At Home With MrsC

2 Tagaytay Trips and 3 Seasons of Mad Men #TheWeekThatWas

September 6, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 12 Comments

My week was literally half work, half play. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were super productive work days for me. I was able to submit a couple of articles, script edits, write a few blog posts and attend our PH editorial meeting for theAsianParent.com. Thursday and Friday were partly spent doing some house chores, but mostly I watched Mad Men. From late last week til the end of this week, I managed to watch all of the first three seasons. Yep, I’m hooked, obviously.

I think that the highlights of my past week came on the two Saturdays that bookended it. Both were spent in Tagaytay, my favorite quick escape. Last Saturday was spent discovering the gorgeous QiWellness Living Tea House and Bath House with my ABC loves (as in Alabang Bloggers Club – you will be reading a lot about this fun group in the coming posts), our significant others (or what I like to call the Prince Charming Crew), and a few other blogger friends from the south. We were treated to an amazing 8-course Yin Yang dinner, complete with Asian-inspired cocktails and glasses of wine. What a treat! It was just the date night that we mommies needed.

QiWellness Living's Ken, Jeff and Rita with bloggers, Ging, Mish, Jane, Joei, MrsC, Kaity and Helene — QiWellness Living’s Ken, Jeff and Rita with bloggers, Ging, Mish, Jane, Joei, MrsC, Kaity and Helene

This Saturday (as in today) was spent with MrC. He and I went on an early anniversary lunch date at Taal Vista Hotel. If you’ve been visiting this blog for a while now, you’ll remember that we celebrated our 2nd anniversary at Taal Vista last year. We had the chance to catch the opening of Culinary Gems, a series of special lunch and dinner buffets to celebrate the hotel’s 75th year. Over the next few weekends, featured guest chefs will put their spin on local favorites as part of the buffet offerings.

I was beyond excited to meet Chef Fernando Aracama. Oh my gosh I just love this man’s cooking. Love with a capital L. I know for a fact that I will be dreaming about his Beef Adobo sa Tuba.

Blogging about both amazeballs Saturdays soon. I actually missed posting a few stories I had lined up for the week. Confession: It’s because I chose to watch Mad Men instead of writing. Maybe I should treat myself to an episode AFTER I finish publishing or adding a post to my queue. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

How did you guys spend your week? Any interesting stories?

September #BaonPlan

September 1, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 21 Comments

Hello, September! I can’t believe you’re here. It’s been a full and eventful 2014 for me so far. It feels like the end of the 3rd quarter is coming around so quickly, and yet it also feels like this year is such a long one.

September, just like the months that came before it, is gonna be a full one. MrC and I are celebrating our anniversary in 10 days. This month also marks my 3rd blog anniversary, and I’m thinking of a nice give-back giveaway for my mommy blogger and WAHM friends. It’s the 4th month of school, and a start of a new term for the kiddo. The third grade has been quite challenging, but it looks like we’re doing okay. I have a bunch of blog events and activities on my calendar also, and that’s sure to be fun.

I have to admit that between mommy-ing, homemaking, MrC time, and writing for work, it’s becoming a challenge finding time to blog. I really want to continue posting often, regradless of how busy I become. Guess I just really have to make time for it and streamline my writing process. Or something. One adjustment that I’m making as of this moment is instead of 2-week baon plans, I’m going for a monthly post now. I feel that this will allow me less writing time and more cooking time, which is something I need.

I’ve made sure to put a hyperlink on all the recipes that I took from the internet, whether they’re from this blog or elsewhere. It’ll make recipe searching easier on all of us! And, just like before, if I get to try a recipe that I particularly like, I’ll make sure blog about it so that I can share it with you guys. Oh, and I also hope to make use of my newly acquired bento skills. Sana.

So, here we go with September’s Baon Plan. I included a pasta dish each week, and I’m extra excited about those. You know how pasta is my happy food. I also added lots of baked stuff as snacks, since my oven and I are now friends again. Hope you guys like the dishes I put together!

The Bento Mommas Meet The Alabang Moms #Crafternoon Group

August 31, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 12 Comments

On days when it’s extra hard to get up early and prepare baon, I remind myself that there’s this amazing group of working moms who not only cook food for their kids, but make sure that the lunch boxes are super cute, too. I first discovered The Bento Mommas on Instagram, and I always look forward to seeing what they’re packing for the day. I eventually met one of them, Kaye (aka @momma_makes_imbento on IG), through my favorite neighborly neighbor, Michelle.

Fast forward to a few months after I first met Kaye. Even though I knew that my creative and artistic levels are quite limited, I jumped at the chance to join the bento session with these amazing Bento Mommas here in Alabang. Michelle organized the class and invited members of our #Crafternoon group to join. I wasn’t sure what to expect, or how I would do, but I went anyway. I had nothing at all to lose and a whole lot to learn after all.

