My Race to Freedom!

captured from the ceiling of the dela Rosa elevated walkway in Makati City

While walking I looked up and saw this obra on the ceiling. It reminded me of who I am, who I am with, and where I want to be. I say I will walk, then I will run... and eventually I will fly too!

I will not waste my time on mindless things but I will make sure that my loved ones will have a future to look forward to.

Someday I want them to say "Mommy took that race and won!"

Just do it!

This struck me and I believe that there is an iota of truth to it... thinking again. it's a whole new world of truth!

"Stop blaming your circumstances and take responsibility for your loved ones"

When will you start if not now? When will you ever have time? If you keep telling yourself that, then there is no real progress. Courage starts when you tell yourself that there is no better time than TODAY!

1...2...3... Action

I've never thought of myself as someone good in socializing. In fact, in all the years that I've brought my kids to school I've been unsuccesful in building my network with co-parents. Believe it or not (though am sure most of my friends would vehemently disagree), I am a little more of an introvert than an extrovert. I am NOT the type of person who will go out of my way to get to know you. It takes a lot of warming up before I am able to open up. So when Warangkana Gear Fajardo, CEO and Founder of Good Meal Hunting told me that there will be a video shoot of Viaña's to be scheduled soon, I was already imagining all sorts of scenario that may happen during the actual interview.

Anyway, the video shoot of my actual cooking demo and interview was done last Thursday here at my humble abode. I prepared 2 dishes, Chapchae (Sauteed Korean Glass noodles) and Barbecued Pork slab. Since I was pressed for time to buy pork ribs, I just used the one that I already have at home. The group who worked with me were all young girls; fresh graduates of Ateneo de Manila University. A very vibrant group of young ladies! 

After the cooking demo,  photo and video shoot, we did the interview next. I had to prepare for it. I know I am not really that good in answering extemporaneously. But I guess my experience in Saudi Arabia helped a lot in this area. Back there when my husband went to work and the children are in school, I would talk to myself 😂😂😂 .. well sometimes to the walls of our home., all things considered. I would even jokingly tell my husband that even the walls talk back in Arabic, so that any kind of communication is futile! 😂 hahaha Anyway, the interview went well, but it was as if I was suddenly on fire. I would like to think that I was able to answer the questions to the best of my abilities. But most of all I hope they could do something about my chubby face on cam hahahaha

Popping it up with Good Meal Hunting

My marinating, prepping up, and eventual cooking of the dishes that I was bringing to the pop up kitchen organized by Good Meal Hunting went through without a hitch. Thanks to my ever reliable nanny Sheila and my youngest son, everything went on smoothly except that we forgot the parsley that I was supposed to use for plating. My husband knows how much I abhor driving through Edsa as I expected traffic to be horrible. But thanks to the phone app called HERE (which by the way is an app developed by Nokia and is still useful even without internet service), I was able to breeze through the trip via C5. 

As soon as we arrived we prepared everything on the table.  For the life of me, I wanted to knock myself on the forehead for not checking out Pinterest. I wanted my first pop up to look rustic or picnic like even but this is the best I came up with, with the limited time I had to come up with other ideas. 

The dishes I prepared for this event? I did Slow cooked Pork Belly with 2 kinds of gravy - Creamy mushroom and Apple raisin. It was served as a complete meal, with macaroni salad to complement the dish. I also prepared Chili Tuna Pasta, Coco Custard cups, and Oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips.

Slow cooked Pork Belly set meal 

All in all I had fun, am sure our nanny Sheila and my youngest son Alloy enjoyed themselves too! We almost burned the rice though as I just noticed. that part of my warmer was missing so, that the bottom of my warmer was directly in contact with the can of wax that I used. It was my first and I am ever so grateful for Good Meal Hunting for giving me this kind of opportunity and exposure!

Awakened... a super late post

July 1, 2016

Having slept early I woke up at a little past 3am and remembered that I had to marinate the pork slabs in preparation for the event this coming Monday. I won't say tbat yet here as I want it to be a surprise! 😍 So, I hastily rose from bed and went straight to the kitchen to clean the pork slabs, rub it with my secret 😊 spices and do the marinade. I thought of putting it on slow cooker as there were 3 more slabs to prepare. Well what turned out to be a short trip to the kitchen brought me into action when I saw the piling laundry by our washing machine. Of course my OC-ness won, and I just had to finish doing the laundry too!

Interestingly enough, I suddenly thought of Fawaz broasted chicken! hahaha I wish Fawaz would put up a franchise here in the Philippines soon! #musingsofanearlyriser

Perfect timing

Yesterday I excitedly told my husband the result of a business meeting I attended to earlier that afternoon. I was struck by what he told me after sharing with him the good news. He said "See Mom? Remember that time when you were frustrated about not being able to find work, I told you that things happen for a reason, in God's perfect time - right?  Well, this is God's answer to you! "

Indeed, it was! For every failure there is a reason and we should not stop just because of a single hiccup. We must move on... we move forward! We look for better opportunities not just wait for it! Nothing comes from just waiting for the right time or the right circumstance. For every big plans, we have a bigger God!

Our Nanny McShei(la)

On our way home from the grocery, nonchalantly I asked my youngest son if I've forgotten to buy something that her nanny Sheila requested me to buy. Suddenly we both faced each other, eyes wide with fright; we said at the same time ... "Hala! How will we explain that to Ate Sheila?!!!" Then we both started laughing. It was really funny how our longtime nanny affects us this way. Even my husband would agree. He used to complain about having to finish up his glass of water. But try telling him, "drink that or face nanny Sheila's wrath!" and he would drink up without a fight!