Celebrating My 25th

I almost wanted to omit my age as it is typical for women to hide their age as it increases in number, but then I know there are people who didn't get to live longer than I did, so it has to be something I should be proud of. I turned 25 a few days ago, and although I didn't get to spend the entire day with my mom and sister, we still got to celebrate it.
Last Sunday, we went to check out the tiangge - what's it called in English? Flea Market? It's a big marketplace located at the grounds of Robinson's Place Novaliches, where people can buy clothes, footwear, and so many gift items for less the price compared to the malls.

There were a lot of people shopping, so we decided to just enter Robinson's Place Novaliches because we thought SM Fairview had more shoppers, considering it was the last weekend day before most Christmas parties will be held.

For dinner, we ate at Pizza Hut, as this mall had very few restaurants and we didn't dare enter the two well known fast food chains as for sure it would be jampacked with diners. For this dinner, we shared a pizza, and we chose our own food. I went for the penne pasta, mom chose the lasagna, and my sister ordered chicken wings and this food called cheesy thins, just for us to try it out.

Mom decided to go home after eating dinner, while sister and I stayed and walked our way to SM Fairview (the mall fronting Robinson's) to look for more gift ideas.

That day's happies:

• We were lucky to occupy the last vacant table in the restaurant.
• Sister was able to buy books at cheap prizes.
• Spending good, quality time with the girls.
• Walking most of the time - from 3pm til 9pm, only sat down when we ate dinner.
• Mom gave me 1000 pesos as birthday present.

That day's crappies:

• The tiangge was filled with so many fake goods! It was so disappointing to see all sorts of brands in many products! 
• Mom told me I could buy whatever I want to buy with the money she gave me, but when I saw a pair of flat shoes I liked, she was quick to say I own a lot of shoes already.
• The penne pasta served to me was way too salty. I asked them to replace it, and at first one of the managers told me that if I preferred less salty food, I should have told the serve staff before hand. Well, I usually just go for what food served to me - I rarely make requests whenever I dine in.. but the pasta was just way too salty! And.. this pasta was my usual choice whenever we dine at Pizza Hut and this was the first time I encountered something like this! Well of course, they did replace it and the new plate of food tasted much better, thank heavens!
• My sister wanted to buy this mason drinking jar with handle, but the shop already ran out of stocks. Bummer.
• SM Fairview, contrary to what we thought of, had less shoppers. Had we known, we should've just went there.

My shift at work this week was 4pm to 1am. Very difficult to adjust because I get home around 2:30 to 3:00 am everyday, so I spent the first few hours of my birthday at work and traveling home. My mom prepared our brunch that day while my sister baked me some cupcakes. It was very touching because she considered a food I like - Nutella! It was so good... and I think my sister has already mastered the art of baking cupcakes using the Oven Toaster.

I went to work with a warm feeling because I felt my mom and my sister's love for me. Work was okay, then after our shift, I treated my team to a nearby fast food. It was already nearly 5am when I got home, but it was just fine.

My last day at work will be tomorrow, as I already filed a leave of absence starting Sunday until the end of the year. I look forward to spending more time with my mom and sis, then after Christmas, we will be traveling for brother's wedding.

* Jesz *

 

The Happies and the Crappies

taken from the jeepney last weekend

As soon as I woke up today, I immediately turned on the television to hear news about the Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name - Haiyan). Goosebumps all over my body and my tears just fell without warning upon seeing its wrath... and I could only whisper a prayer for all the people affected by the typhoon. This one's very strong - it almost covered the entire country, and I just feel sad with all the things this country had to endure - war, string of typhoons, massive earthquake.

So okay, let's start this post with the crappies.

• Receiving a statement of account from my Internet provider, even if my account has been disconnected. Well, the bill stated I owe them ZERO pesos, but it was a little irritating that after a staff of their office told me it was indeed disconnected, I learned that it wasn't permanently disconnected yet. I will be visiting their office to request for permanent disconnection this weekend.
• Heartburn. I ate fried food yesterday and today... and now I am feeling a lot of discomfort.
• Sniffles and coughs. 
• An old lady bullying me while I was at the nearby supermarket. What's irritating was that this lady owes my mom some money and she had the nerve to speak ill of her. 

Even with the crappies, there are still reasons to be grateful.

Taking time to walk, and enjoy the beauty of nature.


Baking cupcakes using the oven toaster.


