On the eve of December 24th, I invited my friends over for a Christmas get-together due to the prodding of my daughter, Lexi. I was a bit apprehensive of hosting a party earlier because I was extremely busy at work and wasn’t sure if I had the energy to do the cooking and the cleaning of the house. However, I felt it wasn’t much of a Christmas without food and friends over so I went for it, after all, Christmas only comes once a year.

I spent the whole Sunday getting ready for the party- from grocery, to cleaning, and fixing some dishes ahead of time. The girls did their share by cleaning the bathrooms, tidying the living room, and mopping the kitchen. The night before, I cooked Beef Afritada in a crock pot. I sprinkled some salt and pepper before I coated it with flour to thicken the sauce. I cut up some Idaho potatoes and drizzled it with evvo (extra virgin olive oil) and baked it in the oven until golden brown. I sauted some garlic and onions in the pan until translucent and I tossed in the meat and cooked it until slightly brown. Then I put all the ingredients in the crock pot, including a can of roasted red pepper, a can of tomato sauce, and small can of tomato paste. I flavored it with more salt, pepper, some vinegar, and some already made beef broth. I simmered it on low for 24 hours.

On the day of the party, however, I had totally forgotten about the dish. The delicious-mouth-watering-brown sugar-glazed ham that my daughter Tepsi cooked and the turkey prepared by my friend satisfied our monstrous appetite and made us oblivious of the other dish simmering to perfection in the crock pot. I only noticed it when everybody had their fill and had no more room to even give it a taste except for one person.

I thought this would definitely be a big hit the following day for our next meal with freshly-steamed jasmine rice or with hot pandesal, don’t you think?

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