Pomelo

Went to BJ's today to get Jasmine Rice. While there I saw one of my favorite fruit, the Pomelo

According to Wikipedia = Pomelo or Citrus maxima or citrus grandis - is a crisp citrus fruit native of South and South East Asia.

I have so many fond memories of the pomelo fruit growing up. My maternal grandparents used to take us to the our rice farm. Grandma made it point to plant a lot of fruits. It was always a treat for us when we go to the farm. We had our fill of many kids of fruits. Mangoes, chicos, tambis, pomelo, tangerines, coconut and many more to mention. My cousins nanny would make phones out of the pomelo rinds. The pomelo is always eaten with salt or vinegar with salt. I prefer vinegar and salt when eating the pomelo. I cannot have enough of the fruit. I used to relish my portion of pomelo but eating it one pulp at a time. When I saw the fruit at BJ's today I had to buy it. It is expensive but, I get to splurge sometimes and I love to splurge on food.. Have you tired one?

First food shopping haul

June was the month that I left blogging. I don't know if I ever shared pictures of haul when I go couponing. The picture below was taken last June and this was one of my biggest supermarket haul. This was also the first time I really put an effort into couponing with food. The lucky store that we went to was ShopRite. Since I started couponing November of last year I was focused more on Walgreens, Rite Aid and Walmart. It was my friend who encouraged me to join her and gave me a great couponing site to follow. There is the a couple of great website but for me Living Rich With Coupons is the best one. So without further delay here is my food shopping haul at ShopRite ..

It was for two different transaction each on different shoprite membership card. Couponing takes a lot of work and organization but it does pay off in the end.

AFFAIR WITH AN ANGEL

A couple of months ago I went gaga over a certain cake. We were at my BIL's house in Bear for my Biometrics for the USCIS. I got hungry and raided their kitchen for something to eat. My eyes feel on a rectangular piece of container with a few slices of what appears to be cake. I asked if I could have a piece. As soon as that piece of cake hit my tongue I was in food heaven. I found out that day that my favorite cake is Angel Food Cake. I cannot get over how fluffy, sweet and soft it comes. Before we left I begged my MIL to take me to Walmart so I could get the cake. One thing about me is when I want something specially food, I got and get it. I will keep eating the same food until desire for the taste is quenched. I bought two round cakes and I finished the whole round one in a day. My husband knows about my love affair with food and he knows that I am currently hooked on Angel, sweet, light, fluffy and delicious.

BIG DATE

In a few hours hubby and I will go on a big date. Our wedding anniversary is on Valentines day, we opted to celebrate the day in advance. A good friend of our gave us a gift card for the Firebirds Wood Fire Grill as a thank you for watching her son. She didn't have to do that but she insisted to show much my help and friendship is appreciated. Ralph and I have been looking forward to our date since January. I am looking forward to dressing up a bit, well its not to formal but when I say dressing up it means being out of sweats and actually wearing a dress pant and a dressy top,lol. The review I read online about the restaurant seems promising. I am hoping that both of us will enjoy the food. Kayla is at her moms and my MIL is watching Kaitlyn for the night. Lets hope to a smooth and romantic night out with the hubby.

SEAFOOD CRAVING

Winter gives me a lot of excuses to eat. You can ask my family what I tell them whenever they see me eating a lot. I would always reply to them that I am hibernating and I need fats in my body to stay warm in this freezing weather. Its a pretty pathetic excuse but its an excuse nonetheless. For months now I have been craving, going crazy about eating a whole bunch of seafood. I miss eating seafood and I fee like the only time I can really get to eat seafood is in the spring and summertime. I drool at my friends pictures when I see them eating grabs, calamari, shrimps and fish. Growing up in a tropical country and surrounded with lots of water, I had my fill of seafood. Ralph also loves to eat seafood, whenever we go to our favorite Chinese buffet he would make a beeline for the seafood section. He love oysters, clams and lobster while I am more of into the crab and shrimp. Ralph knows that I really love crabs but he can't seem to find a good seafood market or even an online fish market. It doesn't matter to me where he got it as long as its fresh and good. With today's cutting edge technology and the Internet its already possible to by oysters online and not only get the best but the freshest.

