Be safe, my loves back home.

No more drunk driving for NYE! Just wanted to remind everyone (AAA member or not!) That they are offering their Tipsy Towing service from 6PM-6AM December 31-January 1. Just call 1-800-AAAHELP. They will drive you home and tow your car home for FREE. Stay smart, folks, and have fun =)

Cebu Christmas

Our first Christmas in the Philippines let alone outside of California (respectively).
https://picasaweb.google.com/110993469375062540290/ChristmasInCebu2011

Blogging is not writing. It's just graffiti with punctuation.

Level 2 pt. 1 - Quickbreads, Pies, Tarts

Ok, it's the midpoint of level 2 and we seem to have made quite a bit so I've decided to post some pics now. Keep in mind that all doughs, crusts, and fillings are made from scratch... sh*t ain't easy yo.


Lemon Meringue Tart


Chocolate Chip Cookies & Lady Fingers (frozen for use in Tiramisu, Level 3)


Banana Bread


Garlic and Herb Scones


Apple Pie... whaddup America

And i'm out. Merry X-Mas.

oh family...

This is the kind of thing i'll be missing out on this Christmas. Cousins, nephews, extended family... all doing the red cup action. Have a great one fam. I'll see you soon enough.

Potty Training pt 3

Sorry Bobby... No offense Ralph

General Santos - Nov 1 - 5, 2001

For those of you without FB, you probably didn't get this link to our pictures.
MNL - GENSAN. Maitum. Kiamba. Whitewater tubing. Lake Sebu. Zipline. Diving. etc.



https://picasaweb.google.com/110993469375062540290/GeneralSantos2011

Level 1 - Bread

Sorry for the lack of activity on this blog. Been busy with school. Just finished my first level out of 7 or 8 last week. Four weeks of taking notes, reading, tests, and lab time. While I enjoy being in the kitchen, I'm not a fan of being in the classroom. Did fairly well but can always do better. Ended the week with a few bottles of tequila with some of the kids in class. Here is what I made in this level.


Foccacia (1/2 Pizza. 1/2 plain)


Challah


Cinnamon Raisin Bread


Soft Rolls


Baguettes (in regular baguette form and batard)

Skanky Pie

Spoiled..

By (not yet) Chef Laurence.

Another Year Older..

Dinner the other night was super cute and delicious. Thanks, Larry!


For my birthday, Larry, Chewy, and I went to celebrate with The Vicencios in Sta. Rosa. As always, it was a blast. We had this whole weekend (quasi)planned out but nothing really goes to plan anyhow.

Late Thursday afternoon, we headed over and already Tito wanted us to start drinking and the usual round of pulutan was served from "the pantry." The cooking began and Tito's friends arrived.


Thanks, Mamel (the other dafter) & Baj for making me balloons =)


So much good food..


It's an octopus! It was delicious.


Sauteed potatoes, carrots, and beans with lots of herbs.


Extra veggies for the kare kare.


Kare kare, pandan chicken, and tofu and basil shrimp.


For dessert, I made an ube cheesecake and they put a baby candle on it for Baby Baquirin...

Let me tell you, these people can drink. We had a bottle of gin (for gout boy, Larry), 2 bottles of tekillya, and 2 bottle of Fundador. Suprisingly, we finished all but half a bottle of brandy because we were drunk. Only a select few stayed up until 6:30am only to walk down the street to get my birthday present from Tito Gallahad, a whopping 100 pieces of my favorite pan de sal.


We all ate breakfast, then Mamel and I passed out til lunchtime. I ended up catching a cold from all the festivities and was out of commission for most of the day instead of going to Splash Island like we wanted. The boys got in-house massages while we watched movies. For dinner, Larry took us to Paseo to eat at Racks. Not bad for the price but we had gone there with the intention of going to San Miguel Oktoberfest. The line was way too long so we decided to look for another place to go. All of Paseo was madness so we decided to just go to Tides in BF Homes to drink. After a chill night of Tanduay Ice, Larry's random screwdrivers & mango margaritas, the waiters singing "Birthday Sex" and dancing, shots of 151 and Chewy wincing in pain, it was a good birthday. Time to relax before going to General Santos on Tuesday. Thank you again for the birthday wishes! For all of you in the States, I miss you & love you guys!

More on Shakey..

Not only does this beetle love fried chicken, he is also an alcoholic. Two nights in a row he drank after playing his favorite game of air hockey.



Tito made us this delicious dinner of buttered chicken with baby corn, bell peppers, button mushrooms, and lemongrass. Yummm.

Shakey loves fried chicken

We found this beetle outside Shakey's. After swimming in San Mig Light we gave him some fried chicken skin. He dove right in and wouldn't let go.

