Blast from the past

I always open my facebook account, its one of the sites that I go to whenever I go online. I never knew that one of my biggest surprises of 2010 would be from a facebook message.

It is nice to be part of new beginnings, and I am honored to be invited to Val and Jorell's wedding. I have known them since college and I remember Val's debut like it was just yesterday, Jorell's two-toned top and the joy of spending a night out with friends. I remember that during that time their relationship was kept a secret and when it Jorell's turn to say a message to Val, the room suddenly became quiet. haha

Their relationship did not survive college, they broke up. But, it was no surprise that they got back together after a while, they are perfect for each other and their relationsship is a living proof that true love exists. They are couple to look up to and it makes me super happy that they would be Mr. and Mrs. Tan next year and I would be there to witness the moment when they become one.

Of course, an added bonus would be that Kat and I would be joining the ceremony as bridesmaids! Kath would be flying back to Manila for the wedding and it would be a reunion for us B11 girls :)

I am soooo looking forward to May 1, 2011! woohoo!

Suelas

Everybody knows I'm a sucker for shoes, especially for flats! Months ago I heard good reviews about SUELAS, but I never got around to buying a pair - that is until 2 weeks ago and now I am addicted! I have two pairs now and I ordered two more, its super comfy and they have a variety of styles and colors to fit everybody's taste. OMG this becoming an addiction! To shoelovers like me, this is definitely worth the money :)

Recipe: Chicken Pesto in creamy white sauce

Everybody knows I'm a sucker for pesto so for Chicco's birthday aside from the Tuna Spaghetti, I made Pesto Pasta in Creamy white sauce. Here's the recipe, maybe you can try it out, its very easy to make since we can already buy proceesed pesto in supermarkets.

Ingredients:

3pcs chicken thigh

Processed Pesto in a bottle

fresh milk

Nestle cream

pepper

salt

Magnolia Gold Butter

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

250g of bow tie pasta

Boil the chicken in water and salt mixture. Once done, separate the chicken from the broth. Set aside broth to cool, and make chicken strips from the meat.

Heat 2 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive oil in a pan, add a significant amount of butter, just enough to give the buttery yummy taste :) Add milk then 250ml of Nestle cream, whisk mixture until it boils. Add chicken strips and a cup of the chicken broth then boil in low fire. Add 2 tbsps of the pesto mixture and whisk again, after it boils add another 250ml of the Nestle cream. Add another 2 tbsps of pesto a dash of salt and pepper to taste. Boil in low fire until mixture thickens.

Cook pasta as per package instructions. I used bow tie pasta for presentation purposes. They are sooo cute :)

Flying Gecko - Baguio City

When you are learning to cook, its important to familiarize yourself with various dishes, that is why on our Baguio trip we tried different places to eat. I already blogged about Forest House, here is the second installment. I introduce to you - the Flying Gecko.

Flying Gecko can be found along Session Road, you really would'nt notice the place if you're not walking since the place was really not that big. Because I did my research before going to Baguio, I know excatly where to find the place. We went to Fyling Gecko for our last lunchout in Baguio City.

Like the other places in Baguio, Flying Gecko was not airconditioned, hey who needs airconditioning in Baguio, right? We got there around 10:30am, so we decided to have our breakfast/lunch there.  We went through the menu and I decided to try their New Zealand Fish Fillet and Chicco sampled their Beef Bourguinion.

The Beef Bourguinion was a surprise! When you bite the beef it seems like there is an explosion of flavors in your mouth, it was a dish like no other. This dish is originally a french cuisine, but the version from Flying Gecko incorporated a Filipino feel to the dish. It was worth every cent we paid for it. A big plus was the serving size, it is actually good for sharing.

The fish used for the fish fillet is mahi. It was topped with almonds and the fish has a lemon taste to it. Like the Beef dish, the fish fillet serving was huge! I would definitely recommend this.

I hope you get to visit Flying Gecko :)

RECIPE: Tuna Spaghetti

There was nothing left on the fridge today and I don't have the energy or the will to brave the heat outside and go to the grocery. It was past lunchtime and we have'nt eaten anything the whole day. I checked the ref and found out that I have leftover spaghetti noodles from my brother's birthday, leftover tomato sauce from the pork in tomato sauce thingy and also Century Tuna in oil. What to do? Improvise! Right then and there I decided to make my own version of Tuna Spaghetti! Mind you, it's the first time I made this dish and it came out really well :)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

onions

garlic

pepper

sugar

Filipino style tomato sauce

1 can Century Tuna flakes in oil

Italian Seasoning

cheese

Magnolia Gold Butter (I often use this is cooking - gives a salty taste to the dish, and I sooo love the smell) 

Spaghetti noodles

For the sauce:

Step 1:

Saute minced garlic and onions in Magnolia Gold butter until the onions are transparent. Add drained Tuna and a dash of peppe, let it sit for a while for flavors to blend together.

