baby rambutan

my blog is about to turn 6 years old!
i can’t really fathom how time just zoomed by…i only know that i’m keen on trying to slow everything down. (my kids for sure are on the opposite track, wanting to speed it up and grow up and have their own adventures.)
i don’t do it often but sometimes when searching for old recipes here at home at baby rambutan, i catch a glimpse of my old blog posts and cringe at my writing. i’m even tempted to edit or altogether replace most of them! but of course that would be cheating, even though the primary reason i started writing was to just explore and ponder my own life, for myself alone. but i guess putting it out there, out where?–in public, in the virtual world, exposed my writing to the public eye….
it’s been a roller-coaster journey. i think that’s the best way to describe it, and i would not turn back anymore. i started out with a free service provider but it sure felt cramped in there; with the help of a good friend i transferred to a server with unlimited web hosting and that was the ticket to freedom. room to ponder, room to roam. no regrets! advanced happy blog anniversary, baby rambutan.

it’s not too late, there’s one more day to enjoy this truly amazing entertaining event….

music all around you…(this is a wonderful reggae band)

“voice singing”

belly dancing…

free stuff (iced DD dark roast coffee), among others

and food everywhere!

one hot day in July, when i was feeling sluggishly sloth-y, and not feeling like doing any cooking, let alone moving at all…the urge to eat this moved me greatly.

i should have this memorized by now! from Delia Smith’s Summer Collection, i added extra of everything (garlic, chili, anchovies, basil, capers, tomatoes, olives), used thin spaghetti and added a can of solid white tuna in olive oil.
all strong, punchy flavors, over pasta: somehow it just worked on a hot summer day.

and then on to more summer eats! i have three kids at home, very hungry and constantly checking out the fridge and checking in on mom at the kitchen–so i tend to be preparing quick and easy dishes, such as this bbq chicken a la Bacolod Inasal, a style of grilling marinated chicken.
i had heard about it a lot, and finally got to try it at a chain restaurant in the Mall of Asia, by the seaside Roxas Boulevard, Manila.
i used a recipe mostly based on Chef Pauline Gorriceta-Banusing’s via the Inquirer.Net. i added lemongrass stalks (as suggested by several recipes i found in other sites) and marinated the minimum 30 minutes (more than that and the chicken meat will get “de-natured”).

the special technique is the butter-calamansi-atsuete (annatto seed, used as a vibrant colorant) basting sauce. (i could not bear to use margarine, which is the original recipe).
i was nervous about using all that vinegar, with no soy sauce to soften all that acidic kick.

but it was a hit, yet i’ve decided i will use chicken leg quarters instead of whole chickens–i used baby “young chickens”–because the breast meat dried out. NO MORE BREAST MEAT.

highly recommended with achara as side dish…

achara of green papaya plus:not-so-secret formula here.

recipe for Chef Pauline’s chicken inasal follows… (more…)

i interrupt my regular (ok “somewhat” irregular) programming….well i had such a huge scare today, when i found out my blog was g.o.n.e….as in kaput, pfffftttt! it went on all day, the panicky emails, attempted phone calls and such. bottom line, i got it back. but underline…i do not ever want to go through that again! especially when i felt truly compelled to publish something important, something tugging at me all this time, as if someone from the past were pushing me to publicize something very important.

i watched a bit of the inauguration of the new Philippine president, Benigno Aquino III, or “P-Noy” as he’d like to be called, allegedly. i listened to the lyrics of one folk singer, Noel Cabangon, and as i always do i went back to my grandfather’s Credo, which was published anonymously in the Manila Chronicle many decades ago, and then in his published work, “Fragments, Thoughts and Short Essays,” and which i saw first hand, painted on to the walls of the Courthouse of Gumaca,Quezon, where he was a judge from 1962 until 1967. he worked at the Bureau (later Commission) of the Civil Service from 1915 to 1962….i always read it as a sort of prayer for the Philippines whenever Filipinos pin their hopes on a new regime.

“Credo of the Public Servant

1. I believe that a position in the government is a public trust to be administered for the good of the people and not for the personal profit or benefit of the office, holder, his family, or his friends.

2. I believe that public service calls for sacrifice, humility, and renunciation; that although public office is an honor and gives opportunity for leadership, those wielding it and exercising its powers are servants of the people and not rulers or masters.

3. I believe that the government employee should be imbued with a high sense of honor, a steadfast devotion to duty, and unswerving loyalty to the Republic, and its cherished institutions.

4. I believe that the government employee should be physically, mentally and morally fit for service, should be strict and exacting with himself, and should expect and require of himself more than he expects and requires of others.

5. I believe in “the importance of little things,” in neatness and accuracy in beauty and art, in simple duties faithfully performed, little temptations earnestly resisted, little courtesies extended, and “myriad self denials.”

6. I believe that the employee should lead a simple temperate life, free from pretense, from excesses, or suspicion or appearance of evil.

7. I believe that moral leadership contributes to good morale and esprit de corps and that the law is but the ethical minimum.

