May you have more happy and blessed years to come!
I'm thinking about you.
Happy, happy birthday!

With much love from across the world and a big slice of cake with fresh strawberries and whipped cream,
Your only daughter

I have been dreaming of my mom's and Jollibee's spaghetti for days now so I decided to make something close to it to satisfy my craving. It would have been nearly perfect if there were hotdogs, particularly Purefoods (I'll just dream about it), but I contented myself without it.


Ingredients:

200g ground beef
2 big cloves of garlic
1 red onion
375ml ~ 400g tomato sauce
tomato paste (small)
salt
pepper
1 tablespoon of sugar
tabasco (optional)
dried parsley (optional)
spaghetti
grated cheese

For the pasta:

1. Cook spaghetti in boiling salted water until al dente. Then drain.
Tip: Stir occasionally to avoid them sticking together or drain in running cold water.

For the sauce:

1. Put the *pan on medium heat. *Cook the ground beef until it's slightly brown. Set the ground beef aside and add the garlic and onion. Once the garlic turns golden brown, mix them altogether for a minute. Add pinches of salt and pepper and the *tomato paste. Make sure that the meat is somewhat evenly coated with the paste. Add *Tabasco, then the tomato sauce and sugar. Wait till it boils and add the dried parsley. Then it's ready to serve with grated cheese. Good for 2-3 people, 3-4 if you serve with bread.

* I used a Teflon wok.
* I intentionally didn't use oil because the meat has enough fat in it.
* Tomato paste makes the sauce thicker. If you only cook for one or two, two tablespoons are enough. Otherwise, it would be too thick and you'll have to add on the sauce.
* The Tabasco is a personal choice. It gives the sauce a spicy twist.

This is a very easy meal to cook. If you do try this recipe, let me know how it turned out!

Happy cooking!

This was my brunch.

Tomatoes, hard-boiled egg, bacon, cheese, salad greens and the soft thin Swedish bread turned into cracker because I thought putting it in the oven for a minute was a good idea. Turns out, it wasn't. It was soft for a reason, and, ironically, I bought it for that reason.

I haven't done much lately because I've been feeling crappy since last weekend. And, I still do. I hope whatever virus this is, it will go away soon because I have a couple of projects to finish as I'm doing two swaps this month and pack birthday presents for my brothers: one celebrated two days ago and the other one today. As you know, I'm already running late on that.

I have noticed for the past two months that I developed an obsession with a particular food at a time. Like I'm dating with food, and it all began with the eierkoek. I can still remember not liking it the first few times it was offered to me during the family Sunday breakfasts. If you must know, I wasn't a big fan of bread and pastries. I'm still not, actually, but my taste buds changed, as did a lot of things. I loved eating my rice three times a day, but now, we eat it once or twice in two weeks. Last month, I ate nothing but eierkoek for breakfast for two weeks straight then I refused to lay my eyes on them at the supermarket in the days that followed. Seeing the empty basket in the middle of the aisle is a relief but at the back of my head, there's a voice that screams, "where is it?!"

But then, I found a new fling. I binged and binged. On chips. Lay's Mexican Salsa, to be exact, and that lasted for a week. Sadly, the last bag was an effort to finish. It just came to the point where enough is enough. I skipped the chips section at the supermarket the week after. And tell you what, I'm not fond of chips at all.

So, guess what I'm into right now? Maltesers! It's chocolate, for crying out loud! I'm not a chocolate lover. I don't have a sweet tooth. Not until recently.

And, there's the cola addiction. I still can't lay off the soda however I want to. Maybe I survived a week without it but then it wooed me again and I instantly caved in. If I could get drunk with cola, I'd have a hangover every other day.

There are also days when I don't eat much and skip meals. It happens more than once a month. I know that my eating habit has gone awry and only I can change that. I also know that I can't keep blaming it on winter. Perhaps if winter flashes the magic white blanket out, I'll drink nothing but tea and water the whole season. But I doubt that winter will be a good sport this year.

I probably should start doing what my friends do. Hit the gym, do yoga, be health conscious, get into sports again and feel better about my body. It's a recurring issue that I do nothing about. But that will change soon. I'm taking belly dancing lessons with Monique in January and I'm looking forward to it!