Sing it! Eat it!

My new friend Joy invited me and some other Pinoys for dinner at her apartment Monday night. Joy and I are from the same town in the Philippines but I never got to meet her back then especially that she lived in Southern Leyte which is my province for only 4 years then moved to Luzon. She lived with her uncle and his family in Southern Leyte while attending high school there. Like my dad, Joy's uncle is a cop too (I'm not sure if he retired) and my family knows him pretty well.

For Filipinos, get together means videoke and lots of food... in other word, a feast! :)

chicken adobo cooking



Joy started the videoke. This picture tells me that I need to get bangs. :P

It only takes one song to pump up our energy.


Dream Girls :D



Turn of our "birit" queen, Terie, to sing :D

shakin' some boo-tay :P






If a picture paints a thousand words, these photos perfectly define JOY (both her and the word itself)

group picture minus the one taking it.

Holiday Cooking Failure Part 2

Originally posted on my Friendster blog, January 2, 2009 at 11:56 am

As you can read in my previous post, I failed to understand a direction in a recipe which resulted to additional 3 hours of baking the chicken in the oven. I guess that wasn't enough lesson for me to be careful next time because "ooops! I did it again" as Britney Spears says. But this time, it was a different case...and worse. You may call me dumb, stupid, careless, or whatever you please but I'll still blog about it anyway.

It's a Filipino tradition to eat dinner at 12 am of December 31, the very first hour of New Year. I didn't do it last year which was my first New Year in the US but decided to start doing it again beginning this year with my husband and will make it a family tradition when we have a kid/kids already. So at about 9 pm on December 31, I began cooking. Again, I made more than enough for 2 persons to eat because I wanted leftovers for the next couple of days. I made pineapple ham, teriyaki chicken, brownies, and pansit(an Asian noodle that is present in every Filipino household during special occasions because according to Filipino and Chinese superstition, it represents long life. Yea, I'm kinda superstitious.) I wanted to make a sweet potato casserole too but didn't have enough time, it was almost 12 am when I was done cooking the last recipe. Everything came out great except for the ham. I cooked it according to the recipe direction but didn't like the result. The meat wasn't very tender. I like my ham to almost fall apart when I slice it. That night neither I nor my hubby ate the ham though he tried a slice. I hate throwing food so I just let the ham sit in the fridge until I figured out later what to do with it.

Yesterday all other food I cooked for the New Year was almost gone. At night after dinner, I decided to slowcook the ham. I remembered that on Thanksgiving, I cooked my ham in the slowcooker at low temperature for 10 hours and the result was perfect that my husband devoured it. It was a fully-cooked ham and this one I got for New Year is smoked. I figured that maybe a smoked ham needs longer cooking time than a fully-cooked ham. So I set it to 15 hours at low. Calculating the time, it would be done in the morning the next day (which is today.) So, I woke up at 9 this morning and immediately checked the slowcooker on the counter. It still had 1 minute and 3o+ seconds left. But when I checked the ham, this is what greeted me:

That's why it's important to cook more than one recipe

Before I decided to cook it "better".

Are You One of Us?

Note: Originally posted on Multiply Site

One day I stumbled on someone's myspace profile and found an interesting post. I couldn't stop grinning while I read one by one the contents of the post. I even read some of 'em loud to my hubby whose comment was either "yea, true" or "hahaha". I made some editing like numbering and a few vocabulary translations.

.

You know you're Filipino when...

