Simply Belle

K and Tina, here is my desktop. Sorry, it took me so long to comply with the meme. I don’t know where this picture was taken. I am using my husband’s computer because I sent mine to my nephew in the Philippines. This computer had been idled for a while, and so we thought it would be better off if we give mine away and let my nephew benefit from it.

On my desktop, I have songs of Stephanie Mae that I click on regularly if I am in the mood for music. I also have the word, word menu, and wordweb pro, which come in handy, but I hardly ever use the rest of the icons because they belong to my husband.

19 Comments »

Courtesy of Elyani

Last Tuesday, my day off, I went on a cooking spree. I cooked four dishes namely Bikol Express, Ginataang Gabi (taro leaves cooked in coconut milk), Chow Mein, and Prawns in Spicy Chili Sauce.

Though I am only going to show one dish and that is Prawns in Spicy Chili Sauce. The only thing I did differently to the recipe was I dipped the shrimps in an egg wash and rolled them on the flour before deep frying.

To make an egg wash, I put 1/2 cup of milk in a bowl. To it, I cracked open one egg, and whisked it into the milk.

Red chilis and shallots before going into the blender.

As per Elyani’s instructions, I only deep fried the shrimps for about a minute on high heat.

And 45 minutes later, here’s what I came up with: Delicious Prawns in Spicy Chili Sauce.

Do you know that I haven’t cooked since last Tuesday because I am still eating leftovers. I even shared a big plate of chow mein, prawns, and brown rice to my friend, Patty so she didn’t have to cook dinner.

10 Comments »

Last Sunday, I finally had a chance to try the recipe of Martabak Manis of my friend, Elyani.

I only had less than half an hour to prepare as we were heading to Phoenix Sunday morning. I didn’t have enough time to let the yeast foamed up so that is probably the reason why my pancake had lots of holes in it. Elyani’s pancake was nice and smooth. Also, I was supposed to let the batter sit at room temperature for 15 or 20 minutes but since I was in a hurry, I skipped that part and proceeded with the cooking. I should have lowered the temperature at a medium setting or lower to avoid burning the bottom part of the pancake. Ahhh, next time, I will do much better.

I had to do a little bit of math to convert grams to ounces, which was a bit of a challenge. Elyani’s recipe is measured in grams.

Here’s the recipe:

1 1/3 cups of flour

1 tsp instant yeast

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/3 cups of coconut milk

2 eggs

1/2 tsp baking soda

For filling, I used (or whatever are your favorite toppings)

condensed milk

chocolate syrup

coconut flakes

For instructions: go to Elyani’s site.

Here’s my very first Martabak Manis:

I only cooked two huge pancakes out of the batter. My husband loved it. He said if he was not watching his diet, he could easily eat the whole plate. I had the leftover for breakfast this morning and that was all I had until dinner except for banana, grapes, and water. Very filling, indeed!

Thanks Elyani for the recipe.

11 Comments »

I didn’t realize my yard is full of weeds. The little rain that we had earlier made the grass grow faster. That means, I will be spending some time in the yard after work, about 2 hours a day, before dark. I have to put off the walking regime for a while until I get rid of all the weeds both in the back and in the front of the house. It is kind of hard to do because the soil is dry and hard. And squatting for two hours is exhausting, that is why, I change position every so often. I am hoping by next week, I will be finished with the weeding. Care to join me?

While weeding, I had a cup of tea and a persimmon for snack. I picked the ripest one off the tree and it tasted good already. It reminded me of manibalang mangga only without the acid. Though it needs several more weeks to ripen completely. The warm days and chilly nights will change the acid in the fruits into sugar. Nothing is better than tree-ripened fruits. Don’t you all agree?

Look at the transformation 2 hours later. Looking good, huh?

22 Comments »

After spending an hour in the backyard weeding, my husband came out to tell me that it was time for our afternoon walk. We walk three miles a day together while I go for a mile more. I usually run the last mile while he stays in the car waiting for me. When we finished walking, I suggested that we order food at a restaurant for dinner. We were craving for shrimp and veggie lo mien stir fry. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed. We were disappointed!

So, I quickly thought of plan B. I remember I gathered some fresh Zucchinis from the garden when I was weeding. I thought I would make a veggie stir fry composed of zucchini, button mushrooms, asparagus, onions, and sweet tomatoes. We swung by at the store and bought the veggies I needed and strips of pork meat. I try to use meat sparingly in my cooking.

