At Home With MrsC

January Recipe Roundup (Yes, I Am Officially A Home Cook)

January 28, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan Leave a Comment

I cooked a lot this month! Honestly, if I told my teenage self that I’d be a good home cook in the future, I would probably have rolled my eyes and laughed. Before I got married, I was a terrible cook. I successfully burned everything from bread to eggs to spaghetti sauce, and that’s reheating, not cooking! I’ve made food that had no taste whatsoever, overly seasoned dishes, and sometimes just badly seasoned food.

It came to a point where my siblings got nervous when I’d attempt to make something in the kitchen, and no one wanted to taste my cooking. I actually almost burned our house down once. The incident involved a whole bottle of cooking oil, a pot that wasn’t deep enough, and a whole bag of squid balls. Pot was filled with oil, the entire bag of squid balls was dropped in all at once, oil overflowed. As a result, I found myself face to face with a giant fireball. Oh, did I mention that we had wooden cabinets above the stove back then? Yeah. [Read more…] about January Recipe Roundup (Yes, I Am Officially A Home Cook)

30 Days to 30

January 26, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 2 Comments

I have 30 days left in my 20’s. Eek!

Ok, so it just so happened that what I have planned for today all come together perfectly to kick of my 30 day countdown. During the day, I will be working on my career. I signed up for Dainty Mom‘s WAHMderful Life Workshop (I know you already know, since I keep talking about it), and after the session I hope to be a better WAHM and a better freelance writer. No, wait, I KNOW I’ll be better at it. I’m really excited to finally meet all my online mom friends. So far I’ve only had the pleasure of meeting Mommy Ginger in person, and I can’t wait to see everyone else. Must remember to charge the camera! Meanwhile, check out the video of Martine and Ginger being interviewed on ANC’s Shoptalk about the workshop.

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Recipe: Frozen Mango Cream Filling

January 25, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 2 Comments

I made a few desserts over the holidays and promised to post the recipes and outcome of each. I started strong when I posted this no-bake graham cracker crust recipe right on the day it was devoured at a family get-together. And then I got lazy and haven’t posted any other recipe blogs since then. I promise to make up for lost time, beginning with the recipe for this frozen mango cream that I filled my graham cracker crust with. The original recipe can be found on the ever so reliable Martha Stewart dot com. Hers called for a macadamia crust, but we had already bought bags of graham crackers, and that’s why we ended up with a different crust. So here we go.

FROZEN MANGO CREAM FILLING
1/4 cup Fresh Orange Juice
1 envelope (1 tbsp) Unflavored Gelatin
2 Ripe Mangoes, peeled
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
3 tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
1 cup All-Purpose Cream
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar

The Tree House That Laiya Coco Grove Built

January 24, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan Leave a Comment

My second beach trip for the year is coming up in a week and a half, and I’m really excited. Our first was last January, right at the start of the year. We visited my dad’s Fishville in Cavite. Two weekends from now, I’ll be off to Laiya with my cousins, our moms and our families and significant others. It’s one of the trips I included in my list of places I’m excited to visit this year. My family spent a few days in Laiya for Chinese New Year last year (that’s a blog post I still have not got around to writing), and I’m excited to be back there this year with an even bigger group. We’re only staying for one night though, but that’s okay. It’s definitely going to be fun, and a welcome break from life.

I think this year we’re staying at Laiya Coco Grove, in a tree house along the beach. I’ve been there once before, in 2005 if I remember correctly. I’m looking forward to going back there to see how the resort has improved over the years. Their website definitely looks more put together than before, and I was told that there’s a pool now. Back then, only half of the place was operational. What I do remember is that they had really good food. Hope it’s still that way.

I actually unearthed some old photos from that ’05 Coco Grove trip when I cleared out my Multiply account late last year, and I thought it might be fun to post them here. And then I’ll share new vacation photos when we get back, along with more info about the place. So without further ado, I present to you ancient vacation photos from several years and many pounds ago. Haha!

This was our first time to go out of town together sans family members. — This was our first time to go out of town together.

How’s that for Throwback Thursday? Isn’t the place cute? What are your vacation plans for 2013? Have you gone anywhere since the year began? I’d love to hear from you!

