ANOTHER BIRDIE DEAD!!!

Just two weeks after Blue died, this time another yellow birdie was found dead inside the cage by the kids when they arrived this afternoon. Now I really wonder what is happening to them??? I have not been able to fathom yet what caused Blue to die and now another one has died. But you know what the bigger problem is??? I do not know yet how to tell my mother…she’d be heartbroken for sure.

PLAYING WITH THE NEW BUNNY

It has been two weeks since the new bunny was born and since Kaye said he or she is the third white bunny we had, why not call him or her Thirdy? And I countered why not? Since she came from a brood of three kits and was the only one to survive, so maybe he/she is the third in the litter, then Thirdy is just an apt name for him! This afternoon, we decided to borrow him awhile to play inside the house and here are some pics of his cute and cuddly form. We expect that he would be chubby since being the only bunny nursing, he won’t have much competition!

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES 27: CRISPY LIEMPO WITH ROSEMARY

Today, I decided to cook crispy liempo for their baon. I marinated the half kilo of liempo the night before in a mixture of calamansi, dried rosemary, salt and pepper. So that when the time comes for me to fry it, all the flavors would have seeped in to the meat. But I dredged the meat first in a little flour so that the oil would not scatter too much on the kitchen walls and even on me. Here are the ingredients I used for the recipe: (This recipe, BTW, was again lifted from Dennis’ Lutong Bahay blog)

1/2 kilo pork liempo
2 tbsp. dried rosemary
5 pcs. calamansi
salt and pepper
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
cooking oil for frying

SOFITEL FOR FATHER’S DAY

Today, we held a simple Father’s Day celebration at Sofitel - simple really despite the grandeur of the hotel because we did not really dine at their premier restaurant buffet at Spiral. But instead, we dined inside the hotel room eating takeout from Amber’s – palabok, crispy chicken, barbequed pork, chopsuey and lumpiang shanghai. Sure, we were a tad disappointed because we were expecting another Spiral treat (hehehe) but I guess what’s important is that we were able to spend the day together, even if we just watched TV inside the room while the kids swam in the hotel pool.

Anyway, we all had a sumptuous dinner at Dencio’s at Harbor square, just outside Sofitel. The food and company was just fine with me. I guess what made me a bit disappointed was the fact that we weren’t able to spend another’s father day with the father of my children. I am not really sure why but he doesn’t seem to want to join us whenever we go to my father to celebrate father’s day. I would have wished that he was here with us even if we don’t spend much to go somewhere nice at least we are all together? Maybe next year I could get him to change his mind…

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES 26: Pork with mushroom in white sauce

Hurrah, hurrah! Still the first week of classes and I am already on my second entry. I just hope I can keep this up for long huh?!? Okay, for my second salvo I chose another of my kids’ favorite – you see when cooking spaghetti some kids would prefer red meaty sauces but not my kids, they want their pasta covered in gooey and cheesy white sauce be it mixed with tuna or chicken. But, of course, I can’t cook carbonara for them all the time so I found the next best thing – cook their baon with white sauces since it would taste almost the same and be a more filling lunch at the same time.

So armed with another recipe from Dennis’ Lutong Bahay blog, I cooked pork strips with mushrooms (because my daughter loves mushrooms!) in white sauce. Here are the ingredients:

1/2 kilo pork strips
1 can button mushroom pieces
1 small can evaporated milk
4 cloves minced garlic
1 large red onion chopped
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1 tbsp. cornstarch
salt and pepper

Saute garlic and onion in a little oil. Brown the meat and season with salt and pepper. Add some water and let boil until the meat becomes tender. When water has been reduced, add the mushrooms, basil and the milk. Add the cornstarch to thicken the sauce. By the way, the original recipe from Dennis called for some green chili peppers but since this meal is for kids, I decided to omit it. Also, as much as possible, I don’t like to place too much liquid in my kids baon so I refrain from giving them soups or other viands like tinola or nilaga because it would be too cumbersome to bring two separate containers – one for the rice and another for the viand. Mostly, I serve them fried food or ones with a little bit of sauce like this fab yet very simple dish. Thank you Dennis!

