ferrinakabongga

DIY: Insulated Lunch Box

2014-01-11T08:50:00.001-08:00

You know why I do this? You'd think I have enough time. Not really. But I do make time. I must make time. Keeps my balance. Architectural work has been toxic lately and this is my yoga. Ya.

I realized that two of the reasons my 8 year old daughter harldy finishes 2/3 of her lunch because the food presentation was not appetizing and she has a 3-layer lunch box. That even I, find it tedious to unpack and return to its casing.

I figured she needed a repackaged lunch set. Compact enough, size not overwhelming, and set can fit her backpack.

Materials:

3mm Thk.Foil Insulation, Php 64.00/sqm from ACE hardware

Thread, Scissor, Old party table cloth & Ribbon (all readily available in my home)

How About, Let's Move On

2012-10-16T19:22:00.002-07:00

Empanada Nation

2012-10-14T09:04:00.002-07:00

I was craving for Ilocos Empanada one Sunday afternoon. I only find empanadas like this in Food Bazaars. I'm tired of waiting for Friday nights and Sunday morning to come just so I can get one of these. Thank God for Internet!!! I got to know this place from internet research. This place is open from Tuesday-Sunday. I'm not sure if on Monday's they operate in the morning or not at all.

Sunday afternoon was a swift drive from Makati to Quezon City. It's also a chance for me and habibi to get away. It kinda feel special when you drive far just for food, you know. It's worth the trip, I tell you! Especially if you have a husband who is not a fan of fancy food.

I've been to Ilocos once 12 years ago (or so?). I remember having Vigan longganisa but not anymore of what I'm going to mention here. I am just glad that I get to give my palate a rest from the usual sinigang and tinola baby food in our house.

Sukang Ilocos, in all its glory. Not in a pretentious bottle. That orange thing is my favorite Ilocos empanada! Inside it has papaya, longanisa, monggo bean sprout and egg.

Puqui-puqui. Ahihihi...I know. It's an eggplant salad.

The King's Meal.
We've visited this place twice already in one month. This meal was twice ordered too as it was filling and satisfying.

Crispy Bagis. Their version of Chicharon Bituka ng Baboy.

You know it's good Itlog na Maalat if you see oil in the middle.

You see those ceiling fan? Yup! Not an air conditioned place.
Luckily, the weather was lovely and the air was breezy that day.

The Menu on the floor. I wonder why.

This one's hanged on the wall. Every item is affordable.

Empanada Station
26 Sgt Esguerra St, South Triangle, Quezon CityPhilippines (02) 921-1143

Korean Food Love

2012-08-10T21:08:00.003-07:00

My husband and I have always gone to Japanese restaurant if we want to dine out. Ever since he came back from his trip to Korea, he has been wanting to share with me his gastronomical experience.

We then looked for the "best" korean restaurant. We read from Awesome Planet website that there are 3 restos at Burgos, Makati. It is tucked away from those girly bars lining the streets of the red district. It is carinderia style and waiting for your food is like waiting for your mum to cook your food. I wouldnt say it's homey, but it's a very straight forward korean food place.

We first tried going to Min Sok as the rain was pouring hard and the first parking spot we saw was in front of them. (I'll try to blog about our food trip there some other time). That was my first korean food resto and I thought, "ok, maybe i'll get used to this taste".

A week later I asked husband if we could try the other restaurant just in front of Min Sok, the Manna Korean Garden. We ordered the same dishes we had from the other resto. Of course I wanted to compare!

My husband is trying to help me watch my diet and prevented me to eat-all-you-can Yakimix anymore, so this grilling thing works for me as substitute.

Here are the beef and pork belly bacon yummy yummy for grilling. Those are the side dishes served with the meat. There's tofu, been sprout, potatoes, sauce, kimchi! That miso soup (lower right) is free and savory.

My husband said, this is how you eat it. Wrap everything in cabbages and lettuce.

Bibimbap.