Much love and happiness,

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My Top 12 From 2012 – Part 1

January 21, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan Leave a Comment

One of the things I want to do this year is assess myself as a blogger. I want to write more dynamic and relevant posts, and really grow the blog and its readership. So I thought it would be a good idea to look back on my posts from the last year and see which ones people liked and commented on, and which ones I personally loved writing, and now love reading. I am my biggest critic after all. So here they are, the posts/post types/post topics that I would like to see more of on my blog this year, beginning with the first quarter of 2012.

JANUARY: 365 Days, 365 Photos. Welcome to 2012!
I’ve said many times that I’m not very good with photo blogging because I can’t get myself to commit to posting a photo a day. I didn’t think it would be hard to do, but apparently it is for people like me who aren’t really visually creative. I’m more of a wordy person, you see. But I do have an SLR, and yes, I know how to use it. I took photography lessons and Photoshop too. So I want to push myself to take more photos, and nice ones of course. Instagram has been entertaining so far, and that’s been a big help. So has my husband’s Sony TX10 camera which takes such lovely photos. It’s actually what we used to take the photo on this post. But yeah, I really should be making the most out of that DSLR.

FEBRUARY: Link Exchanges and Other Random Thoughts
SuperSocialWAHM Elizabeth was my first WAHM friend online. She introduced me to the concept of a Link Exchange, and through her I found out what exactly a Virtual Assistant is and does. I like this post because it marked the beginning of a beautiful friendship between me and many great Manila WAHMS, as well as several wonderful global mothers online. These moms are such wonderful people, and they really make you feel like you belong in the community and that you are not alone in your day to day struggles and triumphs. I can’t wait to meet my new online mom friends next weekend at the WAHMderful Life Workshop of Dainty Mom Martine, who also has helped me find work! My event last Thursday actually came to be because she referred me to the event organizers (thanks so much Martine!!!) I’m also looking at a possible long-term working relationship, and friendship of course, with Ginger of Manila Workshops. And let’s not forget my Twitter-mates and blog consultants extraordinaire, Truly Rich Mom Tina, The Techie Mom Jennyfer and Optimommy Jayme. They all make my WAHM life a lot more fun and meaningful, and I look forward to sharing more with them and about them on the blog this year.

MARCH: Roadtripping with the FamBam!
I love writing about all our family vacations, and we like to vacation A LOT. So I won’t run out of things to write about. Actually, there are still a number of trips from 2012 that I have yet to write about, delinquent old me. We’ve already gone on our first trip this year, right at the start of January. It was a day trip to my dad’s Fishville, and I actually posted about it a few days ago (please visit the post and show it some love!) So in 2013 I look forward to travelling more with my family, doing more fun stuff, and of course sharing all our adventures with you. I hope you don’t get tired of reading about what we’ve been up to. We already have a number of trips planned for the year, and I can’t wait to go on all of them!

See that little toy? That's Raspberry Tart. She will be my constant travel companion this year! — See that little toy? That’s Raspberry Tart. She will be my constant travel companion this year! These are some snapshots from our first family roadtrip to Fishville.

So that about sums up the my favorite posts from the first quarter of last year. I really hope that my blog will contain more posts like those in the next few months. What do you guys think? Are these good reads? Which of my posts from last year did you enjoy reading? I’d love to hear from you!

Much love and happiness,

Roadtrip: To Fishville We Go!

January 19, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 7 Comments

When you say “beach house”, the first thing that comes to my mind is a nice villa overlooking the ocean. Kind of like the Boracay resort we stayed in during our trip last year, but not exactly, since it’s a beach house and not a hotel.

You see, we now have a beach house, but trust me when I tell you that it’s not your typical beach house. It isn’t on your typical beach either. My dad lovingly calls it Fishville, and it stands in the middle of a fishing village in Maragondon, Cavite called Patungan. Patungan is a fishing Community in Barangay Sta. Mercedes at the farthest point of Maragondon, Cavite. The name Maragondon was derived from Tagalog word madagundong or maugong, meaning much sound.You can learn more about the place by liking its Facebook page, which my dad setup and manages.

Our first family trip for 2013 was a quick day visit to Patungan, which is my dad’s new playground. This was my first ever visit to the place. Mr C and I were the last of the family members to experience Fishville. Even little boy T was able to go there twice before with my parents. Because I’m so smart, I forgot to take a photo of the house from the outside. This is the best I can do to show you the exterior – a photo from my dad’s Facebook page. This is the portion of the house facing the ocean. That’s my mom and me cooking inihaw na liempo (grilled pork) for lunch. I am standing next to the rear entrance of the house.