Receiving the Starbucks Card I won from a giveaway hosted by The Peach Kitchen. Sister was happier than I am because she loves Starbucks and she was the one who told me about the giveaway, and to up the chances to win, I joined, too. I told her that if I win, I will give the card to her, so when I finally received it, I immediately gave it to her.


Book happiness! One week ago, me buying three bottles of nail polish caused me not to buy two books from Booksale, and when the family went back to the mall a few days after, I was really thankful that the books were still there... and I also got to buy a book costing just 5 pesos! Yesterday, I finally received the books I ordered from a seller I met through Instagram... and I am very happy that my Fifty Shades books are now complete! :D

More random happies:

• My mom supporting our crazy ideas. I painted my nails blue, sister asked me to paint her nails white. We thought it would be nice to have our pictures look like the flag, so I painted my mom's toenails red. Hehehehe.
• The scale said I lost one pound. :D
• K sent me an e-mail sharing pictures from a family member's wedding... it makes me happy that he treats me as part of his family by sharing personal images from home. Congratulations, N & T!
• After a week of taking my Biotin Multi supplements, I am starting to feel its good effect - my hair is becoming stronger and fuller, and my nails are becoming stronger, too.

It's been raining here since this afternoon. It's not heavy, but it's not stopping as well. We here may not feel the typhoon's wrath, but our heart and prayers goes to everyone who are affected.

* Jenn *

 

Channeling Our Inner Max and Caroline

Since last year, I have attended numerous featured classes at The Maya Kitchen. Each and every time, I was given a bag of goodies containing different Maya products, and as much as it helped me cook pancakes and champorado (chocolate rice porridge), receiving boxes of cake mix made me want to try it. We don't have an oven at home, so at first I used the steamer to "bake" cakes, but I guess it's a human thing not to be satisfied, and we truly wanted to really learn how to bake cupcakes (to start with).

When I tried baking the Butter Cake Mix in our oven toaster, it produced mixed results. The look wasn't what I wanted it to turn out, but we realized that there was a difference in texture and flavor between cakes cooked in a steamer and an oven toaster, and that experience gave us a gleam of hope that we can actually bake our own store-worthy cakes at home.


A month ago, sister and I had a mini-home shopping. It was her choice to go with the mixer. She said she pities seeing me carefully fanning out the lettuce leaves whenever I make salad and this would help me spin the water off the leaves. It also had a paddle and chopper attachments, which will be helpful when we make bread spread and chop a lot of onions and garlic whenever my mom hosts dinner events.

I chose to go with this handy cake decorator, because I truly want to learn how to frost cupcakes.

This shopping moment made my sister and I laugh out loud, because it seemed she and I were already planning to invest on items for the home and we had a funny realization that she and I might end up together forever.


Last Saturday, I decided to bake one box of the Whole Wheat Carrot Cake Mix. Taking the lessons I've learned after baking the Rocky Road Cupcakes, I was able to bake awesome cupcakes. The problem was the frosting. I really thought I could produce good frosting by just using what we had at home (blender), but it was just awful. Watching videos on YouTube, I realized an electric mixer is needed to create good cupcake frosting.

The next day, the girls and I went to the mall (because they initially needed to have a much needed facial session), and after, sister and I decided to check the home section of the mall to take pictures of the appliances and other items we want to purchase in the future - oven, standing hand mixer, juicer, pepper mill, tabletop condiment bottles, stick blender, and waffle maker.


Walking around, we got to see a table of items marked with 50% off, and on it was the stick blender I wanted to buy since last year - when I had a scare pulsing vegetables for my soup using the blender (I tried scraping the sides using a spoon and it the blade). From 700 pesos, it was down to 350 pesos... sweet!


We also got to see an electric hand mixer, which was originally priced at 500 pesos. It only had 100 watts (a salesperson told us earlier that the higher the wattage of the mixer, the better performance it would have), but at 250 pesos... it would be an okay appliance to use to make cupcake frosting while we save up for the standing mixer we wanted to buy.

At 600 pesos, we were able to lightly cross items off our list. Sis and I shared all expenses, just so no one would claim ownership of the items if it comes to it, in the future.

As soon as we got home that day, we quickly put the mixer to the test and tried to cream the cupcake frosting. The final outcome was definitely better. Will share images and full story on my food blog this Friday.

Hooray for sale!

* Jenn *

ps - Max and Caroline, in case you don't know are characters of the TV Show, "2 Broke Girls." They are the ladies behind Max's Homemade Cupcakes.

