I’ve a busy afternoon to look forward to. After this quickie post (that feels more like a Twitter update), I will:
Wash lunch dishes
Bake cupcakes
Try two different frosting (both very new to me)
Buy ingredients for truffles
Checkout additional prizes for the Halloween party later
Prepare the place for the annual 99 19th Street Halloween revelry! 🙂
This is the first year we’re having it on the 30th instead of the 31st. The kids have Trick-0r Treat around the seminary compound tomorrow evening, so they’re bound to have their regular fill of candies, goodies, and scary FUN! 🙂
Once again, here are THE Halloween images from the past two years:
I had a wonderful weekend. First, because it’s a long one (but not long enough ;)), three days due to the fact that I filed Sunday as vacation leave. Second, because I baked three cakes in three days! It was sooo much fun, the cakes were light to make, and the boyfriend was my assistant. And all three turned out too good not to share.
So no, I didn’t go on a real vacation, no pools or beaches or atv rides. I was indoors almost the whole time, but baking is such good therapy that it completely de-stressed me. 🙂
What’s with the bake-a-thon? Special people in our lives celebrated their birthdays and we chose to honor them by making cakes. Friday, 17th of September was my cousin Candy’s birthday, as it was Alfred’s mom and cousin Theo. We made Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Sheet Cake. She calls it the best chocolate sheet cake ever so I really had my hopes up for this one.
The next day, we decided to make another cake to bring to the surprise party for Alfred’s Nanay. She’s not into sweets and not a big chocolate fan so we opted for something else. Tres Leches Cake. I also used PW’s recipe.
I fell in love with Tres Leches. And all who tasted it, loved it. We loved it so much we decided to make another one today so my parents and my brother could taste it too. Also because we only had one teeny slice of the cake last night at the party, hehe.
I have more pictures of the bake-a-thon, and a few more stories to share, but my weekend’s over in a few hours and I gotta go get some sleep.
How was your weekend? What’s your favorite cake? Did you have one this weekend? 🙂
We were at the Greenhills on Saturday until around dinner time. There are several restaurants there that we already consider favorites, but we wanted to try something new. We had our sights on Casa Reyes. Both Alfred and I were already very hungry, I was sure that taking appetite suppression pills would have been the only way to keep us from gulping down food!
Casa Reyes, from what I gather (but I wasn’t able to confirm this) is operated by the family of Mama Sita. The matriarch of a family that has also released cook books featuring native Filipino dishes. They also have their own line of seasonings and instant mixes.
Upon entering the restaurant, we had to wait to be seated. There were other patrons enjoying their dinner already, and the crew were still clearing the table for us. After seeing the seasoning products on display, next thing I noticed was the cute and vintage-looking high chairs for little diners:
So Alfred and I are both BIG people right? Sabi ko, “palagay mo, pag nagka-anak tayo kasya kaya dito?” (I joked around and asked whether he thinks our future kids would fit in such small chairs!) haha 🙂
We got our table just a few minutes later. Ordering wasn’t easy! They have a lot of dishes to choose from, and being Pinoy food, most are definite favorites. In the end, we settled with these two orders:
Fresh Lumpiang Ubod
Kare-Kare
Though the Kare-Kare is shown here on a plate with a cup of rice, we actually got it in a pot, a palayok. I haven’t been eating rice, so I had the lumpia to myself, and Alfred shared the Kare-Kare with me. Both dishes were very tasty. I loved the lumpia, and it was priced reasonably too at less than a hundred pesos for the plate. Don’t ask me though if I prefer it over the famous Globe lumpia. I’d have to have them at the same time to make a comparison. 🙂 The Kare-Kare wasn’t special, or maybe it’s because we had just had home cooked Kare-Kare a few days before this meal. Dad cooked Kare-kare for the first time, and we all loved it. 🙂
We ordered dessert too, it was my guilty pleasure for the day:
Chocolate mousse
Leche Flan
All in all, we were satiated. The food was okay, the pricing was not bad. But the boyfriend wasn’t too happy with the service, he even commented that we weren’t going back there. I understand that it was a busy night, but there was a number of waiters staffed that day anyway. We didn’t order drinks with our meal but asked for glasses of cold water. Alfred normally needs more than a glass with his meal, so even before we finished eating, he’d already asked for a refill. He didn’t get it even after the second time he asked. Our glasses were finally refilled only after I had asked, and we’d asked for the bill already. It wasn’t as if they couldn’t see us (we’re very easy to spot), the request was acknowledged the first two times he asked, but it wasn’t granted. Sabi ko na lang kay Alfred, You should smile while asking. 🙂
So I think it will take a while before we set food inside a Casa Reyes resto again. Too bad because I really think they serve good food.
