Happy Birthday Everyday With The Happy Eaters

I have many group of friends from Bel-Air and one of them is the Happy Eaters!

Cat, Shey, Tricia, Babita, Maio and Mia.

We love to eat! Hahaha

Obviously!

I know they like spicy food so my menu for them was Thai.

Thai Sausage and Cucumber Salad

Nam Prik Ong, spicy pork dip

I experimented with Moo Ping.  Will have to do better next time.

Thai Fried Chicken!

It tastes exactly like the Fried Chicken in Bangkok!

Why?

Because I used Thai light soy sauce and an expensive brand of Thai fish sauce. 

It really makes a difference.  I just have to master the art of making Papaya som tum then I can open a Thai Street Food Shop!

Haha! Not going to happen because I am not good in business.  I am only good in experimenting and letting my family and friends try it.

Cat asked me if I wanted skin care products or cake or rootbeer float.

Of course, my answer was:  I do not want skin care products!  I told her rootbeer float is a better choice.  She brought ingredients for the drink.

Tricia gave me a Chocolate Truffle Cake from Sugarhouse!

The most important part of the celebration was.....

Thank you dear neighbors, my Happy Eaters group.

Let's hope for more experiments and more eating!

Thai Food Experiment - Caramelized Chicken Wings

I let my imagination run wild last night. 

We have this favorite Pinatisang Wings from Manam. I have been trying to replicate it but to no avail.  I guess it is a mixture of honey and patis but lately, I do not like the honey that they are selling in the market.

I thought to myself, I can use the sauce of the shrimp cakes for the glaze.  It is made with palm sugar!  Golden nuggets!!!  I am almost out of palm sugar but hopefully I plan to replenish my stock when I go back to Bangkok. 

Ding! Ding! Ding! Overweight baggage!!! hahahaha

Thai Caramelized Chicken Wings (It tastes better than it looks! Promise!)

1 K. chicken wings
1 liter cooking oil

Fry the chicken with no seasoning and set aside.

Glaze:

150 gr. palm sugar
1/2 C.water
2-3 T. Thai fish sauce
1 T. cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 t. Thai chili powder

Combine the palm sugar, water and fish sauce in a pan and cook until palm sugar has melted, set aside.

Heat a big wok or frying pan. 

Cook the garlic until light brown then add the chili powder.

Pour the palm sugar mixture and cook until slightly syrupy.

Toss in the fried chicken to coat with the glaze.

We could not stop eating it!  My Pearlie ladies loved it! 

Hahaha I hope?!?!?!

Happy Birthday Everyday With The Kids

Happy Birthday Everyday With The Kids!

Where are the kids? They are all somewhat camera shy except for this kid in the house!

Gilly, Sophie, Renzo and Kuya Nicky, my nieces and nephews were all present!  Lucky me, Kuya Nicky just finished his 36 hour duty. He is an intern studying medicine in Ateneo.

Of course my menu was for kids!

Sweet spaghetti with hot dog.

Note to self: Do not buy Prima Classic noodles because I cooked it for 15 minutes and it was still al dente.  I should get Del Monte or Royal next time.  We all like soft noodles in my family.

Hot dog on a stick! 

The favorite of everybody.  Whew! Took me about 45 minutes to cook all because I can only fry 3 pieces at a time.

Fried chicken wings

Cheeseburger sliders

Kuya bought BBQ from Aling Nene. 

Boiled corn.

Chocolate milkshake!

2 parts ice cream and 1 part milk ratio.

Banoffee Pie made by my Ate!

My special request.  I love it because it is not too sweet.  Cristina asked for the recipe and my Ate shared it with me.  I do not know where she got the recipe, though.

Banoffee Pie

Crust:

2 C. crushed graham crackers
5 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. + 1/8 t. cinnamon powder
1/2 C + 1 T. melted butter

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and pack tightly in a 9-inch pie plate or pan with removable sides.

Filling:

9 pcs. lacatan bananas, sliced diagonally
1 pack all purpose cream, chilled
1 C. dulce de leche

Place bananas over Graham crust, about 3 layers.