Bibimbap. I have a yummy fascination for the content of this clay bowl. We ordered pork and beef to grill, so we thought we'll have this bowl for our rice. I know "where's the rice? where's the rice?". It is beneath the teared nori, bean sprout,beef, carrot and egg. I like it for the surprise salty taste on every 2 or 3 bites. Once served to you, you have to stir it quick or the rice will get crusty. (albeit my dad will like the "tutong").

Kimbap.

Kimbap. We did not order for this, but it looked yummy so it stayed. This is like a japanese california maki but serve with soy sauce and chili pepper. I asked for wasabi, and the waiter gave me a tube that looks like old and the wasabi is dark, brownish green. Skipped the wasabi.

I have also included a snippet of the menu. You can see the price of what we ordered, just to give you an idea.

The restaurant interior is not pretentious and intimidating. You're greeted with a sweet Korean smiles (I think they're the owners). I took it as a sign that we will have a pleasant dining, authentic Korean dining experience. My husband said, the food here is closer to the ones he had in Korea. I'll take his comment as a good thing. I sometimes judge a dining place with the free soup they serve. The miso soup was really good! The Bibimbap bowl, I scraped it till none. My palate lately wanted rest from the usual meal I have. Eating here is like resetting my palate and letting it know that there are other flavors to discover and enjoy.

Manna Korean Garden
5650 Don Pedro Street, Poblacion, Makati City
+632 897 6799
Accepts credit card.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.6

Happy 7th Birthday Kien-Kien!!!

2012-02-17T01:07:00.000-08:00

Here's an almost 3 minutes recap of her happy 7th birthday.

Kien's 7th Birthday - Preparation Week 3-6 of 6

2012-02-16T22:15:00.003-08:00

The night before Kien's birthday we transported every props we can to my husband's office building, where the event will take place. I got busy with work and didn't have time to post weekly. Instead I'm updating you in one go.

Party Favors and Table Decorations

3rd Week. We completed our trip to Divisoria to buy items for out games and lootbags. We decided that the lootbags will only have candies in them and no toys anymore.

I asked Kien if the girls will like creepy creatures. She said yes. I also added candy ponytails and rubber bands. I'm sure the mommies will like it. This morning in Kien's school, I saw some a girl wearing our give away.

Game Prizes. The toys were wrapped and color coded. The purple are for boys and the striped oranges for the girls.

4th Week. I still needed something for the boys to wear so it's not going to be very princessy for them. So I tried looking for tutorials on how to do a pirate hat.

Pirate Hat Prototype 1. I found this suggestion from youtube, but didnt work because the head wont fit and it used half of my cartolina.

Pirate Hat Prototype 2. This one's easier to make. I decided I'm going to cut out my own hat and put studs in it. I made 16 hats out of 4 cartolinas. This project cost me P100.00

Loot Bag. I've been obsessing on finding the right purplish bag. I know a little bit of photoshop and made this instead. The final design has a bigger rococo detail on top. This is made out of lilac colored bondpaper, you can buy for P30.00. Made 10 of these.

5th Week. Nothing much happened on the fifth week. The tower for the castle needed shingles and that was it for that week.

My husband fashioned this from scrap boxes. I wanted fish scales shingles so he made me do the shingles.

6th Week. I promised myself that everything will be complete on the 5th week, until I remembered the games! This is the week when I will follow up my cake, food, tables and chairs for the kids, and face painting.

Games. Pin the Pirate. We have extra cartolina, and my husband draws. Combine both, cost free props!

The cupcakes at red ribbon cost P450.00 for 6 cupcakes. I want 24 cup cakes. cant spend that much, so we baked. The only expensive ingredient was the Goya chocolate I used.

Excuse the graffiti on the wall. Those were sprayed paint the week before this event by Vynil on Vynil. They're work of art!

Those balloons on the floor have been popped by my cute son when I came back to the venue. I love those pompoms too! (those were salvaged from 2 different events)

Castle. The bar B-Side who lent us their chairs and tables have high tables too. That is where we stapled the castle walls. Thank you B-Side!

The Happy Guests.

We are so grateful to a lot of people have helped and lent us their personal and business stuff just so Kien can have this one happy party. I want to list them all!

