van.nurse@gmail.com – Page 28 – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Anniversary Weekend!

Hi Family and Friends! The Hubs and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary this weekend! We had a simple celebration (movie and sushi), but we plan to do something nice this summer. After our Philippine trip just 3 weeks ago, I personally have no desire to be on a plane somewhere this week. I need time to recover!HA!

We had a little lunch celebration with Mia at one of the local restaurants near our place:

Happy Anniversary Ga! He’s giving his eyes a break from contact lens, thus the glasses!

Saturday night My In laws offered to babysit Mia while we watched the movie “I can only Imagine”, such a good movie! If you have the chance to watch it, you should. Great story about forgiveness and redemption, even if you’re a non-believer, I think you can appreciate the story! We had sushi after the movie! Looks like we ordered too much!

The hubs and I decided not to give “BIG” gifts this anniversary because we are getting a new refrigerator that will arrive this coming Tuesday. I’m so excited to have a new fridge! Our current one is acting up,and we think it’s worth it to get a new one! But my Hubs was nice enough to still give me some of my “wish list” on the Lenox site!HA..Thanks Hubs!

Got these angel figurines! I have them in the kitchen.

I plan to get something that will elevate them!

I got this Lenox Anniversary Plate! With our names and wedding date!

Roses too! I plan to put the plate in our bedroom but for now its staying in the kitchen!

Some throwback pics before the wedding:

This is Us 10 years after:

Thank God for blessing me with my Hubs whose so good to me! So grateful for the gift of marriage and family! Thanks to our family and friends who share this beautiful journey with us. To God be the Glory!

Philippines Trip!

Hello Friends! I’ve mentioned in the last post that Mia and I got to visit my hometown (in the Philippines) for 2 weeks. It was a short, yet fun visit. I wanted to introduce Mia to my family/relatives who were eager to meet her! US-Philippines is such a long flight, what a journey! I’m so grateful that my sister offered to help me with this trip because I don’t think I could have made it without her! International travel and an active toddler ALONE is something else! Mia did fine going to the Philippines but the trip going back to the US was a nightmare! She cried a lot of times in the 12 hours journey (MANILA- LOS ANGELES). The woman beside us offered to give us lavender essential oil to rub on her forehead! HA! She did calm down for 15 minutes! OH FUN!

Despite the long travels, it was so worth having the rest of my family finally meet Mia. Her cousins got to play with her. She was so clingy to me during the first week but eventually she did fine when others wanted to carry her. My friends got to see her also, so that was special!

Jollibee spag was in order!HA! First meal in the car once we arrived in the PH!

with my Friends! We’ve been friends since gradeschool!

with my friend Sweetlove and her cute kids!

with my nursing friends! Macky and Ping!

Lots of family time during this trip! We did water parks, swimming at a local resort near our place, beach time too! I wish my family lived closer. It would be so nice to see them often! But for the mean time, we’ll be fine with facetime/facebook! Till next time guys! We miss you so much!

Gotta have a family picture taken when everybody is home!

Easter 2018!

Hello Family and Friends! Happy Easter! He is Risen! Hallelujah!! Thank You Jesus for what you’ve done on the Cross! I hope that you had a meaningful Easter celebration with your loved ones! We had a fun Easter weekend here. Mia had her first Egg hunt at a local church near our place. We didn’t stay for a long time because she wasn’t really participating and overwhelmed with all the festivities surrounding her. She was still so cute though!

After the egg hunt, we had lunch at Chic fil-A! We also had to stop at our Asian market to get some crabs for our Easter brunch (Hubby made Crabs eggs Benedict).

Saturday evening I prepared Mia’s easter basket! She got a spring dress and a stuffed cow toy from us. Grandma/Grandpa got her an Easter dress and candies/crayons!

With Auntie Juju!

Daddy took some Easter pics of Mia and Riley!

Easter Brunch! Crabs benedict, bacon/sausages,fruits! It was busy in the kitchen, but the food was delicious! Thanks Ga for all the cooking!

With Grandma!

After all the festivities I need sometime to recover! HA!

