30s Rock!

Crickette, who is turning 30 this month (happy birthday!), asked, "What do people do in their 30s, anyway?"

I was 30 when this photo was taken by Fel. That's kind of what your 30s feel like!

I can't speak for all humankind, but from my experience and from what I've seen and heard, women generally shed the insecurity that plagues them in their teens and 20s. (That's one of the best things I'm getting out of this decade.) You realize that yesterday's problems are something you can kind of laugh about. You have a better sense of who you are. You don't change--you just become more of the person you're supposed to be.

I often bitch about being slower than I used to be, being less toned than I used to be, feeling the after-effects of eating anything deep-fried, getting freckles more quickly when I'm exposed to the sun. But I'm secretly happy that I can do things I couldn't do when I was young and lazy and utterly dependent on others. I could run a half-marathon, and I'd like to think it's because my mind is strong enough to handle it now. I can run a household. I can run a magazine. I can take care of my husband. I can take care of myself. But whether that comes from being in my 30s or being married, we'll never know!

When I turned 30, it was such a huge relief. But I guess it's not the same for everyone. You can choose to stress over the state of your skin, and how it's so much harder to keep the pounds off, and your ever-growing list of responsibilities. Or you can choose to make it your best decade yet!

There Goes My Shoe Diet

I had been searching and searching for hot pink or purple sky-high suede platforms with no success. So when I saw these little darlings at Forever 21, I figured they were enough to scratch an itch...

Alas, they were a half size too big. Our fashion and beauty editor Pia gave me Avon Smart Foam Insoles--sorta like memory foam for your feet. They can be cut to fit shoes in any size, ranging from 3 for Girls to 11 for Men.

The benefits of these insoles, as the box says, are that they mold to your feet; give custom comfort from heel to toe as they follow the contour of your feet and support the arch; provide relief for aged persons and people with foot conditions; relieve pressue on the ball of your foot, bunions, swollen feet, and joints; and prevent heel shock by cushioning your every step. They are pretty comfy, but what they failed to include was that the insoles make my pink shoesies fit me perfectly!

Deli-cious!

Heard good things about Chuck's Deli and their slab-wiches--their signature half-kilo super sandwiches served with chips. What I had with my Indian family:

Roast beef (angus roast beef with Chuck's sauce, P240 for half). Mildly spicy, very filling.

The Buffy (buffalo chicken and garlic sauce, P240 for half). My favorite! You could get your name on the wall plus a shirt, I think, if you finish a whole Buffy within a specified amount of time. My Indian family's real cousin did it in about four minutes.

Chicken katsu. Sorry no notes, but it's what you'd expect--crispy and very Japanese-y.

Bro-in-law had a Philly cheesesteak sub. Purty good.

And Prits and I shared a vanilla milkshake (three scoops of Arce Dairy ice cream blended with carabao milk, P165). Wonder what the queso version tastes like? Mmmmm.

Great place for sandwich lovers!


Chuck's Deli is located at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Recipe: Beef Bulgogi

It's been a week since my last post. Been busy, mostly with work and disc (I've got freckles on my nose and a sprained ankle--again!--to show for it) and being a wife--been cooking a lot lately. Tonight it was garlicky tanigue with two side dishes: ensaladang talong (eggplant with tomatoes, onions, and salted egg) and adobong kangkong (I looove kangkong). The other day, I cooked a Korean dish to go with my husband's store-bought kimchi:

OK, it was a hastily taken photo.

So, anyway:

Beef Bulgogi

Ingredients (and again, no measurements! Sorry, that's not how I roll!)

Beef tenderloin, sliced thinly (I used 1/4 kilo for the two of us)
Soy sauce
Garlic, minced
Ginger, minced
Sesame oil
Sesame seeds

1. Mix all ingredients except beef.
2. Marinate beef for about an hour (or overnight, if you really want it to soak up the stuff).
3. You're supposed to grill this thang but I opted to pan-fry. So heat a bit of oil in a pan, then fry until done.
4. If your range runs out of gas towards the end like ours did, nuke the beef! (Still turned out yummy!)
5. Serve with steamed rice and kimchi.
   

Will post again soon, I swear.

Trip Tips and Food, Food, Food!

Can you believe it's March already? With a new month comes a new issue of my baby...

