Aristocrat's Giant Cookie

Oh yes it is the biggest choco chip cookie I’ve ever seen and I got this from Aristocrat. They’re offering pastries as well but this biggie caught my eye.

As big as the party paper plate. Yum, yum!

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To Janet Jackson - Sorry I Missed Your Concert!

I missed the concert and I'm so totally regretting it. But it's too late for that now. Thank God Tisha was able to cover everything and put it in a nicely written blog post. Click here to see what she had to say . . .

One word: Sigh.

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Party at Blue Onion

Whenever Tapioca and I had breakfast in Eastwood we always pass by this cozy looking place called Blue Onion. Been very curious about it. From the outside it look so posh with it's white facade and the unusual door frame design , kinda like the soh-shal people go to for parties. I always wonder what it looks like inside. Never had the chance to get in because they are close in the morning. Also I'm not even sure if they even accept walk-ins. So imagine my excitement when I found out we are having our annual kick off party there.

. . . big smile, di maciado excited

May 29, 2011 at the Blue Onion Bar & Restaurant. Party theme: Back to the 90's. "The" most creative theme ever. It's simply putting it this way: come as you are, no need to make effort pa finding a costume. I was like "why bother suggesting a theme?". But ya know I still give them, the party organizers, some consideration knowing that they probably exert all their efforts and rack their brains off just to come up with this theme, right?

Anywayz, let's move on and talk about the event. Just to let you know there's about over a hundred people from our office but not all of them attended the party. But still the place was jam-packed! All seats taken, all the alleys, corners and nooks are occupied, you get the picture. That's because Blue Onion had a limited space. I bet if everybody did come we will all be partying outside the venue hahaha!!! Well, the party wasn't bad but it wasn't that good either. There's no usual party programme to entertain you so the only thing we were looking forward to: the raffle draws.

finally found an empty booth, kodakan time. . .

. . . more people joined us in the booth, now we're a crowd!!!

No food pic, sorry. I'm not sure who catered the food but when we checked out the buffet nothing hit our fancy. The food didn't look appetizing. Thank God we had dinner before going there. Had a couple of booze and picture taking here and there and when the grand prize for the raffle was announced, we called it a night. By the way, we did not win anything :-( but my friend Divi, she won a Sony Walkman!

. . . the lucky girl with my TL GF

And when our stomach finally digested our dinner, we felt the pang of hunger. Good thing Stackers Burger Cafe was right next to Blue Onion so off we go to get some belly satisfaction.



Tapioca had the double cheese burger . . .

. . . check out that melting cheese, baby!

with fries . . .

While I had the burger on a salad bowl. I always order the BBQ burger bowl to go but when I saw the new burger bowl flavor, I just have to try it. Here's the Caesar Burger Bowl.

just a-okay . . .

Still I prefer the BBQ, though.

To see more pics from the party, click here.

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Braces Off!!!

Please ignore my oily forehead. This picture was taken at my dentist's clinic with my retainers on. Wearing them for the first time. My teeth look waaaay better now than before. Much much better. Big thanks to my super bait na dentist Dr. Ryan Bacho for the miracle, (himala, daw oh?) I mean great job. I once thought this would never be possible but look at what happened. Wanna see the difference? Please click here. And if you're interested in getting the service I got from Dr. Ryan, just send me a message or you can look him up on facebook. I know he has one :-)

So anyhoo, after two years and two months I am officially saying goodbye to my braces. Goodbye metal mouth. Hello retainers.

