I don't own a lot of furniture in the house but I do own a good percentage of everything in the kitchen. we're also supposed to equally divide the cabinet space for all four roommates. The thing is, I end up monopolizing almost 2 our of the three shelves we're supposed to share. Everything I'm in the grocery or Target, I always have an impulse to stock on stuff I don't really need. I guess now that overstocking mentality is paying off. I never get around to using any of the stuff I keep buying and simply keep buying more stuff to stuff into our already bursting shelves.

Well now that I'm broke (so broke it's kind of not funny), I've began nipping at my pantry since I got back from Cape Cod. I have canned corned beef from the Philippines that I had for breakfast yesterday and they were the shit. I haven't had purefoods corned beef in a while. Also, I forgot to mention in my previous post that on the 10 hour trip back to NYC, I was deliriously hungry in the bus and was trying to sleep off the hunger. So I was on a high when I come home and find Mica's adobo waiting for me.

Today I wake up and open my pantry to see what I can make for lunch. I ended up making garlic anchovy pasta with whatever toppings I could find in the fridge, green olives, capers, an old wrinkly bell pepper and cherry tomatoes that's been there since last week. I didn't have any parmesan but I did have a tub of crumbled feta that I've been saving for godknowswhat so I used that instead. Also, since I've had horrible muscle cramp spells from being on my feet all day at work, I found that eating bananas or taking potassium supplements have helped (I'm geting older and I don't like it). The fact that I absolutely hate eating bananas, (they're mushy and just don't taste very good in my mouth) gave me a reason to bake myself a banana bread loaf to snack on every morning before work. This gave me a reason to finally use some of the baking supplies that's been sitting in my pantry since I stopped baking when it got too hot to sit in a hot kitchen with a hot oven.

Hurray for resourcefulness! Now time to go to work to get back all the money I've lost. Rent's got to be paid you know.

I made a different version of my usual meal, which would be chicken and potatoes for lunch.

Baked crusted chicken cutlets with garlic herb roasted potatoes and my usual veggies.

Such a small meal for one yet I ended up with an overflowing sink of dirty dishes.

Today I finally decided to patronize the nail salon downstairs. I've been living here for over a year and I never went in, choosing instead to pay $28 for a pedicure over in Union Square. I walked in and had my toesies done there for $10 less! And I didn't have to travel across the river to do it too! I was afraid at the kind of place it would be, thinking it would be dank and dingy. It was surprisingly clean, even cleaner than the other place on 6th avenue (and better massage chairs too). I may just go there every week now.

I went to Target today to buy toiletries but I made the mistake of first making a detour to DSW where I walked out with this in a camel color since it was on sale.

I was hungry when I got home and wanted something quick so I used some of Mica's olive bread to make bruschettas.
I'm trying to use up the slowly rotting produce before it really goes bad. I hate how basil goes bad so fast. I bought a bunch of them the other day and most of them have gone gray now. I had to pick through them to find a few good ones for this. And apparently, Mica had been buying produce to replace the ones of mine she's been using and here I was buying more stuff since I didn't want to use hers. So now we have double the number of tomatoes, green beans and bell peppers. A house of 4 people who love to eat will always have a pretty full fridge.


Benny also made a comment about him no longer having shelf space in the kitchen cabinets since I've monopolized one whole shelf solely for my baking supplies. So I decided to use up a bunch of them today by baking TWO UN-red velvet cakes. I didn't want to buy food coloring just for the sake of making it red hence the un-redness of it. I used my squeeze bottle to add an extra flair to cakes too just for the heck of it. If I find extra time tomorrow, I might tackle another batch of white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies again.

I have to be up early tomorrow and head out to Ana's to take photos of Santi. I believe he's turning one month old this week and I've volunteered to take photos. I might just make a monthly thing of this. Next week, I will head out to Ifang's to take photos of the apartment she and her husband are trying to sell/rent and also to take photos of their baby, Koyuki, who's 3 months old now. I can't believe it's been that long since I took these.

Benny's self-produced show is tomorrow night so I'm also skipping over to the lower east side to watch it. I'm not sure if I've posted this before but the postcard flyers that were distributed to promote the event were designed by yours truly. I cannot take credit for the image though, that was taken by Benny himself. This is only the second material I've made that have been handed around NYC so I'm mighty proud.

