Yep. That's me in one of my most unflattering pictures. The ice pack is for nursing the concussion I have on the right side of my head. I think me and the ice bag would be buddies for the next few days. Here's the story..

Remininiscent of what happened a few months back, I had a tumble again in our office stairs. Except this time, I had to be rushed to the ER due to the concussion. I couldn't recall exactly how I ended up in the heap at the bottom of the stairs. I was sure though that my foot hadn't caught on something nor did I trip. Probably slipped or lost my footing. Anyway, I desperately tried to hold on to something but I still managed to fall head first. When I fell, I just couldn't move. I was so dizzy. I kept my eyes closed and just let the guards and other people help me up. I had a concussion the size of  a golf ball so the company doctor had me rushed to Makati Medical Center.

Yep, it's the Chinese New Year. And the festivities of the Chinese New Year celebration is what I missed when my family moved north. I've spent most of my teens living in Chinatown so I'd always looked forward to the sights and sounds of the Chinese celebration.

Myke and I went to Binondo yesterday to buy some rice cakes to bring home to my family. Chinese rice cakes or tikoy had come a long way from the usual white and brown variety.

A lot of my recent posts were food related. You'd probably think that this is a food blog but it's not. Well, not entirely dedicated to food but I share whatever foodie adventure we had or stories on my foray into the kitchen.

Cos who doesn't like to eat? ;D

And because of sometimes (over)eating, Myke and I are getting plump. Factor that with the lack of exercise and well, you know what the result is. :P

Apparently, a few people had noticed the 'growth' especially on Myke.  Let me tell you first that Myke's body has a large built and though his tummy was not always flat, it doesn't seem too noticeable. But now, it looked like he's preggers. Ha ha ha!  At home, when he's walking around shirtless, I'd always tease hubby that his tummy is now round, LITERALLY. As if he swallowed a watermelon. And what does he answer with? "E kasi luto ka ng luto e!". Talk about ungrateful. Ha ha ha!

He also told me that he got bigger since he had started eating rice during breakfast. He was used to eating only bread and coffee but I wasn't. I need to have a heavy breakfast because if I ate only bread, I'd be heading straight to the canteen to buy breakfast again by the time I got to the office.  I told him that having a heavy breakfast was better than binging out during dinner. So we made a compromise that we'll alter heavy breakfast with some cereals and then we'll skip dinner altogether. This way, we'd be watching our weight and we'll have longer sleeping hours :)

We've had quite a stock of food in our fridge. After the holidays, there was the Quiapo fiesta so we were pretty much stuffing ourselves with leftovers. As you could probably imagine, I was more or less ready to throw up; I was hardly recognizing one sauced dish from another. Ugh.

I knew I had to cook something else less I want to starve. Plus I had around a kilo of ground beef in the freezer that I wanted to use for Meatballs Stroganoff.  I ditched the stroganoff since I was too lazy to go to the supermarket to buy sour cream. So I planned to make spaghetti with meatballs but then MIL (mother-in-law) told Myke that she'll be making spaghetti. Argghh. I conceded and decided to make meatballs in tomato sauce instead.  I made this last week.

It is not often that post a rant. In fact, I could not recall a blog entry that I ranted about something or someone. Even when someone had tried to pick a fight with me on my own Facebook wall, I'd kept mum about it especially on my blog. Why? Well, for the whole FB debacle..hmm.. etiquette? Perhaps. But mainly because I wanted to keep the positive vibe in my blog intact. But this afternoon, I had suddenly realized that if this is indeed a personal blog - MY personal blog that accounts on what happens in my day to day life, it wouldn't be realistic that it would be all about sugar, spice and everything nice. Surely at some point in my life, I was pissed off or annoyed. But then, it's still a matter of choice if I want to write about it or not.

What triggered this whole "sharing my rant" episode anyway? Well it all happened on my commute home this afternoon...