I’ve been MIA for the month of March because Mia and I just got back from the Philippines (we stayed for 12 days), I’ll share more of our mini vacation in the coming days! Have a good start of the week Friends! Blessings!

Valentines 2018!

Hello Friends! Happy Belated Valentines Day! I hope you had a lovely V-day! My hubs and I decided a couple of years ago that we will not give each other gifts/cards or expensive things to show that we value each other. He was still nice enough to get me red roses and a cookbook I’ve been wanting! We did “celebrate” though in our favorite restaurant, John Howie! My In laws (Parents, Sis IL) gave us a very generous gift card last Christmas and we wanted to use it. They offered to watch Mia also. We had dinner the Friday of V-day week, because I personally don’t like going out on the 14th ( I cannot deal with the crowds!).

Little Miss Mia was in the V-day spirit too! She wore her valentines outfit, gifted from her Aunties! She also got a cute card from her grandparents! Hubs and I got a card and Franz chocolates also! YUM!

We usually have my In laws over every Wednesday night for dinner! My DIL prepared meatloaf and potatoes!

Our John Howie Dinner!

A5 Japanese Wagyu Beef Striploin Sashimi, sweet onion, pickled cucumber, cherry tomato, sesame soy vinaigrette, black sea salt, chives, micro greens (we didn’t like this,sauce was overpowering)

La Belle Farm Foie Gras, caramelized Honeycrisp apple , cabbage and purple onion, crisp guanciale, 10 year aged sherry vinegar, Chinese five spice, pinenuts, Madeira honey

Lobster Bisque: fresh Maine lobster, caviar cream, chives

Honeycrisp Apple: Organic Honeycrisp apples, purple onion, dried cranberries, organic greens, preserved apricot vinaigrette, Coombe Castle Blue Stilton, candied black pepper pecans

Fried Brussels Sprouts,:Fried Brussels Sprouts lemon caper vinaigrette, toasted garlic, Reggiano

Mishima Reserve American Wagyu Beef “Long Bone” Rib Eye: mesquite grilled, duck fat roasted Yukon gold potatoes and Cipollini onions, Roasted bone marrow, bordelaise

Chicken Adobo!

Hello Friends! I’ve made the world famous Filipino Chicken Adobo. A Filipino comfort food for sure! I love this dish because it’s so simple and quick (max 45 minutes). The original recipe (Panlasang Pinoy blog) calls for marinading the chicken for 1-3 hours. I skipped that part! The result was still good!* I also added more pepper because I love pepper. I used chicken wings and legs,because wings are my fave part! Mia loved it too based on the sounds she was making when we had dinner the other night!

This is the recipe I used (Panlasang Pinoy):

Ingredients

2 lbs. chicken, cut into serving pieces
3 pieces dried bay leaves
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 to 2 cups water
¼ cup cooking oil
½ tablespoon white sugar
Salt and whole peppercorn
Cooking Process:
1. In a large container, combine the soy sauce and garlic then marinade the chicken for at least 1 to 3 hours
2. Place the cooking oil in a pan and apply heat
3. When the oil is hot enough, put-in the marinated chicken. Cook all the sides for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour-in the remaining marinade and add water. Bring to a boil
5. Add the dried bay leaves and whole peppercorn. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender
6. Add vinegar. Stir and cook for 10 minutes.
7. Put-in the sugar, and salt. Stir and turn the heat off.
8. Serve hot. Share and Enjoy!

Life Lately!

Hello Friends! Where did January Go?! It’s been a little busy here with us. Hubs is just recovering from the flu. Been miserable for him the last couple of days. Makes me realize how sometimes we take our health for granted! Health is Wealth! I’ve been monitoring Mia also because she threw up twice during the last week. So far she’s her usual self (climbing all over the place), drinking and eating well but I’m still keeping my eyes on her. Before all of these viruses got to us we had to do something in Seattle and we stopped at our favorite sandwich place, Salumi! It’s always a treat!

Hubs attempted to make a Filipino Brioche bread! TOTAL FAIL! Haha! He will try again sometime..

