Sunday, September 27, 2009

OWM - Crabby Cooking

Posted by Kero at Sunday, September 27, 2009 3 sweets for Kero
Our Weekend Memoirs

The family is still on a holiday mood and so does my cooking teeheeee.


Guinataang Alimasag anyone? :)

Join the fun on Our Weekend Memoirs here.

Weekend Snapshot # 60 - Eid in Dubai

Posted by Kero at Sunday, September 27, 2009 0 sweets for Kero


I share with you today a glimpse of the celebration of Eid Al Fitr in Dubai.


A massive fireworks which lasted for 30 minutes at Festival City.

Share your weekend snapshots here.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Lost Symbol

Posted by Kero at Wednesday, September 23, 2009 2 sweets for Kero
Katherine kisses Langdon! No tongue. Sorry.



Yep. I spent the long holiday reading Dan Brown's latest book. Hubby is not the one to buy the latest on anything but being a huge fan of the author's writings, he bought our copy of The Lost Symbol just two days after it hit the shelves of bookstores in Dubai.

This time around, Brown reveals to us the elite brotherhood of Freemasons. Hubby's Uncle and a high school classmate belongs to the group. Hubby was once invited to join the group - although no one is really invited - you join maybe because you are curious or want to know what is the secret they are guarding as you might learn from the book. So maybe i should say 'encouraged' to join the masonry. But i guess the tiny rebellious vein on hubby prevailed, he declined. Maybe due also that there is so much misconception about free masons - i used to think they do not believe in the existence of God.

The book is action-packed and provocative. Some lines maybe redundant....still it does not disappoint. I learned a lot (boy it even tells you how to use an iPhone!) and it is what i love most about reading works of Dan Brown. You will not look at things the same way again after reading his books. And the urge to get an iPhone is stronger than ever lolz!

Anyways i leave you with some spoilers so if you have not read the book, stop right here.

Robert Langdon lists iconic "good vs. evil" match-ups. His list:

Merlin vs. Morgan le Fay
Saint George vs. the Dragon
David vs. Goliath
Snow White vs. the Witch
Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader

The current list:

Taylor Swift VS Kanye West
The United States VS Bernard Madoff
Israel VS Palestine
Batman VS The Joker
Bar Refaeli VS Clothing

For those wondering how parallel it is to Da Vinci Code, here's the plot.

Da Vinci Code
Keystone: box containing a riddle that acted as a lyrical treasure map
Cryptex: device with unknown password containing a working clue

The Lost Symbol
Capstone: stone containing inscription to help solve the mystery
Magic square: device with difficult math problem containing a working map

And last but not the list, after watching movies 1-5....I am confused...

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Mommy Moments - Treasured Photos

Posted by Kero at Thursday, September 17, 2009 17 sweets for Kero
mommy moments

I always wanted a son. But somehow I came to be partial on Andreas' photos where he looked all girly! He was born with a thick mass of hair. It took two months for some of our neighbors to recognize he was a boy after all hihi. Ain't these a treasure?


Andreas is three months old


At four months


This was taken at five months old


One Emirati complimented how beautiful our baby is but "He has to grow up like a boy from day one," he said. Sixth months and we shaved off his hair....aaargh I wanted to cry.

See more treasured photos on Mommy Moments.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Honey & Oat Muffins

Posted by Kero at Wednesday, September 16, 2009 1 sweets for Kero
I am skipping Toddler Meal post this week because Mommy is busy organizing an event with my fellow Ivatans. I leave you instead a healthy recipe perfect for your little ones. This, I include on Andreas' breakfast and snacks. I found plenty of recipes with the same title but I share with you the one which has worked for the family -- after adjusting the ingredients. It is really easy, you don't even have to bring out your hand mixer. And it comes out a delight. Crisp on the outside yet soft and moist inside. Try this...

Honey and Oat Muffins
(Makes 12)



Ingredients
2 cups flour
2tsp baking powder
2/3 cup rolled oats
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup milk
150 g butter, melted

Here's how

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Grease a 12-case muffin pan.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder twice. Stir in oats, sugar, and salt.