As soon as I got home, I washed half of the meat, about quarter of a pound, and marinated it 1 T of soy sauce, 1 t of rice wine, 1 t of cornstarch, 1 t of olive oil, and a pinch of sugar. Next, I washed the veggies, and sliced them into bite size. I put the wok on the stove and cranked the heat at the highest setting while I crushed the garlic and sliced the ginger. And to the wok, I added a tablespoon of oil, then I tossed in the onions, garlic, and ginger. I added the meat next, stirring occasionally for the next 5 minutes. Then I poured in all the veggies. I added a heaping tablespoon of black bean and garlic sauce (or more depending on your taste) to the wok for flavoring. I cooked the veggies for another 4 minutes until the veggies were half way done. I like my veggies crunchy and al dente. For the final touch, I poured two ounces of water in a bowl, dissolved a heaping teaspoon of cornstarch and added it to the dish. Let it simmer for another minute, mixing it all up. Then I poured the dish into a serving plate and my husband and I ate it with steamed rice. Sarap!

15 Comments »

Trips don’t have to cost much. Actually, it is more fun sleeping in a tent or in the back of the truck with a canopy. You don’t need a laptop or television to keep you entertained. Instead, you can just gaze at the sky and enjoy its beauty and fascination. It is so peaceful and relaxing watching the stars twinkle in the night sky like fireflies.

On this recent trip, we brought air mattress, quilts, pillows, water, toiletries, and some snacks. Our bed was quite comfortable and pretty spacious for the two of us. I don’t know about my husband but I slept well. It got so cold early in the morning that I had to get up and shut the back of the truck and the windows partially. We covered ourselves with thick quilt which made it nice and toasty the rest of the morning.

The only problem was we had to walk a little ways to avail of the bathroom. I avoided drinking too much at night so I didn’t have to make an early morning trip to Wal-Mart and it did the trick. What is so nice about Wal-Mart is they don’t mind people camping out in their parking lots as long as they stay over to the side and out of the way. And depending on the season, they open 24 hours a day.

Our truck parked behind Wal-Mart

Visitor center in Lake Powell

The next three pictures down were taken on the way to Flagstaff.

Native American tent known as “teepee.”

Beautiful red rock scenery to Lake Powell.

Aspen tree on the way to Flagstaff from Grand Canyon

Beautiful butterfly in Grand Canyon

Browsing deer in Grand Canyon

11 Comments »

Here is the second batch of pictures of our long weekend trip; Lake Powell. Lake Powell is about 2 hours drive from Grand Canyon. It is the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States behind Lake Mead. Lake Powell is famous for houseboating. Its 185 mile long lake offers blue water, nice beaches, awesome red-rock scenery. Lake Powell is also a great place for boating, water skiing, fishing, or just merely sight seeing.

Lake Powell, formed by Glen Canyon Dam, is located in Page, AZ. The lake lies partly in Arizona and mostly in Utah but best access is from Arizona. There is only a roundabout dirt road access from Utah to Lake Powell which is not easy to find in the map. While most of the Lake Powell’s crystal blue water lies in Utah, Page, AZ has the most important part – the Glen Canyon Dam.

Here are the pictures:

I took this picture while seated in the car. This is the road to Lake Powell.

14 Comments »

I had my first three-day off at work this weekend without my children. They are now both in college staying in the dormitory. I suggested to my husband that we do some overnight trip within driving distance. My husband was thrilled with the idea and did all the preparations a week prior to our trip. We took air mattress, pillows, blankets, clothes, water, food, and some personal stuff. We slept in the truck under the canopy.

On the way to Grand Canyon, we stopped by at the university to see Lexie. We had lunch together, did some quick shopping and important errands.

Then we proceeded to our destinations: Lake Powell and Grand Canyon. We stayed overnight in the parking lot behind Wal-Mart in Page, AZ., where Lake Powell is located. For now though, let me first showcase to you pictures of the Grand Canyon. Photos were taken from 9 AM thru noon. Grand Canyon shows different shades and shadows as the sun moves along the sky. It would have been probably exciting to take photos at sunset but we couldn’t stay that late as we had four hours driving ahead of us to home. Besides, we were getting exhausted hopping in and out of the car to and from the viewpoints. Perhaps, we will catch it on our next overnight trip.

Have fun viewing!

19 Comments »

I meant to submit my entry to PMN before the deadline but I missed it again for the second time. I received an email early this morning from Dine reminding me of the deadline but I was getting ready for work so there was no way I could make it. Thanks Dine! Anyway, I thought I would just post my entry here in my blog.

I had this plant sitting on my kitchen counter for quite a while now. When I bought it, it had plenty of red little flowers and thick silky leaves. It was so beautiful that I just had to take it home. I thought it would die right away after several months like any other house plants that I have had but lo and behold, this particular one is still alive and looking good. I hope to see flowers by next spring.

Last week, I went out in the garden and took pictures of the butterflies but only this kind came out half decent.

Bartlett Pear- the best eating pear.

Our fruit trees (left to right) persimmon tree, apricot tree, and apple tree.

Persimmons- my favorite autumn fruits

Persimmons-up close

Apples

19 Comments »