We made two bento boxes that day, one rice box and a sandwich box. Honestly, with all the tools and ingredients spread out on the tables, I was intimidated! But the Bento Mommas are so great at guiding us newbies and explaining what to do, that I was actually able to complete my boxes. And they were cute, ha!

A bento kit to take home, bento tools for borowing during the workshop, and Bento Mommas, April and Monet

I knew right away that I made the right choice to attend when I was greeted by this bag full of goodness right when I arrived at the venue. Oh the joy! GLAD is one of my favorite brands coz their products are all so handy dandy. They’re also perfect for bento making, as I soon discovered.

See, GLAD sandwich bags are the best for molding rice!

I am so proud of myself for turning that rice ball into this cutey bunny bento! That’s my super fave Marky’s chicken on the right side of the box, skewered onto bamboo sticks. My bunny face was made of cut out nori, which was probably the toughest part of the entire lunch box assembly. The “hair clip” stars are made of salami, and as you can see, I quickly discovered the joys of using shape cutters. They make things so easy! If I were to buy one bento tool, it would probably be some sort of cutter. Kaye taught us how to cut that mini carrot out of a big carrot, and finish it off with a food pick. Those are great tools, too. Insta-cute! This rice box also included apple bunnies (mine were ugly, so no photos of those haha) and the cutest sugar cookies made by Michelle and her daughter, Gia.

Galing no?! And look, we used a GLAD food keeper for this! It’s the perfect size.

Our sandwich boxes were made of whole wheat and white bread that was cut and assembled into a bear. We were actually supposed to cut our nori up to define the bear’s facial features. As you can see from the photo, I decided to skip that step. The bunny used up all of my allotted scissor skills for the day. Hindi na kaya ng powers ko. The sandwich had salami and cheese inside, and I added a cookie, some marshmallows and skewered fruits around it. This one was much easier to do than the rice box.

There's my sandwich bear, my packed up rice box, and my bunny bento side by side with Kaye's bunny — Here’s my sandwich bear, my packed up rice box, and my bunny bento side by side with Kaye’s blushing bunny

It was a great first bento-making experience, and while I have yet to really practice and experiment further at home, I’m glad I got to learn how to make these cute baon boxes. As soon as I got home, my kiddo, siblings and parents ate up everything I had prepared. And they really liked it, too. Yun lang, it took all of a few minutes for them to finish something I took a few hours to make. It was worth it, though.

Thank you, super, to The Bento Mommas for coming over to our province of Alabang. We had a blast! And thank you, too, to our generous sponsors, GLAD, Marky’s Chicken, Tabasco, Smuckers and Treetop for our kits and goody bag treats.

Oh the boys were so happy when I unpacked these from my loot bag!

It’s always fun spending time with new and old friends. I especially enjoy hanging out with mommy friends. Plus, our kids get to play together while we do our mommy thing, and that’s definitely a good thing.

We’re looking at having another Alabang Bento #Crafternoon with The Bento Mommas in September, so if you wanna join, let me know!

Homework, Then and Now #MotherhoodMonday

August 25, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 21 Comments

The little boy and I are just about done with the first term of this school year. As I’d expected, the third grade is a lot more challenging than last year was, and there’s a lot more work that needs to be done, too. I can’t help but compare how things were during my time as a student with my son’s, after all, he is going to the same school that I went to. I’m also the one tutoring him and helping him with his homework, so I see exactly how fast their learning pace is, and how advance their lessons seem to be.

At the same time, things are also easier on the children now as compared to before, particularly when technology is factored in. I remember having to manually sift through thick, dusty library books all the way til college, just to be able to gather information I needed for reports and projects. Now, the kids have the internet and awesome search engines at their fingertips. Back then, even filling out the bibliography pages of reports was a complicated procedure. Now, tools like cite.com make it so quick and easy to create citations. Oh if only we had these things back when I was in school!

As a parent, I still can’t help but worry sometimes that the curriculum for the school year may be too tough for my 8-year old to handle. And I completely sympathize with other parents who feel that way. I often see them voicing their concerns out in our parents association Facebook group. I’d like to think, though, that these little guys have brains that are a bit more advance than ours were at that age. And I really am pleasantly surprised when I see my son learning more and doing more. Sure, it’s difficult for me to tutor him because I find the topics quite advanced for a third grader. But that’s me. Since he is more than able to keep up in class, I guess there really is no cause to complain. Maybe I’m the one who needs to adjust.

Parents, do you tutor your children? Do you feel that the things they learn at their age are a lot more difficult than what you had to study at that grade level?

