resolutions, resolutions.

just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

‘10 winter

mama.

Quanyin. 

smudged girls.

in 2011 I enrolled myself in Sketching and Drawing 1 Class. It was alright except that it was only held once a week and trudging to class on a cold monday night didn’t help my resolve. I wish it was an everyday thing, that way I could get into the habit of practicing even contour drawing. The class was only for about 6 sessions butI did learn a lot. I’ve never had formal drawing classes so I wish I could attend a really good class soon this year. I kind of wish I pursued Fine Arts but then I didn’t know I wanted to yet. So for 2012 I’m going to try and sacrifice even 15 minutes of my time drawing (while following the rules!).

I also got an HTC Flyer Tablet from my aunt but its drawing capabilities are but minimal. 

Still, I was pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished! Behold my childish doodles:

Yeah, laugh… my mom did.

 I wish I could get a Wacom Intuos Tablet this year!

Humpty Dumpty sad on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…

quiet days at home with my little polar bear.

The throne. random drawing.

a rainy memory.

the confused and annoyed intern.

naked dreams. self portrait.

the right to self-expression. pain.

yen and blackie. childhood.

the intern in her winter sausage jacket.

Date with mom. January 2012.

Passion tea and apple pie while studying and spacing out.

“I’m a tree that grows hearts, one for each that you take.”-Bjork

Salad roll from Pho Tan. 

2nd photo’s actually the neighbour’s roof through some pine trees…

Tiramisu Cake.

I woke up late, expecting nothing. I rubbed my eyes when I heard footsteps rushing into my bedroom. Happy Birthday! It was  a glorious morning spent with breakfast in bed. 

Bibimbap, side dishes and spicy squid at UBC’s Suga Sushi Restaurant. They offer both korean and japanese sushis but most reviews say their korean dishes are better. Delicious meal for student friendly prices. :D

“Home is where the heart is”, it’s the truest cliche I’ve heard in years. Since I was young we’ve been moving from place to place. I have snippets of memories from each place; the Bukidnon hymn still lulls me to sleep even at twenty-two, Cagayan de Oro’s Gaston Park reminds me  of the blur of yellow christmas lights as I fell asleep on my father’s back.

Oroquieta reminds me of quiet afternoons napping on the hammock under our neighbour’s mango tree and days spent with friends, by the beach in our navy Stella Maris’ uniforms .

Cebu reminds me of reckless youth. I was living in a nun’s dormitory but somehow that never stopped me from coming home at 5 am, travelling to Argao without permission or sneaking out after curfews.

Manila was like going back to my earliest memories; the distinct scent of my grandmother’s house brought me back to summers spent with cousins, cuddling puppies in the garden, playing with old telephones and pretending to be the boss in our grandfather’s office. The Manila I know as a big girl is a little different, a little more sinister, a little more exciting. Everyday was an adventure, a risk, every day spent meandering about the city’s metropolitan was a test for the fittest. 

Then there were the vacations, rural areas, urban areas, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, provinces, towns and names of barrios I cannot recall anymore. All these have left a mark in my memory. 

But what about the cold west? So far, it hasn’t touched me in any way. With its post-card perfect scenes, immaculate city streets and modern buildings, I would have expected to warm up to the place so quickly. Instead, it feels cold and distant. I guess first-world pleasures never guarantee class A happiness. 

I miss the frequent trips we took from Cdo to Oroquieta and back. The scenery was something else, it was quiet and picturesque but a little eerie. There were lots of food vendors along the road, and on the way we would buy bibingka, fruits and crabs! The 5-hour long trip was worth it. I knew we were getting near once we rode the barge. And afterwards, we would go to the different towns on the other side. With their pristine beaches, little public libraries, lanes of old houses and vast rice fields, it was not hard to fall in love with this sleepy region. Hidden beneath its quiet exterior though is a bloody mess of politics and drug crimes. Maybe that’s why there’s an aura of foreboding in some areas.

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.”

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.”

“We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.”

I am awake.

The Agency: A Spy in the House

A fun read, an exciting series even for young adults :)

Amy Cohen’s The Late Bloomer’s Revolution. 

Finished reading Hunger Games and Looking For Alaska.

Pyongyang. A graphic novel by Guy Delisle.

The Secret Life of Bees. At 17 you wonder if its possible to feel at peace even through tumultuous times.

