I Miss You

The night before my flight back to Philippines, I was so sad that I cried in my room. The reality hit me in the face! I’m leaving and I don’t know when I’ll see them again and I’m going to miss them very much.

Since I don’t want to go downstairs where my sister and fre was to tell mom how sad I was and risk being seen looking like an idiot, there was only one person I could think of to contact and confide my sorrow state.

You know what was said that for some reason, gave me comfort?

Our time with others is always LIMITED

That’s the fact of life that made every second sweeter I think. My sister once asked me if I am not yet tired with nephew’s antics and my response was, I don’t have the luxury to get tired because I’ll be leaving soon.

With this thought, I crept to nephew’s room one night and took a picture of him while he slept like an angel.

Here are some of my memories with nephew that I love:
- Nephew dancing in the car to the tune of Sweet Like Cola by Lou Bega
- Nephew’s wet kisses when I fall asleep at Oma’s house
- Nephew screaming “bang bang bang”
- Nephew helping me wash the dishes that gets me in trouble sometimes
- Nephew slapping my butt (to mimic Fre i think who slaps my sister’s butt)
- Nephew’s big hug before he sleeps

There’s a saying that no one forgets their first love but this isn’t true in my case. Mine was perhaps the ultimate jerk in the whole world and it’s embarrassing to talk about it with anyone especially parents. Thankfully, I have a sister who helped me out when I was at my bottom. I believe that every woman should have a sister and I’m proud that my sister was her.

Seeing her again after 6 long years felt a bit weird. You have to understand that BOTH of us were raised by parents who aren’t the most positive people in the whole world so it’s hard to express positive feelings at all. Although my sister was out of parent’s hair for years now but I’m still very much stuck with them so I get psyched about being careful with sister and setting them apart. My sister would have none of that however so it was very touching to be welcomed into the fold and be treated like a family.

Here are some of my memories with sister that I love:
- Sister takes time to do my hair
- Sister removing white heads on my nose (nyahaha)
- Sister making me orange juice (but my response was, it tastes like medicine)
- Sister asking me to join the family circle at Ardennes park
- Sister showing me how to make leche flan and others
- Sister taking time to show me the castle though the weather was bad

I’m happy to see my family in Belgium and I’m happy that Fre is with them now.

I may not be able to convey verbally well or show them with my actions that I love them but I do, somewhere inside. And I know parents do too, at least in their own weird backward way.

Love Triangle of the Year – Goodbye Facebook

I’ve deactivated my facebook account for the nth time and I got a feeling it’s going to remain deactivated for quite a long time if not forever. WHY?

There was a shooting news last month in one of the malls in the country that got a bit of media attention due to the circumstances of death. It turned out that 13 year old boy shot his 16 year old boyfriend in the head due to jealousy with another guy before shooting his own head too.

Is this THE love triangle of the year or what?

I read this in the news but didn’t really give much attention to it until I received an email with pictures of the minors involved that were taken from Facebook. People could be a bit cruel sometimes with their side commentaries and all that which is really their business anyway except that it made me realized that I don’t want to have an active Facebook account when I’ll die. And since I don’t know exactly when I’ll die, I’ve had my facebook deactivated in advance.

I know! I’m weird that way.

Speaking of being an internet addict, one of the news I’ve read is that text and internet addict people are more prone to getting HIV / Aids. You can read about this juicy piece of news in detail from Yahoo Philippines.

I didn’t realize that there are people who are into casual sex with multiple partners which were previously arranged via text messages and internet.  I guess some might find this exciting perhaps but considering the consequences, are you really willing to take the risk?

But then again, young people seem to have this feeling of being an “immortal” and that all this talk about HIV and other problems are nothing but media / religious hype.

At least until they get sick and die.

And when they do, I wonder if they will ever say or think…

I wish I had a relationship with my hand instead!

Beef Quesadilla with Salsa

Did you know that there are 5 basic tastes so it’s not just bitter, sour, salty and sweet anymore? The fifth taste was discovered by a Japanese national, hence the name UMAMI.

Cheese and Tomato are rich in Umami and being a woman who run on a cycle, I crave for Cheese and Tomato combo every bloody month.

That’s why I decided to make Beef Quesadilla with Salsa one fine afternoon.

Ingredients:
500 grams ground beef (rich in Iron, good for bleeding woman)
Eden’s grated cheese & quickmelt cheese (big mistake these two)
Chopped Tomatoes
Flour Tortilla
Onion, Garlic, Salt, Pepper, Calamansi Juice, Basil

Directions:
Season ground beef with juice from a Calamansi, salt, pepper and basil.

Saute ground beef in butter with onion and garlic until brown.

Using turbo broiler, put the cooked beef and the rest of the ingredients on a flour tortilla before topping it with another tortilla. Cook for 5 mintues in 220 Celsius. Serve with Salsa.

I was itching for mozzarella cheese really but the smallest quantity sold at the grocery was 2.3 kg at 1,330 pesos (23 Euro). And since I can’t have this expensive cheese, I went for the cheapest that I could find instead which was Eden’s grated cheese (i’m too lazy to grate cheese) and quickmelt cheese.

Both cheese unfortunately ruined my quesadilla because they don’t have a nice sticky quality when they melt. Quickmelt might melt fast but it was too runny for me.

Still, the best thing about this food is that everyone loves it no matter how ugly / soggy it looks. The next time I’ll have my bloody cravings though, I’ll try cheddar cheese instead.

Easy Peasy, Cheap Shrimpy

Have you had any shrimp lately?

Mom and I went to the market last weekend and she bought 500 grams of shrimp for only 110 pesos (2 Euros) which is already more than enough for 4 people with small appetite.

Mom enjoys the simplest way of cooking so after washing the shrimps, she seasoned them with salt and pepper before frying them with 2 cloves of onion. Cooking is done when shrimps turned beautiful pink and water juices in the pan is gone.

I thought to sprinkle with chopped basil for pictorial effects.

Fruit Shake

Anything cold and sweet is bound to be a hit in hot Philippines so it’s not surprising to see fruit shakes or halo-halo being sold even in the sidewalks by street vendors.

But nothing beats home-made goodies where you can splurge on fruits and less on iced water and sugar, so we prefer making our own fruit shakes using our powerful Osterizer blender.

Ingredients:
Diced Mangoes or any fruits in season
3 tbsp of evaporated milk
1 tbsp of condensed milk
Ice cubes

Directions:
Put everything in the blender and turn it on for few minutes until smooth. The end

Other than fruits, I also love carrot shake where the same ingredients are used but I like to add a squirt of juice from a calamansi (lime?!@) and a few drops of honey.

Current prices I found in our market today:
1 kilo of mango = 55 pesos or 1 Euro
banana = 3 pesos per piece
papaya = 8 pesos per kilo

Don’t you just love cheap fruits?