Off to Somewhere.

Wing of an AirPhil Express plane, at NAIA T3

Off to somewhere in the next couple of weeks and months. Its been a while since I have travelled, and I am pretty excited for the upcoming trips with friends, because there will be a lot of firsts on these trips. So I'm pretty stoked, no pun intended. :)

I will share photos of the trips once they're done! For now, back to daydreaming while in the office crunching numbers and spreadsheets. And hopefully get to buy new beach wear. :) Heksayted!!!!

Taken via Instagram.

Crostini

This is a late post (super). This is the first time that I have made crostinis. The inspiration has struck me several times since one of my favorite starters from Cibo is Crostini with the Chicken Liver Pate. So I made my own. At first I was intimidated, but after researching how it is done, it was, well quite easy. :)

Ingredients:
old baguette
olive oil

Directions:
1. Slice the bread into crostini sizes.
2. Brush the bread with olive oil.
3. Bake in a 250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.

Just make sure you watch the crostinis closely while baking, especially when you have sliced it thinly as it might burn.

This is great as a snack in place of chips. :) Or if you are planning to have a party, this is a good starter to your meal. You can top it with almost anything. I loved it with cream cheese and jam or even honey. Second favorite was the tinapa with tomatoes and basil mix with cream cheese. 

Try it once. :)

Photo taken via Instagram.

Numbers are all that matters.

taken via Instagram

It's all about the numbers. That is how we play the game in Recruitment. So these are my artillery on a daily basis. My excel sheets, my liter of water, my laptop, my phone and my wireless internet USB. Mobility is always the key, so you can always be on top of your emails everyday.

C'est la vie

C'est la vie. As they say, Such is life. And so I believe. One thing that I found very cathartic more than retail therapy is the buzzing sound of needles. I can't wait to add another one.

Taken via Instagram.

A new baby.

Meet the newest, cutest and makulit-est addition in our family - Boochok. :) He is an Aspin. So adorable and cute that he doesn't fail to brighten a damp day at home. I so love puppies, well not until they get so big and irritating (at some point). Hahaha! He is getting bigger by the day.

Welcome to the Olarte Family Boochok! We all love and adore you!

Long week.

I think this has been the longest week of my life. Pretty much, all of my time in the office are spent in long meetings, brainstorming, calls, giving directions to the team, and leg work. This is the time of the year when all our demands are in full swing until the closing of this year. We are at about 300++ until end of December with very aggressive timelines, and very demanding clients.

Distraction is okay. But not until I feel all the energy drain out at the end of the day. Nothing beats mental exhaustion. It drains you from the inside out. I pray for strength everyday when I wake up. Being 100% for everything that needs to be done is so important now, that I sometimes get mad at myself for not being up to par as to what is expected. I know. I am that hard on myself.

I think what I want to say is, I want to take this opportunity to step back, and look at how far I have gone from that fateful day that changed everything. The promise I will make for myself is that I will still try hard, press on but I will never miss a beat of what my heart tells me to feel everyday. If I am okay, I will thank God for that day, same thing if I am sad, lonely, angry, and if I am missing you more.

I hope you and I will both come out of this as better versions of ourselves more than what we want us to be. I pray for the both us, pray hard because I know in my heart of hearts that I am having a hard time focusing my eyes on God for direction as of now.

Days will be long, nights will be longer and the only option we have is to just look ahead for better days.

Brunch: Corned Beef Mash

I saw this recipe in Jenni Epperson's blog, and I immediately wanted to try it. As her, I always want to cook food with ingredients that are readily available in our fridge and pantry. I'm a fan of no fuss cooking so to speak. So for today's brunch kitchen experiment, I did her recipe. 

Ingredients:
3 potatoes boiled
3 cans corned beef
garlic, onion, red bell pepper, green chili
salt and pepper
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
oil for frying

Instructions:
1. Boil the potatoes until they're cooked. 














2. While doing that, cook your corned beef as you want to cook it. What I did, is cooked it the way we usually do, saute it in garlic, onions and for color, I added the chilis and pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste.

3. Multitask! As you are cooking the corned beef, mash the potatoes and mix in milk and butter. Make sure that there's no lumps or big chunks of potato for a better consistency.
 

4. Mix in the mash potatoes into the cooked corned beef. I added 1 egg and flour to make sure that everything sticks when you fry them. Mix thoroughly.
5. Heat oil in pan. I only added a small amount of oil, since I know, that corned beef is already oily. 
6. Form a patty and fry until golden brown on bot sides.
7. Drain the excess oil in paper towels.

I ate mine with brown rice and tomatoes since the corned beef mash is actually pretty rich. It was hearty and very filling. Downed it with my cranberry juice. Haha, still on a healthy living mode. 

Happy tummy!

Until the next weekend kitchen experiment! 

Laters tweeps!