Fried rice 101

Got some leftover rice in the fridge? Here's one easy and tasty way of frying your rice.

What you need:

• Rice
• Bacon strips
• Garlic
• 2-3 Eggs
• Salt, pepper

Kaang Masman Chicken Curry

My co-teachers and I decided to have a bring-your-own-food-and-watch-a-movie kind of day yesterday. We were officially on our day off and we simply decided to relax and share a good meal together. We had a bucket of KFC, some vegetable salad and fruit salad, fried eggplant and egg, fried noodles and chicken curry.

My husband, who's a better cook that I am, decided to make Kaang Masman Chicken Curry. Thanks to some of our friends who went to Thailand, they brought back different curry powder and my husband had an excuse to try one of them.

Here are the ingredients:

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Tomato Sauce

Ever since my husband and I had an oven, I have always wanted to use it and bake something. We were able to bake a cake and make barbecued chicken. Today, I wanted to do baked macaroni and cheese with tomato sauce.

Here are the ingredients:

• 4 cups elbow macaroni
• 5 tbs unsalted butter
• 1/2 medium onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• salt and pepper, to taste
• ground pork
• 1 cup condensed milk (we like our sauce to be a little sweet)
• 2 cups grated cheese

What color is it? It's Pink!

Every now and then, Aston English School holds promotions to encourage and invite students to enrol in our school. I already wrote a previous post about this where the school had us do promotions outside on Labor Day. We were at the square doing demo classes and playing games.

Today, I had the opportunity to do three 20-min demo classes in a middle school. Each class almost had 75-80 students from grades 3-5. We picked our own topic and I chose to teach them colors.

Hot pot on a hot day?

Last Tuesday, some of the Chinese teachers in our school decided to invite us for some Chinese hot pot for lunch. 

Hot pot (also known as Chinese Steamboat or Chinese Fondue) is a Chinese way of cooking where they serve you a big pot of soup, or in our case, our own individual pot of soup and some various food materials that are put in the pot such as sliced mutton, beef, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, glass noodles, frozen bean curd and seafood. There are built-in burners on our table and as soon as the soup boils, we put our foods and wait for them to cook for a few seconds. We were also served different kinds of dipping sauce to add flavor to our dishes since we don't need to eat rice with it. I usually prefer the peanut sauce with a little bit of garlic, meat oil and spring onions.

A typical hot pot setting where you have the choice to choose between a spicy or a non-spicy soup

A variety of ingredients to make your own dipping sauce

Hot pot is usually ideal in winter because it keeps us warm while giving us more time to talk and socialize with friends as we wait for our soup to boil. It's also a fun way of sharing a meal together where everyone cooks their own meal right at the table. 

Thinking of making your own Chinese hot pot?

Reducing Large Audio/Sound Files on Mac

I have made another discovery that most Mac users might find helpful. Being an online English teacher (a part-time job), we are sometimes required to record our classes and submit for observation and scrutinization. The audio/sound files that I usually have tend to be large that it's usually hard to send through email. With further research online, I found an easy solution to reduce large files. This can also be helpful in condensing your music collection, even allowing you to fit more MP3s to your player or burn to your CDs.

Simply follow these simple steps:

1. Open your iTunes.

Strawberry Milkshake, anyone?

What's the best drink to make on this hot day? 

Answer:

Yup! Some creamy, smooth and cold strawberry shake would surely beat the heat and make your day. Thinking of making yourself one? Here's an easy way to do it.

Reducing the size of Large Photos on Mac

I've been a Mac user for almost 2 years now but I'm still discovering a lot of new things everyday. This morning, as my husband was trying to submit documents to his new school, he kept getting frustrated because he can't seem to upload his .jpg files. As it turned out, the sizes were too big. He then requested I reduce the sizes of his files. For a while now, I had no trouble sending photos thru Mac email as it is automatically resized (depending on how large or small you want your attached file is) for you. I also didn't have any reason to resize them until now. 

My mom, my superhero

My mom is my superhero. She may not look like it, but she's a very strong woman. She may be quite emotional but she has the strength of more than ten thousands of men.  

The BABES in my life

I read this quote today that says "True friendship isn't being inseparable, it's being separated and nothing changes" and it got me into thinking how lucky I am that I have those kind of friends in my life. I call them the BABES.

