Greenhills errands..

  nbsp   A couple of weeks ago, my parent sent me to Greenhills to buy stuff for my titas in the States. One of my uncles was home for a couple of weeks and my titas had some bilins.

• pearl necklaces, earrings and bracelets;
• daing at tuyo;
• corned beef and butter imported from New Zealand, 'coz apparently mas mahal sa States; and
• Tita Paring's Suman

Tita Paring's Suman comes in a plane-approved box
      My Tita Becky's friend Tita Anabelle told her about it and said that it was really good. It was kind of famous to Filipinos who live abroad. She told my mom about it and we actually tried it in one of our many Greenhills trips. Hmmm, how do I put this... well it wasn't to die for. Or maybe because we live in the Philippines and we eat suman every once in a while so we didn't find it special.
      So back to my story, the day my Kuya's flight to Kuwait, I went to Greenhills to buy the pearls and the suman. It was easy buying the pearls 'coz Mariel and I went there the week before already. After that, I went on to buy the suman for my titas. I bought a dozen suman for P500 for my titas and another one for me, for P45. I thought maybe I would like it the second time around. :)

suman for P45 each
      And guess what, the suman brought me more nuissance than satisfaction. When I was about to get in the MRT, the guard asked me to open the box of suman, which was packed already by the restaurant/cafe. The guard didn't even help me open the box. He just handed me a cutter to open the box and packaging tape to reseal it. Plus, he didn't even spend 2 seconds looking at the contents of the box. And then by the time I got to MRT Trinoma Station, it was raining so hard, the platform was flooding already.
      So I took a cab to prevent mydelf and the box from getting wet, but by the time the cab reached Parks and Wildlife along North Ave., it wasn't raining anymore. The cab driver even joked that it was storming in Trinoma only... yeah, funny. When I got home, I readily opened the suman. I only had brunch at 10AM that day.

Tita Paring's Suman Latik

      The saddest thing about it was that I realized I didn't really like the suman. I think that the reason it became famous is that not many people sell/make suman latik anymore. The only thing I liked about it was the sweetened latik sauce you pour over the suman itself. Haha I guess you have to be away from the Philippines for years to appreciate the food. LOL

Food Trippings 04-09-2011

      School breaks are probably the busiest days in our house. All of us kids are at home and my mom can't get enough of us roaming around the house. Everytime we're home, we ask our parents to buy/cook us food that we don't get to eat when we're away and my parents oblige happily. Especially to me, since I'm the one who is always away and they feel like I don't eat well in U.P.
      Well anyway, a couple of days ago, my siblings and I went to Subic with our mom for grocery shopping. My Kuya and I picked up some microwavable mac & cheese, taco shells, taco mix and cheese to try out when we get home. And today we had the chance to try it. :) I bought some ground beef, white onions and cabbage to complete the recipe. Sauteed the beef with the onionsand taco mix, made salsa, grated the cheese, heated the shells and WHOLA! Instant home-made tacos for merienda. :D

taco assembly line
      The thing is, merienda is kind of a big deal in our family. It's like one other official meal. People could probably tell if they see our bodies. Haha Today our relatives came over for merienda and good thing they liked it else my Kuya and I were gonna be the only one to finish all that food. Three families ended up having the tacos for merienda.

my own taco with no gulay. hehe
      After a couple of hours, my mom and I realized we didn't have anything for dinner so we started thinking of food, 'coz last night we had Jollibee for dinner. We then remembered the Soy Chicken we had a week ago in SM Megamall at Kowloon that we really liked. And so I looked up the recipe on the net and bought the necessary ingredients. We already had half of the ingredients at home, so I just bought chicken, scallions and star anise.
      As soon as I got home from, my dad and I started preparing our own Soy Chicken following the recipe from Food.com. We kinda strayed away from some of the stuff like replacing the five-spice powder with ground black pepper, using 4 chicken thighs instead of a whole and ignoring the sesame seeds completely.

our very own Soy Chicken... yum!
      My dad was kind of skeptical about it, saying that it's just chicken dipped in soy sauce but it turned out really good even though we weren't able to thicken the sauce as much. Overall, I'd say our little experiment was a success! :D Hehe

      Tomorrow, we're gonna try the mac and cheese. If not, some spaghetti doesn't sound so bad on a Sunday afternoon. :D