3. In another bowl, combine eggs, honey, milk and melted butter. Do not beat eggs.

4. Using a wooden spoon, mix the dry and liquid ingredients together slowly.

5. Bake for 20-30 minutes until springy to touch.

Happy cooking!

Monday, September 14, 2009

I Heart Faces - Contemplative

Posted by Kero at Monday, September 14, 2009 8 sweets for Kero



My 20 month-old son right after his first big jump on the pool.

Join the weekly fun on I Heart Faces here.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Weekend Snapshot # 59

Posted by Kero at Sunday, September 13, 2009 2 sweets for Kero


Howdy fellow weekenders! Here is a snapshot of the aquarium inside the family's favorite Iranian Restaurant. We were lucky to witness the fish feeding after a succulent Iftar.



See more fun on Weekend Snapshots here.

OWM - Penne, Salami, and Tomatoes

Posted by Kero at Sunday, September 13, 2009 6 sweets for Kero
Our Weekend Memoirs

Happy Sunday! Nothing beats a home-cooked pasta on Friday nights. Simmering fresh tomatoes sauteed in olive oil, and butter. A little sugar. A good grinding of fresh pepper, a dash of oregano, paprika, and basil.

Here's what I made for weekend supper-- penne in fresh tomato sauce and parmesan coated German salami.



See more Weekend Memoirs here.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mommy Moments - Hat Day!

Posted by Kero at Thursday, September 10, 2009 13 sweets for Kero
mommy moments

Andreas is not fond of putting cover on top of his head - be it winter or summer. So on those occasions that he indulged Mommy, i happily clicked away. I share with you his hat and hooded pics.


The first time he let us place hat on his head. Andreas is three months old and we were invited to a beach birthday party at Al Mamzar.


Taken before his first birthday at Festival City.


Our annual visit to Global Village. The place is in the middle of the desert and get's really chilly at night. The Roary hoodie is a birthday gift from his playmate Kuya Kalel.


Rockin' the bad boy look at Safa Park :). Andreas is 14 months old here.


I recently bought this Fedora at an H&M sale. Hubby says he hopes Andreas won't be looking like Pete Doherty :)

Thankies for the visit! I am excited to see all your entries as well.

Join the fun on Mommy Moments here.

Conrado De Quiros on Noynoy's Presidential Bid

Posted by Kero at Thursday, September 10, 2009 0 sweets for Kero

There's the Rub

Yes He Can

by Conrado De Quiros, Philippine Daily Inquirer

The thought, or challenge, persists: Can Noynoy do it? Or variations thereof: Is he qualified to become president? Is he prepared to become president? Does he have what it takes to be president?

The question doesn’t just come from Arroyo’s people, who ask it with dutiful sneers. The question comes from readers who ask it with dutiful concern. One e-mail I got put it this way: If you’re applying to become CEO of a company, you have to submit a résumé. What commends Noynoy to become CEO of this country?

I’ve written about this in past columns, but a couple more things need pointing out.

First off, the question, “Will Noynoy be a good CEO?” is a wrong one. The job at hand is not CEO of a company, it is janitor of a building. What this country needs today is not someone to manage things, it is someone to clean up things. What we need today is not someone to make a business flourish, it is someone to make a dwelling place habitable, one whose previous tenant left it in a condition only cockroaches, rats, and real-estate speculators, in ascending order of predation, can appreciate. Who better to do this than Noynoy?

Or if you persist in using the CEO image, the job at hand is CEO, but only of a company that has been bankrupted by a bunch of crooks. Whom would you hire to revive it? An efficiency freak with a long résumé but who has business interests that compete with the company, who is a known tirador or beholden to people who are, and who therefore can only be trusted to efficiently pillage some more? Or someone you can trust?

Again, a no-brainer.

The applying-for-CEO idea presumes these elections are normal elections, or a peaceful transition, or a routine transfer of power like 1992 and 1998. They are not. These are extraordinary elections, a fitful transition, a still uncertain transfer of power. We need in the first place to make the transfer happen—like 1986. The pissing contest of submitting résumés presumes moreover that the contest is just elections. It is not, or it has gone beyond elections. The elections are just a battle, they are not the war. The war is not between candidates offering relative merits (or demerits), the war is between Good and Evil, between yoke and freedom, between oppression and liberation. As with 1986 and last year’s US elections, the cry is the epic “We shall overcome,” not the miserable “We shall underwhelm.”

