A random mix of a post. I just started watching HBO's True Blood. We used to have a subscription to the channel but had it cancelled since we end up buying the dvds anyway. Thanks to Omz, who introduced Dino to an online source for tv shows. We just finished episode 1, will devour the next 3 soon.

Yesterday was Bindlestiff's potluck picnic in SF's McLaren park. It was great fun because it's always cool to be with our theater folks. No need for grand reasons, like a show or birthday, to gather. Well, it was some sort of holding on to summer fun. Except that the wind was at its fiercest, driving the point that it's the end of the season and we should have thought of optional venues for the bbq (the warm south, hello?).

The Aristocrat chicken was an almost disaster! I came close to cooking everything at home but Dino stopped me. Not that I had pyschic thoughts of the winds and the difficulty it would pose. I just didn't want to bother working the whole time we're out there. Dino made a good point though, the actual grilling is part of a true picnic experience. So we compromised, I was to pre-cook the meat in the oven and he would be bbq-ing them to perfection at the event.
The charcoal heat was too much and it burned some of the chicken pieces quite quickly. The wind was of course the enemy, blowing ash everywhere and all over our cooking. Then we ran out of charcoal, and had to wait for folks who were bringing some to the park.

I didn't get to eat any of the bbq. Everyone liked it though and finished everything...so it was not a complete failure. What I focused on yesterday were the sweets! How I lost to the evil sugar.
-some carrot-y cupcakes topped with s'mores-like icing and sprinkled with choco shavings (Greg and Gemma)
-leche flan from Valerios (i don't know who's responsible)
-oven fresh chocolate chip cookies (Al Manalo)
-cantaloupe swimming in Hennesy (Kevin Correa)
-guinataan with tapioca and beans (Evelyn)

Man, it was freezing! Too bad for those like me, who didn't play basketball, soccer or dodge ball. Eating accounted for some physical movement in an attempt to generate more body warmth.

Julius D was there yesterday. We rarely see this guy and he surprised us (dino and me) with a late wedding present. He gave us the film negatives of the photos he took during our civil wedding 2 years ago, plus some contact sheets and scanned images on a dvd. He also gave us a giant print of one of his works- its a street scene of a child sleeping inside a tricycle. I cannot wait to have this properly framed and displayed in our home!

I love the pictures he took during the wedding. I told him over text message today that his photos took me back much more vividly to that special day. We already have a wedding album gifted to us by Mike Ricca and we're so thankful that Julius was able to capture another perspective of the event.






If I'm to interpret the body language, I was indeed a bundle of nerves. I held on to that bouquet for balance and security. Gosh, I was so fat then LOL! I loved that I was wearing my Lola's dress, although I had to wear a wide obi-like belt to play down the fact that it's oversized.


Under the SF City Hall dome. Julius was kinda spidey/ninja. I don't think anyone else had the idea to take the shot from this view.




I like how Diane Arbus this feels like.

aristocrat

Due to the extreme yummy-ness of the subject matter, of which nothing was left, there are no pictures for this post.

Tonight I cooked the BEST BBQ chicken of my entire life. Strong words from the committee! Yep, I have never made a chicken dish so perfectly tasty until now. Thanks to a recipe that Dino got from one of his Twitter friends. Who knew Twitter could bring in something so practical and outstandingly delicious to our life?

So the back story: Most Pinoys here in the US think Max's fried chicken is THE epitome of chicken fried goodness back in the Philippines...well, there's the other side of the chicken spectrum (barbecue!) that was dominated by Aristocrat Restaurant during the 1980's.
Back then, Aristocrat was one of the most popular food destination for families in Manila. I distinctly remember most of our trips from the province to the big city would always include a stop at Aristocrat. (The other place was Kamayan, where appropriately you eat with your hands.)
I don't know if the restaurant is still alive now but before we left for the US, Aristocrat had already been relegated as a "relic" and one of those places that people only went back to for sentimental reasons.
They offered tons of dishes but to this day, their bbq chicken is still the stuff that pinoys like Dino and myself dream and get homesick about.

