Purple is today's color on Mommy Moments and here are my share:

Sophie in her purple birthday gown which I bought from, oh, Purple Candy :)

 Getting photographed for a magazine cover? Nah, just our Ericsson phone app. Shirt from Lolo Tito 

Sam holding on to a purple ball-een (his version of balloon)

Sam getting a foot stamp, he was just a few minutes old here. He makes me one proud mommah :)

Sophie with the fountains during the day

For today’s Watery Wednesday, I took some photos of Bonifacio High Street’s water display. I don’t frequent the area as this is quite far from where we live but for my parent’s anniversary, we decided to have dinner at Clawdaddy in the area as it is near my parents’ house. It was also the first time that Sophie and Sam visited this place so after dinner we walked around to check out the stores and play areas. Both kids had a blast! Sam kept chasing after the dogs and the other kids’ balls while Sophie chased after Sam. We intend to bring the kids again here, maybe not on a really crowded weekend. 

Meat Curing The Natural Way

For those who are vegetarians, please skip this entry. Sorry.

Inspired by one of the US Deli  featured in Food Network channel, I made my own  version of cured meat. The program showed a step by step process on making a pastrami and it was just mouthwatering. Taking in some tips from the show, I gathered all the spices I can find at home: salt, pepper, basil, rosemary, thyme, cinnamon, sugar, oregano. Bought also some more spices like cayenne pepper, cumin, peppercorn and coriander. I added also vinegar, a natural preservative. The show used I think about 18 spices but they won't reveal everything so I just experimented on some spices. Hope it works.

Got a kilo of kasim (pork shoulder). I'm still trying to figure out the tagalog word for pastrami or what meat part is I used for it so I used kasim (shoulder) for now. Any help on what's the best meat for curing?  

For now, I will have to delight myself in my new experiment. 

Day1 of meet curing (Mar1):

Day 12 (Mar 13):

Five more days to go. I plan to smoke this on Friday and serve this on Saturday, my birthday :)

Go Negosyo: Babae Kapuso Ka ng Bayan

My husband and I attended the Go Negosyo exhibit and seminar at World Trade Center in Pasay City last March 5. We dropped off the kids at my parents’ house near the area, attended a short family affair in Sucat and went to the exhibit. With all the activities we had that day (and the horrendous traffic in QC!), we got to the exhibit aorund 4pm already. Before we got in we filled up a raffle coupon and paid a registration fee of P50/pax. Fee includes snacks already. We tried to check out as many booths as we can with the time we have left and found some interesting business ideas: novelty items, clothes and shoes, food carts for franchising (there are more of these than any other businesses), skin care and toiletries, herbal and organics products and even appliances. The choices were very diverse, some new and some are already in existence for decades. Aside from checking out the business opportunities, I was also able to buy some goodies, the 50% discounted Maybelline products and the pair of outfit for Sam for only P50 were such a steal!

a guest tried out News reporting at a GMA booth

This is one of my best buy so far, a Gold Star English Workbook. It contains a cd and workbook, teaches kids basic english words, spelling. There are also exercises for the memory, logical thinking, counting,etc. This is only P195 and is such a big hit with Sophie. She was able to stay on for hours (without complaining) on the computer doing different activities. 

Got a chance to catch the last two talks for that day, too. The one is entitled ‘The Beautiful and The Rich’ by Lisa Pamintuan, a young entrepreneur (and a UST grad) with a gift for public speaking. Sometimes it’s not only important to know what you’re talking about, it’s also important to capture the audience and interest them in what you have to say. So I have give it to this lady for being able to do just that. She talked about the advantages of women in the business, of changing the mindset and having the guts to go into business, on how to choose the right business for you, etc. It was a short talk but very enlightening. The next speaker (sorry I missed his name) discussed franchising business and how to know whether it is a good for a certain individual or not. 

All in all , I would say it was a successful event, very well attended and organized. Congrats to Go Negosyo and it's sponsors and event partners!
Thank you too to Antel Global for making me win an accommodation for 2 in their new Boracay resort. Yipee! :)