennis, that i saw his face with great frustration. Nadal was unstoppable, the score ended at 7-5 on 1st set. 2nd set, the score reached 5-2 in favor of Federer, but Nadal has tied the score at 5-5 until Federer won the 2nd set at 7-5. Decision set, Nadal had taken the lead, i know right there and then that he will get the title, and he did! Will they meet again on the finals of French Open? Let's wait and see.