Welcome 2010

New Year will never be New Year without the fireworks.The louder the fireworks are, the better.

Before and after the count down the house should be well-lighted to invite good luck in every corner of the house. All windows must be open to allow good spirits enter the house.

As New Year comes, the whole family should make any kind of noise like blowing horns and trumpets, banging some still utensils, pots and pans (my pans now are not in good form anymore :( ) or anything that could make a sound while going around the house to prevent bad luck from coming in and to drive it away.

And of course the highlight of New Year are the abundant foods. There's 12 kinds of round-shape fruits for good luck, egg and noodles for long life, glutinous rice for luck to stick around and family always together and fish to avoid scarcity.

And chicken is not serve because it signifies hunger and scarcity.

After the fireworks and making noise, me and my kids started to eat . I eat a lot and I'm showing you what was it he he he.

I prepared 3 kinds of pasta because my Stephannie wants a Carbonara and my Mycah wants the Spaghetti and I want the Macaroni salad too, because I can stock it in my fridge.

Carbonara

Spaghetti
Macaroni Salad
The forever Buko(Coconut) Fruit Salad,
holiday is not holiday without it to my kids
The sticky Ube cake but I just ate a little of it
and the Graham cake
This photos we're all that I have eaten during our "Media Noche".
Excluding the fruits and some foods.
Oh my God, there's a lot to burn again :(

Btw, Media Noche is the term we called for our midnight meal during New Year's Eve,
this meal symbolize our hopes for a prosperous New Year.

The midnight meal during Christmas eve, we called it "Noche Buena".

Happy New Year

H ours of happy times with friends and family
A bundant time for relaxation
P rosperity
P lenty of love when you need it the most
Y outhful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

N ights of restful slumber (you know - dont' worry be happy)
E verything you need
W ishing you love and light

Y ears and years of good health
E njoyment and mirth
A ngels to watch over you
R embrances of a happy years!

Salted Duck Eggs

One of my sister that visited me this Christmas brought me a lot of salted eggs that we called "Itlog na maalat", because they live in Pateros , a place known for Salted egg and Balut eggs production. (I'll post about Balut eggs later, let me post about Salted eggs first.)




Sliced or chopped salted red eggs with chopped tomatoes and steaming hot rice have been a favorite breakfast since early times and also a side dish for a meal. My youngest like it so much too. If you could remember my Mycah's bento, I prepared sometimes a salted egg for her.

http://mychikara.blogspot.com/search/label/my%20Mycah%27s%20bento
(see the 5th and 2nd to the last photo)

The preparation of this Duck eggs are immersed in super-saturated solution of salt for 2 weeks at least. After two weeks or more, the eggs are taken from the salt solution and boiled. The eggs are then colored red.

See this link for more info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salted_duck_egg

Family Reunion

I just want to share some of our photos last Christmas. My kids and my brother and sisters that visited me, but I forgot to took pictures to others, you know so busy that time( so regrettable).

With my Stephannie

My Mycah

My Denmark, I just woke him up to take a meal.

My sister with her huge hubby and four kids.

My 7th brother with his wife and kids too.

My 2nd sister with kids, traveled 7 hours just to see us but
hubby was not with them, his on duty.

I have a large family, 8 brothers and 3 sisters , we're 12 in all and only my youngest brother that is not married yet.

It's so nice to see my brothers and sisters during holidays with their family though it's so crowded, noisy and busy. But even if it's so tiring we're all happy together . Almost every year there's an additional kid or kids.

My youngest sister who's in Japan, didn't make it to come home, 'coz she just delivered her 4th baby last week, same as last year she delivered her 3rd baby. And my 3 brothers too, they said they were on location shooting far away that they can't go home and back to work right away. I've said before my Eldest haft brother was in film production. He's an assistant art director and my other 2 brother now are with him.

HHC X-Mas Party

Hi, I'm still sleepy because me and my Stephannie got home just this 3 am. We've been in Happy Hearths Club Christmas Party last night (Dec. 18, 2009 / Friday).

But so sorry no much photos to display 'cuz my camera run out of batteries. I can ask for my friends shots later.

For the mean time have patience to see this bad photos.

Crowded in the dressing room

Phil. Tradition on Christmas

Filipinos celebrate the longest and merriest Christmas in the world. Some begin putting Christmas decor as early as September. That's one of the tradition , to display Christmas symbols in and out of the house, schools, churches, along the roads, plazas and in any business establishments. You can see different sizes and colors of lanterns (we call it Parol) with glittering and dancing lights everywhere at night time.

