Mom by Choice

A Few BBQ Tips for July 4 Grillers: The Filipino Adobo Grilled

In remembrance of our friends and relatives in the USA who could be out there planning their Fourth of July BBQ party as early as now, here are some tips I came up with to help you out. Adobo, the Philippine national dish, is not just stewed meat boiled in its own sauce. One nice way of serving adobo is to boil the meat in adobo sauce then grill it.

You will need:
800 g to 1kg Chicken cut up
one cup of soy sauce
half a cup of vinegar
laurel leaves
5 garlic bulbs crushed
whole peppercorns
Salt or Fish Sauce
Five Spice Powder
Sesame Oil
salt

Combine everything except the sesame oil and five spice powder in a bowl and let stand for an hour. Transfer everything in a casserole and boil for 3 minutes before simmering for 15 minutes more. Do NOT stir. Remove the chicken from the sauce, drain and set aside. Add five spice and sesame oil to the still boiling sauce just before turning off the heat. Fire up the grill and arrange the chicken so that the heat sears the outer parts quickly (remember that the inside is already cooked). Baste generously with the sauce until the chicken is golden brown or grilled to perfection!

For a spicier variation, one can add tabasco sauce during the basting phase.

Grilled chicken like these make moms like me carbo load more than any other cooking style. Sticky, delicious adobo can make one forget to take her wieght loss pills. But the heady All-Filipino taste is definitely worth it!

Tags: adobo, Filipino Adobo, Grilled adobo

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Kitchen Errands: Operation Clear Sink

Meeting my mom again after several months brought up memories of my childhood. I used to think that a part of my growing pains has always been being scolded for not helping out much in the kitchen. Being the family geek is kinda funny in retrospect. My face was almost always buried in a book, while the rest of the family ran around preparing for a big catering event. Every once in a while, my mom will remember to call out and make me do things in the kitchen.

Every few minutes, utensils and bowls pile up in the sinks. This has always been a side effect of cooking. My task was to clear everything from the sinks so that the faucets are free for various cleaning needs. It makes me wonder if heavy duty Delta faucets are better for kitchens. They are usually for big western baths, but then their size could easily be put to use in a kitchen sink that needs water everywhere at the same time.

Once that’s done, I’d go back to my little nook and read the dog-eared book that I always had nearby. I had a few minutes of peace before being asked to get up again and do the same things all over again. Cooking for a big group was always a passion for my mom and my sis. I thought that the same passion was absent in me, being a geek and all, but now that I’m a mom myself and constantly looking for means to earn for my family, I realize that the years of being in a caterer’s kitchen could have planted some thoughts of going for it myself.

Thanks, Mama, for the lessons.

Tags: catering business, daughter, kitchen utensils, mom

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What to Sell in a Sari Sari Store: Homebased Market Research

One of the most common home businesses for moms in the Philippines is the sari sari store, or mini-grocery. If you live in a village very far from ‘civilization’ like I do, you’ll notice that there’s a mini-grocery at every corner. What differentiates one from the other?

It’s the goods. Some stores offer necessities that others don’t think of. One example is combs. If you have a child who hides your comb just because he thinks it’s funny if you look all over the place for your comb, you probably know what I mean.

A nice way to discover what others like is via a poll or a survey. That, or you could attend community gatherings and ask stay at home moms like you directly.

I found a nice free survey place over the net, which I can use on my blogs: www.easy-poll.com - free online polls

Tags: home business, mom business, mom works at home, sari sari store

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Food Contests and A Plethora of Taste

Passing by the grocery and buying just a few things means having enough free time and hands to fill out contest coupons. Somehow food companies always target moms for food promotions. I guess these marketing people know their stuff eh?

Raffles and contests are so difficult to win in, but it takes just a few minutes of our time so it’s worth a shot. The thing is, I for one love winning food stuff, particularly delicious food stuff. Think about it, food is what we spend the bulk of our resources on. Taking the model of a recent contest on ristorante.ca, Ristorante Contest, I really think food business owners should put out more contests for promotions; particularly of the prize is 100% yummy and not the usual thing I can churn out at home.

Growing up in the food business has a lot of perks. For one, I can tell just by tasting what the ingredients are. Example, a dish that used fish sauce tastes differently from that with salt as the main
taste inducer. The balance of vinegar and soy sauce is achieved if a food tastes sweet, with minimum saltiness and sourness. Sugar is the tricky ingredient as anything with extreme taste tastes better with some sugar. It’s like a food stabilizer. So, considering that, I now conclude that most dishes that are worth tasting have sugar in it.

Ah.. sugar. So sweet yet so deadly.

Tags: mozzarella pizza, mozzarella pizza photo, pizza, starchy food, sugar food

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Academic Driving

If I had a dollar for every time I told myself that I should learn how to drive, I’d be rich by now. First was when I got the lease of my apartment years and years ago (8 to be exact). I thought, ‘ok it’s time to invest in a car’, then some other excuse will crop up, like there’s not much parking space in the vicinity etc. Then when I was neck deep in homebased work, I thought of buying a car so that I can just go home to the province when I wanted (and leave all that sheet behind lol), then I’d think of another excuse.

Now that I am ‘jobless’, thoughts of driving are cropping up again. This time so that I can drive my son to school when he starts. Since that is a year or so away, I decided to just read and research about driving first. yeah, THAT is how academic people do it. Kidding.

So yeah, i found resources teaching about the components of a car and what they do, how a steering rack works, and the differences between the types of fuel. I just also discovered that there is a difference, see.

