Happy 2013

A late happy New Year to everybody! It's been a week past since the first day of this month but I still have a hang over, lol! Our Christmas tree is still up but hubby said he will put it down and keep it in the box tomorrow. So what did we have for New Year? Well, not that much. I even thought that it was still 30th of December last Monday. So when my brother asked me that afternoon what will I cook for tonight, I said nothing because it's not yet New Year's eve. He said it is 31st of December already and tonight is New Year's eve. Oh my word! Forgetful me! It's good I have the ingredients for goulash and agar-agar fruit salad and pineapple muffins. So I had to prepare right away that afternoon. I did the muffins first then the salad followed by the goulash. My brother cooked pork barbecue, grilled hotdogs and then he did the fried chicken wings. We both finished cooking at around 11 PM. My youngest brother brought halayang ube that he himself made and my SIL bought some suman. We had some fruits that we put on the table.

When the clock hit 12 MN, I woke up my hubby and asked him to join me and my 2 brothers, SIL and Vernice in welcoming the New Year. We all went outside and watch our neighbors lighting firecrackers and some fireworks which we call losis in our dialect. We didn't have any of those this year. I forgot? No. We're just being frugal this time. New Year will still pass even without those. I did have my camera though and captured the moment with my loved ones. Then we all went inside, took pics, hubby said the blessing and ate the foods that we prepared on the table. We all thank God for all the blessings He bestowed on us the previous year and the years to come.

Celebrating Thanksgiving in the Philippines

This is a late post but I've been lazy updating this blog. Thanksgiving is already more than one week past but I just want to share the pics that we took during the said celebration. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in the Philippines but being married to an American, we have to prepare something for the said day. We didn't have a turkey to roast but Thanksgiving is not all about the turkey. You are blessed to have one but to tell you the truth, I'm not very fond of turkey. We had that in the states on Thanksgiving but it doesn't taste that good to me. Hubby volunteered to cook burger patties for burger sandwiches and cooked some French fries. It was so humid while he was cooking in the kitchen with only the electric fan running. Hubby was sweating while he was cooking. Poor thing!

Meanwhile, I prepared my agar-agar fruit salad the night before and put it in the refrigerator. I also baked my confetti cake before hubby hit the kitchen. So when it was his turn, the kitchen was humid. We prepared the foods for supper so every body were already home. My 2 brothers and their families were present and my brother-in-law and his family were there too. The celebration is just for the family. Hubby said the blessing and we thanked the Lord for all the blessings He has given us. Everybody enjoyed the foods and the hamburger sandwich and French fries of my hubby was a hit. 

Hubby's Birthday

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday. For a change, we just prepared native delicacies for snacks. We used to have dinner on his birthday but not this time. It's hard to cook a lot of foods especially there was no electricity from 6 to 6 the whole day yesterday. It was only the pancit that my 2 brothers cooked and lumpia that my SIL prepared. It was so hot in the kitchen so I did not bother to cook at all. I cannot stand the heat.

Early in the morning hubby and I went to buy the famous Calasiao puto and puto kutsinta in the market. I also bought nilatikan (more than half the bilao) because I've been craving for it. Hubby had to stay in the car so I can get a good deal, lol! People here in my homeland will raise the price if they see an American. I had a hard time though carrying the stuffs that I bought back to the car.

I thank God for giving hubby to me. I pray to the good Lord to give him more birthdays to celebrate and good health so we can serve Him longer and better. Here are some photos of my hubby's simple birthday celebration.

 

New Year 2012 Celebration

This maybe a late post but it's better late than never. Lat New Year's eve, I was so busy preparing and cooking for our Media Noche. It was only me and hubby plus my brother who celebrated New Year so I didn't really prepared a lot. Just enough for us and also included some to give away to my neighbor. Hubby helped by making his favorite potato salad. I made first the fruit salad because it's the easiest one to make. I just open the cans of fruit cocktail and mix it with the Nestle cream and a little condensed milk. After mixing I put it in the fridge.

Next thing I did was to cook the chicken barbeque. I marinated  the chicken a few hours before so I just had to put it in the wooden stick and cooked it in the electric grill. When it's done cooking, I cooked the hotdogs in the frying pan and then put it in the barbeque stick and I added colored marshmallows for good presentation. I didn't cook pancit because hubby said he got tired eating it. We didn't buy a cake either because it's only the three of us. So midnight strike, all people were busy making noise in the streets and lighting firecrackers and fireworks. I called my hubby and my brother to come and eat the foods prepared on the table. We thank God for blessing us the past year and also for giving us another year. Happy 2012! Thank you Lord!

My Birthday Celebration

I celebrated my birthday last August 5th with my family, friends, relatives, neighbors and my Sunday School kids. I just had a simple celebration with just 5 menus and 2 roll cakes. I wanted to have more foods but it's hard to cook a lot and I only have my brother to help me. It's good my sister-in-law came home early from work at around 3: PM so she was able to help us. She helped prepare the veggies and she cooked chop suey. I cooked goulash and my brother cooked beef caldereta, chicken adobo, rice and fried chicken legs. My guests arrived at around 5:30 PM but we finished cooking at around 7:00 PM. We started eating at around past 7 and the first menu that was gone was the chop suey. We only had a few fried chicken legs so we did not really serve it openly. I forgot that one pack of uncooked chicken legs were still in the refrigerator. I didn't see it when we were cooking. My brother only cooked one pack of chicken legs. My 2 nephews love the fried chicken legs, they said it's like the chicken joy from Jollibee.