Our 4th wedding anniversary is fast approaching and we have yet to decide on what to do that day. Go out to eat dinner or just have a big feast in the house. Having dinner in the house seems to be more promising if Ralph can buy seafood and get a lot. If he wants some action he better get me the biggest and meatiest crab and oysters for him.If you love seafood and can't seem to find a good seafood market near you, let your hands do the walking this time and check out all the links for the a great selection of seafood online.

LIME'S LIL BRO

This beautiful round green fruit is called Lemonsito. It's like lime but smaller and more delicious without the bitter after taste of Lime and Lemon. I was so happy to see this plant beside my mom's house. It was surrounded by beautiful butterflies. Kaitlyn enjoyed looking at the butterflies and chasing after them. We didn't get to pick from the plant since it was not ripe yet. I don't know about you but food just taste different when the Lemonsito is added to it. Take for example the breaded pork chop.. There is just a certain taste to it that leaves you wanting and eating more. Even MIL admits that the these small lemonsito beats Lime any day. And good news to my pinoy friends, I got to bring a few seeds with me. I have yet to plant it but I am optimistic that I will be able to grow it. I just hope I have a place to put it when winter comes.

MY STINKY LIL' FISH FRIENDS

That is my stinky fishy friends. One of the many many things I had the pleasure of looking, smelling and eating while I was on my vacation in the Philippines. At first I hesitated about frying this smelly wonder out of respect for my MIL. But I could no longer contain the wanting in my mouth. My sister fried a couple and my mouth really watered and the house was blasted with the awful stinking smell of the fish. I told my MIL not to leave our room so she will not be greeted by the smell. To avoid the smell getting into the room that is fully air-conditioned we had to put a towel under the door. After our mission was accomplished we sat ourselves around the table to get nourishment from these small stinky fishes. Let me tell you it was pure heaven eating it with my bare hands and know that I'm in Cebu and that I am in good company. I wasn't the only one feasting on these meal, my young daughter had her fill as well. She loves the taste of it but wants nothing to do with the smell, lol. You would be a Filipino, know one, be a friend to one or marry one to be able to understand what I am talking about. Buwad you are the bane of my existence,lol

BULAD FOR SIOPAO

At last my friend Biyaw has finally taken the hint that I want bulad, heheheh.. She keeps forgetting to send it. She called me yesterday laughing and told me they will be coming on Feb 27th. She will be making a list of what to bring and requested something in return. That I make her something to eat. I guess I will have to make my famous beef ginaling for her again as well as make her siopao. A few of my friends have already offered to send me Bulad but all I was waiting for was BIYAW.. You better make good on your promise girl or your siopao is going to be history,heheheh.

Hopefully if my vacation pushes through, I will set aside some money to buy bulad so I can bring it back. As to the suggestion of Lulu I have already asked my family to look into sending me some bulad.

OFFICIALLY CLOSED

What a bummer that Summer is over. Yesterday the pool was officially closed for the season. It would have been closed Monday but Ralph had so many things to do. The pool was ready by Wednesday with all the chemicals in and ready for the winter. All we needed to do yesterday was cover the pool. Sounds easy but its a far more annoying thing to do. At least we finally got the pool closed and hopefully when the next pool opening it wont be bad. After doing all that was supposed to be done we headed off to our favorite Chinese buffet restaurant. How I love eating out buffet style, you get to have your fill with anything and its cheaper. We came home with a full belly but not without any regrets about eating way way to much. Oh well, life will move on and I will eventually loose a couple of pounds. When or how that I do not know....

DATE WITH MR.CRABS

Crab Fest!!! A week ago I asked my MIL to take me to the Farmers Market so I can get my crabs. I just went in there to get it and zipie do dah right out the door after. I got a dozen crabs all to myself since both Ralph and my MIL have had enough of crabs while they were still living in New Jersey. As soon as we got home I immediately took a pan and dumped my breakfast/lunch/dinner to start cooking. My mouth was watering since I haven't had crabs in a long time. Eating crabs bring back memories back home. Even if its a very tedious task eating it I still enjoy it. It took me 3 days to finish that dozen crabs together with Kaitlyn. I found out that she loves crabs but I think she is a little bit allergy to it since her pepe got red after she had crabs. Next time I want to try those King Crabs the one I keep on seeing on DEADLIEST CATCH.