Lola Shirley and Lola Baby - For watching over Kimbo while all the Ate's were busy helping with the prep. Also for the extra food you prepared.
Lolo Chris - Photo Booth
Tita Pet - For Hosting the Party
Tita Pet's Friend - For the purple mantles
Tsang - for bringing chicken
Te Willette - For the Chaffing and plates
Rae & Steph - for the Pompoms and great ideas
Malinao & Jimenez Family for helping clean up all the mess we made that day.
Kim - the father of my kids. For spoiling us at this party. Kien had everything she wanted, even her face on the tarpaulin :)

***

Cream Dory Pesto Parmesan

2012-01-24T00:20:00.000-08:00

My kids love breaded fish. They eat it like junk food. With no rice. Until they gotten tired of it. Now I have this cream dory in my fridge thinking what else can I do with it. My mind was side swept to thinking, "hmmm I would love some pesto pasta right now". Then this light bulb thing came. What if I put pesto and parmesan on my cream dory?

I go searched the internet and checked to see if someone else had tried it. Someone did but with mayonnaise!

So I put everything on my oven toaster tray. 500grams cream dory, pesto paste, salt, mayo and parmesan.

Oven toasted for 10-15minutes.

Served it with calamansi. Yum! Even my 1.5 year old baby loved it!

Can I just note that my two kids have very different preference to food. Fish for example: my eldest likes it flaky and skin crispy, while my baby boy likes it soft like this one. Well at least now, I have someone to share my love for pesto ;)

Baking makes me spaced out happy!

2012-01-24T00:06:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend my nephews visited our ~~sony PS3~~ place. My husband once told me, that the best time for me to bake is when I have my beautiful boys in our place. So I baked! I mean fry.

Here is the first jelly donut I successfully made. The recipe is from F ood Network. It was ok, but my husband said the dough needs to be a little sweet, but I think the granulated sugar well compensated for the dough lack of sweetness. The ones we used to eat in Melbourne smelled yummier and sweeter. My sister said it was too sweet for her. Well, the boys, just ate without much comment.

The next day, my other nephew visited us as well. I told him I'd bake him donuts too! This time I looked for a recipe that will use some spice. This time the recipe was from Allrecipes.com. It has nutmeg and a lot more sugar on the dough. The recipe used confectioner sugar instead. Husband likes it much better this time. My sister, still thinks it sweet.

With all that kneading and frying, someone will eat it without any judgement or comment. Who could it be? My cute little baby. Just as long as there's no jam he'll fill his mouth with any type of bread. :)

Kien's 7th Birthday - The Preparation Week 2 of 6

2012-01-23T23:43:00.000-08:00

Nagging works!!! (Joke)
My loving husband is game with the "not-renting-out-any-props" idea. He suggested we make towers as entrance to the party square. There were so many sources of inspiration from the internet. So many I was almost tempted to force myself in doing a big fortress type venue. I simply looked at our bank statement and had a reality check. Budget!

Gladly, our friend Stephanie Sy, had so many DIY ideas that looked easy to do and materials are affordable.

Martha Stewart pompom instruction said, use 8 papers, which I did. But it seemed my pompom is a little weak.

Steph and Rae had better pompoms. Good thing I kept it and had templates to follow now.

This Glue!
I liked using the piping type elmer's glue, but this one was easier to spread without using my fingers. (or maybe I'm really just sloppy handling glue)

We went to divisioria to look for loot bags that will fit the theme of the party. I didn't want to use the plastic bags anymore. To no avail.

We went to this place called Chocolate Lovers in Quezon City. The prices were reasonable and we even found a treasure box. 10pcs for Php59.00.It was easier to shop for boxes (almost complete) There were also baking supplies and goodies for me to splurge on :)

Now the purse...I need to do something about the purse as the theme calls for purple and pink. They only have red purse. This might have to be a back-up loot bag.

At the first week of preparation, it was really overwhelming to know that there were so many things to do. A lot have not been crossed out of my list. I even bought a new planner for this! As time goes by, it now seemed easy.