[Food photos in this post were taken using the LG Renoir camera phone, while the first photo was shot with My S Phone. I haven’t been toting Deena regularly like I used to :(]
I should seriously hit the sack. Sunday is the new Monday and I have to get back to work in a few hours.
Work.
I can think of so many other things to do on a Sunday:
Go to Church (haven’t attended Sunday Mass in a looooong time)
Photo Shoot
Sleep
Bake flourless chocolate cake (or learn to)
Meet up with a friend or two
Get on my iPad
That last one is a BIG threat. Hahaha. I must stay away from the iPad unless I really want to be a zombie at work tomorrow due to lack of sleep. 😀
This weekend was a good one. I had an afternoon with my girlfriends, there was some drama, yes, but I had a wonderful time catching up. After picking up the iPad on Saturday (again thanks to my cousin who bought it for me from the Apple SG store, and her friend who carried it home), I also got to drop by to see another girlfriend who wasn’t able to join us on Friday). We had a super brief chat because my dad was waiting in the car for me, and she was having her nails done at The Barbershop in Project 4. I realized later that I should’ve just asked Dad to leave me there so I could get a foot spa; I could have taken a cab home anyway.
But in a few hours, I have to face work again, and I’d have to focus. We’ll see if I’d be able to accomplish much on my first work day for the week. The soonest I can get things done, the more time I have and less pressure to finish by the end of the week. The good thing about working directly with agents again is getting to talk to them about their plans, and for some, even their hopes and dreams. Learning about their background and what they like doing outside of work, or what they intend to do with their lives, is something I look forward to. Knowing their motivations takes a lot of time, but as managers we need to have an idea. I was talking to one agent last week and was surprised to hear that he studied to be a nurse. If he gets tired of the call center industry, he can switch to healthcare jobs. He doesn’t seem interested at this time though, because he’ll have to do volunteer work at first and re-train before he can get a paying job. Oh well.
So I gotta go sleep, while there’s still time for it. 🙂
I know that in the US, this weekend was the three-day Labor Day weekend. We definitely felt it here too, miles and miles away, because calls to outsourced customer service accounts dipped. 🙂 Here in the Philippines, next weekend will be a long one, owing to the declaration of a non-working holiday to mark the end of Ramadan. Many, even non-Muslims, are gearing up for a short vacation.
Even my nephew was talking about a trip to Ace Water Spa with my parents, and he didn’t seem to have the intention of asking me to tag along. He told me yesterday that they were going back there, so I asked when. He said, “sa three-day weekend ba yun?” 🙂
It would be nice to take a dip this weekend. Wonder if chlorine in the pools would be okay for my, by then, week-old rebonded hair? 🙂
back view 🙂
Hay. I wish we could somewhere this weekend too. A quick trip to Baguio, or nearer, Tagaytay. Or an overnighter somewhere, even a hotel in the city! I wonder how weekend Branson vacations are like? I’ve read a blogger talk about planning their trip there, or it happening now this Labor Day weekend?
The next and really only trip Alfred and I have planned is the one to Cebu next year, in February. Oh shoot! I wonder if it’s coinciding with a colleague’s wedding?
Okay, I just checked, and it does. Our last day there, is the day of the wedding. Not that I’ve been invited yet, but since we talk about it, is it safe to assume that I am? 🙂 Oh no, that would be sad. I wouldn’t want to miss it, but our tickets are non refundable and not re-bookable. Or maybe it is, I’ll have to see. They hadn’t set their wedding date yet at the time we got the tickets. 🙁