BURN BABY BURN

The other week Ralph bought himself a new toy, his smoker. He was so excited about it and was talking about what he was going to cook non-stop. I helped him assemble everything, It makes me happy that he has his own thing. He has always been a giver its time he gets what he wants. He is still experimenting and learning how to operate and cook with his smoker. It took more than half a day to cook a whole chicken, beef ribs, salmon,tuna,and pork ribs. It was a lot and I must admit it wasn't that good! I know he felt so bad that we didn't like what he made but we made the most out of it. The tuna and chicken turned out good though despite how it looked,lol.

here is a photo :


It may look disgusting and terribly burned on the outside but it was so juicy and tender on the inside. He already ordered his recipe books for the smokers online and I bet next time its going to be yummy..

BEEF CALDERETA

Yesterday I made another Filipino dish that my husband absolutely love, BEEF CALDERETA. Last weeks it was "nilat-ang baka" and both him and my MIL loved as well. I bought the beef ribs at Bj's since it was cheaper. Ralph however is complaining that he doesn't like the bones in the meat and that there is not enough meat. Last night when he came home from work he had some of my caldereta. This morning I decided to have it for lunch but was dismayed, he ate almost all the meat! Leaving just the sauce, potatoes, green peas, carrots and the peppers. At least he loved it.

PIZZA AND SPAGHETTI NIGHT

Thursday I decided to make my own pizza. I was a little bit discouraged when Ralph said it might not turn out that good, he means the crust. I told him that were also going to be having spaghetti since I already took out some sweet Italian sausage to put in the sauce. I got the recipe online and it didn't take that long to make it. What was so rewarding was Ralph actually liked it. The best thing about it is now we can make our own pizza and put any topping we like. BON APPETITO!!!

I HOP FOR iHOP

Last night Ralph's brother Larry and his girlfriend Teresa arrived. Larry is applying for the Police Academy, his scheduled physical endurance test was today at 10 a.m. Kaitlyn of course was already sleeping when they got in last night. This morning when we got up Kaitlyn saw her uncle Larry and cried as usual but after about 10-15 min she finally warmed up to her uncle. She even went in his arms and gave him not one but two kisses on the lips. Angelo, Ralph's other brother was also coming down the house today so when Larry got back from his test we decided to eat breakfast out again at iHOP. All in all there was 9 1/2 of us, Kaitlyn being the 1/2. As soon as Angelo and his family got in the house we left immediately for iHOP and the place was jam packed with people. The food was awesome, delicious and portions were ginormous! I was going to take a picture of the food and of us enjoying breakfast out but i didn't think about bringing my bag let alone the camera. But all in all we had a good time and left with a full belly. Kaitlyn got to spend time with Angelo after Larry left since he was always by Kaitlyn's side. Kaitlyn loved the attention both her uncles and everyone else was giving her. If you ever want to eat breakfast out and leave with a full stomach, head on out to iHOP.

CRAB EATING AND FREINDS

As i was looking through some of my pictures when i was still pregnant i came across these photos when i was 8 months pregnant. We just dropped off Kayla that day to Baltimore and we were going to meet up with a filipina i had befriended online. Neda and Dave lived about 10 min away from where we drop off Kayla. It was the first time that we will meeting and i was so excited. She had bought crabs for dinner since i really wanted it. They were so gracious and hospitable and i had a wonderful time with them. I not only came home with a full stomach but also a couple of Victoria Secret products. Looking at the photos made me miss being pregnant again.

EAT YOUR HEARTS OUT!!

Whats for breakfast? Get a good look and I'm sure most Filipino bloggers will be able to guess what i had for breakfast. I didn't buy this but made it myself. All i do is freeze them or refrigerate and steam when I'm in the mood for it. I know, i know i should eat healthier but i just couldn't resist my steamed buns(siopao) paired with ice cold coca cola. Can you see? Its still steaming hot...yum yum yummy!!!