Step 2:

Add tomato sauce and let it simmer. Add a dash of sugar and Italian seasoning and again let the flavors blend before adding the next ingredients,

Step 3,

Add grated cheese and again a dash of pepper. Stir and adjust seasonig to your taste.

***Cook noodles as per package instructions

There you go, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

RECIPE: Pork in Lemon-Sprite Marinade

I wanted cook something with Lemon juice in it, so I made a recipe from scratch. My brother, sister and Chicco sampled my dish and they loved it.. (well, i think they did. hahaha) Sorry if I don't have the exact measurements. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 kilo pork

4 pcs lemon

garlic

onion (sibuyas tagalog)

pepper

sweet onion

half a bottle of sprite

soy sauce
sprin onion

Step 1:

In a bowl, mix about 1 tbsp of soy sauce, juice from three lemons, minced onions and garlic, half a bottle of sprite and pepper. Lastly add the pork refrigerate and marinade overnight.

Step 2:

In a frying pan, sear the meat on both sides to seal in the flavor. Set aside the oil used for frying. After all the meat is done, put the meat together with the marinade in a pot. Add freshly minced onions, a dash pepper plus the juice from 1 lemon and a little water then let it boil unitl the meat is tender and the marinade is reduced.

Step 3:

On a frying pan, heat the oil used for searing the meat and caramelize sweet onions. (cut in circular shape)

Step 4:

Once the marinade is reduced, sprinkle with spring onions and place caramelized sweet onions on top. Serve with love :)

Forest House - Baguio City

I was browsing through my Baguio pictures and realized that what makes Chicco and me click is the fact that we have a lot of things in common and we also have our differences which does not make us lose our individuality :)

One thing we have in common is our love to cook and eat. So when we went to Baguio last week, we tried some foodie places that were given good reviews.

First stop? Forest House, which was located about 15minutes (by cab) from where we were staying. After dropping our stuff at the hotel, we went straight to Forest House.

The place reminded me of a storybook house, it has a cottage vibe which makes it cozy and homey. The place was supposed to open at around 10:30am but we came a bit too early.. still, the staff was courteous enough to invite us in and accomodate us. We were given the option to dine at the overlooking part or inside where it is less chilly, we opted for the inside table because I wanted to take pictures of the interior.

When we were given the menu, I was actually impressed with the variety of dishes they serve. From the menu alone, I was convinced that that this was not an ordinary dining experience.

We chose Seafood Gambas for our appetizer and I have to say that its the best Seafood Gambas that I have tasted, it was a bit spicy which made me eat it in small servings. It was the perfect appetizer.

For the main course, I opted to eat St. Peter's fish in Honey mayo, don't be fooled byt the fancy name, St. Peter's fish is actually our local tilapia. I was curious on what magic they would do on the tilapia, When the dish arrived, it was plated perfectly, and the honey mayo sauce was heaven to the mouth, it removed the fishy taste of Tilapia while maintaning the natural taste of the fish. You can also tell that the fish was really fresh because it was tender and it literally melts in the mouth.

 

Chicco chose the Pork in Lemon grass Marinade. Just like the first dish, it was plated very well. Just remembering the smell of the meat and the spices it was marinated in makes my mouth water up to now. The meat was so tender and was juicy all throughout! It was seasoned perfectly!

Finally after a very satisfying main course, we chose Peach-Cherry cheesecake for dessert. Aside from the main restaurant -Forest house also has a pastry shop which makes cakes for dessert in the main restaurant. It was not the best cheesecake, but the combination of cherries and peaches made my taste buds happy :)

 Did I mention that all the dishes came with buttered veggies straight from their very own garden? Sulit tlaga!

Forest House gave us the fine dining experience in Baguio City, the food was superb and the staff was really accomodating and courteous and they are in formal uniform which added to the high class vibe. I would trully recommend eating there. I promise you won't regret it.

Oh - you should try their Benguet Blend Coffee. They have the best coffee in Baguio, believe me - it came straight from Chicco the coffee critic himself! I would blog about the other Baguio foodie paces that we tried, so stay tuned to my next entries. :)

Memory for Keeps: Off to Binondo via Pasig River Ferry cruise

Disclaimer: We planned this trip prior to watching John Lloyd and Bea's Miss you like crazy :)

I wanted to do something out of the box, something that not a normal couple would do.. Hmm, the original plan was to to go to La Mesa Ecopark, pero ang ordinary pa din.. normal na pinupuntahan na un..

