Jeffrey's 8th Birthday

It was my son's 8th birthday last Monday (January 17) and it's only last week (Friday to be exact) that we decided to make a small party (actually just a "merienda") for Jeffrey and his close friends here in our house. I was thinking that I'll just treat them in KFC just like I did in the past years (except for his 7th bday) because it's quite hard for us to do it here, we don't have a household help and we have our shop to attend too. Good thing was, Justine has no class every Monday and he volunteered to look after the shop while me and his dad were busy in the kitchen. Yahoo! So I made a short notice to the mommies of Jeff's classmates that no more KFC on Monday instead they'll just go straight here after the class.

Here are the pictures...

The birthday boy :)

The food...
I chose Filipino food this time :)

I was inspired by my friends Peach and Anney to arrange our table like
this... (galing kasi nila mag-arrange ng kanilang party table lagi)

Special Pansit cooked by my husband...
(sawa na kasi kami sa spaghetti last holiday season)

Fried chicken...

Pork BBQ

Hazel's Puto

Arny Dading's Peachy-Peachy

Sago't Gulaman for our beverage :)

A friend of mine gave a chocolate cake roll from Goldilocks...

Our house is small, that's why I put the kiddie chairs in our living room,

there were only 8 kids anyway :)

some paper bag for the giveaways :)

Jeff and his friends...

Enjoying their merienda :)

the pretty mommies

Thanks to him who made this "little party" possible...

Gone were the days...

Yeah, gone were the days of waiting in line for this famous Crispy Pata store in 11th Ave., Caloocan City that is very near Our Lady of Grace Church. I've known this Crispy Pata Food Cart when I was still in high school, my cousin introduced this to us. It was very popular then, because you have to wait for your turn for there were too much customers buying this sinful dish.

Days ago, my eldest son crave for crispy pata and hubby told me to buy it in our "old favorite". I was disappointed when I saw the patas in the food cart, there were only 5 pieces to choose from. Before there were too many patas and they have 2 sizes, the regular and the jumbo. But now, they only offer the regular size.

Anyway, since I was there already...

I chose the biggest and waited for about 15 minutes.

Still, I can smell the goodness of this fried dish :)


My verdict...




Yeah, gone were the days of too many customers but the goodness
and the yummy taste of their pata lives on!

Saturday Lunch Treat

We have some visitors coming for lunch today... we've decided to just grill some liempo and hito (catfish) and Yeye cooked Tahong soup.

Tahong soup with 7-up... panalo ito!

kaso.... I don't eat hito (catfish)

but hubby loves this fish so much lalo na if grilled...

I'll just settle for the grilled liempo

Solve ang lunch!!!

Kain tayo :)

The Best Lugawan in Tugatog

This is my 2nd entry for Vicks Lugawan. This is our fave lugawan in our barangay at talagang dinadayo sila kahit looban pa ang kanilang tindahan. Laging "box office" ika nga ng iba ang lugawang ito dahil talaga namang dinudumog sa umaga at sa hapon. The place is located at Libertad St., here in Tugatog, mas lalong kilala kung sasabihin mo ay malapit sa "Virgo". Ang Virgo ay isang mataas na building na halos katapat ng lugawang ito na bilihan ng mga toys from China.

Sobrang presko ang lugar na ito umaga man or sa hapon dahil nga natatabingan sila ng dalawang building na pagmamay-ari ng Virgo.

Madami ang kumakain dito, yung iba ay dumadayo pa talaga, minsan may nakakasabay akong taga-Caloocan City Hall at Malabon City Hall, may mga ahente, negosyante, at marami pang iba na trip na trip ang lugawang ito.

Simple pero masarap lalo na yung suka!

The best ang lugaw, dila, tokwa na super crunchy, penoy,

pritong lumpia at toktwa't baboy

Halos lahat yun ang order!

Actually, konti pa yang mga customers na yan... hehehe.

Yung mga nakatayo ay nagpapa take-out tulad ko :)

Uy! Ayun si Ate Vicks na camera shy ( naka-yellow shirt)...

buti pala nakuhanan ko ng picture!

O pano? Kailan mo dadayuhin ang lugawan na ito?