1. Your middle name is your mother's maiden name.
2. Your parents call each other "Mommy" and "Daddy."
3. You have uncles and aunts named "Boy," "Girlie," or "Baby."
4. You have relatives whose nicknames consist of repeated syllables like "Jun-Jun," "Ling-Ling," and "Mon-Mon." Mine by the way is "Dan-dan".
5. You call the parents of your friends and your own parents' friends "Tito" and "Tita".
6. You have four or five names.
7. You greet your elders by touching their hands to your forehead.
8. You always kiss your relatives on the cheek whenever you enter or leave the room.
9. You follow your parents' house rules even if you are over 18.
10. You live with your parents until and at times even after you're married.
11. You decorate your dining room wall with a picture of the "Last Supper".
12. You keep your furniture wrapped in plastic or covered with blankets.
13. You have a Sto. Nino shrine in your living room.
14. You have a piano that no one plays.
15. You keep a "tabo" (water scoop) in your bathroom.
16. You use Vicks Vapor rub as an insect repellant.
17. You eat with your hands.
18. You eat more than three times a day.
19. You think a meal is not a meal without rice.
20. You think sandwiches are snacks, not meals.
21. Your dining table has a merry-go-round (lazy Susan) in the middle.
22. You bring baon to work everyday.
23. Your pantry is never without Spam, Vienna sausage, corned beef, and sardines.
24. You love to eat daing or tuyo.
25. You prop up one knee while eating.
26. You eat your meal with patis (fish sauce),toyo (soy sauce), suka (vinegar), banana catsup, or bagoong (fish paste).
27. Your tablecloths are stained with toyo circles.
28. You love sticky desserts and salty snacks.
29. You eat fried Spam and hot dogs with rice.
30. You eat mangoes with rice--with great GUSTO!
31. You love "dirty" ice cream.
32. You love to eat, yet often manage to stay slim.
33. You put hot dogs in your spaghetti.
34. Everything you eat is sauted in garlic, onion, and tomatoes.
35. You order a "soft drink" instead of soda.
36. You hang a rosary on your car's rear view mirror.
37. You get together with family at a cemetery on All Saint's Day to eat, drink, and tell stories by your loved ones' graves.
38. You play cards or mahjong and drink beer at funeral wakes.
39. You think Christmas season begins in October and ends in January.
40. Your second piece of luggage is a balikbayan/pasalubong box.
41. You've mastered the art of packing a suitcase to double capacity.
42. You collect items from airlines, hotels, and restaurants as "souvenirs."
43. You feel obligated to give pasalubong (bring-home) to all your friends and relatives each time you return from a trip.
44. You use paper foot outlines when buying shoes for friends and relatives.
45. You're a fashion victim.
46. You can convey 30 messages with your facial expression.
47. You hold your palms together in front of you and say "excuse, excuse" when you pass in between people or in front of the TV.
48. You ask for the bill at a restaurant by making a rectangle in the air.
49. You cover your mouth when you laugh.
50. You respond to a "Hoy!" or a "Pssst!" in a crowd.
51. You'll answer "Malapit lang!" (just near from here)--no matter the distance--when asked how far away a place is located.
52. Goldilocks is more than a fairy tale character to you.
53. You refer to power interruptions as "brownouts".
54. You love to use the following acronyms: CR for comfort room, DI for dance instructor, DOM for dirty old man, TNT for tago nang tago, KJ for kill joy, KSP for kulang sa pansin, OA for over-acting, TL for true love, BF for boyfriend and GF for girlfriend.
55. You say "rubber shoes" instead of sneakers, "ball pen" instead of pen, "stockings" instead of pantyhose, "pampers" instead of diapers, "ref" or "prijider"(from the company Frigidaire) instead of refrigerator, "Colgate" instead of toothpaste, "canteen" instead of cafeteria, and "open" or "close" instead of turn on or turn off (as in the lights).
56. You use an umbrella for shade on hot summer days.
57. You like everything imported or "state-side."
58. You love ballroom dancing, bowling, pusoy, mah jong, billiards, and karaoke.
59. You have a relative who is a nurse.
60. When you're in a restaurant, you wipe your plate and utensils before using them.
61. You can squeeze 15 passengers into your five seater car without a second thought.
62. You wave a pom-pom on a stick around the food to keep the flies away.
63. You always ring a doorbell twice, assuming that the first ring was not heard.
64. You let the phone ring twice before answering, lest you appear overly eager.
65. You use a rock to scrub yourself in the bath or shower.
66. You're proud to be Filipino - and you pass these jokes on to all your Filipino friends!♥