Two days later, while I was riding the MRT, I spotted a boat like thingy stopping at a small pier-like structure along the Pasig River, my curiosity got the best of me and as soon as I arrived in the office I hooked up with Mr. Google and searched for the boat trips along Pasig River. A few clicks later, I found what I was looking for, I called the number on the site and asked for specifics about the trip and the rest is history. hehe

The big question was what station should we go off, different blogs helped me realize that the best station to go down for "tourists" (yes, that's us hehe) would be Intramuros or Escolta.. I opted for Escolta because I wanted to try authentic Chinese food.. Google here and there and I found out that the original Savory Restaurant was located right there at Binondo! Yey, so the trip was planned,

Last Monday - March 15, 2010, after a lunchout with my team, I went off to Chicco's office then off we went to the Guadalupe Station of the Pasig River Ferry. We got there a around 3:40pm and realized that we missed the 3:36pm trip to Manila! The next trip was for another hour so we waited in the station. Good thing the station was airconditioned :)

Finally, the boat arrived ..

According to the people there, the entire boat trip is supposed to take around 45 minutes. Below are the shots I took during the boat ride, it was beautiful in an iteresting way. The boat ride was serene and you can feel when the boat is in the deep part of the water or not. You'll see places you've never seen before plus there's no traffic! For Php45 pesos a person, it was worth it! And contrary to what most peolpe think, the river is not at all stinky..  

Finally, we arrived at Escolta station a little after 5:00pm, I asked Chicco to trust my instincts and just follow me, I was feeling a bit adventurous that day. The frist thing we need to do was find an ATM machine because we are low on cash. After withdrawing cash, we started walking and looking for the Eng BeeTin shop - Finally nahanap din namin! we bought Php500 pesos worh of hopia - yeah panic buying hahaha touristang tourista dating namin! hehehe

After Eng BeeTin we went to Savory Restaurant to sample their uber-famous chicken! It was really an old restaurant but once you enter the place you feel the chinese vibe there. Feeling ko pagpasok ko naging singkit nako hehe

It was a different date, a new entry is added to my memory bank. I would definitely go back, balita ko madami pang nice places to eat sa Binondo e, plus madami pa kaming streets na hindi pa nae-explore :) 

'Til next time Binondo! :)

Unsent letter

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter hoping it would reach somebody who trully cares for the team that I learned to love.

I have been with the SDG Retail team for 2 and half years. When i was starting there i felt welcome, my teammates were good people, they taught me everyhting I needed to learn to be able to breeze through the work. Then they left - all of them at the same time and it was as if the world was on our shoulders. EC, the manager, assured us that the team can survive without them. I heard stories about why they left and all that stuff. I told myself that I won't listen to them, I'm just gonna work, but at the back of my mind, there was a nagging feeling that something is wrong.

After a while I started to notice things, like how people sleep while we work, how EC talks to much and how he shares stories that should not be shared, and how he promises things he can't keep. I kept my mouth shut all those times. Even when he shares personal stories of people, of his friends, of his lady conquests, i just kept quiet and never said a word, He is my boss after all.

It was never comfortable talking to him, he had a reputation of talking a lot and I don't want him discussing my personal stuff with his friends over beer or yosi.

I am an apprentice and I had to stay with the company for 2 years, but even before my 2-year bond ended i was dying to get out of the company, I am not happy with the team I am in. You keep thinking that the problem is the people, because people keep leaving - but you have to open your eyes, people won't start looking for work if they are happy where they are at the moment.

Here is the truth: People are leaving because they see somthing wrong in the management, they don't trust their manager and people will continue to leave if you don't fix things. So I hope this letter reaches the right recipient(s).

How can you trust a manager who hooks up with his direct report? How could you trust him to make fair decisions? How can you respect somebody who can't keep his private life private? who influences the team with his love fights with his gf. They fight and we know it.

I am writing this because I care for the team. The best solution is for you to move him to a different team or move his girlfriend to a different team. This is just for starters. You need to move. You can make a difference.

Sincerely,

==o0o==

As of now, tintin, the gf posted nasty stuff on her facebook page. She broke up with the manager/bf because she does not approve of his decision. Great huh?? After a while they got back together. Things should be done here, things should be set straight, because his decisions, his actions are more personal than professional. Haaaay. As of now people are still leaving the team, sana magising ang upper management at sana may mabago na...

Heal the World.. make it a better place..

Earthquake in Haiti, Earthquake in Chile and a landslide in Uganda.. what's happening to the world???

Here in the Philippines, we had Ondoy, Peping and countless other typhoons which caused damage beyond repair to many Filipino families.. And now there is El Nino..

Let's all pray to Papa Jesus to help us heal mother Earth..