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES 25: Milky Fried Chicken

Okay, I admit I have not been able to post anything much on my Kitchen misadventures series these past few months because I have just been cooking regular meals in the kitchen – nothing experimental and spectacular that is even worth sharing because it’s the summer school break. But with the opening of classes, I guess I have no choice but to do more cooking, especially for the kids’ baon. So for the first week of classes, I have decided to use a very basic fried chicken recipe from Dennis (from Lutong Bahay blog).

It's actually just the regular style of cooking fried chicken the only difference I noted was the addition of milk in marinating the chicken and mind you, it's a very good addition indeed because it enhanced the taste of the chicken but first the ingredients:

1/2 kilo chicken legs
1 c evaporated milk
1 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Salt to taste
2 cups all purpose flour or cassava flour

The night before, I marinated the chicken in the above ingredients (except the flour). Then in the morning, I heated enough oil for deep frying, dipped each chicken piece in flour and dropped each one in the smoking hot oil. I drained the chicken pieces in a wire basket before popping them inside the kids baon containers - quite simple enough? But the milk truly did wonders with this simple fried chicken recipe. Thanks Dennis!

AFPOVAI for June birthday Kitakits

For the month of June, the clan decided to hold the regular/monthly kitakits for June birthday celebrants at one of our Uncle’s houses at AFPOVAI located at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. I guess it was because Uncle Boy and his wife Mama Carol were here in Manila and as such it would be an opportune time to spend an afternoon with them since they have been based in Cebu after Uncle Boy’s retirement from the military service.

We arrived at AFPOVAI early at 12 and as usual we were the first ones to arrive even if we live so far in the boondocks. But that’s OK coz then we’d have the license to be the first ones to leave din later. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the general, still looking bright and sprightly despite his age. He led us to the sala and offered us drinks, but we told him we were just fine and went on our way through his house just like the regular visitors that we were. The kids and the hubby proceeded upstairs to watch TV in their 40-inch LCD at the entertainment corner. While I went off in search of Mama Carol and Auntie Bebs for some catching up on the happenings in Cebu.





The others arrived in a while and good thing too because we may end up eating all of the lechon ourselves if they don’t arrive soon. The lechon was delivered direct from Cebu so even if the skin was not so crisp anymore - it was truly delish! Aside from lechon, Auntie Chuchay prepared mixed seafood kinilaw, veggie lumpia and chicken teriyaki. Tita E bought hipon and alimasag while Ace cooked his special menudo. There was also Norwegian salmon sashimi which we ate first while waiting for the others to arrive.

























Expectedly, we all had fun and stuffed ourselves full of food throughout the entire afternoon. What’s good about having our get-togethers at AFPOVAI is that they had a treadmill and a stationary bike so one can shed off some pounds while waiting for the next meal (hehehe). But frankly, we did nothing but eat the entire day – since there were also an entire bilao of kakanin for meryenda/snacks and of course there was a delicious chocolate cake for the June birthday celebrants. Then, at around 5 pm, Ace started cooking the leftover lechon into paksiw while Auntie Chuchay cooked sinigang fish in miso for our dinner.

















They even wanted us to stay for the night but we declined because we had a new born baby rabbit that we had to look after and besides the hubby’s nephew got left behind at the house and I don’t think that he could manage staying alone in the house overnight. So after eating an early dinner and with some lechon paksiw for takeout, we left feeling quite satisfied with all the food and fun and laughter we just shared with family members we only see during occasions like these. Adios everyone! Till next month…

WHITEY’S NEW BABIES

Last night upon arriving home, the kids told me that Whitey has started to tear off some hair from her chest, a sure sign of nesting, in preparation for childbirth. And I was suddenly taken aback because I have seen that her tummy is still way too small to be pregnant. I began counting back to May 10 and indeed today is 30 days after they mated. Still, I watched her closely and I saw her exhibiting the same signs like the last time when she gave birth – digging the floors of her cage as if she wants to bury something and tearing off hair and carrying them in her mouth to a corner of her cage. I helped her make a nest of shredded newspaper. Then, I monitored her progress at 1 am and then again at 3am and finally at 5am but she still hasn’t given birth. So I thought for a time it may be a false pregnancy!

