Kare Kare with real peanut butter

Kare Kare- a Filipino recipe often served on special occasions. It's made of beef, oxtail [optional, i don't really like its texture], peanut butter and vegetables. I guess it's only served on special occasions because of the time required for it to cook. It's also troublesome and a bit messy, but believe me.. it is well worth it.

The recipe below is what I use:

1/2 kilo beef (round or sirloin cut) cut into cubes (for a more traditional kare kare, use cleaned beef tripe instead of beef)
1/2 kilo oxtail, cut 2 inch long [optional, i didn't add this when i cooked]
3 cups of peanut butter
1/4 cup grounded toasted rice
1/2 cup cooked bagoong alamang (anchovies)
2 pieces onions, diced
2 heads of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons atsuete oil
3 pieces eggplant, sliced 1 inch thick
1 bundle Pechay (Bok choy)
1/2 bundle of sitaw (string beans) cut to 2" long
1 banana bud, cut similar to eggplant slices, blanched in boiling water
1/2 cup oil
8 cups of water
Salt to taste

In a stock pot, boil beef and oxtails in water for an hour and a half or until cooked. Strain and keep the stock.

Heat your cooking oil and atsuete oil in a big pan. Sauté garlic & onions until golden brown, then add the stock, toasted rice, beef, oxtail and peanut butter. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste.

Add the eggplant, string beans, pechay and banana bud. Cook the vegetables for a few minutes - Do not overcook the vegetables [you really won't like it if you do].

Serve with bagoong on the side and hot plain rice.,

tong yang restaurant's hot pot buffet

Tong Yang's buffet is a good deal at 550+php or 11.00USD. The price already includes the drinks as well. The layout and design of the restaurant is very simple, despite it being located in a 4 star hotel. Nonetheless the dining experience is very rewarding. We were supposed to take pictures of the food, interiors and all that but we got so excited to eat that everything else was forgotten! It's a buffet style restaurant where you grill your own food and make your own hot pot, also known as shabu shabu. They have a wide selection of seafood and meat to choose from. I had so much fun while cooking our food and it tasted good too! The staff were very accommodating as well. Will I come back? Of course.

Olay Total Effects Moisturizer with SPF 15

Olay Total Effects promises to fight the seven signs of skin aging with one miracle product. I agree that this wonder product works for some people, but in my case it did not totally deliver. It was a good thing that I only bought the small bottle!

At the age of 20, I already have some lines near my nose, brown spots and large pores. Since Olay promised to minimize them and people have been raving about this product, I got curious and decided to try it.

After 2 weeks of using Olay day and night, I started to get disappointed. Sure, my skin looked radiant after waking up- but there’s a high possibility that’s only because of getting enough sleep. After a few hours pass, my skin starts to get very oily and my large pores show up again. My brown spots did not decrease as well.

I know that it takes time for a product to work but am thinking that my skin should have showed some improvements by now.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

I've been waiting for this movie since I saw the trailer. I got so excited in watching this because of all the action packed scenes and high quality effects that they showed. I also thought that the story line was unique. Characters from Greek myths are walking into the life of a high school student.That is just cool!

After seeing the movie, I was a bit disappointed though. I thought that the story line was so far fetched and unreal. I was expecting Percy's group to go on an adventure towards the world of the gods. I wanted to see castles, mountains, forests and deserts. I didn't expect them to go on a road trip to Chicago and Hollywood!

I wouldn't deny that the sound and visual effects were really nice though. I just hoped they didn't try too much on fusing the human world into the fantasy world.

Watch this movie with kids. For adults, please be patient with the absurd story line and slightly predictable events. Bring lots of popcorn so you’ll have something to munch on at least