January Notes

I'm amazed at how January flew by so fast. This month started my year on the right path towards my "Only Great Things for 2012" mantra. It brought me to a lot of fun-filled and productive days, from my weekend in kalibo to eating right to my going back to the gym. I do hope to keep this up throughout the year. 

Seafood Red Curry

I was showing my friend Tong, photos of the dishes I've cooked in the past and we both salivated over this Seafood Red Curry which was one of my early dishes, so I am reposting this from my old blog, but this time I'm including the recipe.

Seafood Red Curry

1/2 kilo shrimps (shelled & deveined)

2 pcs dory fillet (sliced)

1 pc squid (sliced)

1/4 kilo marble potatoes

1 red chili

2 tbsp red curry paste

1 cup coconut milk / cream

2 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 lemon 

3/4 cup water

coriander

2-3 tbsp oil

Deseed and chop the red chili. Set aside.

Place the potatoes in a pan with water and salt. Let it boil until soft, about 20 mins and set aside.

Heat the oil in pan. Add the curry paste and red chili, stir-fry until fragrant. 

Toss in the shrimp and fish, quickly coat with curry paste. Add in the coconut milk, water and fish sauce. Simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the squid and simmer for another minute. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and let it sit for a minute before stirring. Simmer for another 2 mins. 

Transfer to a bowl and garnish with coriander. 

*note: to make it spicier, add more red chili

Ati-atihan Weekend

I've been swamped with work since I got back from my weekend trip 2 weeks ago, so my apologies for this late post. A while back my friend Tong invited me to come celebrate her husband's birthday in Kalibo (the same weekend as the town's festival called the Ati-atihan) with their family and as I have never been to the Ati-atihan I immediately said yes. For those who've never heard of this festival, Ati-atihan is an annual feast held every January in honor of the Sto. Niño (baby Jesus), traditionally the celebration includes a weekend of parade with tribal dancing and music. Seeing as I was not a catholic this to me was a full weekend of street partying and drinking and what better way to start the new year with a bang. Here are a few photos of my great weekend!

Should've bought one of these. Will have to wait until next year

The hosts: tong and her hubby the birthday boy

The Tan Family

the boys and their supposed avengers-themed faces

Gone street dancing

I'm currently out of town, taking my first trip for the year. Will post about this trip as soon as I get back. Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Brunch No. 1: Bleu cheese scones

Scones and biscuits, what's the big difference? Geography -- that was my counter argument against my chef sister Katherine who insisted that scones and biscuits are two completely different things. I find that there really isn't much difference between the two other than the use of butter for the english scones and lard for the southern american biscuit either way they're both yummy and I prefer calling it scones.

We still had leftover blue cheese from last week, so I decided to make use of it before it went to waste and made blue cheese scones. Fifteen minutes of waiting for it to pop out the oven was pure torture as I was really hungry and salivating at the thought and as soon as it was out I quickly devoured them, was a cheesy delight! Happy Sunday everyone!

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Paper Lilies

Last christmas I did a whole recycling theme with my gift wrapping and to make my newspaper wrapping more attractive I decided to use paper flowers as accents. As a child, I spent hours in folding papers trying to copy not only my sister katherine's origami (i've always envied her crafty skills, though she rarely makes use of them) but also my brothers' boat and airplane folding skills. It was frustrating then that I couldn't come close to what they we're making but my patience in learning the craft and they're losing interest has made me eventually paid off. Here's one of the flowers that I made -- Kusudama or a lily flower as I like to think of it.

What you'll need:

5 sheets square paper (I used a 6" x 6") and Glue

The How-to:

Step 1: Lay your paper flat on the table and fold in a triangle. Then bring the two corners to the center to form a diamond and press.

Step 2: Fold each flap in half to create a fold on its center and spread it out to look like the image above.

Step 3: Fold the top part of each flap inside out to form an inverted triangle then fold the flap in half inward (follow the scored center of the flap). Add glue on one of the flaps and bring together both side inward, the two flaps should be facing together that from the top you'll see three folded "pollens" on the inside. Do this with all the sheets, once done glue each petal together and voila!

Two Thousand and Twelve

2012 has finally arrived. I've been looking forward to the New Year's for days now thinking of the things I want to do, people and places to see and personal goals to make good on. This 2011, I will spend the year:

1. Blogging More.

ps: I've abandoned my other blog leaving that to 2011

2. Looking to fall in love with the right person. Cue music.

3. Going back to church and God

photo courtesy of holybible.ucoz.org

4. Travelling.

5. Re-discovering baking

6. Continuing to live a healthy lifestyle.

7. Planning an exciting 30th birthday bash for myself.

photo courtesy of Geronimo Balloons

8. Becoming more charitable.

9. Stopping and taking a moment to notice the pretty things in and around.

10. Wake up early and get to work on time.