But it begins formally on December 16 by attending at the first of nine pre-dawn or early morning masses which we called the "Misa De Gallo" or "Simbang Gabi", and continuously until the first Sunday of January, Feast of the Three Kings, the official end of the season.

Majority of Filipino people are Roman Catholic.Therefore, Christmas time is an extremely important holiday for most of us. It is a time for family, for sharing, for giving, and a time for food, fun, and friendship. Specially for the children, they really wait for this season.

In the Philippines, one of the traditions most families celebrate is the Christmas Eve . It is a night without sleep and a continuous celebration (parties) moving right into Christmas Day. After attending the last mass of Simbang Gabi on the midnight or dawn of Dec. 24th, the preparation begins for Noche Buena (a midnight special meal), which is a family feast. Lots of special foods prepared on the long table shared by the whole family and friends.

Until the following day, Christmas day-25th, food is in abundance. Guests or visitors take of the food prepared by the host family even though they are already full because they eat in every house they visited.

Christmas day is for children to visit their uncles, aunts, grandparents and godparents. At each home they are given or presented with a gift, , money, small toy, or candy and chocolates.

During night time before Christmas the practice of caroling of children or even an adults from house to house or door to door is still one customs of all. If it's a children I just give them some coins but if it's an adult, they give an envelope before the day they come so I put a paper bill on it. Every night there are a Xmas carolers 3 or 4, sometimes 5 groups in my gate. Sometimes it ends until January.

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Puto Bumbong and Bibingka are two native delicacies (a Filipino rice cakes) and holiday treats that are bound to the Misa de Aguinaldo, the dawn mass on the nine days before Christmas. They are more common as street food around the churches. Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi isn’t the same without seeing those vendors in the streets selling Puto Bungbong and Bibingka.

PUTO BUNGBONG

Puto Bungbong is made from sweet sticky rice with purple yum which is steamed in small chimney like steamers (lansungan) . Served in banana leaves topped with butter, grated fresh coconut and brown moscovado sugar and usually served with salabat, or ginger brew.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup glutinous rice
2 tsp purple food color (ube)
2 cups water
panutsa (sugar cane sweet) or mascuvado (raw sugar)

PUTO BUNGBONG PROCEDURES:
1. Soak glutinous rice in water overnight.
2. Grind the soaked rice.
3. Mix food color while the glutinous rice is being ground.
4. Wrap the ground glutinous rice on a piece of muslin cloth and place it in a strainer to drain excess liquid. Another technique in draining excess liquid is by pressing a heavy object that has been placed over the muslin cloth.
5. Once the ground rice has slightly dried, rub it against the screen of a strainer to produce coarse grained rice flour.
6. The rice flour for making puto bumbong is now ready to cook. Fill each bamboo tube (bumbong) with just enough glutinous rice and put them into the steamer. See to it that the steamer contains boiling water.
7. Steam rice flour in the bamboo tubes for 10 minutes.
8. Once cooked, shake out the contents of each bamboo tube or remove the cooked glutinous rice from the bumbong with the help of a knife.
9. Spread butter on the puto bumbong and place a small piece of panutsa (sugar cane sweets).
10. Add a small amount of grated coconut before serving.

BIBINGKA

A traditional filipino rice flour cake with soft , fluffy and slightly sticky texture.

2 cups of Glutinous rice, ground and left to soak for at least two hours (or overnight) in
3/4 cup water
2 cups of coconut milk
½ cup butter
6 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
4 oz. cheddar cheese, cut into strips
Sliced salted eggs for the toppings

Pound the galapong or the glutinous rice that has been left to soak in water until the mixture is fine. Put in a bowl and mix in coconut milk, and about ¾ of the butter. Whisk in the six eggs and the baking powder. Mix until you have a thick batter. Let rest for about an hour.

Prepare the bibingka oven. It’s a special clay oven that composed of two layers where you can put coals on each layer sandwiching the batter.

Line the bottom of the clay oven with a round-cut banana leaf and place some of the batter there for cooking. Before it cooks completely, brush some butter, add some sugar, add a slice of salted egg and cheese on top.Take it out when it’s cooked. Some top it with fresh grated coconut and serve.

Wall paintings

Last Dec. 11, 2009 my Stephannie joined the wall painting contest for the youngters. Each group consist of ten members for each wall. She said there were 24 walls to paint for 24 groups that participated came from different towns of Bulacan Province.

She just took photos of the winning walls, the last one was theirs.