Buhay Bahay-Bahayan

Is there such a thing? Aren’t cookies made from butter and eggs?

My wife makes one mean cookie. And I always see the amount of butter that goes in it. I also notice how greasy the cookie sheets are. But they just taste so good don’t they? Particularly when they’re hot and fresh from the oven. One little piece of heaven, especially when it has  lots of chocolate chunks and raisins.

But we found these cookies from Quaker Oats at the supermarket (SM Hypermart) a few weeks back. We saw three varities, but I was only able to photograph these two: Raisins and Honey Nuts. I think the other one is Apple Cinnamon (?). Each pack costs 9 pesos (so cheap!) and has three cookies inside that are actually quite tasty, and considering that they’re almost fat free makes them a great alternative when craving for sweets! We’re going to buy them in boxes in our next shopping trip!

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Last Sunday, Mother’s Day, red roses were given to all the mothers at the church entrance. The ushers were so generous that they even gave my wife one. :D  Since Yuan’s parents had work (both nurses), it was just me and my wife and my in-laws who went to church. The rest of my wife’s family were in Lagro Highlands (for over a week now). After the service, my MIL picked Racks to have our lunch. It wasn’t our first time in Racks. In fact, just two weeks ago, we were also there for Sunday lunch with the rest of the family (around 8 of us), which was when we had so much blessing pouring in (which I wrote about here and here) that we decided to treat our family to lunch and handed the house help a little bonus. So you see, it has become a family favorite: our go-to place for little celebrations.

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As expected, the place was packed when we arrived there at around 12:30 PM. Thank goodness we were able to secure a table because it was the last table. The waiters were putting people on the waiting list, and some even settled to eating al fresco (despite it being a very hot day). We ordered a full slab of baby back ribs and half a rack of classic pork ribs, both of which had a side dish of corn bread (which was okay) and baked beans (which I wasn’t a fan of) plus two more side dishes of our choice: we choose potato salad and buttered vegetables (which is actually corn and carrots). As always, the flavorful and tender meat easily glided off the bones, and it was very well complemented by the Barbeque sauce. I was wondering what treat Racks has in store for its patrons that special day, maybe some kind of dessert perhaps, but when we paid the bill, they handed out two roses for the two ladies. While the entire meal itself was satisfying, I think the baby back ribs at Hawaiian BBQ, The Boutique, Tagaytay, was much better (tastier even). But here in the city, it’s still one of the best ribs place.

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And as a small Mother’s Day present, I ordered two Life Amulets that arrived a few days earlier from Glenda of Oodles of Goodles. Joy for my wife, and Relaxation for my MIL, which was perfect since my MIL has asthma and is very discriminating (picky) when it comes to fragrances. Both perfumes smelled great in our opinion, and my wife would often spray it in the car or in our bed (and pillows) before going to sleep. It’s also great to spray a little spritz on the towel and linen closet to give the linens and towels that extra nice smell.

To my mom and to all the mothers out there, I hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day.

Perhaps one of our (me and my wife’s) favorite bloggers is Mai da Paypay because most of her dishes look easy and delicious. I’ve written about her pan-fried salmon with caramelized garlic and salmon with basil cream sauce in my old blog here and her onion soup that my wife tweaked here (i.ph is going clunkers at the moment so I don’t know if the links work, but do try anyway). And while she’s currently missing in action (MIA), my wife still browses her site for food inspirations.

The other day (Tuesday), we were yet again at a loss as what to have for dinner. Fed up from having chicken and pork the previous days, we were looking for fish provedores with an excellent variety of fish so that dinner inspiration would slap us in the face. While we were at the market, my wife spied some live freshwater tilapia and was able to get four medium-sized pieces for 80 pesos. Nothing embodies freshness more than live kicking fish, even after being gutted and cleaned! In fact, it was still kicking while we were going around the market.

I swear, this site is slowly turning into a recipe/food site with some techie stuff thrown in. See the recipe as adapted from Mai’s site after the jump.

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