Love is sweeter the 2nd time around!

When my husband and I celebrated our 1st anniversary, we were far from each other (him in China and me in the Philippines). But this year, we were finally able to celebrate it together. Waking up on your anniversary with the one you love cuddled next to you was such pure bliss. 

Chicken Macaroni Soup

The past few days had been surprisingly cold and wet that we often wonder what season we're in at the moment. The weather for the first few weeks in April were quite perfect that we were able to do a lot of outdoor activities such as picking strawberries, going bowling and visiting nearby cities to shop. Recently, with the weather we're having, it takes quite a lot of effort just to get out of bed. 

On days like this, it's so nice to cuddle with the one you love and watch movies while having a bowl of hot Chicken Macaroni soup. 

So how do you make one, you might ask. It's quite simple. Simply prepare the following ingredients:

Sweet-Sour Fried Fish (Escabeche)

My husband and I went to the open market one day and bought ourselves some fish. We usually just fry them every time we decide to have fish lunch or dinner but on that day, we were having some guests in our apartment since it was Thanksgiving Day. With a few hours ahead of me, I quickly grabbed my one and only cookbook and started searching for an easy and quick way of cooking fish (besides frying it, of course!)

Climbing Qinling Mountain in Xian, China

Every school term, Aston School usually holds team building activities to promote camaraderie, teamwork and to fully know each other since we get new teachers (both foreigners and Chinese teachers) every term. For this year, we went to Qinling Mountain last March 19. We were instructed to come to school early (as in 6 in the morning!) and to wear comfortable clothes. 

We took 2 buses and travelled for almost 2 hours to get there. Days prior to the trip, it was still a bit chilly and windy. Thus, it was such a relief that the weather was absolutely gorgeous that day. I guess I mostly slept throughout the entire trip because I was still sleepy that time plus the fact that I am not a morning person.

When Mr. & Mrs. S turned 1!

Married couples usually look forward to celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary because this marks to see how much they have grown and it gives you a very tangible and physical reminder of just how far they have come. Anniversaries remind them the reasons why they're still together and what made them fall in love with each other. It also reminds them their promises to each other as they stood before God, family and friends. They stood there with wild optimism, hopes, and dreams that were strung from their heart straight to their partner’s and believed…as a child believes in Santa, that it all would come true.  

So how was our 1st wedding anniversary, you ask. Here's our story:

A laptop bag for a fashionable techie!

I have always been on a hunt for a fashionable laptop bag. When it comes to fashion, I always make sure that everything matches. You invest time and money on clothes, only to encounter crisis on which bag goes to which clothes. Being a techie girl myself (I never go out without my phone, iPad and laptop) I need a bag that would fit all my girly stuff and protect all my gadgets. Luckily, I found Alesya Bags online. It's the most functional and fashionable bag I've ever seen. Check it out yourself!

Hundred Islands in Pangasinan: We came, we saw & we conquered!

"Well, hello there, sunburns!"

On January 29, 2019, my husband's family decided to go island-hopping therefore off to Hundred Islands we went. We left Urdaneta at five o'clock in the morning and reached the port after two and a half hours.

We were greeted with this as we reached the port.

Today's dessert: Mango Float!

I've always loved desserts. A meal is never complete without an ice cream or something sweet for dessert. Way back in high-school, I went to my best friend's birthday party and she served me this mouth-watering and heavenly dessert. It's a combination of mangoes and cream that tasted like ice cream but looks like a cake. It has become my favourite ever since. It's so delicious and so easy to make. It can go in any occasion, whether it be a formal or casual one. Just follow these simple steps and soon you'll be enjoying it's divine taste.

Ground Pork with Vegetables in Tomato Sauce

Here's another attempt to my awesome culinary skills (Tee-hee!). I decided one evening to surprise my husband my making one of his favorite dish: Giniling na baboy with tomato sauce!

Ingredients:

• ground pork

• onion and garlic (diced)

• carrots, potato and string beans (all diced) and mushroom

• boiled eggs (simply because my husband and I loved them)

Steps:

• Saute garlic and onions.

• Put in ground pork and wait till it turns brown. Mix salt, ground pepper and soy sauce.

