Boys are really boys

It’s Friday! Supposed to be the start of laundry day but we have not enough water so I’ll wash Ace’ jersey shirts and shorts that he’ll need tomorrow and the rest will be done next week because I will tag along with Ace to watch their badminton tournament tomorrow. Also, my sister and family will be here in a couple of hours so I need to do quick cleaning. I’m excited to see my niece, Ella whom I haven’t seen for more than a month now. The day will surely be looongggg….as I still need to finish wrapping the giveaways.

Last night I was at a friend’s house for a small get-together to celebrate her birthday while Ace had a bandminton practice. Nice to see old friends once again and the best thing is, my food basket is really full! I had so much as if I haven’t eaten for days. Well, the food are sumptuous because Tita Orpha, Penchie’s mom prepared it. Nothing could eally beat the cooking skills of Ilocanos, not because I am half-blooded Ilocano. Been to different parties but the best best foods are done by Ilocanos no matter what that dish is. Anyway, so much for that and will check on what are Harley parts that I overheard the guys talking about last night. I am just curious. Well, I found out Harley is a motorcycle or what they call the big bikes. Boys are really boys. If they are in groups, if they don’t talk about women or basketball, they talk about cars or motorcycles. 

Sky Watch Friday: Layers

It’s Friday! Time for Sky Watch. This time, my photo is not a warm sunset. If you’ve been to my blogs to check on my Sky Watch entries, you might have noticed my sunsset and sunrise photos are warm. I find the warm colors very appealing. Now we have a different hue. It’s a fair day and sunset is not that warm so we ended up taking photos of the clouds formed in different directions. Anyway, here’s one of my long exposure attempt for a Sky Watch entry. The cloud layers are so obvious that it’s not even very visible when taken in a snap.

Happy Sky Watch! See more sky photos here.

Behind the wall

Ace was in the bathroom this morning when I heard him calling KiawKiaw, our cat. The cat is staying at the back of the house that used to be our laundry area and stockroom. They haven’t seen each other for days now…I think it’s almost 4 days because when Ace gets home from work, all he could do is eat, watch TV and sleep. Starting last Monday, he worked overtime and the earliest he could be home is 10PM. While he’s taking a bath this morning, he is talking to KiawKiaw and the cat seemed to understand him because he responds. They were separated by a wall but KiawKiaw could hear his voice through the bathroom window. When Ace was done in the bathroom, I went to the back room to get his uniform that I washed yesterday. KiawKiaw immediately wanted to get inside the house upon opening the back door so I just let him in. I brought him to our bedroom so that Ace could cuddle him for a while before leaving for work. It’s my time alone again after Ace left for work. I had a couple of hours to blog and continued on the making the giveaways. Maybe I could check on the Moen faucets I am looking into so we could change the defective faucet in the bathroom and that we won’t have a hard time opening and closing it. 

60 down, 90 to go…

Now I am getting used to take a nap every afternoon. This is one of the things I really don’t want during my childhood days. But now I love it. It makes my day complete. This afternoon  I had an earlier than usual nap and was up in the middle of the TV program before El Cuerpo’s time slot. While watching I was putting on shuttlecock in the glass tumbler for the wedding giveaways I am making for Borski and Nai ’s wedding and have done with 60 pieces as El Cuerpo ends. I still have 90 pieces to go. After I receive my earnings next week, will buy another 100 pieces of glass tumbler and shuttlecock to complete the 250 pieces that I need to do. Such a grand wedding with 350 visitors. That’ll be a very huge crowd and I am excited to be part of it. 

On the other hand, I’m almost done with the research on acne treatment. I hope to finish it before the week ends as I can foresee how busy I will be in the coming days.

Ruby Tuesday: Red Gulaman in Halo-Halo

Halo-halo (from Tagalog halo, “mix mix”) is a popular Filipino dessert that is a mixture of shaved ice and milk to which are added various boiled sweet beans and fruits, and served cold in a tall glass or bowl.

There is no specific recipe for this dessert, and a wide variety of ingredients are used. The order in which the ingredients are added varies widely. Primary ingredients generally include boiled red mung beans, kidney beans, garbanzos, sugar palm fruit (kaong), coconut sport (macapuno), and plantains caramelized in sugar. Other components may include jackfruit (langka), star apple, tapioca or sago, nata de coco, purple yam (ube) or sweet potato (kamote), sweetened corn kernels or pounded crushed young rice (pinipig), leche flan or custard, ice cream and gelatin. Other fruits, such as papayas, avocados, kiwifruit, bananas or cherries, may also be added. Some preparations also include ice cream on top of the halo-halo.

Generally, condensed milk or evaporated milk is used instead of fresh milk, due to the tropical climate of the Philippines.

In terms of arrangement, most of the ingredients (fruits, beans, and other sweets) are first placed inside the tall glass, followed by the shaved ice. This is then sprinkled with sugar, and topped with either (or a combination of) leche flan, ube halaya, or ice cream. Condensed milk is poured into the mixture upon serving.

The dessert exemplifies the “east-meets-west” culture of the Filipinos, with the ingredients used coming from a wide variety of influences (to cite some examples: red mung beans which are from the Chinese, garbanzos from the Indian, leche flan from the Spanish, and shaved ice itself which was introduced to the islands by the Americans).

Halo-Halo is one my late mother’s favorite. We do have a lot of childhood memories with it as Mamang usually treats me and Carol after school or when we go to the market with her during market day. I could just remember how our eyes would lighten when Mamang will lead us to the Halo-Halo stalls or in the bakeshop in front of the fish market building.

Happy Ruby Tuesday! Visit here for more Ruby entries.