Cook and Brew.

It’s still a day early but I’m wishing you all now:

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

It’s the time of the year again when a Chinese food boxed in red is a common sight, not only in Binondo streets but in almost every non-Chinese household. We’re fortunate that we don’t have to storm the busy streets of Binondo just to taste this special tikoy delicacy because we’re always gifted by a Chinese neighbor (along with a few pieces of arcona products because they’re into beauty product distribution for business). We usually cook ours the most popular and easiest way..cut into strips, dip in an egg mixture before frying. I’m searching on the web now for other ways to cook this..anyone care to share their tikoy recipes?

I stumbled upon this photo while organizing my Flickr gallery. This was taken at hubby’s godson’s Christening last year. Instantly, it made me drool and now my tummy’s seemingly screaming “please feed me!”

I intended not to browse food and cooking blogs and checked out instead sites of varied topics from home blogs to web pages about long distance moving but the image is stuck in my head.

Yay! I finally have my Yummy 2010 Planner. It’s actually a prize I won for joining Yummy.ph’s Christmas Contest on their website last month. (I am one of the fortunate 5 selected winners). I love everything about this planner: the thick, slightly glossy paper; the simple yet charming design; the ample writing space and most especially, the recipes (with appetizing pictures) that goes along with it. There are 24 recipes, I think. It also has some more trinkets like stickers and tear-out lists: a shopping list, a list of restaurants to visit, and a list of recipes to try.

Actually, it also makes a good storage for receipts and insurance quotes while the weekly household budget is being calculated.

This is available for P250 in all newsstands, bookstores and supermarkets.

I just got this idea from Yummy.ph’s Facebook fan page and it’s a brilliant tip that we can do:

YUMMY Tip of the Day: Leftovers usually leave a bad smell on your containers. To get rid of the odor, place crumpled newspaper in the container, put the lid back on, and leave overnight. The next day, wash with soap and water and the bad smell will be gone.

It’s now my habit to check out Yummy.ph daily. I love their articles, tips, reviews and most of all their featured easy and instant recipes. I can’t wait to move in to our own home so I can try all the featured recipes myself. By the way, you can download Yummy Recipes on your cell phones! TEXT YUMMY MMS to 2948 for Smart Globe and Suns Subscribers.

Conversations whether simple or serious talks are made more engaging when done over a cup of coffee. That is why informal business meetings are sometimes preferred to be held in coffee shops because of the ambiance and the caffeine kicks.

So what particular business topic that is nice to talk about over a cup of coffee? I’d say investments like precious metals specifically, gold. Investor and precious metal experts always reiterate that now is ALWAYS the perfect time to buy gold bullion. Despite the world recession, unpredictable trends of the commodity market, fluctuating currency values and wavering interest rates, gold is the safest metal to invest on. Simply because the value does not change at all. It’s not surprising to see that a lot of investors are going after this metal.

Even though technology is now advanced and we can count on anytime on the expertise of dental implants Plano service providers, we can’t be too complacent to not care about our teeth especially that of our kids. Even the dentists say that the most important part of dental care happens and begins at home. Brushing and flossing properly, along with regular dental checkups, can help prevent tooth decay and gum disease. For our kids, it’s never too early to start instilling in them the discipline of regular brushing. Plus, the discipline and self-control of eating sweets, sticky foods and between-meal snacks must be emphasized. Dental care experts suggest to constantly remind kids to limit sweet snacks and drinks between meals to avoid cavities. In addition, teeth-friendly snacks, that include fresh fruits and vegetables, and cheese and crackers, are recommended.

We’ve got one lazy Sunday afternoon here. We were supposed to go malling this afternoon but laziness struck both me and The Husband so here we are just idling and lounging, playing with the little one. This picture of Tokyo Cafe’s cardboard display from my Flickr gallery makes me wish though that we should have felt and done otherwise. My tummy should be feasting now with their humongous fat overloaded Hamburg patties. Oh well, I guess we have to satisfy ourselves with home made hamburger patty sandwiches later on.

Unless it’s not chronic and not accompanied with fever, vomiting and extreme pain, the occasional bout of diarrhea can usually be prevented with just a change in diet and of course personal care precaution. Here are some tips I’ve collected from my internet research and those that I’ve constantly read from parenting books (in connection with preventing viral and bacterial infections on children):

1. Carefully wash hands after using the bathroom and after changing a baby’s diaper.
2. Practice safe food-handling. Always wash the hands before and after handling food.
3. Avoid raw or rare meat and poultry. Always cook them thoroughly to their recommended temperatures.
4. Thoroughly rinse with clean water raw fruits and vegetables that will be consumed.
5. Regularly clean water dispensers and replace your wf2cb water filter periodically.
6. Avoid diarrhea at breakfast by not drinking caffeinated coffee, tea, or soda pop. At lunch, skip the raw fruit or vegetable salad. At dinner, go easy on the fatty foods.

It’s a shame that I haven’t started the digiscrapped recipe book I vowed to start doing this month. Well, January brought me tons of online earning opportunities so that’s basically the reason why I haven’t got a decent time to sit down on this project. I have collected about 5 recipe books so for the time being, those will be my resources. And since my birthday will be in less than two months, it’s fine with me if, instead of lavish loose diamonds, the husband will gift me a library of recipe books! His tummy and my son’s will benefit from it anyway.

Just got a news that my sister’s homecoming from Qatar on April is now confirmed. We’re so excited because it’s her baby daughter’s first time to visit our native land and so we’re anxious to meet and kiss her personally for the first time. They have confirmed their ticket bookings and so it’s all systems go. Now here comes one of my pre-arrival favorite parts. That is, it’s listing down time of homecoming gifts (pasalubong). The last time my sister and her husband had a vacation, we’ve got so many confectioneries and the one I liked the most are these Quality Street chocolates. She gave me one tin and I’ve almost consumed the varied chocolates in just one sitting. I like how they are not so “sinfully sweet”. I hope they fill their Samsonite luggage with these chocolates.

Quality Street is manufactured in Halifax, in the United Kingdom by Nestlé. A box or a tin of this usually consists of indiviadually wrapped sweets in 12 flavours, all of which are either chocolate or toffee based:

* Milk Chocolate Hazelnut with caramel (the ‘Purple One’)
* Chocolate Noisette Pate (the ‘green triangle’)
* Chocolate Toffee Finger (gold wrapped stick)
* Toffee Penny (gold wrapper)
* Vanilla Fudge (pink wrapper)
* Strawberry Delight (red circular wrapper)
* Coconut Eclair (blue wrapper)
* Caramel Swirl (yellow frustum)
* Milk Choc Block (green wrapper)
* Orange Crunch (hexagonal orange wrapper)
* Orange Creme (orange circular wrapper)
* Toffee Deluxe (Brown wrapper)