My plan for today was to head out for lunch then spent time reading in a park somewhere before deciding where to eat for dinner. It was supposed to be my day OUT. I woke up to see gray cloudy skies that threatened of rain. The sun was no where to be found. Defeated, I decided to make Banana Walnut Muffins instead. If you are my friend on Facebook, you can see the album their along with the recipe for the muffins. If you aren't, then you can see the rest of the album on my multiply but without the recipe. Why? Because I'm too lazy to retype the recipe there. If you really want it, then ask me. I cannot claim the recipe as my own. It was a mash up of three recipes for banana muffins which I combined to achieve the kind of cakes I wanted. I had made all three before individually, but on their own would either be too dry, too boring or too plain.

I've been craving for banana bread for week so I decided to make them today. I didn't want to spend $2 on a slice of banana loaf elsewhere when I can make about two dozen muffins here.

The kitchen

Woke up and hopped out to pick up more ingredients I needed for my 2nd attempt at baking red velvet mini cupcakes for Omee's party tomorrow.

I made sure the baking soda was with me and the cornstarch was far, far, far away from as possible. The 2nd batch was great and I tossed yesterday's disaster in the trash.

Since I had buttermilk on hand from the cakes, I used some of them to marinate some chicken cutlets while I finished off the cakes then coated them in garlic and herb breading, fried them to a crisp and made myself a crispy chicken sandwich with mozzarella, tomato, mayo and dijon mustard.

I am running late for work but felt like I had to share my morning since it's always so fun ransacking the kitchen during my bake-offs.

I've been getting a lot of days off now that there are about 6 servers to work with at the restaurant. I still don't get weekends off though, boo! I thought of going on another trip this week but I thought maybe I'm pushing the travel spending a little too much so I opted to take a vacation in the kitchen!!! I haven't been making anything as much as I would have liked so I'm taking this free time to flex my kitchen skills. I started off by cleaning the kitchen earlier today. Mica came home exclaiming, "OMG, the stove is gleaming!" Well, by the end of three days, it may not be quite so gleaming.

I busted out the good ol' pressure cooker and made Beef Caldereta since I've had a weird craving for it. I just finished marinating sirloin tips for my breakfast tomorrow, Beef Tapa, itlog na pula and sinangag! I just found two decent recipes for my afternoon project which are Banana Walnut Bread and Bibingka Galapong! I'm also thinking of making homemade chicken sopas (with alphabet pasta!!!) since a good hot creamy soup is very good in current NY weather. Our evenings have now dropped to the 40s and I've already brought out my thick comforter. It seems just recently that I was stashing it under the bed because it's gotten too hot for it. Now I can't even go downstairs to do laundry without putting socks on.

Hopefully tomorrow's projects turn out alright. I'm still trying to figure out what to make for Thursday. I'm planning to squeeze in an IKEA trip tomorrow afternoon so whatever isn't made tomorrow will be done the following day.

Sadly, I have no photos. I was famished by the time my meal was done that I went straight to devouring it. Maybe I'll have something to show tomorrow. We'll see. Wish me luck!

Isang taon na po ako nasa America.

Isang taon na po ang makalipas ang mga pangyayaring ito.


Ang bilis naman. Ang dami ng nangyari. Hindi ako makapaniwala na ganon katagal na ako andito. I've spent the morning re-reading old posts from a year ago. I've missed a lot and it surprises me that I've done a lot too.

One year ago, to the day, Jammi gave me a tarot reading. I asked her where I'll be one year from then and she said a lot of things the both scared me and gave me hope. She said I'll be well settled wherever I am and will be comfortable with life on my own. A year ago, I listened with doubt, wondering if a year was enough for me to deal with my issues. Turns out, the year was more than enough. I lost some things but I gained so much more. The past year has been the fullest year of my life...so far.

In two days, Monday exactly, I will celebrate one year of me being single again! HOOHAH! What's funny is, last night on our way home, I told Mica that today is my anniversary and when I got home, lo and behold, after a loooooong time, I get an email from non other than my ex-husband. Oh, it was nothing big or anything. He emailed to send me a file for joint dissolution of marriage and that was it. Only the timing made me laugh.

Mica and I were up until 4:30am watching funny youtube videos and I stayed another hour after that talking food with Louiie on the phone. I passed out immediately after that and slept in til noon today. I don't have work until 6pm and I'm contemplating baking cookies before work. I feel like giving my resto boys a little snack.