hawaiian pork chop

I am on a roll! I cooked another dish last night and Hubby was all praises! Whoooppeeee! You see, yesterday on our way home from work, Hubby and I were talking about what to have for dinner, when I suddenly craved for Mama’s Hawaiian Pork Chop, and since we’ve never cooked that before, I called Mama right away. Here’s how our conversation went:

philippine consulate and polo-owwa office together again

Finally, the POLO-OWWA office and Philippine Consulate in Dubai are now located in one compound!

Since I came to Dubai, these two offices have always been far away from each other, causing a big inconvenience to the Filipino expats. Most of the time, people would go to the Philippine Consulate, only having to find out (after wasting their time in long queues) that they had to go to the POLO-OWWA office for their requirement (or vice versa).

orange fruit cocktail gelatin

It had been a while since I cooked anything special, so last week I decided to make some gelatin for dessert for our household which would be held the following day.

Out of the various Mr. Gulaman packets we had, I chose the orange one since that was Caila’s favorite color and I was hoping that it would make it look more appealing to her.

wild ginger with my babies

Before Joanne left for the Philippines for her wedding, I insisted that we had to get together along with her other sisters from my SFC household. As usual, it was practically another last-minute arrangement and unfortunately, this time Carol was the one who couldn’t come because she had already made plans with her members (and of course Gracie was back in the Philippines since early last year). Mitch suggested for us to try Wild Ginger which is located at Iconic in Deira City Center because she has a 20% discount voucher there, so since none of us had tried it before and it was easily accessible to all of us, that’s where we had our fellowship.

just me complaining about time, boredom and the heat

Is it just me or is the month of August just dragging by? For the past 7 months, the days and weeks were practically flying, but then it’s like time decided to slow down once August started. Maybe it’s because it’s Ramadan and we’re working shorter hours (our office works from 8am to 2pm), or I’m getting excited for our upcoming vacation...but whatever it is, I’m getting bored!

nicholas sparks is going to manila in october!

I just found out from my SFC baby Ces that my all-time favorite author in the whole world is visiting the Philippines for 2 days for a book-signing.
I am sooooo green with envy of all his other fans who will be there when he visits in October.
Ok sana if it coincided with our upcoming vacation but it’s not, and there’s no way now to reschedule our flights. Waaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!
I already suggested somewhere on his FB page to visit Dubai, but if anyone knows him or his agent, please BEG them to arrange for a visit here soon. I swear I’ll automatically take a leave off work if he does come over.

it's world youth day again

This is the week of World Youth Day, which is being held in Madrid, Spain this year. If I only had the time and money, I would definitely have loved to be one of the youth (since pasok naman ako sa age limit of 35 years old) participating. I swear, if 2008 wasn’t the year hubby and I got married, both of us would have joined the others who went to Sydney, Australia for the WYD that year. This event is really something every (Catholic) person should experience at least once in his life. The weeklong activities are just fun, colorful and amazing. And then finally attending mass with the Pope as the concelebrant, along with the thousands of people from around the world who are gathered in one big field just because of one common faith is simply awesome and inspiring.

my new "style"

When you’re a mother like me who wants to always capture special occasions and your child’s milestones, you have to have a camcorder. Fortunately, I have EBI, given to me by hubby for my last birthday, which takes good videos (and a few good pictures too). And when you have a blog, it’s practically a requirement for you to have a camera. It doesn’t have to be the latest model or a DSLR; an ordinary digital point and shoot one is ok as long as it takes good pictures. For more than 6 years, I’ve been using this

where will she go to school?

I’m getting a bit worried. Since Caila will be turning 3 in February (and just the right age when school starts in September next year), I’ve been searching the net for schools. Of course, we want to make sure that she'll attend the one that will provide a good foundation and help mold her into the best person she can be, so there are lots of things we have to consider to make sure we choose the right one for her.

blueberry muffins

Ever since my half-successful-half-failed attempt at making brownies, I was hesitant to make anything that required the use of the oven again. However, a few weeks ago when we were grocery-shopping, my hand (which seemed to have a mind of it’s own that time) pulled a box of Betty Crocker Blueberry Muffin Mix from the shelf and into our trolley. I really don’t know what made me do it, but I guess something inside me wanted to try to bake again.

maybe in their culture

These instances Hubby and I had with our colleagues just make me happy that I'm a Filipino who married because of love.

my successful attempt to cook tuna carbonara

Last Friday, my cooking skills (ha!) were put to a test when hubby went to Abu Dhabi to attend the Adam’s Quest conference of CFC. Since this was a whole day activity and hubby would be arriving pretty late, I had to cook something for dinner (lunch was easy because there were still some leftovers that we just had to reheat). I didn’t want to just fry hotdogs or chicken nuggets, nor did I just want to open a can of corned beef and sauté it with onions, garlic and potatoes because Caila always has to eat with soup or something ma-sarsa (she doesn’t eat much when the food is dry). On the other hand, even though we had packs of pork, chicken, fish, and beef in the freezer, I didn’t know how they should be sliced and what ingredients were needed (and if we had those ingredients in the kitchen). So, preparing pasta was the only other safe choice I had. The recipe seemed pretty easy to make and didn’t take too much time, so since I had all of the ingredients available, I decided to try it...and it was a success! Really! Here's why...