Mothers Who Brunch Goes Asian

I was invited to the 3rd installment of the Mothers Who Brunch event, organized by Sab of Sinfully Sabrina and Michelle of Momma ‘N Manila last August 22. Again, it was held at the Viking Range Showroom in Westgate Alabang. It was actually raining pretty hard that morning so I was afraid the event was going to get cancelled! But luckily, the rains died down, so we were all able to enjoy this wonderful event with friends and good food.

Mothers Who Brunch

If you know me or have been following my blog for quite some time, then you know that cooking is not one of my talents. However, it's something that I wish I was good at and I admire people who are such experts in the kitchen. Especially moms who still find time despite their busy schedules to really prepare their families’ baon for work or school.

That’s why I was really excited when Sab of Sinfully Sabrina and Michelle of Momma ‘N Manila invited me to their wonderful event last May 30. Together with Viking Range Philippines, they organized this intimate gathering of moms held at the Viking Showroom in Westgate Alabang, I definitely couldn’t pass up this opportunity to learn more about cooking and of course, to eat delicious food!

The minute I walked into the venue, I was greeted by this beautiful tropical set-up by Boqueria Lifestyle Market. Everything was styled to perfection from the centerpieces, table linens, down to the woven plate chargers. 

appetizer: crudites with ranch dressing by Michelle, chipotle hummus and spinach artichoke dip by Sab

To start things off, Michelle gave us a tour of the different Viking appliances found in the showroom. I’m sure there are some people, like me, who immediately think that Viking is such a high-end, expensive brand. But aside from the quality being top-notch, it’s also the service that can’t be beat. Do you know that if one of your Viking appliances gets broken, they’ll have someone at your door within 4 hours and provide you with a replacement unit for the meantime while they fix your stuff? Now that’s first-class customer care.

And everything’s so high-tech like this oven that has a self-cleaning function. Busy moms definitely need this in their lives!

Can I take home one of everything please? Gosh, this is really a dream kitchen!

After the tour, it was time to cook! Actually, most of the hard work, like prepping all the ingredients, was already done for us (thank you Sab and Michelle hehe!). 

There were different food stations and you could choose which dish you wanted to help out with. No surprise, I decided to help with the easiest one, the salad haha!

Then came the most exciting part, EATING! And my gosh, everything smelled awesome! And looked too pretty to eat! Of course, since this is a group of bloggers, we had to take pictures of everything first haha. ;p

Here's our yummy menu. Warning, prepare to get hungry with all the food pics ahead!

Dalandan Mimosa

Pinoy Breakfast Salad

Pakwan Salad

Kangkong and Kesong Puti Quiche

Tomato-Chorizo Stew

Cottage Cheese-Mango Pancakes

Apple Pie

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

My gosh, everything was so good! But if I had to pick a favorite, those pancakes were absolutely amazing! I really will try and make it at home. And that homemade vanilla bean and salted caramel ice cream by Sab was to die for!

And it didn’t stop there. Everyone was given goodies to bring home like a pinakbet veggie basket from Holy Carabao Holistic Farm, a Viking Kitchen apron, terrariums from Sombra Verde, Lucky Mechant Salt from Happy Tree House, Vanilla products from The Vanilla Company, Hurraw! Vegan Lip Balm from Cutieverse, ceramic tile coasters from Boqueria Lifestyle Market, pralines from Choco La Bella, plus GCs from Bikram Yoga Alabang, House of Monogram PH, and Coco Nail Studio. Everyone definitely felt so pampered and special with all these gifts.

But probably my favorite giveaway was this booklet which is a compilation of brunch recipes submitted by us moms. I definitely can't wait to try some of these in the future. :)

So again, thank you and congratulations to Michelle and Sab for organizing this wonderful event. I’m now more inspired to start cooking! And happy to have met new friends whom I was able to share this experience with. Can't wait for the next one! :)

Our new Panasonic Inverter refrigerator

I'm not much of a cook so our kitchen is probably the one area in our house we spent the least amount of money on when we moved in 3 years ago. All the appliances are hand-me-downs from my mom, like our oven, water dispenser, and refrigerator. We also got our microwave as a freebie when we bought our plasma TV haha! Everything looks ok and works fine anyways, so we were happy to get these for free.