Whip dulce de leche and spread over the bananas.

Whip the all purpose cream and spread on top of the dulce de leche.

Top with shaved chocolate.

Cover with cling wrap and chill for 4 hours

Happy Birthday Everyday With The Seniors

Happy Birthday Everyday With My Senior Friends.

Tita Mita and Tita Butchie are the friends of my Mom.  They used to have lunch out once a month when my Mom was still alive.  We just continued with PD and Tita Tess.  All of them were former arts and crafts students of PD.

My menu for them was not senior friendly though. Hihihi

Lechon Kawali and Shrimp Cakes! 

The shrimp cakes have chunks of pork fat in it.

And of course, lechon kawali is lechon kawali.

Hermie cooked the Green Chicken Curry. 

She used the curry paste Tita Jit gave us from Bangkok.

My favorite salad is Thai Sausage and cucumber salad.  Hahahaha! Because it does not have leaves!

And for dessert.......

Le Sucre Lab's Chocolate Dream Cake.  It is the most famous cake in Instagram.  I ordered it thru their FB page and Lalamove picked it up for me in Santa Ana.

I am thankful for my senior friends who never fail to celebrate my birthday with me every year.

Happy Birthday Everyday With The Perlas

Happy Birthday Everyday!

This time with the Perlas Ladies, another group of Bel-Air neighbors.

FGM Cindy, Tita Mench amd Vinnie.

They treated me to Peking Garden a few days ago.

As usual, we had our favorite Peking Duck.

Hakaw! 

It was my birthday "cake"!

Crispy Seafood Noodles.

Crispy Beef with sesame pockets.

Duck 2nd way.

We were so full already I just brought it home for the Part 2 celebration in my house the next day.

I made Duck Mami using the duck bones. I also made siopao with chicken mushroom filling.

Shrimp balls!  Everybody's favorite! Especially, Tita Menchit!  HAHAHA

They brought buko juice, ice cream and cakes!  The most important thing so I could blow out the candle!

One of the first pocket celebrations was with FGM and Vinnie.

I invited them over because I cooked Pancit Palabok and Tokwa't Baboy. 

My first time to blow out the candle for August.  They got me a cake from Mary Grace.

Thank you for the friendship Perlas Ladies!!!

Pocket Celebrations - Happy Birthday Everyday

Happy Birthday Everyday!!!

It is already a tradition for several years now that I celebrate my birthday everyday for the whole month of August.  I don't have to have a birthday party everyday.  There are times I would eat my favorite food or just go to mass or shop for something new.

How did it start?  When my dad was still alive 40 years ago, he declared that everyday of August  was my birthday!

So now that I am older, I hold pocket celebrations with a few friends at a time.

I think of their favorite food and that is what I cook for them.

My travel group is called Baliws because we are all crazy funny individuals!

I know they like rib eye steak, mashed potatoes and salad, lots of greens, so that was what I prepared for the Baliws!

I went to Powerplant this afternoon to kill time because I was getting restless.  I could not cook yet the food for dinner so I had merienda with FGM at Ippudo.

When I got home, Dra.Cristina and Doc Bernie were busy decorating my house!!!

I will not remove the decorations until the end of August!

Cristina also gave me my favorite candies and her sister, Odinah, gave me a chocolate bar!

Haha! If you do not know what to give me, a bar of milk or white chocolate is welcome!

Ok, dark chocolate also but I only use it for baking.

Not so subtle, huh? Hihihihi

I made Lengua Mushroom deep dish pies because I know Jodie likes it.

Pinky brought my favorite bread rolls from Conti's!

I made pate the other day and divided it into several servings.  The melba toast is made from sliced baguette.

My birthday cake is my science experiment!

They said they liked it! I guess I passed with flying colors!

It was also our PDOS planning session. 

We are headed "somewhere" next month and plotted our itinerary.  Thank you Cristina for the presentation!

I love my crazy and funny friends!

Thank you so much for the "gips"!

And most of all.... thank you for the friendship!

This is us, Baliws!

When we laugh it comes from our gut and from our heart!

The perfect happy belly laugh.

PS

We sort of missed Mona.