Fresh Start Daily

Day 1

Day 2

When I checked my schedule last Tuesday, I saw that my students disappeared. I guess they decided to go on a break because Thursday is a holiday in their country and it’s nice to have a long weekend. Then, my sister proposed on the same day I found out my students cancelled for Thursday and Friday that we go to the beach. Of course I wanted to go because my sister and her family are here for only a couple of days.

God is really amazing. He didn’t want me to miss our family get-together so He made my students cancel their classes. It’s in moments like this that God reminds me that He knows everything in my life. 😊

When I woke up this morning, I saw a strange-looking, worm-like creature stuck on the wall. (I wasn’t sure because it was transparent and yellowish.)

When I climbed up the couch to look closely, I realized it was a gummy worm! My, my! The ingenuity of kids is amazing and funny! 😆😂🤣

I first tried bibingkay abnoy in Antipolo last year. I tried it twice before I appreciated it. It has a strange taste at first but it’s really good once your palate has gotten used to it. I didn’t know that it was made of rotten duck eggs (bugok na itlog ng itik). It’s better when dipped in vinegar. I enjoyed our little food adventure there. It doesn’t mean though that I can do what Andrew Zimmern did on Bizarre Foods. 😅

I know a lot of people find this dish gross because of the ingredients and the smell but I like it. Maybe I have a weird taste. 🤪

I used Nanay Benie‘s special recipe but I added some spring onions and oregano. I used about 12-13 duck eggs and added one chicken egg.

The Tans are here on business and they are staying for a couple of days. We are, of course, happy to spend some time with them.

They also brought their tortoise pets that are extremely adorable. Fun fact: they are said to get as heavy as 70-100 pounds and live around 60-120 years or more. These babies could outlive us!

This afternoon, my mother, niece, and I went to a local creamery that serves exotic-flavored ice cream. We tried the sili (chili – volcano/hottest level), tinutong na bigas (toasted rice), latik (toasted coconut milk curd), and malunggay (moringa) flavors.

We didn’t finish the sili ice cream because it was too spicy. We tried to mix it with the other flavors so it wouldn’t be wasted. I think I tried level 1 or 2 before. I don’t remember my tongue burning last time so I believe it wasn’t the spiciest. I was just really curious to try the hottest one, and it did not disappoint! 🥵

I also wanted to try the gabi (taro) and salabat (ginger tea) flavors but they weren’t available. It was a good thing though, because we already had too much calories. Maybe next time. 😅 My favorite is the tinutong na bigas flavor. I give it a 10 out of 10. 🥰

After cooling the pie, I put it in the fridge for an hour so it was easy to slice it.

I used Natasha Kravchuk’s apple pie and pie crust recipes for this. I just used too much cinnamon because I love cinnamon. I have to admit though that I put a little too much. I’ll lessen it next time. 😜

Also, I doubled the pie crust recipe because I wanted to pull off the lattice-crust. I love the buttery taste of the crust. You can eat it on its own. I ran out of butter for the second pie’s sauce so I just used the full cream fresh milk and added flour and sugar to it.

For 1 pie, 3-4 apples will do. I used a 24.3 x 4 cm pan and 6 large apples were able to make 2 pies.

Ingredients:
5-6 medium-size ripe mangoes, diced
9 large tomatoes, diced
3 large red onions, diced
6 large red bell pepper, diced
1/2 tbsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper, ground
1/2 c cilantro, finely chopped
4-5 tbsp lemon juice
chili (optional)

Here’s another recipe I used for our picnic last Sunday. I got the recipe from QVC Originals but I twisted it a bit. This salsa is one of my favorites! It has the taste of summer. It’s perfect with nachos. Yum!

Ingredients:
2 blocks of cream cheese (226g x 2)
6 large garlic cloves
1 medium-sized onion
2 tbsp basil
1 tbsp thyme
1 tbsp rosemary
1 tbsp lemon juice
lemon zest
2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp honey
1-2 tsp salt
about 1/3 c cilantro leaves
about 1/3 c flat parsley leaves (I used curly parsley though because I couldn’t find flat parsley in the market)
a pinch of chili (optional)

I combined some ingredients I saw online and it surprisingly turned out delicious. The measurement is really up to you. I just adjusted according to taste. You can leave out the ingredients you don’t like. I just finely chopped everything and mixed all of the ingredients together. Just sharing the recipe I used for our picnic on Mother’s Day. 😉