Maybe I should just let AJ teach me how. He watches his Cars DVD often enough.

I am by no means a slow learner. More of the opposite, really. But learning is interest-driven, and that is the main thing to focus on first before any kind of learning takes place.

Tags: cars, driving, learning how to drive, mom stay at home

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My Childhood vs. AJ’s Childhood

Back in nostalgia lane. I can’t help but compare how much my childhood differs from AJ’s. In our village now, I don’t see many kids playing tag or hide-and-seek. There’s a park, sure, but with the way things are right now in the Philippines, it’s a risk to let children play on their own in parks. Right now, it’s so hot inside the house. I want my son to be friends with other kids in the neighborhood like I used to in La Union.

We used to draw circles on the pavement and shoot stuff inside those circles. We’d ask some cranky old neighbor to share his Hibiscus flowers so we can mash and mix them with soap, for bubble blowing. More importantly, we’d go catching dragonflies and then let them go when we got bored.

Maybe progress now means having your child inside the house all the time playing video games on an expensive gadget and watching DVDs, but I can’t help but realize just how my son is missing out on all the fun of outdoor playing.

My resolution now is to earn enough from my freelancing so that I may be able to buy swing sets for AJ on Christmas. Since a second baby isn’t possible now, I’ll just be his playmate ’til he gets tired of playing with someone who says “No, too dangerous!” all the time.

Tags: playground swings, playgrounds, playsets, swing set, swing sets

Posted in Baby Basics, Baby Quirks, Family Quirks, Kids' Imagination, Mom Entrepreneur, Proud Mommy | No Comments »

Maybe I Should Also Learn Some Hardware Thingie

I was always a tech dyslexic. By choice, mind you. It’s just that sometimes the curiosity to learn about computer and gadget hardware and software gets too boring. Do you know what I mean?
It helps that I have a techie guy for a hubby who will go to the farthest reaches of the earth to know what a CAT6 cable is, how it works and what it could do to make my life better.

Lately though, I’ve decided to make myself more tech savvy. I’ve been learning the trouble shooting stuff, and even the which-socket-connects-with-what stuff. As my hubby is so fond of telling me, my machine is my livelihood, I should know how to take care of it.

I don’t argue, but deep inside I’m answering back, “My mind and my creativity are my livelihood, I shouldn’t clutter it with systems that have a call-tech-support-for-help button”

Tags: cat6, tech support

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What I Learned From Oprah

In one Oprah quote, she said “It doesn’t matter who you are and where you come from. The ability to triumph starts with you, always”. This touched me to the core, particularly with my current career situation now.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my job. Loved it like a lover that I nurtured. But there really is a point in a person’s life when she has to prioritize. Will giving this up mean I will be able to teach AJ how to speak properly? Will quitting give me the chance to spend more time with my son? Deep inside me, the part of me that fear of money issues doesn’t touch, I know I made the right choice.

According to Oprah, anyone can excel. I live by her example as she is a smart lady with humble beginnings (and yet unmarried too). Because my choice was difficult, I prepared myself for a more difficult time ahead. I went out of my comfort zone (extremely stressed but with a regular paycheck) to pursue my dream of being the whole mom package to my son.

They say that if you follow your passion, money won’t be shy with you. Oprah inspires me in that I am 100% sure my passion for writing and helping others will get me far. So here I am. Thank you, Oprah.

It’s funny, though, that I think of Chicago travel whenever talks of going to the US comes up. Could that notion be Oprah-influenced too?

Tags: freelancer mom, freelancing, mom, mom stay at home, mommy blog, motherhood, oprah, oprah quotes

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Our Farm in La Union: Feeling Homesick

This photo was taken from my parent’s farm in La Union, Northern Philippines. See the furnitures, they’re made of solid narra wood. We have always been mahogany furniture addicts and sometimes we even order them with specific instructions. We have tables, chairs, mini-chairs and mini-tables all made of the same hardwood. The only set I took with me to my new home is the end table set with two chairs shaped like cupped human hands. Goodness, I’m so homesick that the items on a furniture catalog make me tear up.

Homesick woobie.

Tags: mahogany furniture, missing home, mom stay at home, thinking of home

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Costumes and Stuff: Cosplay for Kids

Recently, several costume play events took place in Manila, including Toycon etc. Browsing through photos showing kids in cosplay, I’m conflicted whether to encourage the same with AJ. There are mini Mario Bros and babies in Ironman masks. The ever-present justice league costumes will remain the cosplay favorites for kids. Video game character costumes are the most difficult to assemble, though it’s easy enough to buy some online with the major costume producers finally realizing that modern cosplaying geeks love Tekken and Streetfighter characters. But enough of this, I want my son to consider sports, not video games!

Can two geeks spawn a social-worthy athlete? Can two nerdy parents who spent most of their childhood reading dictionaries and encyclopedias spawn a child that will be more interested in sports? I seriously doubt it, but I’ll try my best.

Some baby costumes and halloween costumes are just too cute! Throw in a homemade headgear, and voila, our son will be cosplay worthy and he may even win an award (with mom’s prodding of course). Sometimes, though, I wonder if the old adage about “living your dream through your kids” was true. Maybe my goal isn’t really to make my son live a life that is far from mine, but I hope his interest diversifies.

Tags: Baby Basics, baby cosplay, baby costumes, cosplaying babies, costume play, costume play for kids, halloween costumes, kids costumes

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