Since I've moved with hubby, I was spared from contuining to elbow my way thru the maze that is MRT. On times that I had to take public transport, I have to hitch a ride on a bus. So this afternoon at past five, I jump into one of the buses on its usual queue at Makati. Too bad on my (and the other passengers) part, another bus of the same line had immediately pulled up behind us. This was noted by our conductor and told the driver. The next thing I knew, our bus was speeding thru Ayala Ave. I instantly knew that our bus driver was trying to beat the other bus into getting into the next (bus) stop. While we were again on queue on the next bus loading station, the other bus had (unsuccessfully) tried to cut-in in front of the queue. Well, the other bus must have picked up quite a few passengers along the way when it went ahead of us because we caught up with it along Buendia Avenue. Ang naisip ko naman e malamang mag-uunahan naman sila na makarating naman sa terminal (route end) para mauna sila sa pila para sa susunod the biyahe. I guess I wasn't wrong. Because our bus kept its speedy progress and kept its position in the innermost lane. So some of my poor co-passengers who had to get off had to do so in the middle of the highway. Seriously Manong Driver, ikaw kaya ang makipagpatintero sa mga bus, truck at kotse sa kalsada? :(

It's was only a few entries back that I told you about my pregnancy. Myke and I are excited and happy that in a few month's time, we'll have our own bundle of joy. But apparently, our excitement would be short-lived.

Myke and I lost our baby. I underwent D&C procedure last December 31 and we spent the New Year at the hospital. It was very saddening because it would have been our first child. Hubby was very supportive though and kept assuring me that all is well.

The doctor confirmed thru the follow-up check up this afternoon that I indeed had a miscarriage. The biopsy report of the specimen taken during the procedure had proven such. She advised us that we should plan our next pregnancy - preferably giving an allowance of 3 months before I conceive again so my body would have time to recuperate.

Myke and I We both accepted the fact that it may be the right time for us. I know that God will bless us with wonderful kid(s) in His own perfect time.

The time for healing has started and we look forward to the New Year with open minds and joyous hearts.

RAAPJ84YQCBM

This is already a late entry since I made the batches of the Chocolate Rum Balls last December 27.  I was still in search for Christmas give aways and I thought of something edible.  Again, the recipe is pretty easy to follow.  I was able to make 24 chocolate balls and the container I've bought fits exactly 12 pieces.

Since there is only the two of us at home, (I) we sometimes miscalculate the food we buy. It is usually more than what hubby and I could consume. A sample scenario is when I've bought some pan de sal that Myke and I simply weren't able to finish in a day. I've put them in the bread bin until we totally forgot that we still have some bread to munch on.

So rather then chucking them out completely, I had the idea of reworking them. Sayang rin naman kasi. I remembered that our godfather bought some roast pork (asado) during his visit. The amount of the asado is again a bit much for our few days eating so I thought of using some of it for the pan de sal.

Took a test last December 25 (very fitting. Hi hi hi.) and another one this morning. Both showing two distinct lines :D

My office colleagues are so excited for me that they even sent me this Chinese calendar to 'predict' the baby's gender. Hmm... Let's see... Well, if this calendar is accurate, our first born will be a boy :P

Hubby and I couldn't be happier. Will definitely make an appointment with a doc soon to hear the official word :)

Christmas has come and gone and now, everyone's getting excited for the New Year's celebration. My next post would probably be in 2011 already but I can't let the year go by without telling you about our Christmas, right?

Yes, it's official. We've moved to our new home and Myke and I had been playing house for a few days now :P  I haven't taken pictures yet but I will be posting it soon!  The few days before Christmas, Myke and I had been busy organizing and shopping for other household stuff. I barely had time to visit the market for items I'd be using for our Noche Buena. I was planning on cooking a few dishes but apparently, hubby is content with just some ham, bread and hot choco for Christmas. But being the "show-off" that I am (he he he), I decided to make dessert.

   
Prior to Christmas, I've been compiling recipes from Home Cooking Rocks that I wanted to try out (with hubby as my guinea pig). Since I was already pressed for time, I decided to make Mango Royale.  Thankfully, the wet market is in walking distance from our place so I was able to buy some ripe mangoes for the pie.


The result? Fantastic! Though I probably had gone overboard with the crust. I added more butter and the crust was a tad bit too firm. But despite that, the huge chunk I shared with my in-laws was a hit. My sister-in-law kept asking me the day after Christmas if there are any more Mango Royale :P I had to tell her that the remaining slice at the fridge has been reserved for Myke who polished it off right off the pan!