8. I believe that job satisfaction is not all a question of pay or hours of work.

9. I believe in strict adherence to the principles of the merit system and just democratic management.

10. Lastly, I believe in human dignity, in a regime of justice, liberty and democracy, in the rights of minorities and the little man, in a government of laws under the protection and guiding hand of an all-wise, merciful, and just God.” –Amado del Rosario, 1957

i relied on the loving support of my mother and siblings and flew halfway around the world and back, to and from my place of birth, for the saddest possible reason imaginable.
i marvel at how time just keeps ticking on.
it is like falling off a cliff.
it feels like something very heavy is enveloping me and pulling me downwards, a vertical vertigo i can’t shake off. not yet.

but i am back to my life as a mother and wife now, and the daily routine will save me.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Mosquito Magnet. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you ever hated something so much you are driven to kill?
Oh, sorry, that sounds so violent, I am only referring to mosquitoes. See, I’ve had a lot of trouble, heartache, miseries, from this bug, the mosquito.
One summer my #2son was hospitalized because of cellulitis, due to a mosquito bite. Another summer, he was in the emergency room, due to cellulitis, from a mosquito bite. So i hope, you understand why I’m in a killing mood when it comes to these pesky insects. My kids and I were discussing how it’s the only bug we truly hate. We thought about the reasons why they even exist, and I taught them about the food chain and all that. You know, how they provide sustenance for the smarter more useful animals like bats and frogs and turtles and spiders.
But oh my goodness how many cookouts they’ve ruined! Our guests just literally evacuate to the indoors, to escape the tremendous nuisance of mosquitoes.
So it was quite heartening to read about a mosquito magnet review and see some genuine, sincere testimonials about how the ultimate mosquito trap truly works–with vivid pictures and factual reviews.
This tiny little bug delivers so much illness–dengue fever, West Nile Virus, malaria,
Eastern equine encephalitis virus…
Pardon my French. But!

i started wearing them when i was ten years old, but i do remember that as a two year old waiting for my big sister to come home from school and walk through the iron gate, watching from the bedroom window grills and shutting first one eye, then the other, and marvelling at the difference in clarity.
the last pair split in two! and so once again it is time to pick out a new pair of eye glasses. i must have had a hundred pairs already in my lifetime, and i can tell you, i’ve had some funky pairs. i think my problem is that i don’t take too much time to fuss about choosing the right pair, when i know i should really take time. after all i wear it all day and everyday. i mean i’ve had octagon frames–at least twice!–that should give you a clue. perhaps, until my eyesight got truly bad, that was why i kept taking them off and only wore them to be able to see the blackboard, or to drive. naturally when contact lenses became popular i pounced on them.
as the children were born i found that i’ve had to rely on glasses exclusively due to the sheer lack of time and energy for maintaining contact lenses. i’m about to schedule the appointment with the optometrist, and i’m determined to be more careful in my frame selection.
if only i could have one pair for each day of the week…

i need help.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dermajuv Skin Care Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

Have you seen Sally Field lately?
She’s long been one of the most admired women on my list, along with Meryl Streep and Candice Bergen and Catherine Denueve.
The one thing they have in common that I most admire? The fact that they have chosen to go au naturelle.
I can easily spot who’ve gone the nip and tuck way, versus the ones that Hollywood cinematographers and lighting directors and whatever their titles might be, choose to mist up and conceal.
I think there’s so much more beauty and grace in ageing naturally compared to the surgically enhanced faces that look so stretched out and stiff they can’t even smile or express emotions anymore.
I think, that if you don’t smoke, and instead cover up with sunscreen, and live a life of moderation, that is, don’t over imbibe with the (ahem) toxins and poisons of beer and wine and rich food, and use skin care products like a decent wrinkle cream with the proper retinoids and beta and alpha hydroxy acids and the all-important suncreen and high SPF factors, and get a good dose of exercise and fresh air and get rid of all the toxins in your life (human and non-human)….you just might make it to a dignified old age.
Amen.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of 20th Century Fox. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’m talking mundane: “characterized by the practical, transitory, and ordinary : commonplace .”
I’m sure you’ve seen the trailer by now. The Hollywood Machine ensures that you can’t go anywhere without seeing the billboard, or watch anything on TV without seeing the stars give interviews on one talk show after another.
But Date Night Movie up for release on April 9, 2010, that’s this Friday!, is one movie I wouldn’t mind catching on its first day of release, since it stars Tina Fey, formerly of Saturday Night Live, and currently multi-awarded creator and writer of the hit TV show 30 Rock.
At first I thought it would be just another formulaic romantic comedy, until I saw snippets of the film and they divulged in an interview that most of the scenes draw from both Steve Carell and Tina Fey’s improvisational background from their days at Second City.

The director Shawn Levy allowed the stars to shoot their scenes straight from the script then let them rip out improvised versions. How many movies about bored suburban married couples, looking for sparks and spice and romance, can you take? Well this is one which stands out from the usual: they get involved in much more than they bargained for, with a shoot out, a car chase scene that becomes a metaphor for marriage, a pole-dance at a strip club?
I think I’ll have some of that.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Alvin and the Chipmunks. All opinions are 100% mine.

I did try my very best to drag my kids out to watch the two movies while they were out in the cinema. I wanted to check out the special effects of animation and live action combined. I wanted to check out if the childhood memories I harbored of the afternoon cartoons I used to watch had translated well onto the big screen. Somehow the schedule just did not allow for us to go and watch, but now the special edition 2-Disc set of “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” with a bonus Squeak-Along is out! You canbuy it now to enjoy it at home with those kids of a certain age who enjoy singing and dancing with their favorite cartoon characters, and they can sing and dance their hearts out.
It’s a bit of a challenge looking for kid-friendly DVD’s to take home to the kids that depict just good, clean wholesome silly fun. This set includes the movie and many bonus special features and extras.

Make sure you go and look for moreMore Munk Mayhem and those songs and silly dances are guaranteed to stick in your head. And I mean that in a good way!