My eldest sister said, she'll bring roasted chicken. My other sister will be hosting the party program and the games. My mother-in-law will cook her 2 famous dishes. My mama, I'm forcing to cook shanghai. And I am still counting future volunteers! ;) wink wink!

Kien's 7th Birthday - The Preparation Week 1 of 6

2012-01-09T06:41:00.000-08:00

Kien's 7th birthday is 6 weeks from now. I had no idea how to get things started. All I know is that I want some pompoms that Daphne Paez had on her daughter's party Fancy Nancy themed party. (That's a book Kien reads). I read Ms. Paez blog about the party & ordered a cake. But that was it.

Look at the pompoms on top!
Rae's party setting is fabuloso!

Luckily, I met the mother of Kien's classmate, Rae. Rae hosted her daughter's 6th birthday. We live in the same building with small units, yet she managed to make the party minimal & fabulously decorated.

She moved the furnitures to the bedrooms. Rented chairs and tables. Gave activities to kids. Gave me ideas and pompoms!!!

If I can make that work in my house I'll be able to save cash on the venue. That was my thought.

Jumpstart
Ok. Ok. So my mind kept rolling from then on. How do I move things around in my house? Sure I can do this...Until ideas came to mind. How about use that huge vacant space in front of my husband's office? Business partners said YES! How about the chairs and tables from that night club/bar, they're close during daytime. YES! How about table clothes? Got an angel for a sponsor. YES!

The List
Martha Stewart in her website said, 6 weeks of preparation. Mine is not in her order, but I will try to do what I can in 6 weeks.

The list. 1st draft.

Of course I made a list. 6 pages. I have a doodle of where the chairs and tables are gonna go, castle, pompoms. A list of guests (limited as in school classmates). A list of games, food, activities, prizes.

DIY's
I'm telling you, I'm very lucky. One of our friends (Ms. Stephanie SY, also my husband's business partners) have volunteered to do the decorations. Well she said, she likes DIY projects, doesnt actually do them, but will look for people to do the job. Sounds fine! I like it!

The DIY idea is not just about saving on cash, but also putting in that extra special love on this birthday project. Those first 4 birthdays that I hosted for my daughter I remember every single detail because I cooked, I researched, I worked my heart out for. The 5th & 6th, it was so simple, it was in school. All I can remember is I ordered from Jollibee and Red Ribbon bakeshop.

You know how you've been given so many ideas, you read too and research. Then suddenly you get this pumped to work on the project with enthusiasm with ideas of your own. Here's some of mine...

Princess Hats

Invitation Card for Boys. Look at the Pirate!

Invitation Card For Girls
It says Pirates & Princesses.

I had the courage to do all those because my daughter is right by my side to approve or reject anything I'm working on. That invitation card has been revised 3 times! Thank you for the WWWs and thank you for friends!

There will be no clown or magicians planned to the party. The sorbetero has been scrapped too. The face painting is a definite. Our friend Steph have so many fun activities thought of. Hopscotch and whiteboards. Castle cutouts made from cardboards. I CANT WAIT!!!! These are the things that I'm very much on board with because it says fun but not gastos. It's like having a party planner only better.

Usok

2012-01-07T03:40:00.000-08:00

I care too much about my environment. I know i'm not perfect, i dont even segregate my trash yet. But I'm sure a step at a time is better than none.

This morning i have 8 kids with 8 young lungs in my house. All of a sudden there is this thick grey smoke in front of our window and we are on the fifth floor. I tried to look for the source of the smoke. Run around our block like crazy.

In this big parking lot are two piles of used lumber lit into a bonfire. This parking lot is located near a slaughter house. I'm sure i am also smelling burning pig hair.

I demanded from the parking lot attendant that he put the fire out! In my amazement, this attendant said he doesn't know who's done it, therefore wont do anything about it. Then second attendant comes out telling me, that it was Kapitan Lino Zaraspe who ordered it and said, he cant do anything about it.

I was so upset that I yelled "patayin nyo yang lason na yan" (put out that poison). Then this attendant2 said, "hindi lason yan! Walang kemikal yan!" (that's no poison, no chemical). See the ignorance. The ignorance is even more upsetting.