Home.♥

my uber cozy, green, softly lighted, awesome room
      So my semester is finally over. I've submitted all my papers and am just waiting for my grades to come up. I've been home the past 3 days and all I've done is sleep and eat and face the computer while watching TV. Check out my daily schedule. :)
10:00AM   Wake up and turn on laptop
10:10AM   Breakfast with Prada
11:00AM   Watch TV in Kuya's room
12:00NN   Lunch with family and gang up on baby brother
01:00PM   Watch TV or some DVD with my Tatay
03:00PM   Internet and merienda with Mom
04:00PM   Kwento with cousin/s
07:30PM   Dinner
08:30PM   Internet and TV
11:00PM   Lie down, read a book and sleep ♥
      So you see, I'm bound to gain all the weight that I can. My parents have this "idea" that when I'm in school, I don't eat properly so when I come home, they buy and cook stuff that I love to make up for the days that I "don't" eat well. And given the two-week break I get before summer classes start, I'm bound to gain all the weight in the world. LOL
      Plus, the only exercise I think I'm gonna get is swimming. But then, everytime our family goes swimmming, we end up bringing a lot of food and my cousins and I just eat the whole day non-stop. Hahaha Good luck to me!

It's Swatch Time

      I've always been a Swatch kid. My first wrist watch was a blue and green Flik Flak from the States. And then I had this hot pink and neon green Baby-G looking Swatch in grade school. My Kuya had a similar one with blue dial and translucent strap. My family are watch people... or whatever you call people who like watches. LOL We don't necessarily collect watches, but we don't buy watches for nothing. We have high standards for watches. My Dad has this Bulova watch that he's had as long as I can remember. And my Mom has the classic round Gucci watch with the changeable rings and this other Gucci watch. Plus, my parents have this matching pair of Longines watches my Mom bought.
      So my point is, we value our watches. yuck, parang insurance When I was a kid, I always thought that when I grow up, my Mom's gonna hand me over her classic Gucci. But then, as any other thing, her watch's latch/lock came loose through time too the point that it's too loose it falls off from her wrist. So goodbye dream watch for me.
      And then last December, my Mom and I went shopping and she asked me if I wanted to buy a new watch for myself since my Guess watch that I've been using has been with me for years already. And I was like, sure why not? But then for some odd reason when we were actually looking at stores already, I wasn't in the mood anymore. And I told her that maybe we should just by next time. may sakit yata ako nun
      So guess what... today is "next time". :D:D:D I mentioned in my previous post about my Mom asking me to go to SM Megamall to check out the watches on sale. So the thing is, when we came back today, the ones I wanted weren't there anymore. They got sold already. And then I was gonna settle for the gold version of the one I originally wanted from Guess and then my Mom was like, "Gusto mo magtingin pa tayo sa Swatch? Yung tiningnan mo kahapon." And who am I to say no?

      We ended up buying this Swatch from the 2011 Collection which makes me feel like a kid again, back to my beloved old watch brand.♥ Plus, we got it for its regular price so I'm like really thankful to my Mom and her conspiring love for me. Hahaha Before we parted our ways, her going to Bataan, me going back to UP, she told me tell my Dad and Kuya that the watch costs like 50% of its real price lang in case they ask daw. LOLz.

      I was gonna ask her to buy me clothes din sana from Forever 21 but I decided otherwise, since I was kinda feeling guilty that she bought me this watch already without any occassion or anything special.. Hahaha Just that I'm her child. Oh well, there will always be next time. ♥

Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad

    As All Souls Day comes near, we remember the ones we lost over the years. It's one of those days that even though we try to so hard to forget the past and move on, we can't help but feel all those things we try to escape from on that day.

    It has been more than a year since my cousin Grace lost her battle to Cancer. She was almost 19 when she passed away. We were like sisters - me, Grace and her sister Analyn. We were the "bunsos" of the family. Analyn was born 1988, I was born 1989 and then Grace 1990. We girls used to have the same clothes. Every Christmas time our families would go Christmas shopping and our moms would buy us matching somethings, like Minnie Mouse shirts or sandals, or whatever was in that year. We were inseparable, us three.


last family outing with Grace (the one at the back, on a wheelchair)

    This picture was taken May 24, 2009, two weeks before she died. Our family used to go swimming every New Year and during the summer when we were young. As we grew up, our lives moved on and we never got to do that again. And then that summer, Grace said she wanted to go swimming and so we went.:) It was as if we were kids again, plus the booz. LOLThat was our last picture with Grace before she passed.