Then today, just as we were leaving for AFPOVAI at 10 am, I saw that Whitey had finally given birth to only three kits (so that’s why her tummy is too small!) But the sad thing is the other two babies died, I am just not sure why??? Maybe she stepped over them because one was so bloodied and seemed squished but maybe they were not really properly formed so that’s why they were too small. I would have wanted to properly nourish her first after her first childbirth that is why I didn’t want her to get pregnant yet. I guess her body just wasn’t ready to nourish another litter of bunnies just yet - so now we know! Next time we better wait a few months when she’s ready before letting her mate again.

BLUE IS DEAD!

We only had them for a month - four lovebirds or maybe parakeets that we have fed and nourished with different sorts of feeds/seeds. They were given to us by Mama the last time we visited her on Mother’s Day then this morning, I was surprised to see one of them, the cute chubby blue one lying coldly on her side - stone dead! I wonder what we did wrong??? Is it the weather that they were unaccustomed to??? But I did notice that some of them were pecking at him -the other three birds, particularly one small yellow one was bullying him. Maybe they got into a fight and I just didn’t see. Well, that’s just too bad because now we lost one pet.

FAREWELL …MANG QUETO!

Today, a few officemates and I visited the wake of a recently retired officemate - Mang Queto. He used to work for the Records division and so we usually see him going around bringing mail or other communication from the office to the different units. He turned 65 last year so even if he still doesn’t want to stop working, he doesn’t have much choice because Civil service rules prohibits hiring him even on contractual basis. I guess that took its toll on him since I heard he needs to continue earning because most of his kids do not have work and still depend on him despite having families of their own already.

They said he went to work for a previous boss of the office just to earn a living – doing some gardening and other odd jobs around their house. It was quite hot on the day he had a stroke so many believe it was the heat that did him in or maybe the pressure he felt or the desperation. I guess he was just placed in a very bad situation that’s not really at all his fault because he’s old and he deserves to rest and just enjoy the fruits of his labor. But alas he still can’t because he still has to earn for his family. He had been a casual employee for the most of his career which is why he wasn’t entitled to any pension and therefore can’t just cool his heels while waiting for money to arrive monthly. And I realize there are many people I know who are like that, they don’t have SSS or GSIS so they do not have anything to fall back on when their old age comes knocking on their door. It’s good if you’re still strong and can still work…but what if you’re not???

I hope when that time of my life comes, I won’t have to work anymore. I hope to just live simply on a pension that’s just enough to cover my meals and medicines (hehehe) I hope, too, that when I am already old my kids would still continue to support me, even the simple perks in life that I may have – like a cup of Starbucks coffee or even a trip to someplace nice. But one thing for sure I don’t want to spend the remaining days of my life still working my ass off. I hope to just chill out and putter about in a place I could call my own even if it’s just a small home with a small garden, lots of books, and of course, a laptop with internet!

KIT’S 15TH BIRTHDAY

It’s my little boy’s birthday today, but he’s not so little anymore. He’s turning fifteen now and today may be the last time that we may be able to spend his birthday with him here at home in case he gets accepted to MAAP next year. Oh no, I can’t bear to think of that just yet. I’m missing him already! So the hubby and I decided to leave early after eating lunch so that I could help in the preparations for his birthday. Thankfully, today we won’t be deluged by his relatives from Bahay Pare. Instead, it would be just us, family members and some of his friends/neighbors as his guests. We prepared siomai (steamed and fried), red spaghetti, carbonara, grilled hotdogs, fried itik/bibe and his friends drank Boracay rum. Well, I guess they had fun since they made some bit of noise outside. Anyway, here are some pics…

A not-so-new Yashica camera

I am just disappointed, not truly mad because I guess he was just a victim as I was. You see the hubby recently ‘bought’ a camera from a ‘friend’ - a friend whom he says is soon going abroad which is why he needed the money. But, in truth, we do not really need a camera, because we are still able to use the Kodak camera from the office. However, I thought that the ‘friend’ was truly ‘in need’ so I relented and let him use ‘our money’. But what was disappointing was that we were led to believe that the camera was a Canon, so even if it was already used, I agreed to let the ‘friend’ pawn it for 3K. Turns out that the camera was actually a Yashica camera – Japan-made but not of the caliber of Nikon - and what’s worse, there was no charging cable, no USB cable to transfer the files, nothing at all! Which leads one to wonder if indeed the camera was his friend’s in the first place??? Very, very disappointing indeed!










P.S. This is not a photo of the actual camera, this is just the file photo I got from the net. It seems Yashica is known for its DSLR line a long, long, long time ago (judging from the looks of this file photo) but not really for its point and shoot cams.