I’m looking forward to February! Lots of exciting things I plan to do:) I hope you are all doing great friends!

Roast Duck!

Hi friends! I wanted to share this very simple roast duck recipe I found. I’ve read a lot of duck recipes but most of them called for a sweet style kind of glaze that I have to constantly brush on the duck. Not a big fan of that myself, because I like mine to be less complicated. I decided to just have it roast at 350F for 3 hours but I have to flip it every hour. It turned out great! We got the duck from Whole Foods market, it was pricey to be honest ($32), but worth it because this would have been triple the price of what we paid if we ordered it from a restaurant. My hubs made an amazing gravy (it’s red wine gravy), he couldn’t stop talking about it! In fairness, it was delicious:) I love this kind of recipe, so simple (although took 3 hours) but so tender and flavorful. I cannot wait to make this again!

Weekend Fun!

Hi Friends! How’s your weekend going?! We did the usual things here, like errands (grocery shopping at Costco), Church, laundry,and naps galore! We finally put our Christmas decorations away this week too! Thanks to my Hubs who did most of the work (our Tree is too tall for me,so he mostly took care of things!). I’ve finally caught up with the show that I’ve been watching on Netflix “When Calls the Heart”. I’m so enjoying it, and looking forward to many more episodes.

My Rileypuss, the best furbaby ever! He’s the sweetest and most loyal to me!

We also went to Jollibee, a Filipino fast food chain here in WA!

Have a great week friends! About to have dinner here and watch some Netflix with the family! We are currently watching Planet Earth! God is so amazing watching all this animals He created! What an awesome God:)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Friends! I Hope you had a fun and safe New Years! We had a simple NYE with my In laws. We still have lots of leftovers from Christmas (mostly cheeses) so we had cheese appetizers, I grilled some shrimp, and we ordered BBQ from a local restaurant! It wasn’t very good (the bbq), very disappointing! We watched a movie (on Netflix) and called it a night! We did watch the Times Square celebration though! We were in bed by 10pm though, I was so tired. I normally wait for the Space Needle fireworks display on tv but last night, I could care less!

Family Selfie before we end 2017! Thank You Lord for a wonderful 2017, it went by too fast! I think having a one year old baby did that to me! HA!

First Breakfast of 2018! My hubs baked banana bread (he’s the baker in this family!) and gotta have a big cup of coffee to enjoy the first day of the year!

My In laws spent dinner with us. My DIL prepared Tenderloin steak; it was so good! My Mom In Law helped me prepare Twice baked potatoes. It’s very rare that we do things in the kitchen together !HA! She is more of a baker and I don’t like baking:) We are so different but we do get along very well. Love my Mom In Law Kathy, she is such an inspiration! My Hubby made cheese fondue for us to enjoy while we prepared for our New Years Day dinner! I also made another Roast Pork belly (Lechon belly in the Philippines) I just had an extra pork belly and I just want it out of the freezer!

About to enjoy cheese fondue! I love this apron that my Hubs gifted me a couple of years ago!

In the Kitchen with my MIL! We’re so different but we get a long very well! Love her!

Mia missed her afternoon nap, she can’t keep her eyes open during dinner time! too cute!

Thank You Family and Friends for taking the time to check here in my little blog! I pray that 2018 will be full of blessings, good health, peace and laughter to you and your family! God bless you and Keep you always!

Blessings,

Calamariqueen

Snowy Day!

Hi Friends! It’s the day after Christmas and we still have a decent amount of snow so Hubs wanted to go out and play in the snow with Mia and Riley (he’s such a big kid at heart!). I really didn’t want to do it because I hate being cold, but the park is just in front of the house, so I had to suck it up! HA! Mia wasn’t into it at first but eventually she did give us a lot of smiles and seemed to be enjoying her snow day! I’m glad we did it because it’s a great memory for Mia and us!

We enjoyed hot cocoa after our playtime at the park! Hubs baked both the sugar cookie Christmas tree and pistachio macarons! Both were delicious! Thanks Ga for baking all of our holiday goodies:)