Memoirs of a Geisha. And in between your teenage years, you forget what year you’ve read most other books, but the memory of the stories still linger in your head.

The Temple of The Golden Pavilion. At 16 you thank the lender of the book and wonder if your obsession with beauty is as strongly as Mizoguchi’s.

The Da Vinci Code. At 14-15, a catholic school girl you question the authorities around you. Wonder what truths your religion is hiding.

Eleven Minutes. At 14, the sensations are nothing new, but still you feel the need to close the book once in a while and breathe.

The Catcher in the Rye. At 13 you marvel at his adventures…and thought-process.

The Spy Who Loved Me. At 12, you sweat profusely from the confusion and sensation this sexually explicit novel evokes. 

The Great Gatsby, at 11 you wonder if you understood anything. I think I did.

The Harry Potter Series. At 10, one had to start somewhere. the pathway to bookworm realm.

Ingredients:

chicken wings

hot sauce

orange marmalade

soysauce

oyster sauce

vinegar

hot sauce

garlic

vegetable oil

flour

Procedure:

 Chop the chicken wings in half, separating the wings from the leg.

Put salt, pepper, hot sauce and sprinkle some vegetable oil and mix.

Place in a clean plastic bag with a cup of flour and shake.

Place on a baking sheet covered with foil and coated with oil. Sprinkle oil on chicken wings. Place in the oven at 400F for 30 minutes. Turn over on the other side and place it again in the oven with the same heat and duration.

In a separate container mix the orange marmalade, vinegar, oyster sauce, soy sauce and garlic and bring to a boil. Let it simmer.

After oven-frying the chicken, place it in a container and pour the orange sauce. Toss and shake. Let it sit for five minutes.

I made a very simple salad today for breakfast!

Just chopped some onions, lettuce, tomatoes, feta cheese, added some bacon and sprinkled it with a Balsamic vinaigrette.

For a quick fix and a healthy munch, you should try this! :D

My friend requested a list of ingredients and procedures so I’m indulging him on this one! And since there are many kinds of sushi I make the basic one, the most inauthentic sushi you could get from the grocery store.

Ingredients:

Cooked Rice

Vinegar

Crab Sticks

Cucumber

Mango (any fruit you’d like in it)

Nori (Dried Seaweed)

Procedure:

1) If you don’t have any sticky rice, here’s what you do. Put vinegar in your cooked rice and mix it with your hands until it is all sticky.

2) Place the rice flat on the seaweed square

3) Chop cucumber, crab sticks and mango in elongated strips and place on top of the nori.

4) Roll the nori with everything in it and chop to the width you want it to be.

TADAH! it’s so easy and fast. My cousin and I used to make this before our roadtrip to Baguio. The meat he used however was scrambled egg and tuna. So it’s really up to you what you want in there!

If you have any kikkoman, wasabe or japanese mayo that would be better :D

Frizberry frozen yogurt. Around early 2010 when Cebu only had two froyo stores and Cagayan de Oro had none. I flew to Cebu intent on satisfying my cravings!

When I’m not cooking up something in the kitchen I’m eating so I thought about merging my eating and cooking habits into one blog. I already have a humongous backlog of food photos since my gastronomical adventures in 2008 ( Not countiing 2007 because I didn’t have any camera in those days yet!)

This is Leche Flan from a Filipino Restaurant at SM North’s Annex back in 2009.

Ingredients:

Onions

Mushrooms

Bacon

Garlic

Onion Chives

Pepper

Salt

UFC Spaghetti sauce

Procedure:

 Mix everything into a frying pan and add red sauce! Okay so most of the time when I run out of sauce I chop my own tomatoes and fry everything in olive oil the mix it up with the pasta but for this one I was lucky enough to have sauce in my cupboard! I will blog about that as soon as I make another batch of our homemade sauce. 

YUMMEH!

White sauce is also known as Béchamel

It’s very easy and quick to make and requires very few ingredients!

Ingredients:

Butter/Margarine

Salt

Milk

Flour

Procedure:

1) Heat the butter in a pan and let it melt. Add flour into the melted butter, add salt too. (For measurements, just go with the flow. It really depends on how much you want to make but for this size I only used about 4 tablespoons of butter)

2) Cook on low heat and stir for 4-5 minutes. This will eliminate the flour-y taste.

3) Pour milk and stir constantly, pour in as much as it takes for the consistency that you want.