SPF 30 ain't cuttin' it

New crib

Haven't posted anything in awhile we were busy moving into the new spot. We got a 2 bedroom at SM Berkeley on Katipunan Ave. The good: secure parking space, secure building, no dogs barking or chickens crowing, no bugs, 2 big pools, lots of room for all our stuff, SaveMore grocery store and BDO bank on the bottom floor. The bad: lots of time waiting for elevators, 24 hours KFC is too close for comfort, the LCD tv doesn't tilt low enough.

Isang Litrong Liwanag

A liter of light.

You Make Me Feel Brand New!

The new place.. not him. Haha jk. We moved in =) We love it.

Should've stayed in Laguna...

So after having our car fixed, Larry and I went to Laguna. Poor Baj was sick but found time to hang out with us. Tita Me came back from Bacolod the following day so we just hung out and ate a bunch. A good weekend away from the city though. Mamel, Larry, and I found this on the table the next morning. A note on my favorite pandesal ever along with eggs and corned beef. Yum yum!

Afterward, we went to Tagaytay to get some atis and go to church. Baj decided he wanted to be a mini version of Tito..


Super cutes! Then Mamel started being gangster at dinner & Tito was stoked that he got two fighting cocks.


We got home on Monday just in time for the rain and winds to come. The aftermath of only a Signal 2 warning in Quezon City resulted in this craziness ending with a dent on our newly fixed vehicle. Boo..

According to Tito Misoy..

This is the Laguna BelAir Boa Constrictor, AKA Carmel Vicencio. Like a snake, she finds the back corner of her cage to curl up and sleep.



Mamel, when you see this, please be our friend on FB.. Or else Larry will continue to sulk.

Carnivorication

Everyone knows I like meat (insert homosexual comment here), but I hate the meals on PAL and I don't really like feeling full on the plane. So this recent trip to SF I decided to try the vegetarian menu. Again, I AM NOT A VEGETARIAN and will happily eat a rare cut from House of Prime Rib to prove it.

MNL - SFO

The steam veggie potstickers were good for a main course, hardly noticed the lack of meat filling.
Cucumber, spinach, artichoke, salad had a nice vinegrette. Dinner roll was so dry not even the butter could save it, I only took a bite. The dried fruit snack I saved as pulutan for my ensuing beers.

Instead of the siapao, I got something that looking like a cheeseburger, maybe veggie burger. Surprisingly bread part of it was really good, like a bland foccaccia. Patty was kind of wierd, beannie and mushy. It was fairly cold in the middle, maybe a little more warmth would have made it more burgerish.

I like tofu, so it was nice to have a heaty portion of medium firm slices of it. The sauce on the tofu, shitake mushrooms, and asparagus was teriyake and very good. I don't eat rice but its hard to mess that up. The strawberry yoghurt was as it should taste, coulda used more fruit chunks. The fruit cocktail might have come out of a can, but I used to like that in my lunchbox so I ate it happily.

SFO - MNL

Dinner salad was a bunch of lettuce and one small cherry tomato served with a really tangy fat free lemon vinegrette. The marinara over penne pasta was like all filipino spaghetti sauce, really sweet, like ketchup. Best part of the meal was the baby mushrooms and broccolli. The fruit portion was a few slices of oranges and grapes, at least these tasted fresh and not canned. Bread was better than the MNL-SFO flight. It was slightly sweeter, almost like pandesal, and this time I ate it.

With dinner they gave me Manila brand light beer. Think its the first time I've had it. Asia Brewery is underrated. Tanduay, Tanduay Ice, Boaracay Rum, Colt 45, and now Manila Light. All fine products. FU San Mig. One the second drink serving I saw a can of Colt 45, after downing that it was nap time.

(Forgot to take a picture)
I was asleep during this snack serving. Thank you ambien and Colt 45. I even managed to sleep thru the Hawaii refuelling stop. They left me a siopao and chocolate cake which I scarfed down half awake. I kinda of regret eating the cake, Mia woulda liked it and I'm not really a desert person.

I love hashbrowns, and these were good, almost like McDonalds hashbrown that were reheated in the microwave. I wish that were crunchy but I was happy nonetheless. I really liked the roasted tomato, asparagus, and mushrooms. I feel like they give you better quality veggies by going vegetarian, the basic meal always has a TV dinner quality veg portion. Same sweeter bread, orange slices, and grape like last meal also. Woke up from my nap w/ gout so I passed on a breakfast beer and went with cranberry juice.

The verdict? If I must fly PAL economy class, I'm going vegetarian all the time. The overall food experience was better. I especially liked getting my food first; the jealous look from my neighbors was a nice feeling on an otherwise boring flight.