Birthday Weekend!

My 2011 birthday marked:

1) My first year of married life and living in the U.S. (it's our anniversary next month!)

2) Two moves, one to an apartment in the U.S. and last week, to a townhouse!

3) My first Thanksgiving in the U.S. and Black Friday Sale! Scored a super affordable drafting table from Michael's.

4) My first Christmas with my in-laws and away from my family. But I'm going home twice this year!

And that's all I've got off the top of my head.


And now for my birthday weekend:

A humongous chocolate cake from Costco to kick it off

A delicious dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (I am now a sweet potato casserole convert) 

and a movie The Adjustment Bureau

Gorgeous flowers from my family delivered by my cousin

A drive down to Half Moon Bay and yummy lunch at the Ritz Carlton

And shopping at the Sears Outlet. We were looking for a Dryer but ended up with a bag of clothes because everything, I literally mean everything was $7 or less. Clothes and shoewise at least.

Now if only I could get this placed cleaned up enough to invite people over for dinner!

I fondly remind Gerard, next month is our first year anniversary. Teeheee!

Today is my sister's birthday too! (I miss celebrating with her.) And if I'm not mistaken, the birth of my new nephew, Lael, as well! Can't wait to meet him!

Dreaming of Dumaguete

Growing up, we would always travel during vacations and special family occasions. When I was a kid, I would wonder how come we had to go away and leave my friends (it seemed to be always when we had something especially fun planned.) But these trips also had awesome perks. I got to spend time with relatives especially cousins, and I got to see the beautiful places where my parents grew up.

Photo from Explore Dumaguete!

One of these places near and dear to my heart, is Dumaguete city. It was only a 45 minute plane ride, five hour boat ride, or six hour drive away and it was always a wonderful adventure. This city, smaller than my hometown of Cebu often offered a welcome respite to the big city. My cousins and I were free to explore by bicycle, buy lip-staining bubble gum from the neighborhood sari-sari store, and play as much as we wanted.

My family would go to the beach, experience dolphin watching on a pumpboat, and eat wonderful seafood.

The Dumaguete I remember from my childhood is of  course, different from the Dumaguete I know now, but not in a bad way. We still go to the beach, go swimming in Forest Camp, and eat. Now Dumaguete has even more wonderful restaurants and eateries, such as Sans Rival (yes, they do serve amazing melt in your mouth sans rival and melt in your mouth goodies, the wonderful Cafe Antonio situated in a Spanish ancestral home, and my favorite, Pastaaang Lami-ah where my aunt serves scrumptious home cooked barbecue with java rice and the most amazing cassava cake to die for. Just thinking about all this food makes my mouth water.

If you asked me what makes Dumaguete special, I would say it was it's the historic, home town, yet near nature feel. Dumaguete is a university town, with lots of schools and Silliman Unviversity being it's main one. There are lots of students, lots of open spaces, and lots of history. But Dumaguete is also near nature, such as the Forest Camp Mountain resort and Apo Island.

Apo Island should deserve an entry in itself. It's a wonderful little island off the coat of Negros. Half of the island has a little cove with a beautiful beach and the other half is wonderful for snorkeling and diving as Apo Island is a marine sanctuary. It's one of the best diving spots in the Philippines, I've heard. My family has had some unforgettable vacations there. 

I could go on and on about Dumaguete but I think I'll leave that to the tourism pros. For more information on Dumaguete, please visit Explore Dumaguete. It's a wonderful website which gives off the awesome Dumaguete vibe. Simple yet still vibrant and rich.

I am however dreaming of going back to Antulang Beach resort and going horseback riding and snorkeling. My husband's all for it as his family is from Dumaguete too! Isn't that sweet?

In Search of French Pastries

I love that my husband loves me enough to give into my cravings.

For the last two weeks, I've had French pastries on the brain and I searched and searched all over the internet to find out where to get the yummy sandwich cookies called French Macaroons. (I think the last time I'd had these wonderfully delicate cookies were in Manila, from my friend Audrey's French pattiserie in Manila, Bizu.)

One place kept popping up: The Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, up in Napa. (Lucky for us, Napa is only 40 minutes or so away.) So one Sunday, without anything planned, I managed to convince him to spend an afternoon checking out Yountville. And while in the car, I read him reviews of this bakery. (Note: my husband is a chef/food scientist so good food is always an awesome topic of conversation.)

So after 40 minutes or so, we found ourselves in the quaint town of Yountville, a starting/ending point for many people who come to Napa for wine tasting and the like. 

