25.6.07

Martini

Care for a martini?

I was able to get a free martini from Mandarin Oriental, Makati as a regular patron in their hotel. Thanks to my dear ol company! Hehe. As you all know, I already stopped cajoling with alcohol since January. Otherwise, I would end up again counting stars around my big head.

But, if you happen to have some guests at your house and you a have a martini, I'll give you some hints in concocting martini. This is courtesy of my cuz who was a bartender in Tia Maria's.

WORDS OF CAUTION!!!!! WAG MAGPAKALASHENG!!!!!

Johnny Drunken Appleseed The apple or green apple martini is a much requested recipe. A tart taste treat, this very fun martini offers some interesting sipping.

Ingredients: 10 ounces of Fris Apple vodka. 1 ounce of UV Green Apple vodka. 1 green apple, washed and peeled. 1 ounce of apple schnapps. 2 cinnamon sticks. Sugar Half a lemon

The mix Cut your lemon into quarters and gently squeeze the juice of one of the quarters into the shaker. Put the lid on the shaker. Shake with a vertical motion 15 times. You may limit your shaking to 12 times if listening to a swing or jazz tune. Strain this excellent liquid into 2 very chilled martini glasses. Slide a stick of cinnamon into each glass. Grate a small amount of green apple into each martini.

Mango-Cuz-Tini martini This is perfevt during zummertime as mangoes fill the streets of Pinas.

Ingredients: 4 ounces of freezing Cruzan Mango rum (or any mango flavored rum). 4 ounces of freezing Cruzan Vanilla rum (or any available vanilla flavored rum) 1 teaspoon of Cointreau. 1 vanilla bean, cut lengthwise. 2 ounces of orange juice. 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. 2 frozen mango spears. 2 large, very well chilled martini glasses. A pair of rubber flip flops.

The mix: Kick off your shoes and put on the flip flops! hehe Scrape the insides of the vanilla bean into a shaker that is 3/4 full of cracked ice. Into your shaker go all of the liquid ingredients except for the heavy cream. Shake like mad! Shake, shake, shake some more! Spoon the heavy cream into the shaker and swirl the shaker for about a minute. Strain your elixir into your martini glasses. Each glass gets a frozen mango spear.

Crazy in da Coconut martini If you are on a budget and a coconut tree is just outside your pad, heck your in luck for this miz is for you baby!

Ingredients: 6 ounces of freezing vodka. 1 fresh vanilla bean or vanilla. 1 tablespoon of cream of coconut. 1 teaspoon of fresh coconut flakes.

The mix Add a few drops of the cream of coconut to 2 freezing martini glasses, and put them back in the freezer until called upon. Put vanilla into the shaker which should be 3/4 full of cracked ice. The remaining cream of coconut goes into the shaker. A good full minute of shaking (stirring is not an option here). Strain your martini into the glasses in which you've added the cream of coconut. Top each glass with a few coconut flakes.

12.6.07

Vintage Ermat and Erpat

1974 photos
graduation days
Papa and Tita Rose Papa Grade 3
Manila, 1950's
Almost a military......
What most people don't know about him during his heydays:

He was the Corps Commander of the Colegio de San Agustin, Bacolod in 1971. He was a black belter of the Tang Soo Do Karate Club in Talisay Negros Occidental. His and Lolo's fave spot in the 50's is the Luneta Park and Manila Bay Marina. His most treasured item is his Indian inspired costume wahahaha. He likes jumpers. He used to play snare drums.

What most people don't know about her in her early days:

She won a Declamation Contest in Canossa Sta Rosa entitled "Alms". She graduated with Honors in Canossa Academy in 1975 (three years later I was born). She wanted to be a policewoman. She was consistently voted as MUSE from Grade 1 to 4th year high school. She and Tita Lyd were classmates in 4th Year high school.

11.6.07

Fortuitous Cook

I learned to live by myself since high school, thus I have been a domesticated moi most of the time with a little less outlay than my bourgeois classmates. Not to mention my abilities to spend a little over than 100 bucks in a week during college, courtesy of fried egg and lucky me noodles.

Well, from those kick ass days of being a thrifter, I am now using it after sevral years of graduating from college. Actually I need to have a healthy diet as possible. Plus the fact that Lil Bro needs nutrients in his body all day long. So without any adieu, I took the task of having a daily routine of cooking-in- style hehe. Nahhh it's more of cooking with what I have in the fridge or what's been hiding in the closet or what SM, the local supermarket, has to offer.

Amazingly, I have these variety of dishes which I can't imagine in my entire life I could cook nor rustle up .

1. Pork dobo with Potatoes

2. Pork Sinigang in Taro or Tamarind

3. Molo Soup with Meatballs

4. Vitnamese Soup with Taro Balls (my own recipe)

5. Miswa Soup

6. Champorado (in Ricoa Cocoa)

7. Tinolang Manok

8. Coleslaw in Wasabi Dip

9. Garlic Bread with Pesto

10. Chicken Soup with Quail Eggs

11. Ginataang Sitaw with Crunchy Pork Bits

12. Menudo

And these are the over the top dishes that I would like to cook someday..(DREAMER!):

1. Chicken Puchero

2. Kare-Kare

3. Laing 4. Tinapang Bangus

5. Llanera (a Lucban deilicacy)

Antsatsalap neto!!!!

I do not dream of becoming a cook. It's just a call of need. But I am beginning to like the idea of wearing that "chef hat" and holding those ultra-shiny metallic cutleries. Maybe someday...hey you can never tell...I once had this idea of designing and owning a restaurant in Makati or Tagaytay if I do have THE BREAD. See you someday in my bar. Hehe.

6.6.07

Mga mangingisda ng TAAL

As Jesus was walking along the shore of Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were fishermen and were casting their nets into the lake. Jesus said to them, "Come with me! I will teach you how to bring in people instead of fish." Right then the two brothers dropped their nets and went with him. Jesus walked on and soon saw James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were in a boat, mending their nets. At once Jesus asked them to come with him. They left their father in the boat with the hired workers and went with him. Mark 1:16-20

4.6.07

Countdown to Nirvana

This is the 44th time that LIL BRO had his daily streptomycin injections. Wow...sored na cguro ang dalawang balikat niya with all the syringes that plunged into those frail, skinny arms.

On June 21, all these will stop and hopefully he'll recuperate after four (4) months. Oral medications are still needed but on July 11, these meds will have to be stopped also...Sa wakas makaka-gimik na din ako hehehe....

But surely i'll gonna miss those daily trips to the company clinic come 9 pm. That I would have to drive him to the refinery just to have his dosage of the strep. Afterwhich, he would ask me to go to downtown to satisfy his craving for banana cue or turon c/o the street vendors outside of the 7-Eleven store, or buy special siopao asado de Andok's Lechon or treat him for a jumbo bart burger ala Burger Machine. Small "hilings", but you know, I am glad that I can still do this for him. In a way, I am fulfilling the so-called BROTHERLY-cum-MOTHERLY-cum-FATHERLY LOVE that he might probably have not cherished or he had lost during the days that he thought he was alone. We still have a long way to go before I can tell that LIL BRO has changed. But for now, I am more than happy with what is happening with him.