Cooking a lot makes me tired so maybe next time that there will be another occasion I will just ask my neighbor who is a caterer to cook foods for me. Anyways, my guests got full and some of them even took home foods for their housemates who were not able to come. I enjoyed my birthday and I thank God for another blessed year in my life. Hubby didn't give me any gift but his mere presence and love is enough for me. I can live without any gifts as long as I have my loved ones who love and care for me and my Jesus who is my rock, Healer, Lord and Savior of my life.

Vernice's Birthday

My niece Vernice just turned two last Wednesday and of course we celebrated with family, friends and loved ones by eating the foods that we prepared. My brother cooked pancit, beef caldereta and fish patty and my sister-in-law cooked chop suey. On the other hand, I cooked goulash, lumpia and chicken afritada. Hubby and I also bought a birthday cake for her. It was a late dinner but we had fun. My niece is now officially in her terrible two's and she's been acting that way a few months ago. Despite that, she's still lovable, sweet and cute and she's the apple of our eyes.

Holiday Blasts

It's been a while since I updated this blog. I was busy during the holidays and hubby and I enjoyed celebrating Christmas and New year here in my homeland. We celebrated Christmas in Baguio with my family and friends. We had lots of foods on the table last Christmas. We gobbled and gobbled and ate to our hearts' delight. Then we opened our gifts and we had a blast.

On New year's eve, we again prepared lots of foods and we welcomed the 2010 with a bang. Hubby had bought some firecrackers and some fireworks. They lighted it at exactly 12:00 midnight on New year. We made some noise and then we had a devotion. Then we ate the foods that my sister and I prepared. We had some friends and neighbors with us that night as we ate our Media Noche foods. Then after that we had some karaoke singing. We went to bed so late that night of New year but we had fun.

Hubby's Birthday Celebration

This is a late post but it's better late than never as they say. My hubby celebrated his birthday last Nov. 10th. I prepared fruit salad for him and we had chicken adobo, pancit and I bought a birthday cake for him. We didn't invite anybody. The celebration was exclusive for our family members only. My 3 siblings were present with their families and also my aunt who live with us. We had a good supper and everybody were full. Hubby was so satisfied with his birthday celebration. He enjoyed the foods of course especially his birthday cake.

Birthday Preparations

It's already past 2:00 AM here but I'm still awake. I'm just done making a fruit salad for my hubby's birthday today. This afternoon, we went to order a birthday cake for hubby. It's a lot cheaper for me to buy a ready-made cake than to make one. I don't have the skill to make a nice cake with all the icing and designs. Besides, the bakery where I ordered sells cake at a very reasonable price. I ordered twice there already and their cake is moist and not very sweet. Hubby said he love it. I'm pretty sure my hubby will have a good time tomorrow celebrating his birthday. Watch out for the photos because I'm gonna post it here.

Celebrating Our Anniversary

My hubby and I just celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. Of course if there's a celebration, there are lots of foods to commemorate the event. We bought a goat and my youngest brother butchered it. Then my other brother and his wife and I did the cooking. We started to prepare the ingredients after lunch because the celebration will start at 6:00 PM. We cooked kaldereta, pinapaitan, kilawin, goulash and chop suey. For our dessert we prepared ahead fruit salad mix with agar-agar. This is so good I tell you. We have also made papaya pickles. We finished cooking just in time when the invited friends and neighbors arrived. All the foods that we cooked were all delicious and all the invited guests had a good time eating and celebrating with us. The kaldereta was a hit. It was gone so quick followed by the pinapaitan, an Ilokano recipe.

Celebrating Father's Day

I know that this is a late post but I just want to share here what we had during Father's Day. Though our father is no longer with us because he passed away 9 years ago, we had a little celebration with my kinfolks who are also fathers like my brother, my brother-in-law and his dad and of course my hubby. We just bought most of the foods that we had because we didn't have enough time to cook after church. We had pancit palabok, lechon manok, shanghai lumpia, cake, etc. By the way, we were in Baguio during Father's Day at my brother-in-law's house. Here are some photos.

Foods To Celebrate

I mentioned in my previous post about the foods that we had for my niece Vernice when she turned 10 month old last May 28th. Now I can post the photos taken that day because we just got back our phone and internet connection 2 days ago. I was the one who cooked the pancit bihon guisado and chicken afritada and it was a hit. The pistachio pudding didn't turn out good though because they don't have cool whipped topping in the groceries here so I used all purpose cream and it was not a good substitute. My pistachio pudding turned out watery but then my 2 nephews loved it. They said it tasted good. It was their first time to eat it and so they don't have anything to compare to. Anyways, we enjoyed eating and we all had a good time.

baby Vernice at 10 month old

come and eat pancit, chicken afritada, rice and pistachio pudding

Vernice with my sis Violy and her hubby Jhun

Vernice with cousins Kenneth and Mark

Vernice with parents Celso and Vivian

Vernice with me and hubby

My Nephew's Birthday

We had some yummy foods during my nephew's birthday. We were in Baguio so we celebrated it there. My sister and her hubby had cooked foods like spaghetti, pancit palabok and vegetable lumpia. While the lumpia was being cooked, my hubby and I had already eaten quite a few. It was really good. We didn't have much sweets because both my brother-in-law and his dad are diabetic. So we just drink iced tea after we ate. Anyways, we enjoyed the simple celebration.

Foods For Thanksgiving

We had lots of foods last Thanksgiving Day. Stacy and Sherry cooked ham, dressing (stuffing), green bean casserole, baked sweet potato with marsmallows, dinner rolls, and lots and lots of desserts like pecan pie, pumpkin pie, banana and pistachio pudding. I also cooked lumpia of course. But the lumpia were gone before we started our lunch. We enjoyed eating and the foods lasted until Saturday. Below are some of the photos of the foods that we had. They're yummy!!!

pecan pie
pumpkin pie
banana pudding
pistachio pudding
ham
dressing (stuffing)