4) Because I use this for pasta and not for soup, I add onions, garlic, basil, bacon and lemon juice…

and here it is! My basic white sauce from scratch:

Ingredients:

Mushrooms

Onions

tomatoes 

ketchup

cheese

tortillas/ pita bread

whatever inside’s your fridge

Procedure:

chop everything, lay them out on the tortilla and microwave!

and walah! instant snack, you can roll it up or not, whatever you wish.

Before anything else, you should have sweet and sour sauce or even barbecue sauce. You can buy at the grocery but you can also make one yourself. Click on this link for a really easy home-made sweet and sour sauce recipe which is the one I did for my first try. You can opt not to use any cornstarch for it.

For this dish’s recipe I got it from this website.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons oil
2 pounds beef short ribs (or beef back ribs) 
2 onions, sliced finely
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup commercial or home made sweet and sour sauce 
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup chili sauce
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

1) First I chopped two onions into little cubes.

2) fry the onions in a pan until it softens and the aroma and flavors come out. Place them in the baking dish.

3) Place the short ribs in a pan with oil an fry until they are brown.

 Afterwards, place them in the baking dish together with the onions.

4) Mix the sweet and sour sauce with water, honey/sugar, chili sauce, soy sauce and garlic and heat in a pan.

5.) Pour the sauce over the ribs. 

(Sometimes I add mushrooms to my dish just to have a little extra something in it)

6) Bake for 45 minutes, cover the ribs for the first 30 minutes then bake uncovered. I use foil.

And..

Walah! Behold the yummy goodness of baked short ribs in less than two hours!

It’s so delicious, and I swear it has become a family favorite! 

Ingredients:

Eggplant, Mushroom, Tomato, Cheese, Salt and Pepper

Procedure:

1) Slice the eggplants. I have round short eggplants but if you have the elongated ones you can slice them in generous proportions, maybe sideways. 

2) Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and lather your fingers with the salt and pepper on the eggplant. That way, it won’t just stay on the surface.

3) Top with chopped tomatoes.

4) Top with mushrooms.

5) Top with cheese. Right now I’m using mozzarella but any cheese will do!

5) place inside the oven, you can bake or grill it. Because our oven is a little bit boinked I  just use the microwave. I’m not sure how long it should sit there, I guess it depends on you. 

And Walah!

Warning: The whole thing tends to be soggy because hey, there’s eggplant and tomato all in there  but if you don’t mind a messy eat then go for it!

You can always change the ingredients too, whatever inside’s your fridge will do. :D

Welcome! Welcome!

The mad scientist always wanted a cooking show with her sister but so far that hasn’t happened yet. 

So unlike the chefs she reads in magazines and feature articles, she did  not grow up in her grandmother’s kitchen and lalalala. She came to love cooking because it was at first a necessity. Since there was no trusted house-help around, she had to go to the wet market (yes, not the grocery) to buy a weekly stash of fish, meat, poultry, vegetables and fruits. This escalated to cooking for the family on rare occasions when her talented sister could not cook. Since then, she has learned to love the zen in cooking.

The Mad Scientist is no chef, nor has she ever been trained. Everything you’ll see up here is by the guidance of the internet, cookbooks, her sister and by her own concoctions. She is by no means an expert, but really, just a kid finding her way through the kitchen. 

freelunchphotographer:

I miss the frequent trips we took from Cdo to Oroquieta and back and forth. The scenery was something else, it was quiet and picturesque but a little eerie. There were lots of food vendors along the road, and on the way we would buy bibingka, fruits and crabs! The 5-hour long…

“Over the seas you will go

On your lonely travels

As if expelled,

As if running away.”

I love to venture into town 
I love to get a few drinks down 
The floor gets packed the bar gets full 
I don’t like life when things get dull 

-Frida Night Saturday Morning

It was all gold and red in the temples of Manila.

Underneath the skies of home. 

Today I climbed four flights of stairs before taking the elevator to the 8th floor. While climbing I looked through the glass windows and saw how beautifully old the yellow-bricked building adjacent to our school was. Going home I walked towards the farthest train station from school. I looked down on the people going about their daily lives, construction workers shovelling the ground, people riding in their bikes, walking the dogs, groups of friends on their way home from school, machines and backhoes slowly moving through the grainy pavement. I decided to get off two stops before mine and took a leisurely walk along the neighbourhood. And I know it may sound cliche but stopping to see makes you feel more alive.