I thought the worst thing is all over but not. The retainers, uh-oh I hate it. From making the impression (I thought I'm going to die with the process, seriously) to actually putting them on. It was the most discomfort feeling ever. I thought I'm gonna die like it's the end of the world. It wasn't painful. Just awkwardness to the nth level. Okay, that's just me exaggerating hahaha. But just like the braces it's also a matter of getting used to. My dentist said I have to wear it 24/7. Well, no can do. I can't eat while wearing them. It's so much discomfort that I don't get to enjoy my food. But whatever. I lasted that long with braces on I know I can survive. Now what? Ohhhh, I think I'm ready for my pictorial!!! *evil laugh*

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Hypertension

Tapioca was not feeling well this morning. He went to the clinic and got him self checked. The doctor said his blood pressure went up. Uh-oh. I wanted to tell him "I told you so" but he's feeling really bad already knowing what these would lead to. This is serious. This treacherous and silent attacker has killed millions of lives including my father and his siblings.

After shift we went straight home and talked about serious things. We talked about what we should and should not do to prevent this. I mean there's no way to stop this anymore only prevention, right? So we were talking about the situation in serious mode only to find out what worried him the most. His love for meat and all it's fatty evilness. It pissed him off. He hated to say goodbye to the divine glory of beefy goodness, porkyliciousness, hearty chicken and anything meat lovers will die for. I was like, "What the heck?!?!" It pissed me off, too.

So there goes the helluva of the serious mode. I am not liking this. But the battles is not yet over. So help us God.

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The Experiment

Thirdy’s Mom had been telling me how she would like to cook almondigas for her family. And I thought I would love try that too. Being a soup person that I am, I did not hesitate and went to check Connie’s website (my ever reliable Pinoycook.net) for the almondigas recipe.


I listed up all the ingredients on my notepad then Tapioca and I headed to the supermarket. When we got home, we started preparing all the things we needed. But wait, we are not ready to cook yet. From preparation we kept on arguing how things are gonna be done like chopping up all the veggies, setting the meat balls, etc. First, he didn’t want to wash the ground pork because he thought we wouldn’t be able to shape them into balls. But I washed them anyway and still we managed to shape them into balls. Then I added lots of water into the pot. He was not sure about it because we just bought a small pack of tomato paste and he thought that will make the soup diluted. Then the vermicelli noodles. I just wanted to add enough noodles because it will suck out all the water. But he thought otherwise and kept on telling me to put the entire pack of noodles, and it's a huge pack by the way, into the pot. And I did. I threw all the vermicelli noodles into the pot and soon enough all the water was gone. And the end result was a disaster. I'm sorry but I'm not gonna put pictures of the end result. We learned our lesson. We have different cooking techniques and beliefs. Anyhow, there’s always a next time.

See those meal balls on the photo? They looked adorable, noh? and it sparked some ideas on Tapioca. Will post that idea next time.

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Bonding Time With The Girls

Without any reason to celebrate we had setup a potluck sesh at Anjee's place with all the girls. We haven't seen each other in a while and perfect timing that everyone was available over the weekend. And Anjee on the other hand is expecting her 2nd baby (another baby girl) and was on leave for weeks. How I missed them so much. We chatted, and laugh and shared stories for hours.

Vanjee brought this pansit bihon overloaded with cholesterol-laden chicharon.

The pansit looks invisible because of the generous toppings of chicharon

home cooked spaghetti topped with cheese - from anjee

Vanjee, Anjee, Jellybean and Anjee's agar-agar salad

We were surprised with the salad. We thought it was buko salad until she revealed the secret. She said agar-agar is variety of gelatin they use in Ilocos. The gelatin once cooked was then sliced into strips making them looked like shredded coconut meat.


That's still us and beside me is baby Rhian, Anjee's first born. On this photo you can see now my share - a big bilao of puto Biñan.

Rhian is a big girl now. She is adorable and she is getting prettier.

The puto was paired with dinuguan by Ivy (she's our photographer that's why she's not in any of the pics). The dinuguan had a lighter color than the usual because of the coconut cream. I love this dinuguan. This is also the same way my Tatay cooks it. With coconut cream and pig intestine. As I type this I am now craving for puto at dinuguan.


I tell ya, a day is not enough to finish all the chikahan. Hated to say goodbye but we still have work the following day. We went home late (except Anj who's already at her house, of course). That's what happen when you never ran out of things to talk about. Until the next meet up, girls.