I had already read about the bakery being small and the lines being long so that was no surprise. But the line moved quickly enough and my husband was pleased to discover that the bakery was beside the Bouchon, a Thomas Keller restaurant, that he would like for us to try one of these days. (My husband loves checking out restaurants to add to our list.)

But today, after five minutes of waiting in line, we came out with a croissant and three French macaroons. Husband had the croissant. I was more interested in the macaroons.

And they were exactly like how I'd expected them to be. The cookies were delicately crunchy on the outside, wonderfully sweet and chewy on the inside, and the creamy feeling in the middle was pure heaven. The whole thing just left an aroma of flavor in your month. 

In the case of my first cookie, it was blissful hazelnut. The other two I chose were chocolate and pistachio. And since the cookies were huge, (most French macaroons are near bite size, these were the size of whoopie pies!) I tucked the box into my purse and decided to save the rest for later.

The bakery had other yummy looking stuff on display too.

And these are the chocolate Bouchons, brownie bites baked with chocolate chips and dusted with confectioner's sugar but at $2 a pop, we decided maybe next time.

After the bakery, we decided to explore Yountville a bit and it was a pretty cute place. They had some gorgeous shops with glass art, jewelry, and fine art. And at the Bottega store (by the Bottega restaurant of Chef Chiarello Bottego), I had a taste of truffle salt that left me craving for more. I had visions of french fries and popcorn sprinkled with truffle salt... Yum. But truffles are another topic altogether.

We're definitely passing by the Bouchon Bakery again the next time we're in Napa. But at $3 a French Macaroon, that could become an expensive habit if done too often. Maybe just one cookie at a time?

But then again... didn't my husband study French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu? Doesn't that mean he could probably make me some of these at home? Hmmm.... let's go find a French macaroon recipe...

Napa Nights

Sixty something wines, awesome food stands, plus free entertainment, all added up to a great night with friends in St. Helena, Napa Valley.

On our last trip to St. Helena, I noticed this poster for a "street celebration" of sorts, held every first Friday of the month from August til October and I casually mentioned to Gerard that it might be fun to do. Dubbed "Cheers! St. Helena", I mentioned it to some friends too and we made plans to meet up in Napa Valley to check it out.

35 dollars gets you a bracelet, a plastic cup, AND unlimited wine tasting of wines from all over Napa Valley. Not a bad deal, if you ask me, especially if you're into wine. Sadly, I've been steering clear of it as I've been prone to migraines lately so I was after the FOOD! And I was not disappointed.

Check out my photos.

First tasting, a sweet Rose.

Gerard having another pour. Notice the fancy shmancy wine bus. 

You can book it for private tours.

Entertainment provided by The California Repercussions.

There was also a great acoustic band tucked away in a corner.

This is what I was after! Yummy Tri-Tip Steak Sandwich!

And the grilled corn was super sweet!

And of course, dessert! Lemon and Blood Orange Gelato. 

Nothing beats Gelatissimo though!

At the Cheer! St. Helena website I found out that you can get a season pass for $75. This would be worth it if we lived nearer the area but I think I'm ok with once or twice a year visit. 

The St. Helena Main Street is very pretty and they've got a lot of promising restaurants and cute stores. One of my favorites was Olivier Napa Valley, which sells gourmet oils and specialty food. I've been dying to buy a bottle of their truffle oil and the spinach artichoke dip we sampled was super yummy!

Photo from Oliviernapavalley.com

St. Helena is definitely on my list of places to take friends and guests too. I love quaint little main streets like theirs, which aren't too bustling but full of interesting finds.

All in all, my first Cheers! was a great evening and I'm definitely coming back to St. Helena for more.

Day Trip

These days, my high school friends and I only get to really get together during the holidays, when every gets to come home. So we try to make the most of it by getting together as much as we can!

One day, Rhoda, Joyce and I took a day trip down south to visit some churches and see the sites. we visited the Carcar church and musem, the Boljoon Church, and we stumbled upon this cozy resort called Granada Beach.

We stopped by the Carcar Church

And the Carcar Museum

Me inside the church

And we finally found Rhoda's baluarte or stone watch tower at Granada Beach!

The inviting pool at Granada Beach

And their lovely mini forest, home to the rare, spotted, blue narra.

We really should go on more mini adventures like this! Maybe the next one will be in the US!

For more info on the lovely Granada Beach, you can check out their website at www.granadabeachph.com. It's a quaint, little resort that's perfect if you just want to get away from the city.