Our Bakasyon Special can help you plan your next family trip. We've got travel tips and detailed itineraries (including cost!) for trips to Tagaytay, Boracay, Cebu-Bohol, and Hong Kong! We've also got pages and pages of food, with recipes from three food-lovin' celebs, as well as meat-free meals that you can prepare for the coming Fridays of Lent. (Because we can't just have a Fillet-o-Fish every Friday, can we?) The de Belen sisters also share their own cooking styles (one has a gourmet palate; the other, a more laidback approach to food), and Janice shares her recipe for her yummy yummy garlicky prawns, which we got to try out at the shoot! Mmmmmm.

I'll let you in on a little secret: Because of the sisters' busy schedules, we had to shoot them on separate days. (Sssshhh...) So that final image right there (plus the photo in the cover story which shows the sisters sitting together) was a result of the combined efforts of our photographer Ocs Alvarez, creative director Carlo Vergara, and our production team! Pretty amazing, isn't it? I work with such talented people who have all these magic tricks up their sleeves!

Oh, and do you see that bit about a skincare guide? Did you know that the skincare products you use should change with the seasons? It's getting hot and sticky, and the weather is bound to affect your skin. So find out what products you should (and should not) be using during these sweltering months.

And! And! And! We've got a kitchen makeover contest--you could be our first winner of a P150,000 kitchen re-do! To find out how to join (and to get loads more uber useful info), do get a copy of Good Housekeeping's packed March issue. Only P100.:)

Dinner for Five

I tend to post what I cook on Facebook, which led to my friends inviting themselves over for dinner. I didn't mind at all--I love cooking for guests; it's the dishwashing that gets to me. So I came up with a rule of using breakables for dinner parties of six people or less, and disposables for parties of more than six. (Please forgive me, Mother Earth. I rarely entertain big numbers anyway...)

On the night of the scheduled dinner, my husband's car was "coding," as we call it here in Manila. To the uninitiated, coding is some sort of traffic management scheme--cars with license plates ending in certain numbers aren't allowed on the street on particular days (e.g., 1 and 2 for Monday, 3 and 4 for Tuesday...). This is lifted after 7:00 pm. (Are there other countries that do this?) By the time he picked me up from work and I got my last-minute shopping done, it was 8:30 pm. So I didn't have time to prepare anything fancy...

We started off with bacon-wrapped asparagus (not shown; recipe in the Jan-Feb issue of Good Housekeeping), then had pan-fried rosemary pork steak (a house favorite; lotsa meat for the boys, but not as pricey as beef), and lemon-cream pasta with asparagus (recipe in the April issue of Good Housekeeping!). Yeah, I had a lot of asparagus in the fridge! And Jerry, a true-blue carnivore who's been my friend since high school, noticed how I was sneakily trying to feed him veggies.

I'm hoping next time we host dinner, it'll be on a weekend, so I'll have time to make something more elaborate, plus whip up dessert from scratch. (Jerry brought blueberry cheesecake. I've been dreaming of making red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.) Who wants to come over?:D

Feel the Love

I'm not sure if regular readers have noticed, but I tend not to rant in this blog. I've had my share of rants on Facebook and possibly in my past blogs, but I try to steer clear of negativity now because there's just so much of it in the world. I don't want to join the tribe of negatrons. (Which is not to say I'm totally positive all the time. In general, I air my grievances to my husband, my best friends--but not in a public forum. There is a time and a place for everything.)

So it's kind of ironic that I'm ranting about those who constantly rant. Har. Things that get me down:

• A litany of complaints on Twitter. In the morning, it's about how horrendous traffic is. In the afternoon, it's about how work sucks. In the evening, it's about exhaustion and how the next day would also suck. (But isn't it awesome to have a car to get stuck in traffic in? A job that puts food on the table? A brand new day ahead?)
  
• Thinly veiled patamas on Facebook. It bothers me how people can't just go right up to a person and deal with it face to face, and instead share with 900 of their closest friends how a certain someone is a cause of stress. It's weird when it's about an unnamed co-worker. It's just unprofessional. And immature. And so rude!
• People who publicly complain about their place of work. No company is perfect, but biting the hand that feeds you? Really?

I know we're all entitled to freedom of expression and all that. But I truly believe in Frances's post about being Oprah-esque. Everybody is entitled to a good, solid rant, but I invite all those who read this to start focusing on the good stuff instead. Less complaining in blogs, on social networking sites, in real life. There's a lot to be grateful for.