Cuatro Cantos

Breakfast for me is the most important meal of the day. For my family, its the meal where me, Aldrin and the get the kids get together. Aldrin goes to the office so he eats lunch there and most of the time, the kids are already asleep when he gets home. I take the breakfast meal seriously, I want the kids and of course my husband to really enjoy their breakfast. Aside from preparing meals that are delicious and sure to give boost their energy for the start of the day, I also like the food to be presentable.

Even if the dish is just simple, the presentation makes a lot of difference.

And so, here are some of the breakfast meals that I’ve prepared for my family. The one below was taken this morning. I used a small rounded container to mold the fried rice, topped the luncheon meat with a pineapple ring, the juice of the pineapple will be soaked by the luncheon meat which will also sweeten the usual salty luncheon meat. Then as an accent, I made dots using ketchup. Viola! A masterpiece!

Garlic Fried rice, Luncheon Meat, Sunny side-up egg and pineapple ring

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It’s my daughter Sam’s 4th birthday last October 25. And for her birthday, I decided to make a no-bake home-made dessert which also served as her birthday cake. I made Oreo cookie Graham cake and Fruity Graham cake with Sam and Ley’s help. They enjoyed the mixing and tasting! I think they have a future in cooking, they like playing restaurant where they call me “miss” and they ask me “miss, ano pong order mo?”

Sam and a slice of her birthday cake

Before we get to another story, here are the ingredients:

For the Oreo Cookie Graham Cake:

• Graham crackers (original or choco-flavored)
• 3 cups of crushed Oreo Cookies
• 2 pouches of Nestle All-purpose cream, chilled
• 1 medium can of condensed milk
• gelatin powder (1 packet of Alsa Gulaman)
• 1/2 cup of milk (water will also do)
• whole Oreo cookies for decor

Procedure:

• First, melt the gelatin powder in 1/2 cup of milk (or water). Heat in pan until gelatin is fully dissolved. Set aside to warm a little bit. This will serve as a binder for a firmer cream mixture.

• Then, in a separate bowl, mix the chilled all-purpose cream and condensed milk. Stir in 1 1/2 cup of the crushed cookies and the melted gelatin. Mix well.

- you can let the kids help in the mixing. Kids will enjoy this stuff, as for my kids, I can see in their faces whenever I let them help out with the cooking and other chores like making the bed, drying the spoons and forks, they feel proud and they feel confident that I trusted them with an adult stuff. This is big deal for them!

• Line a baking pan or any other container with Aluminum foil or plastic wrap. This will make taking out the graham cake easier.

• After this, line the pan with whole graham crackers, make sure to cover the base of the pan. Pour part of the cream mixture to thinly cover the crackers. Repeat this step to have 2 layers of cream-covered Graham crackers. – Kids can also help in this, let them figure out how they can properly cover the pan with Graham crackers.

Graham and Cream layers

• Spread the remaining 1 1/2 cup of crushed Oreo cookies and cover with cream mixture then top with 2 more layers of the graham crackers and cream.
  

  Oreo cookie cream mixture

• Decorate the top with whole Oreo cookies. If there are left-over Oreo cookies, this can serve as a rewarding merienda for your kids for helping in the kitchen!
• Chill for an hour or two. Serve cold.

Oreo Cookie Graham Cake

For the Fruity Graham Cake, just substitute the Oreo Cookies with a fruit cocktail. And you can use the fruit syrup to melt the gelatin powder. As final touch, set aside some of the melted gelatin to glaze the top layer of your Fruity Graham cake. Yum!

This Graham cake is also good as giveaway to your loved ones for Christmas, you can make smaller versions using those rectangular-shaped microwaveable containers. Your friends will surely love it!

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It has been 2 weeks already since my last day at work for an IT company. I have a new job now. A job that I was, I mean my husband and I are both apprehensive to take at first but in the end were both whole-hearted and excited by the choice we made.

I am talking about my being a stay-at-home Mom. We had yaya troubles for some time and so we decided for me to take a break from the corporate world and be the one to take care of the kids and my husband and the house too.

I have been posting about my random thoughts in Facebook. I will also posting them here plus some other stuff too like my very own recipes! I already have a line-up of my Recipe posts, so please watch out. I hope to include pictures of me actually doing the cooking.
That’s it for now, it’s kids merienda time. I will be posting about this too.

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Just recently I showed my support to Rin On The Rox, the duo filipinas who are making their names on YouTube and in all of the world by singing and recording in the bathroom. They sing in duet their favorite songs, mostly are RNB. They also receive requests from their followers from time to time. Lucky they are because Ellen loves to lurk on YouTube and she spotted them. Last time, Ellen invited them to guest on her show, and now here they are:

Watch Rin on the Rox on Ellen DeGeneres show.

In exchange to their guesting and singing Miss Independent by Neyo live in the bathroom, they each got free passes to the Grammy. Guesting on the show is a dream come true, they tell Ellen.

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Rin On The Rox sings Beyonce’s If I were a boy

YouTube has been the medium for many artist seeking fame and many have succeeded. Filipino talents like Arnel Pineda, who is currently the vocalist of Journey, and our very own Charice Pempengco who’s now a true international star, are just two them.

Now, a new duo of Filipina-American national is making its fame on YouTube. They called themselves “Rin on the Rox“, which is derived from their names Erin and Roxanne. Their specialty is obviously duets, and they can sing.

These filipinas have voices designed for singing. They can hit the Beyonce and Mariah high notes, blend pretty well and they have flexible voice box that can make their voices very similar to the original artists.

Rin on the Rox has been featured in Ellen Degeneres’ show, and they were invited to guest on the show by Ellen. I think we already know that fame is coming up next.

Their compilation can be viewed here.

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