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HGSL Kick Off Party 2011

After years of not being able to attend (which I never regret until now) the annual HGSL Kick Off Party with the usually glam (bleh!) theme at a glam (bleh!) venue, I finally was able to convince myself to go. Thanks to Tapioca. Since the presence of their entire team is required, I was compelled to be there, too. Vintage is the theme for this year. Just so you know I am so not willing to spend and buy a new dress for this event. So unto the last minute I was glad I thought of the dress Tapioca and I bought at a bazaar in Eastwood. I was suppose to wear it at Jesselyn's wedding last year but because of Typhoon Ondoy that hit Manila the same date of her wedding, I failed to attend it and the dress got buried in my closet.


Outfit details. From top to bottom all by Dansen except from the necktie by Armando Caruso. All from SM Department Store.


Cocktail dress from Eastwood bazaar, shoes from VNC and accessories from SM Department Store.

Uhm I like the dress but . . . I hate my bod. I looked like I'm pregnant and I haven't eaten yet! Someone even asked how far along I am in my pregnancy. Excuse me?!?! I swear this is going to be the last time I will wear this dress until I get rid of my muffin top. Such an embarrassment. And puh-lease don't get me started with the party. It's the worst party ever. Don't be fooled with all the smiles you see in the pictures. It's all for the camera only. I apologized for all the negativity in this post. Will try to post something happy next time.

Click here to see more pictures from the kick off.

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Taylor Swift's One Night Concert In Manila

While Taylor Swift is performing at her concert today at Araneta, here I am gratifying my self with her songs on my windows media player. As tickets got sold out in days this is the best that I can do.

I just had one wish. Please come back to Manila, Taylor. I love your songs. I want to be in your concert, too.

Your fan, Jellybean.

P.S. You happen to share the same name of my guy from the band Hanson. What a coincidence. I love the both of you!!!

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Another BDAY for Tapioca

Here we are again celebrating Tapioca's birthday. It's amazing how time flies. We did not have any formal plans for his birthday so it's anything goes. Well, we do have plans (and there's a lot) however due to limited funds we went with whatever our budget can afford.


First off to this newly opened spa in J.P. Rizal. Tapioca hates going to spa but I insisted he give it a try at least once. And he did. The name of the place is Mynx Spa. It is situated in some sort of a townhouse-turned-spa so you get this homey and cozy feeling. Here's some pictures of what it looks like . . .




The place looks so inviting, right? You can actually reserve this for you and your friends and hold a party. Perfect for bonding moments :-P


And here's the birthday boy having a massage while waiting for his feet to be pampered.

Then our calves and feet were applied with these salt scrub.

Also with some cream and they covered it with cling wrap. Now we're ready to bake!

They use this lamp as a lighting while doing my nails. It was nice cos it didn't ruin the mood of the place.

After hours spent at the spa, we're finally ready for some serious pigging out. We were craving for crabs and anything seafood. We're blaming the TV series Deadliest Catch for this. We were so hungry that we just chose the nearest place to get a crab fix and ended up at Dampa in Farmer's Market.

We went to our fave stall Sis and let them buy the seafood and meat. We ordered for half a kilo of crab, a quater of a kilo of shrimps and pork. Here they are . . .

. . . a big bowl of pork sinigang

Can't live without soup.

plentiful of shrimp tempura . . .

Mind you, that's just a quarter kilo and we got about more than 10 pieces. And the main event goes to . . .

. . . chili crab in butter and oyster sauce

The crab looks pathetic, I know. There was about 3 pieces of them but the birthday boy can't wait to demolish them hahaha. It wasn't bad nor good but enough to satisfy our cravings.


Happy 8th birthday, Tapioca!!! Ooops, sorry kinulang sa kandila. It should be 28. Don't tell him I told you how old he is. Patay me. Hahahaha!!!

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