FILM REVIEW: Percy Jackson and the Olympians – The Lightning Thief

This is another good movie that was once again introduced by my son to me. It was about Greek mythology (an interest we both share) particularly the story of a young boy named Percy who discovers that he is a demi-God – a product of the union between a God and a mortal. But his dad is not just any mere God, but rather one of the big three, Poseidon. But he does not know this and grew up hating his father whom he thought has abandoned him since birth. Then, during one class tour at a museum, Percy was attacked by a Fury, disguised as a teacher who claims he stole the lightning bolt of Zeus. Percy soon discovers that another history teacher (played by Pierce Brosnan) and even his best friend Grover knew his secret identity and was protecting him all along. And so after the incident, Percy with his mom and best friend proceed to Camp Half Blood to further protect Percy and be with his own kind (demigods) but before getting inside, his mom is taken by a Minotaur.

Inside the camp, Percy meets other demigods dressed in ancient Greek attire – complete with weapons: shields, swords, and bows - to train and fight to harness their abilities. Percy goes on to meet Annabeth (a pretty brunette who was the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom), Luke (son of Hermes, the messenger God) and their teacher, Mr. Brunner who is Chiron, a centaur (half-man and half-horse) and trainer of students. Chiron, then brings Percy to his house/quarters in the camp and he soon realizes that he is the son of Poseidon. Chiron explained that this was why his identity needed to be kept a secret because being a son of the big three, he posed a threat to Olympians.

Percy then engages in training with the other students and they go into battle with Percy joining the blue team headed by Luke and Annabeth heading the red team. They soon battle each other for control of the flag and Percy uses the water from a nearby stream to regain strength and parry Annabeth’s blows eventually defeating her and getting the flag. That night, the kids celebrate with some dinner and drinks but their festivities get disrupted by a visit from Hades demanding Percy to give him the lightning bolt in exchange for his mother, who is his prisoner in the Underworld.

Later that night, Percy decides to leave camp to try to rescue his mother (despite Chiron’s plans to continue training first, go to Olympus to appeal to Zeus and rescue his mom later). He is joined by Grover and Athena who wanted to join him in his quest. Their only problem is how to go to the Underworld and so they seek Luke’s help because his dad (Hermes) is a frequent visitor there. Luke says he doesn’t talk to his father (still the same father issues as Percy) but he gave them three things to help them get there – winged shoes, a map to help them find Persephone’s pearls (to be used in going out of the Underworld), and his favorite shield.

Hence, the three proceed with their quest, with the map showing the first location of the pearl at a Garden emporium in New Jersey. They soon discover that they have inadvertently walked into Medusa’s lair. Percy and Grover find Medusa trying to get Annabeth to open her eyes and they save her with Percy distracting Medusa to run after him and beheading her. Before they leave, they find the pearl in Medusa’s bracelet and sets off to the map’s next location – the Parthenon replica at Nashville, Tennessee. There, they see the pearl placed on top of a statue of Athena, that’s 30 feet tall. The three had to wait until the museum closes so that Percy can use the flying shoes to reach Athena’s headdress and the pearl. But before they can peacefully leave, they had to battle it out with a five-headed hydra. Despite their mistakes (since Percy cuts off the hydra’s head which made two more grow in its place), they successfully get the pearl and defeat the now ten-headed hydra by using Medusa’s head, turning the hydra instantly into stone.

The map next leads them to a Las Vegas casino where they unknowingly placed themselves in a trance by eating lotus flowers being offered by waitresses. But Percy hears the voice of Poseidon which immediately ‘wakes’ him so he sets out to wake his friends as well. Finally, they head on to their final destination which is Hades lair in Hollywood. The three are taken inside hell by a boatman they bribed with drachmas taken from Medusa’s garden. Then, they are met by three ferocious hellhounds before finally meeting Hades. Hades revealed that he planned to get the lightning bolt to overthrow Zeus and escape the Underworld but Percy tried to explain that he doesn’t have the thunderbolt. They were all surprised when the bolt was found inside the shield that Luke lent them. But what was more surprising was how Persephone zaps Hades with the lightning bolt and tells them all to flee. She says she doesn’t want Hades to win the war since it would mean that she would be trapped in hell forever.

