Sunday, October 09, 2005

mini-boss in a foreign land: choir girl

my officemate arnold invited me to attend berean baptist church. last september, they opened the choir to new participants. naturally, i joined.

it was the first time i wore a choir gown. and frankly, i was quite excited to try one on ;) actually, they just lent me someone else's gown.

choir girl


i usually sit next to a sweet old lady named jeanette. our choir director is a funny, energetic tenor. at first, i had a hard time keeping up with them. and why not? they were sight readers after all. after a few more practices, i kinda got the hang of it. i loved singing the songs.

berean choir


*sigh* i miss KB :(

Sunday, October 02, 2005

mini-boss in a foreign land: experimental cooking

over the last couple of weeks, i tried cooking several dishes without the benefit of recipes. since i believe in taking calculated risks, i chose only simple and easy dishes ;)

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i have tried cooking stir-fried bean sprouts when i was in the philippines, but i had my roommie nez' supervision. this time, i tried cooking the same dish, recalling the ingredients and steps from my poor memory. it turned out okay, the dish was edible and the veggies nice and somewhat "crisp" (according to my homies). however, the pork tasted a little bland. i think it was because i put in the salt and pepper after i put in the veggies. oh well, lesson learned. :)

bean sprouts

i asked my officemate cris for a dish that was easy to cook (i didn't want to cook sinigang that week), and he suggested i try broiled stuffed pork chop. i decided to do away with the stuffing, since it was going to be my first time to use the oven, and i intended to keep my things-that-could-go-wrong list as short as possible. my homie jarms told me it didn't taste anything like cris' pork chops, but she said it was okay.

pork chop something with veggies

since i wanted a balanced meal, i cooked buttered corn and carrots to go with the meat. besides, i figured that if the pork chops weren't edible, at least my homies would have something else to eat. :)

corn and carrots

of course, i wouldn't let a week pass by without cooking my latest favorite-dish-to-cook: plalays. this time, i put in the corn and carrots leftover from last night. and, as thundercat suggested, i put in a beaten egg. plalays with egg and leftover corn and carrots