Noynoy represents the first, the rest of the field the second.

Second off, the question “Can Noynoy do it?” is a wrong one. The real question is, “Can we do it?” To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, what we need today is to ask not what the president can do for us but what we can do for the president.

That’s what makes trustworthiness the most decisive qualification of all. If the president is just an InGlorious Basterd, why on earth would you want to ask yourself what you can do for your president? You would want to ask yourself only what you can do to her, particularly if she refuses to go.

Indeed, that’s what shows the folly, or danger, of the CEO template. A CEO is accountable only to the stockholders, not to the hundreds of men and women employed by the company. The hundreds of men and women he can order around and fire as he pleases. Its political equivalent is that the president is accountable only to the taipans and coniotics who spent for his campaign, not to the citizens of the country. The citizens he can bully around and screw as he pleases.

That may be so for a dictatorship but not so for a democracy.

The power of a democracy does not lie in a strong leader—or heaven forbid, strong republic—it lies in a strong people. The power of a democracy does not lie in excluding the people, it lies in including the people. The folly of our elections is that it is premised precisely on excluding the people, in looking for “presidentiables” who can fill the role of Savior or Padron, who can save us from ourselves, who can spare us the need to apply ourselves to improving ourselves.

Which in any case is a monumental exercise in self-delusion. Or self-flagellation. We demand heaven but expect only hell. We ask of candidates the virtues of a messiah, but expect from the winner only the conduct of a cur or asal aso, as we say. Who seriously believes the candidates with the résumés will deliver on their promises? We get a moderate (the greed) crook, we’re happy; we get an immoderate one, we say, “What else is new?”

We want to change the equation, we change ourselves. We change the way we are governed by including ourselves in our governance. Which is what a democracy is. Look at all the successful democracies and see if they are not premised on an active people, a vocal people, a people demanding to have a say in how they are governed.

I’m perfectly serious in pushing “Noypi,” both in the sense of “Noypi” as “Noynoy for President Initiative” and as “Noynoy’s People’s Initiative.” (I am aghast that another group is using that very name to promote their own political agenda!) We need to unleash the power of the people in everyday life, not just during elections, not just when things have gotten so bad we need to act to save ourselves. We need to unlock the key that makes People’s Initiative—the young and feeling-young Noypi—a force in everyday life.

All this is premised on a president we can trust. All this is premised on a president who does not crave power so badly she or he won’t part with it at all costs, least of all to the governed. All this is premised on a president who is as much willing to believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God as the voice of God is the voice of the people. All this is premised on a president who is one damn good person.

Can Noynoy do it? Believe it:

Yes, he can.

Friendship Award

Posted by Kero at Thursday, September 10, 2009 0 sweets for Kero
I just finished baking my first honey and oats muffin and it turned out well, i am soo happy! It's been two weeks since i played with my baking utensils. Anyways, adding to my happy Thursday, i share with you an award from my dear thoughtful blogger friend, Joanne.



Thank you so much for the sweet gesture, Joanne. Fellow bloggers, hope you will have time to visit her blog Me, Myself, and I.

Now I am passing this award to my fellow pretty devoted Dubai Mommies :)

Issa of About A Boy
Ann of Me, Myself and Darly

Enjoy the weekend ladies!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Toddler Meal # 17

Posted by Kero at Wednesday, September 09, 2009 1 sweets for Kero
Time for another toddler meal and a recipe as well. It's been awhile since i shared one so i will include in this post. My own lil' way of thanking fellow Mommies who enjoyed my Toddler Meal posts :)

Andreas had rice and scrambled egg for breakfast so I am giving this for lunch.



That is my tropical carrot cupcake, yoghurt, and washed them down with water. The family's cupcake is special for kids because it uses more carrots than flour. This is what i've always searched for in a carrot cake recipe. I added pineapple for a surprise and walnuts for protein. Sometimes, when I have cream cheese, i slather some on top. But since the meal comes with a yoghurt, i decided to skip the frosting.