Domestication Just Got Real #RealHousewifeLife

August 22, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 24 Comments

A major, major, MAJOR change is coming. It’s gonna take a couple of years or so for it to really happen, but between then and now, there’s a lot of preparation needed. I don’t wanna jinx it by saying exactly what it is out loud (yes, I am superstitious like that), but I can say that one of my dreams is finally coming true.

While part of me wishes that this thing could come sooner, I know that the time we have before it happens is really important. We need to prepare. I need to prepare. I need this time to push myself to get off my lazy butt, and actually start going down that long and winding road towards domestication. Believe me, the list of things that I have yet to learn to do at home is pretty long. At least I already know how to cook. I know that this family isn’t gonna go hungry on my watch.

Cook — Kusinera. Complete with hair net.

One super important thing that I should start figuring out is laundry. I’ve never used a washing machine in my life. I’ve been picking up a lot of useful info from my friends on Facebook about this. I’m actually thinking of doing a trial run with different laundry shops in the area, just so I know how much money, time and effort it’s gonna take for us to have our laundry done outside.

Oh, and today, I tried washing a shirt by hand. Just one shirt – an office polo of MrC that had a small stain on it. Oh my goodness, it isn’t easy ha! And my inexperienced hands kinda hurt after just one shirt. I don’t know how these friends of mine who wash everything by hand do it.

Laundry is just one thing. There are so many other things like ironing, cleaning and disinfecting, and the list goes on. I need to go beyond being a cook and driver to becoming domesticated all over. Very mayor doma-ish.

I also need to declutter and purge in a major, major way. I think that we’re gonna have to cut our stuff down by at least half. At least. That’s gonna be so tough. I’m gonna have to be super strict on what stays. The rest, well, we’re just gonna have to let it gooooo, let it gooooooo. I just need to keep reminding myself that it’s for the best.

Exciting times are ahead for our small family. I’m really excited to make kwento with all of you as we go along. For now, let me ask you this. What is your least favorite household chore? Also, what is the chore that you find to be the easiest to do? I bet that from your answers, I’ll be able to add more stuff to the list of things that I have yet to learn!

Recipe: Banana Swiss Miss Muffins

August 19, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 21 Comments

Have you ever tried baking with Swiss Miss? As in the hot chocolate mix? Me neither, until yesterday.

I decided to make peace with our 20+ year old oven by attempting to bake a nice snack treat for Little MrC. Since it’s exam week, he’s home way before lunch time, so this week is filled with more mommy time than WAHM time. I could see he was getting bored with his usual afternoon cartoons. Blame it on him being stuck at home with a fever over the last 5 days. Because Cartoon Network and Toonami weren’t doing their usual magic, I had to think of a quick activity that we could do. And so, I went ahead and cranked up the heat on our old-timer oven. Bahala na if the temperature on the right is hotter than the temperature on the left. Lol.

I got the little boy all excited about mashing bananas, put an apron on him and set him to work. I realized too late that I should have checked that I had everything we needed in the pantry before I involved the little boy. The original plan was to make choco banana muffins like these ones by Nigella, but using tablea instead of cocoa powder. Toinks, my stash of tablea apparently went bad in the freezer during that Glenda storm, and my mom had gotten rid of them already. We also didn’t have any cocoa powder. I could have just gone with plain banana muffins, but I already said chocolate (the magic word) to the little boy. I had to think fast. I decided to use Swiss Miss. The dark kind.

They came out yummy. There’s not a lot of sugar in the recipe, so the sweetness comes mostly from the bananas. The riper the better. I like to use the nearly rotten ones for baking. Those are the best. The end result was not as chocolatey as it would have been if I used proper cocoa, but for a quick meryenda fix, a fun bonding afternoon with my kid and quick snack box fillers for today, these are more than good enough.

Banana Swiss Miss Muffins

2014-08-18 18:37:40

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Ingredients

3 overripe (as in borderline bulok) bananas
½ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
½ cup brown sugar
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 packet Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Sensation
1 tsp baking soda

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. The cuter the better!
Mash the bananas to baby food consistency.
With an electric mixer on low (or by hand), combine the mashed bananas and vegetable oil. Add in the egg and sugar.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, Swiss Miss and baking soda.
Gently add the dry mixture to the banana mixture. Do not overmix! It's totally fine if your batter is lumpy.
Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups. I use an ice cream scoop for this so that I get relatively uniformed muffin sizes.
Bake in the preheated over for 15-20 minutes. These should rise significantly and become a nice shade of cocoa brown when done. Cool the muffins slightly in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

This tastes super awesome topped with fruit preserves or with cream cheese frosting.

By MrsC

Adapted from KITCHEN Recipes from the Heart of the Home

At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/