So here's how to make your own Aristocrat chicken. Let the reminiscing begin.

The chicken pieces need to be marinated for exactly 2 days and 2 nights in the following ingredients:

1 whole garlic head, crushed
2 teaspooon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoon soy sauce
4 tablespoon sugar
1 Sprite or 7-Up
10 calamansi (I used frozen pure calamansi juice- they came in little packs, preservative and sugar free; just approximate how much liquid 10 pieces of real calamansi would yield)
2 tablespoon Lea Perrins worcestershire sauce (my tweaking)
2 tablespoon of oil

That's it! Don't forget to baste during cooking. I made a separate batch of sauce for basting, using the same ingredients above.
I didn't have the chance to bbq outside the house and so I used the oven/broiler. The results were still perfect. I'm drooling as I imagine cooking it the old fashioned way.

*If you're going to bbq pork, add ketchup. Marinate overnight.

staycating

We've made a big pocket hole with our gas consumption this week. It's enough to make us feel guilty and need a counterbalance of sorts.
I think I'm going to impose a personal driving "diet." Before our coming Hawaii trip, I do need to practice some major spending restraint.

Been having too much fun lately. Gosh, what is with me and guilt right now? I've been out everyday, I'm already tired just recalling everything that happened recently. It could be the heat just draining me of enthusiasm.

Dino and I woke up at 9am Saturday and decided that the gas guzzlin' guilt was not going to rob us of our weekend. We got showered and headed straight to SF.
By the time we got to the city, it was lunch time. We made a yummy choice with Pakwan on 16th and Guerrero.
Dino's main motivation for going to the city was Ritual Coffee. He's been raving about this cafe since he first tried it. So after lunch, we walked from 16th to 21st street.
Makes sense, right? Coffee on an extremely hot day. I asked for a cold drink and was given an iced double espresso. Double the dehydration, please. KTnxBye.

The heat was phenomenal. I developed heat rash on my upper back at the end of the day-- unbelievable as it may sound as I come from a tropical country, but the last time I had this skin reaction was before kindergarten when I had too much time playing out in the streets.
So that was weird. I didn't even have heat rash when we went to the desert for Burning Man. I was probably too caffeinated yesterday, my skin was all sorts of crazy.

The rest of our afternoon was spent in Golden Gate park for the Power to the Peaceful event. Met up with the Velascos and had a grand time chit-chatting, playing with Zoe and just taking in the peaceful crowd.

The piece de resistance: dinner at Kuya's in San Bruno.

Crispy short ribs. Baked mussels in garlic and butter. Pork Sinigang. Bobo Chacha, or was it Coco Boogie, dessert.

Food coma, yes. Longer life, no.