They wont put out the fire still. I had to ran around the block to look for this kapitan. This is sooooo not acceptable.

After several turns in our block again, we ended up infront of the parking lot, again. Apparently, Kapitan's house is infront of the parking lot. There was no Kapitan, he is in Batangas daw. We ended up talking to his neighbor and his father. The good old man is wearing a mask. He has asthma. Around 70-80 year old man with asthma.

He said he will talk to hid Kapitan son when he comes back from the province. The neighbor said kapitan is a good natured man. That he is reasonable. They said it's pakikisama that they allowed him through this years to smog all of their houses.

Still...something must be done. I hope something good comes out of this upsetting incident. I cant bear having to take all those fumes. I cant take that my daughter and son will have to endure it weekly. I cant accept that the whole neighborhood is quiet and not protesting this wrong doing. We need to set it right.

Dining out with Kimbo

2011-11-02T02:21:00.000-07:00

My Ate treated us to a sumptious very pinoy dinner at Bagoong Club. We had our 16 month old baby in tow. So how did we try to enjoy our dinner? By feeding him first and literally throwing him a bone. :)

Yakimix Experience

2011-10-21T08:02:00.001-07:00

I tried to make reservation thrice on Yakimix Greenbelt 3 but failed to come. They have very strict rules! You can only reserve thru phone if you will call before 4pm and dine by 6pm , and you need to be atleast 4 people.

Today I read reviews that it's gonna be worth the wait when you reserve. To feed my palate's curiousity, I went there before 6pm to reserve "walk-in". Was waiting for a table and waiting for my husband to come.

After an hour and half we had our table! Here's my take of the whole dining experience..

1. Buffet price Php 600.00
2. Dishes, a mix of Japanese, Korean, Chinese.
3. I love that we can grill on our very own table. I like the peppered beef the most.
4. Ok. This is my plate. This is how the "MALINAO" eats buffet. I had about 3 full plates.
5. Dessert was very good too! They had papaya, dragon fruit, pineapple. There were mini squares of cake. Yum yum i'm sure but I'm watching my figure.(haha! Did I mention 3 plates already?)

Husband asked if I will be coming back to Yakimix, I replied a quick "No". Well I think what I really meant was, I will do it twice a year. It's a hefty serving of salmon and tuna sashimi, grilled shrimp and beef! They even have sukiyaki soup. Also Sinigang (i really wonder why).

We have a favorite Japanese restaurant and we spent the same amount of cash. But Yakimix won in the quantity level!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Look a Hug!

2011-10-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

I was runting that my daughter doesn't wanna hold hands with me sometimes. But I reallize that there are times she hugs me all the time!

I used to dislike her embarking me abruptly. Now, I welcome each surprises and pray that it doesnt grow old.

Kimbo's Walker

2011-10-16T04:10:00.001-07:00

My husband and I did not want to splurge on walkers for our baby boy. Our house was too small, and besides our eldest girls' walker (the old fashion one, where you sit her inside a hole) did not teach her how to walk. She was only strolling backwards.

With this type of walker that we bought for our boy, he was able to study his balance, while having a big plate of buttons to play with .

Now that he's learned to walk with it, he now tries to dismantle all the parts. Like a mini mechanic. It was not pricey at all too. Around Php1200 pesos. He tinkers with it everyday, value for money is there!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

She doesn't wanna hold hands anymore

2011-10-16T01:07:00.001-07:00

My six year old daughter had her ballet pictorial yesterday. It run 2 hours late. We were there for four hours.

When it was time to go home, we headed down the escalator. I reached for her hand to guide her the motherly way that I could. Only to be told, "i'll do it myself mama".

Felt a little reality pain and hug my husband instead.

I realized, this is not going to be the only thing I will eventually miss. So when my daughter asked, "when are we going to bake mama?" I immediately answered "tonight".

Hence this clay looking cake .

An activity with my daughter is not always laughter and fun. It's sometimes injected with lessons and scoldings.

I just wish every day I dont run out of things we can do together when the novelty of the walking and the strolling in the park wears off.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4