Don't get me wrong, I still dream of having a gorgeous kitchen with state-of-the-art appliances someday. Maybe then I'll get motivated to cook noh? haha! ;p Anyway, like I said, our refrigerator is still in perfect condition but it is quite small. We noticed that we were having a hard time fitting everything inside the freezer after doing the grocery, especially now since I'm also storing my breastmilk there.

our old ref (with a few of our magnet collection)

So we finally decided to buy a new one when SM had a recent sale. After scoping around, we settled on the Panasonic Inverter 16 cu.ft. size. The original cost was about P39k but after all the promos and discounts, we got it for P31k.

First off, I just love the silver color which makes it look so sleek compared to our old white one. Makes our kitchen look so sosyal na hehe! And look at all that space to stick our magnets on!

We were really sold when we found out this had an Intelligent Inverter Technology which has up to 40% less energy consumption. Hopefully our electricity bill really goes down. ;p

I was a bit skeptical at first with the bottom freezer though. I was thinking the drawer type compartment might get broken easily (hopefully not). But since frozen foods are used less, the refrigerator at the top part means that  you'd have easier access to the food and beverages consumed more often.

Having the ref at the top part is really such a big difference! It's so easy to have everything at eye level and no more bending over or kneeling down to check out what's in the bottom part like before!

I also like how it has separate vegetable and chilled case, which provides indirect cooling to prevent drying and damage.

It also has anti-bacteria and deodorizing features which are a plus! Hopefully this ref will last a long time and perform like it promises. :)

Howards Storage World Loot

I got a chance to go to Robinsons Place Ermita the other day, and the only place I was excited to check out was Howards Storage World! Anyway, the Robinsons branch was disappointingly smaller compared to the Shangri-La branch where I went crazy shopping here. They were on sale, but nothing I really needed or wanted. I ended up buying some over the door hooks and a towel rack which I've been itching to get for months.

over the cabinet towel bar for the kitchen - P399.75

chrome over the door single hook - P199.75

over the door double hook - P249.75

30cm white towel rack - P129.75

Isn't it funny I ended up buying mostly hooks? I just find these things so fabulous and ingenious since you don't need to drill or nail anything to your doors anymore. And you know how my husband feels about drilling (not good). Just a tip though, make sure you measure the width of your door or cabinet since the hooks come in different sizes. You want to make sure it fits over your door just right.

To help me stay on a budget, I make sure to keep my purchases to at least P1,000 when shopping at a store. This prevents me from impulse buying and allows me to really think if I need something or not. Wow, is this me? I really am maturing and being more responsible with money! My hubby will be so proud! ;p

My grand total? P979.00! Not bad. Can't wait to go back to the Shangri-La branch though. =)

Crazy over storage! (Howards Storage World vs. Daiso Japan Store)

I'm a self-confessed shopaholic. I realized though that the things I go gaga over usually depend on what stage in my life I’m on. I’ve been crazy over clothes ever since, but it skyrocketed when I first started college and finally stopped wearing a uniform. When I started working and had to wear corporate attire, it was an excuse for me to restock my closet with slacks, skirts, collared blouses, and of course, new shoes and bags (hey, I NEEDED them)! When I moved to a new job in an advertising agency where the dress code was pretty much express yourself, I felt that it was unforgivable to wear the same thing twice (yes, with a new job comes a new wardrobe) . When I got pregnant with Miley, I got obsessed with anything baby! It was no surprise that the day before I went into labor, I was at Mothercare during my lunch break, buying stuff for Miley (they were on SALE!).

Of course, when we bought our house, I went crazy thinking about how to decorate our home. Since we just stayed with my mom before, all we owned was whatever was in our room. Everything else, we had to buy (yipeeee!) I’ll do a separate post on my interior decorating adventures, but for now let me tell you about what I am currently obsessed with – STORAGE!

I first read about Howards Storage World in Real Living magazine (my bible on decorating). I decided to check out their website and my heart started racing when I saw their online catalogue. They had everything you could ever need to keep your home organized and clutter free. I made a list of what I wanted and pretty much gave up halfway through, it was easier to make a list of what I DIDN’T want!