• When meat is already tender and has turned gray, put in the vegetables. 

• Mix tomato sauce after vegetables are already cooked. Add sugar if you want it to be a little sweet. Let it simmer for a few minutes and mix the eggs.

• Ready to serve.

Inalamangang Gulay (Vegetables with Shrimp Paste)

My husband and I have been living in China for quite a while now that most of the time we crave for some home-cooked Filipino cuisine. We were lucky enough to have some alamang (shrimp paste) from back home. Since I can't cook Pinakbet, this dish was close enough.

So here goes my Inalamangang gulay. I am sure there's a name for this kind of dish but I am not simply sure if it's called Diningding.

Sinigang (Stew) is my favourite dish!

Whether is Sinigang na Baka (Stewed beef), Sinigang na Baboy (Stewed pork) or Sinigang na Bangus (Stewed milkfish), there's no stopping me from devouring it. It's my all-time favorite dish. So tonight, my husband cooked Sinigang na Baboy for me. Yey!

Bryan's 1st Tokwa't Baboy

Tokwa't Baboy Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilo pork (cut into chunk cubes)
• 5 pcs tokwa (bean curd or tofu)
• 2 heads garlic (minced)
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 3 small onions (diced)

Tokwa't Baboy Cooking Instructions:

                                     

• In a casserole, boil pork in just enough water with salt, lower fire and let simmer until pork is tender
• Take the pork out and set aside

                                     

• Fry tokwa (bean curd) in hot oil until toasted and slice to the same size as the pork
• In a saucepot, mix vinegar, soy sauce, salt, garlic and onions and heat for just a few minutes 

• Mix the mixture over pork and tokwa

• Serve hot

Source: http://www.pinoyrecipe.net/tokwat-baboy-recipe/

One PERFECT Afternoon

Close your eyes and try to see yourself walking in a sanctuary surrounded by a stunning garden of luscious trees, mainly mango trees, or having the ambiance of a well-kept haven of greens while the sun is slowly setting down. Imagine the trees with multitude capiz drop lights lighting the place, dramatically emphasizing the trees, as you smell the sweet scent of flowers and hear the harmonious sounds of birds and insects singing. As you continue to conjure this image into your mind, try picturing yourself walking down an aisle of birds of paradise while the man who you're going to spend the rest of your life with waits on the other side.

Is this picture close enough as to what you've imagined? Isn't the picture just perfect?

Quick Barbecued Chicken

A friend of mine gave my husband and I a whole chicken so we decided to browse mom's cook book and decided to try a new recipe.

Here's an easy way to barbecue your chicken.


Ingredients:

2 chicken halves (in this case we used chicken thighs)

2 slices lemon, 2 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp garlic powder (but unfortunately we ran our of garlic powder so we weren’t able to include it in our marinade)

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper

1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp sesame oil

Garlic and Onion Pasta

Ingredients:

• Garlic, onion (but we ran out of onions so we just made do with garlic only) and ground pork

• Pasta and tomato sauce
• Salt, pepper, sugar and soy sauce

Steps:

• Saute' garlic until it turns a little brown.

• Put in ground pork. Mix soy sauce, salt and pepper. Leave it for a few minutes until meat turns gray.

• Add 2-3 cups of water and let it simmer.
• Mix the tomato sauce. You can add sugar if you think's too sour. Let it simmer. While doing this, cook the pasta in boiling water. Make sure to add salt and cooking oil before pouring the pasta in the water.

• When pasta is tender enough, drain the water and mix pasta with the sauce.
• Pasta is ready to serve.

Labouring on Labor Day

Working in our school requires a lot of flexibility and patience. It may not be as stressful compared to working in a regular school but one still needs to be prepared with sudden changes in schedules especially when it's related to working on a national holiday.

Since we're a language school, our schedule is quite different with regular schools. Whereas a regular school is open from Mondays to Fridays, ours is open on the weekends. So this May 1st, instead of having that one day holiday, we ended up doing promotions outside. It's the school's way of attracting and getting children to enroll in Aston English School. What we usually do is we choose a park, a square or place where kids would go out with the family. And since it's a holiday, it's also expected that kids won't have school and would probably go to the park or the square with their family. Thus, a great opportunity to do promotions!