They all leave Hades lair, with Grover left behind since they only have three pearls and so one of them must ‘sacrifice’ to save Percy’s mother. When they crushed the pearl they found themselves at the top of the Empire State Building where Olympus is located. But before they could enter, Luke arrives to prevent Percy from returning the bolt. He reveals that he wanted the gods to go to war so they would destroy themselves and the demigods can then take over. He and Percy fight it out for the bolt and Percy eventually deluges Luke with water from overhead tanks and slays him with a trident shaped from water proving once and for all that he is the son of Poseidon.

Percy and Annabeth enter Olympus in the nick of time just as Zeus was about to declare war. Percy returns the bolt to Zeus explaining that it wasn’t him who stole it but Luke (son of Hermes) who wanted them to destroy themselves in war. Zeus accepts his explanation and declares peace. He also allows Poseidon to talk to his son for the last time. Percy also pleads to Zeus to bring back Grover from Hell and he surprisingly relents. Poseidon and his son finally talk and came to an understanding. The last scene shows Percy back at Half Blood camp with Grover sporting new horns and promoted to Senior Protector.

The movie is definitely derived from Greek mythology although not all the accounts were factual. It was a truly entertaining family movie with just the right amount of action, humor, adventure and history interspersed. In its way, it managed to convey Greek mythology as fun and would hopefully encourage the teenagers who watched it to continue reading up on not just Greek but even Roman mythology, just like what my son and I did because we had our book on Greek mythology open trying to search for the Greek references/stories that were used in the film. It truly is a more exciting and teen-friendly version of the Clash of the Titans.

[photo grabbed from IMDB]

11TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

We celebrated our anniversary today with a simple dinner celebration at home - no dinner out because it was a weekday (Thursday) and we had to bring the shuttle home. I pre-cooked the tuna in olive oil for the pasta this morning while I cooked breakfast, then I bought a cake from Aristocrat – their famous Torta delos Reyes so that the kids and even Ditse could taste this cake that I was able to try during Papa’s 50th birthday. Then I marinated chicken to be cooked in turbo broiler later tonight. Well, the dinner was a bit late even though I told them to cook the pasta already and I will just mix in the olive oil based sauce later. It was because the Shellane suddenly ran out so they had to buy it when we arrived. Then, the pasta seemed a bit bland (realized later that I forgot to put in some cheese hehehe) And the Honey glazed herbed chicken was a tad salty but still it tasted great and the kids enjoyed it! But the greatest hit of the night was the cake from Aristocrat - not too sweet but with all the chocolatey goodness and with crispy wafers inside, surely this would become another family favorite!

Anyway, here are some pics of the food I prepared…










This Honey glazed herbed chicken was marinated overnight in a little salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary and basil. Then before dinnertime, it was popped into the turbo broiler for 4o minutes and then basted with a soy sauce and honey mixture to achieve that golden brown color. Finally here’s the truly delicious cake…

Daily morning ritual – Fresh Calamansi

Today, I attended a meeting for a seminar-workshop that a unit of our office is planning to hold sometime next month and during the break, the presiding officer (a retired general) talked about his daily morning ritual of taking calamansi each morning – pure - no sugar or water just freshly squeezed calamansi juice. He says we should start with just 4 pieces then increase gradually by 4 more until one reaches 28 pieces and then we continue with that practice from then on. And what are the benefits??? Well, he didn’t actually expound on it, just that it cured his hyperacidity and that his bowel movement has become regular because of it. But I thought how could it be when Vit. C is acid??? But he countered that calamansi in its purest form is alkaline, hence it should help settle the stomach if taken first thing in the morning and what’s more one should not drink or eat anything else for an hour after that…hmn… makes sense actually!

So I did some research on it and found that this ‘habit’ is part of ‘The 52 Healing Habits’ that is an invention/creation of Mr. Bo Sanchez, well-known author and lay evangelist. He has been a vegetarian for 18 years and he has espoused this calamansi habit because according to him, it makes your immune system strong. It builds up your body to fight diseases and alkalinizes your body as well. Since cancer cells and germs thrive in an acidic body, they will not feel welcome in an alkaline system.

Okay, so I guess it may have its benefits and what’s more, it’s budget-friendly too so I might as well give it a try!
[photo grabbed from the world wide web]