The Happies and the Crappies

This week was a busy one for me that I didn't devote enough time to exercise and read books. Biggest crappie for the week would have to be my body not feeling good because I was still having bad reactions with the pork belly binge we had when sister went home with a kilo of belly lechon. It was difficult to cope up with headaches, dizziness, and heartburn, but eating vegetables and not eating pork for about 5 days seemed to help.



Last Wednesday, I went to attend an event at the Fort, and my day started on a crappie note when I woke up as early as 5am to prepare breakfast and leave home in time for the 10am event, only to realize that I misread the invitation and the event was actually at 2pm and not 10am. Five hours to kill (I arrived at 9am), what to do? I didn't bring my book, and I couldn't read using my phone because I needed battery juice to take images at the event.

Despite the hot, sunny weather, I decided to walk. From the Fort Pointe Building, I walked to Bonifacio High Street to stay and read books at Fully Booked, but when I got there, I was sad to see that the book store opens at 11am. Oh dear... I walked further to Market! Market! and checked out different shops, until the mall opens.

I spent time browsing books at Booksale, checking every nook and cranny of the bookstore, but even if I got to see a few interesting books, I didn't have the money to burn. I did get to buy a book at 25 pesos, so from then on my dad was turning into a happie.

I walked back to the Fort Pointe Building for the event, and was happy to see familiar faces. The event was short and I didn't get to take a lot of pictures, but I was able to take enough for my upcoming blog post. Another long walk for me as I had to walk back to Market! Market! to take the BGC Bus to Ayala where I took the jeepney going to my sister's workplace.


My sister's shift at work was until 9pm, giving me enough time to spend time with a dear friend. From Benavidez Street, I walked all the way to Glorietta to have dinner at Cabalen... my first time to eat pork after a few days. It was a great dinner because I spent it with a person dear to me, but this food trip will never be featured on my food blog because I wasn't totally happy with it. There were enough choices for the buffet, yes.. but the fatty dishes outweighs the amount of grilled fish / veggie dishes, so I felt I had no choice but to go with the fatty dishes. The Kare-Kare tasted great, though.

My friend and I shared food and conversations and he dropped me right in front of sister's workplace and sister and I went home together. A lot of walking which included stair climbing... my legs burned and I was so tired. Tired, but happy and fulfilled.



This week, I also got to try something new. My mom went out with a friend and the boring afternoon prompted me to cook these empanadas. Crappy moment happened when the LPG tank ran out of juice while I was frying the first batch of empanadas, but two hours after, I resumed cooking and these became our dinner (we left some for sister, too, of course).

More happies from this week -
♥ Buying cheap, pre-loved books via Instagram. The first book I already received, the other two books, I still have to wait.
♥ Because I was out all day last Wednesday (sister and I got home around 11:30pm), my cat missed me so much that when I went to bed, he immediately hopped next to me and didn't leave my side until I got up the next morning.
♥ My mom posing for an OOTD (outfit of the day) picture. My mom's fashion is usually monochromatic and I was quite amused seeing her wear blue top, blue jeans, and blue pair of shoes, that I asked her to pose for a picture, which she was game to do. Actually, when she left to attend a prayer meeting, I didn't realize she was also using a blue bag... and when I exclaimed my surprise about it, she complained that we need to take one more picture because the early pictures I took didn't show her bag. Ohhhkay mom. :)
♥ Batangas beef!
♥ Sister's work at a restaurant allowed her to know about different suppliers, and now we know where to buy super affordable salmon belly, cream dory fish, and squid rings. How affordable? 1/3 the price of that being sold at the supermarkets.
♥ Winning two giveaways - Starbucks Card Giveaway hosted by The Peach Kitchen and the Ghoulish Giveaway via Instagram hosted by China Glaze nail polish. Thank you, Lord for the blessings.

Crappies?
♥ Me not attending a restaurant opening last Tuesday.
♥ Borrowing 500 pesos from my sister just so I could pay the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book I ordered. #bookwormproblems #somanybookssolittlemoney
♥ I painted my nails red this week, and although the nail polish had a good coverage and I had to use just one coat, it was quite difficult to work with and it chipped too easily that I actually painted my nails three times for it to be worthy of a picture.

This weekend, I am going to spend my Saturday morning with my mom, attending a class at the Maya Kitchen, then in the afternoon we will meet with sister and go to SM Mall of Asia. Come night time, mom will attend a party and sister and I will spend it by trying to bake some carrot cupcakes.

Sunday will be a rest day.

* Jenn *