dana820.blogspot.com

Christmas day lunch. Clockwise: I had lengua with sweet potato and saging na saba slices, roast chicken, embutido (it was my late grandma's recipe daw ) and a pork rib. Not pictured was a bowl of savory pancit molo that I also dug into. The lengua was my fave on this plate -- yummy! This may not look like a lot but it really was. It's just that we used big plates. Happy new year! :)

How strange this must look... like a novelty cookbook page (sans the recipe) that was made with the thought that filling up every space with media makes for good page composition. Moving on... The portions of food we had at this year's Christmas eve dinner were bigger than what we'd normally have. There was much left over. But we figured that the pansit canton (left) wouldn't keep well because it had corn starch so we ate as much as we can and it was nearly polished off. We tried to do the same with the menudo (right, pinoy version with purefoods hotdog) but failed because we ate with lots of rice. All in all, a filling eve. Oh, we had fried chicken too. Almost everyone had a cup of decaf or tea afterwards, enough said.

yahoo email was fine with receiving mms. but months ago, yahoo quit receiving mms. see, i take pictures with my phone. i used to send photos on my phone to a yahoo email via mms without worry. suddenly, at one of those mms-sends, the phone prompted that the mms was sent but it did not show up in the recipient's yahoo email. at first i thought mms was buggy so i tested it some, as is only logical, and sent an mms to another email domain that's not yahoo. that went through and was successfully received. ergo, only yahoo quit receiving mms. tonight, i took pictures with another person's phone. i sent the photos to a yahoo email... yes, via mms. toink, that's (their) 10 pesos down the drain! i forgot that yahoo quit receiving mms. sorry. [data cables and wi-fi weren't viable options in this short narrative... in case you were wondering]

christmas food pics coming soon! took some shots of our noche buena's & christmas day's grub. i ate a lot, to the point where it's like you're pregnant & it's hard to breathe & walk. sigh. it feels great when all you want for christmas is to see your baby nieces holding the christmas presents you sent them... and you get a picture of that without even asking. i've dropped my sister so many hints about taking pictures when i send gifts to the babies which i stopped doing when 2010 started. i'm glad she remembered it this time. happy, happy me.

Had a bit of holiday fun last week which included opening a bottle of wine from marks and spencer called "lambrusco rose". A dear someone bought it last year but we haven't had a chance to try it until some days ago. Here it was, properly chilled. It was sweet and semi-sparkling... very yummy, very girly. We had these nice milk chocolate-topped oatmeal dessert cuppies too. They were soft munchies. Me thinks that they were meant for another time but my sweet wine buddies broke 'em out that night. They're great. Will definitely make it up to them next time.

nicked someone's early holiday present ... ok, i asked first and they said yes. this tiny thing is quite thoughtful and useful since it's a citronella-infused candle. it's supposed to repel mosquitoes. i believe it's working. but three evenings in, it's all but burned out. pictured here was just day 1. oh well, it's good while it lasts. but the scent does give me a slight headache. just saying.

Oops, I nibbled the pita wrap. Anyway, here's a KFC California maki twister, unwrapped. The last time I had one of these, I only had half. I think that was a good thing 'cause I would not have finished a whole one. Now, it's not because it's a big serving since I think it's about right for one gal. But it's nakakaumay and if it wasn't for a surprising crunch from a cucumber strip 1/4 into the roll, I'd not have munched through half of it. It could be too much of one texture (or too much sauce). As to the other half that I didn't want to finish... I shared it with someone. :)

My second kamiseta[dot]com order arrived! Hurrah! Now, what's inside is as much for me as it is for a couple of people - for presents, I mean. Glad that's taken care of. The time-sequence of this transaction was similar to my first one - completed within a week . Order was placed Monday evening (their receipt landing page is buggy still, or they just can't get it to work so they left it as is ... the latter's probable). Received e-mail confirmation of order (mentioned that tracking info will be e-mailed too) on Tuesday morning. Wednesday , no e-mail about shipping received. Thursday , still no e-mail if item shipped so I went to my online kamiseta[dot]com account and saw the package's air21 tracking info there so sent text inquiry to air21 = tracking info not found daw that meant that I won't be receiving the box that day. Friday , texted air21 again = "in delivery vehicle", excited, and it came. Great! Oh, what's different from my previous t...

Sauteed canned mackerel ( saba ) in oil + egg This is what the combination's supposed to look like. Well this has been standing for an hour or so already and wasn't reheated, but you get the idea. I was just glad they left me some - more than half, from the looks of it. Briny and savory, best eaten with garlic fried rice - plenty of it. Hardly needed salt, really. The trick is to dump the mackerel first on a skillet (medium heat) with some of the oil from the can and break them up in big chunks. Then mix in the beaten eggs. A couple of eggs (3 if they're small) for a 15 oz. can will do. A chopped shallot thrown in at the beginning is taster's choice (but I don't prefer it).

enjoying sherlock holmes (on symbian60 "ereader") so much that i forgot about "the hobbit" earlier. my plan has been to read eBooks to fall asleep and read the tangible tolkien when i can during the day. "the hobbit" was started the day before. i placed my bookmark where i stopped, excited to get back to it 'cause it was as wonderful as i'd hoped. last night, i started my 2nd doyle ebook (the study..) but i got into it too much that i didn't stop until i was yawning and teary-eyed. rest assured, i fell asleep as soon as i put my phone down. it was ereader that i reached for after breakfast. it was "the study..." that i read (and finished) today. now, i want to read tolkien but i've no reading light. telling myself that i knew this was going to happen is sad. now i know to stick to my plan. i need to get sleepy now. writing about this my plan B. yes,my lids are getting heavy. goodnight.

Comforting chicken afritada . Someone learned to cook this at the time and for their first try, the taste was right on. It was thick, tart, salty... yum. Would've wanted more meat though, but we only had native chicken pieces that weren't many to begin with. Nothing turns out a hearty dish with a handful of meat than by stewing -- plenty of carrots and potatoes here, as you can see. Oh, and lots of thick, flavorful sabaw too.

when u get the feeling that something bad is gonna happen... i put a couple of fly paper sheets on the floor in hopes of catching a little critter i've seen scampering around at night. i laid them out tonight. one is by the garbage can. then, i went about my usual way. i picked up some paperwork with a grabber (explaining what's with the grabber isn't important). as i pulled the grabber up, it got caught on a cable. the papers went loose. as if in slow motion, they gracefully fell on the fly paper. they landed on the fly paper next to the garbage. [sigh]