Tropical Carrot Cupcake
(Makes 12)

Ingredients
60 g toasted walnuts
140 g pineapple tidbits
100 g brown sugar
120 ml vegetable oil
90 g flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
330 g grated carrots
cream cheese (optional)

Here's how

1. Pre-heat oven to 150 degrees C. Grease 12-case muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and thoroughly mix. I use egg beater to do this.
3. Crack eggs and add to the flour mix, pour in vegetable oil and vanilla essence. Using a wooden spoon, combine ingredients.
4. Fold in carrots. Dust a little flour to pineapple and walnuts. Fold them to the flour and carrot mixture.
5. Divide the mixture to the muffin cases. Bake for 20- 35 minutes until browned and springy to touch.
6. Completely cool before frosting.

Happy Cooking!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin

Posted by Kero at Tuesday, September 08, 2009 0 sweets for Kero


Lord God,
the day of our salvation dawned
when the Blessed Virgin gave birth to your Son.
As we celebrate her nativity
grant us your grace and your peace.
Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Weekend Snapshot # 58 - Pierchic

Posted by Kero at Sunday, September 06, 2009 4 sweets for Kero


Hubby took this photo when we visited Al Qasr Hotel. I was feeling pretty sick and and he thought a new place will do me good :)


Mommy and Andreas on their way to Pierchic.

Join the fun on Weekend Snapshot here.

OWM - Cultural Display

Posted by Kero at Sunday, September 06, 2009 4 sweets for Kero
Our Weekend Memoirs

Iftar (or breaking the fast with a sumptuous buffet) and cultural displays are among the most exciting things you look forward in the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan tents offering free henna tattoo, dates and coffee, incense, and photography exhibit of United Arab Emirates documenting their progress, are among the most common displays we have seen. But this surprised as while doing our weekly grocery in one of the popular shopping malls.

It looked so real I just had to take a picture :)

See more Weekend Memoirs here.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Mommy Moments - Dress Up Time!

Posted by Kero at Thursday, September 03, 2009 20 sweets for Kero
mommy moments

I love dressing up the family. It gives me an excuse to go shopping harharhar. But hubby, like most men don't care so much about clothes. He will wear the same shirt for years and that is fine with him. So i turn the inner stylist in me to my son :)


Andreas is six-months old here. I saw a three-piece suit for two years old at an Indian store and wondered how will he look with a necktie.


Dressed him up like an Englishman in Dubai for his first birthday :)


I was folding fresh laundry when Andreas decided to help. He then noticed my red blouse and tried putting in his arms on the sleeves. I indulged him and resulted in chic assymetrical dress :)


The family was invited to socials last August so we had a little dress rehearsal :)

Thank you so much for the continued visit. See more Dress Up Day on Mommy Moments.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Fun Square Birthday Party

Posted by Kero at Wednesday, September 02, 2009 2 sweets for Kero
We were at Times Square last Friday for Cezka's sixth birthday party. The De La Cruz family are among the first people we made friends since coming to Dubai. They have three kids. The eldest is back in Baguio City now attending university. Hubby and I are Ninong and Ninang to their youngest, Margharett.

Andreas was a grumpy for the the first hour because he wanted to take his nap. But later on, was able to catch up on the fun. It was a great party with lots of fellow Filipinos. We also saw one of Hubby's inaanak, Lance - who is just two weeks older than our son.

We took lots of pictures so i made a collage out of them.


The yummy cakes of Cezka came from Le Notre, Paris along Jumeirah Beach Road.


It was a wonderful children's party!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Toddler Meal # 16

Posted by Kero at Tuesday, September 01, 2009 1 sweets for Kero
Happy September visitors! Time for another toddler meal. Check out Andreas' breakfast.



Cheese flavored croissant and fresh orange juice. So French teehee. Like any busy Mommy, I rush to the nearest bakery for breakfast. But I stick to cheese or custard pastries for now. I find those fruit filling (strawberry jam, pineapple etc..) too sweet for my son.
 

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