End of my craving :)

Yes! My craving for Good Shepherd ube jam and Romana's peanut brittle has ended. Kuya was here yesterday morning and gave me my "bilin". I'm glad na sinipag siyang mag-drive papuntang Baguio, it's two hours away from their place in Pangasinan. They just went there to have picnic and stroll for a day just like we did in Tagaytay.

Anyway, my most favorite peanut brittle is Romana. Super sarap nito among other brittles that is available in Baguio. I don't buy the yellow peanut brittle, because it's too sweet and you can't bite the nuts unlike the Romana brand.

Are you a fan of Romana too?

When it comes to ube jam, of course the one from

Good Shepherd is the best for me!

I really, really, really like it!
hahahaha!!!

Gosh... heaven is my feeling for 3 days...
(ubos na ito bukas for sure!)
Hehehehe...

Crabs

I love crabs! Lalo na kapag "babae", everytime na may tinda ang suki ko sa market na mataba ay hindi ko ma-control ang sarili ko na bumili. Sometimes, we cooked it with vegetables like ginataang langka and ginataang kalabasa at sitaw.

This time, hubby requested to just steam the crabs.

So ito ang kinalabasan niya.

Yummy!

Samahan pa ng sawsawan na kamatis, sibuyas at bagoong.
Grabe, until now i'm drooling while seeing this picture!

Sarap to with mainit na rice!!!



Kain tayo :)

Dinner at Gerry's Grill Tagaytay

We ended our Tagaytay Adventure with a mouthwatering dinner at Gerry's Grill. My husband wants to experience eating dinner overlooking the Taal lake, but it was too dark for us to see the view, hehehe... what we had experience and enjoyed was the weather, we were all shivering because it was too cold but definitely toleralable .

Me and Jeffrey :)

Here are the dishes we had for dinner...

Baked Scallops!
Super winner ito :)

Sisig is a must at Gerry's

Grilled Tuna Belly
One of our fave :)

Of course, Nilagang Bulalo!
Pantapat sa lamig :)

Hubby, Justine, Yeye and Jeffrey

(I took the picture...)

This ends our one day Nuvali and Tagaytay adventure.

I'm hoping that we can do this more often...

to unwind, to relax, to distress and most important is

to have more bonding moments with our kids :)

An Afternoon Bonding at Taal Vista

After our brief adventure in Nuvali, we went straight to Tagaytay. On our way there, we asked the kids if they want to go to Picnic Grove and try the zip line or go to Calaruega and stay there until late afternoon. They chose Calaruega over Picnic Grove so the latter is out on our list already. Thank God because there's a heavy traffic along the route going to Picnic Grove...almost all cars are heading that way. Before the junction, we again experienced a moderate traffic so I told the boys that instead of Calaruega, we'll just have to settle at Taal Vista and stay there till 6:00 pm.

I remember my first time to be here... It was our hotel familiarization tour 13 years ago and I was still a student then at LCC taking up HRM. I fell inlove with this hotel and promised to be back someday...

The facade of Taal Vista Hotel

Hahaha!!! I took a picture of them here before entering the hotel.

What I love about this hotel is that they have a magnificent view of the lake and the famous Taal volcano, in fact even better than the view at Picnic Grove and the place is not too crowded.

at the hotel lobby

good thing was... I brought this Sponge Bob table cloth :)

My youngest son Jeffrey really enjoyed his stay here...

We spend four hours here, it's a great feeling and we all felt good!

Bonding time of Justine and Jeff :)

And because it's super cold that afternoon we ended up ordering coffee at the hotel's coffee shop.

I, Justine, Jeff and Yeye had Cafe Mocha

Grabe! Hindi makuhang umiinit ng husto ng coffee :)

Hubby preferred the Brewed one...

He liked it :)

Hayyy... binata na ang anak ko :)

My husband ...

The fire place is cute :)

Hope for another bonding moment like this :)

The parking fee is P 100.00 per hour. We stayed for 4 hours but paid nothing at the exit... good thing was, Justine noticed that..... hahaha!!! Whoa! It's a secret that I opt not to reveal :)