labor day weekend

The long weekend is over. It seemed like we waited for Dino's birthday party for a long time and now it's already a memory. A very fun one, of course!
Saturday
So many different characters rolled into our tiny space in San Jose and made our home beyond cozy, lovely and warm last Saturday night. We did our best but for next time there's a few things we should be overly prepared for, like food!
Diet has no place in a party shopping list. I was at the grocery store and I stopped myself from getting an extra bag of potato chips. The party started at 6pm and by past 10, the dinner table was exhausted. I was too drunk to cook, or to actually look for what to make. Too bad, there is no Martha or Rachel Ray in me.
It was also the time when I wished we had hired help. Or a very helpful uncle/aunt who loves to manage the kitchen while the kids are at play.
An extra set of batteries would have been cool too. The red wine got me and I went upstairs for what I planned to be a few minutes of quiet in the bedroom. I'm guessing that an hour or two had passed and I woke up to an empty house. Everyone had left and I failed to see them off! Based on a text message I got from E and what he told me the day after, the last guests must have left close to 5am.
Worrying aside, the party was a success. Although some friends did not make it and mostly were out of town, a bunch of 'maybe's' in the Facebook invite managed to come--much appreciated! An army of little ones joined the festivities as well. How we've all grown! It's so cool to see our friends' cute babies and all the other lovely kids!
Sunday
Dino and I woke up at 8am. Even with matching hang over, we started cleaning the house and cooked a hearty brunch. Tri-tip/Steak, white rice and corn at 11am! We were really hungry.
Lounged for a few more hours, but was too manic to stay indoors. I drove north to pick up E and we hung out in Serramanila--david's term :)
E and I had some YUMMY fro-yo (frozen yogurt) at the food court. Then David aka Schmoopie joined us and we all went to Target.
It's so not right, but I cannot just browse and not get anything from Target. Picked up a cd: One Day as a Lion by Zack de la Rocha and drummer dude from Mars Volta. It was on sale for $5.99. Very good buy. I had to wait for the drive back to San Jose to listen to the audio full blast.
The boys and I had dinner at HardKnox. I had the smothered chicken. Soul food--3rd YUMMY of the day. Oh boy!
Then it was Green Apple Books PARADISE! 4th YUMMY. We could all live in this place. I got myself a new photo book (Nikki S. Lee's PARTS) and I am so psyched to do a photo project.
I need more inspiration and I'm thinking I should hit the museums again and other bookstores as well.
Monday
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Facebook. Steak and pasta for lunch. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Facebook. Steak and pasta for dinner. Chardonnay.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

decadent wednesday

It's Dino's birthday!

He thought we'd have a "light" breakfast at McDonald's because he had his whole afternoon plan to have lunch and hang out in EA.

Here's our main guy checking out the Clone Wars toys. He didn't like them at all. No happy meals, boo!


As he was having barbecue and taking sake shots with his friends at work, I decided to indulge in some fancy lunch at Consuelo's. I've eaten at this mexican bistro a couple of times in the past and I haven't been disappointed.

waiting for my entree...












mango, mild and spicy!









my dream wall. an alcoholic's fantasy.









taking in the ambiance...









pan seared mahi-mahi on a bed of sauteed green beans and chayote, topped with a magical mushroom sauce!










On to birthday boy's dinner at Tanto in Sunnyvale...












uh-oh, epic diet failure! your base are belong to us.










let's throw in a picture of me...happy birthday, baby!


Just as I thought the day couldn't get any better, we saw Pineapple Express. BEST.MOVIE.EVER. We had so much fun!

my saturday in pictures

Breakfast of champs @ denny's; free monkey on a tree balloon from an emo guy; dinner at the Château Deck in Mountain Winery, Saratoga; Toad the Wet Sprocket concert.

cotton candy

It's our Cotton wedding anniversary. We have been very blessed and on our 2nd year, we are celebrating for two consecutive weekends. SWEET!

Yesterday was so much fun! Our first meal was at Just Breakfast here in San Jose. We both love this place not just for their YUMMY and generous servings but for its vibe. It's a very local haunt...very diverse and mostly family oriented.
Next stops were Office Depot and Office Max to look for my anniversary gift to Dino. We had chosen a specific computer chair and I'll be picking it up from Office Max later today.
Then we did a little more shopping. All I can say is, with the anniversary gift that I got,the next 20 years are pretty much covered. I will not ask for anything more.

We went home, rested for a couple of hours and got dressed for church. After hearing mass, we went to downtown SJ for our dinner at Morton's Steakhouse.
A little early, we walked around the area outside the restaurant and took some tourist pictures.

Dinner was superb. The steaks were so good, there was no need for sauces or any condiments at all. Perfect rib eyes! I didn't take any food photos cos it was so dark at Morton's. The lack in lighting was appropriate though. Considering I had the meat cooked medium, it was still a bit bloody and would be scary in photos.

At the end of the night, we were much happier and both very, very full.

Next weekend: dinner and Toad the Wet Sprocket concert at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga :)