WISHING CLAIRE AND FAMILY GREAT ADVENTURES IN SINGAPORE

​When one of us Sweet Magnolias embarks on a trip abroad, we are happy for her as she sets out to see new places and gain new experiences. 

With Claire, it could be bittersweet since she is the youngest bubbly one who always make everything light and happy. 

Today we wish Claire the best of adventures and enjoyable moments as she makes happy memories with her family. 

This is just the right time to bring her Jacoboys along; Caleb is 5 and Karl is 7. At this age, they will surely appreciate and remember every adventure that they will cherish forever. 

Here are Caleb and Karl: 

Singapore is a tourist-friendly country, very safe with many places to see for the young and the young at heart.  Since they are bringing the Jacoboys, they planned to visit the Universal Studious, and other interesting adventures in Sentosa. Then they will cross the border to Kuala Lumpur to Legoland Malaysia Resort. 

Today, Mel hosted the sendoff breakfast. 

This box of cookies is a souvenir from King Charles’ coronation in May brought by Carol for our host. 

The husbands had their breakfast in the veranda. 

Thanks a lot for the sumptuous breakfast Mel. For starters we had fruit compote and the charcuterie board of cheeses, grapes and nuts. 

Followed by Muesli of oats, nuts and dried fruits with yogurt dressing. There’s this yummy lychee juice along with it. 

This was followed by grilled cheese sandwich, sunny side up and chips. 

As if that wasn’t enough, there’s macaroni salad which I failed to take a photo. Of course we finished off with coffee, lots of laughter and interesting stories. 

Our get together always culminate with a group photo. 

We are missing Cheska who will be back soon from India. I’m sure she is having a great time with her family. 

And Tess is still in Rotterdam, busy now training for another 10-km run early next month.  We are proud of her for having finished a marathon earlier. 

Claire, we are sending you well wishes for happy times with your family. We hope you will carry them in your mental backpack and make the most of your vacation. 

May your flight be smooth, your journey be safe, your experience be rich and your memories be great. 

Send us lots of photos and come back safe. 

SOMETIMES WE JUST WANT TO PARTY

​Tonight was another “blockbuster” dinner in our own little way.  Indeed, it was hearty and satisfying; like any dinner of the Sweet Magnolias who are always ready and willing to get together on the spur of the moment. 

This dinner was conceived during an impromptu breakfast the day before. Dolly, who gave the breakfast; mentioned that Vener,(her significant other)  planned to cook pork blood stew (dinuguan).   Claire, our bubbly and enthusiastic youngest in the group picked up on that and suggested dinner. I guess she felt like partying. 

“Let’s have dinner then; we already have pork blood stew”, she messaged us all. “I asked Dolly and she confirmed that all of us are welcome. You can bring a dish if you like but no pressure. Let’s invite our partners. Please give me a headcount so I can order crabs and lapu lapu. 

Who can resist such enthusiasm? 

Thanks for this nice table setting, Dolly. 

So we had dinner. 

Upon learning about the dinner; Tess who is enjoying family time in Rotterdam and Cheska visiting her in laws in India said that they are in serious FOMO. “FOMO IS REAL, they both messaged in our group chat. 

“There will definitely be a repeat of this”, Dolly assured. 

As usual there were so much food. 

Salad for stater and the pinakbet beside it

There’s the pork blood stew 

And the kilawen; grilled pork liempo and pork liver, thinly sliced and dressed with calamansi, onions, salt and pepper

Then the star of the dinner.,,,the crabs sautéd in oyster sauce and leeks. 

There’s sweet and sour lapu lapu 

Steamed shrimps

Daing na bangus topped with tomatoes and onions. 

There’s puto 

and it’s female counterpart, the kutsinta

For dessert there’s leche flan

And lychees with nata de coco 

Fruits: Bangkok santol, dragon fruit and siniguelas. Sorry I failed to take photos of those. 

Since we are walking at 5 AM tomorrow, Dolly gave us the most delicious coffee as our nightcap.

These guys lingered for more bonding while the seniors went home. 

Once again, Vener and Dolly, thanks a lot for a wonderful dinner. 

 

OLD FRIENDS, NEW MEMORIES

​When we say “catching up” with friends, what exactly do we mean? 

Ideally, catching up is talking face to face or at the very least a video call to update each other on what’s going on with our lives. 

When Nitz invited me for coffee, I was excited to see her. The last time we got together was over lunch in November.  I did miss her; I met her seven years ago ; the wife of Jim’s former colleague and friend. 

More than that, Nitz is a true friend.  They say that “friendship isn’t about who you’ve known for the longest time; it’s about who walked into your life; said I’m here for you and proved it”. 

Nitz is that in my life. 

“I’ll get you at 4 and the tab is on me; you may want to suggest a place”, she messaged. So we ended up at Concordia’s, a convenient place with a good ambiance. I knew she liked it since she’s never been there. 

Of course I let her pick up the tab for “coffee” and Jim took care of dinner. 

Catching up with Nitz was easy, we just picked up where we left off.  Thanks to facebook that updates us on what we’ve been up to; the only thing missing is knowing about our plans and how we feel about them. 

It was a happy afternoon and a happier evening of sharing stories. Then Jim joined us for dinner. It was a great meetup; it is something I love to capture and share in this blog. 

WELCOME BREAKFAST FOR THREE SWEET MAGNOLIAS

​Today we welcomed Carol, Cheska and Dolly from their summer travel; Dolly and Carol went to the US and Cheska to Europe 

Carol and Cheska

Here’s Dolly below 

I prepared a different breakfast today; not the American/continental breakfast of bacon, ham, sausages, omelettes and pancakes; nor the Filipino breakfast fare of corned beef, longanisa, tocino and over easy eggs or salted egg with tomatoes. 

I am one who always try different dishes. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always order something different; this way, my palate will experience different taste and flavors

When I was in Singapore in April, my son brought us to Tuga a Portuguese restaurant in Dempsey Hill where I tasted chicken livers cooked the Portuguese way. I replicated the recipe back home, added half chicken thighs to the livers. From memory, I recalled the taste and put in the right spices. And voila!  I got it!  Adding that dish to my cooking repertoire, for sure. 

Portuguese chicken livers. 

Today I served papaya and orange wedges. 

And sandwiches: 

Chicken sandwich with tomato and romaine

Cream cheese-yogurt and dill with cucumber

And cheese pimiento which I forgot to photograph. 

Tomato-onion-mushroom- spinach omelet. 

I like to depart from the usual breakfast; at home don’t we often run out of menu ideas so we turn to processed meats in our pantry like corned beef, spam or our stock of ham and  sausages? Don’t we also resort to longanisa, tocino and red eggs?  See, that’s why I want to try new things. 

While some may not choose pasta for breakfast, I thought, why not? So I made putanesca. 

I served the mango loaf baked by my sister, Annie  and mini cheese cakes from her too. 

Mel, a dessert aficionado brought a peach dessert topped with jello on cream

Cheska brought a taste of Paris where she visited recently; different croissants and kouign-Mann: pronounced “kween uh, man”; like a Britton butter cake made of 30% butter, 30% sugar and the rest is flour.  Oh so yummy yet so sinful. It must be really good coz when I opened the box this is all that was left. 

Carol brought chicken macaroni salad 

And Juliet gave me lots of suman which is my fave. I was brought up eating cakes baked by my mama and all kinds of rice cakes too. There was a lot so I shared some and left these for us. 

The highlight this morning was the unexpected Bidibidi bag for Carol. 

Tess gave us all similar bags for our birthdays except Carol so she left this before she went home to Rotterdam.

Tess is in London now with her family. Here she just got off the plane.  Look, she is also using her Bidibidi travel bag. She says that she misses  us, everyday she always has a word or two in our group chat. 

Tomorrow is the birthday of Cheska. This morning we already greeted her and I handed my gift to her, a solo personalized cheese board. 

We missed Claire, our youngest bubbly buddy who is feeling under the weather so I sent her food Here she is when she is well.