The Filipino Mom Blog

So, Baguio City seems like the over-rated summer capital of the Philippines, huh?

When you ask people how their Baguio experience was, you may hear one of these complaints -It’s so crowded, it’s not as cold anymore, the traffic is awful, there’s so much ukay-ukay!

As a true-blue Baguio girl, I sometimes find Baguio disappointing too. But home is where the heart is - and I will always love this city.

Despite these complaints, why do people still love to crowd Baguio during holidays?

Because, let’s face it, Baguio has not completely lost its charm.

Even if the weather isn’t the same as it was twenty years ago, Baguio is still about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the country. Despite the growing population and commercialization, there are still quaint crannies - those places you might haven’t been to. And whether they will admit it or not, some people come to Baguio for the ukay-ukay!

In Baguio, the skies seem a bit bluer, and the trees a shade greener.

BAGUIO TRAVEL BASICS

1. Getting to Baguio: Thanks to the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX), travel time to Baguio has been significantly reduced by about an hour. From Manila, it usually takes 6 hours by bus, and less (or more, depending on the driver hehe) by private car. If travelling by car, you can choose among three ways to get to Baguio: via Kennon Road (the shortest way); via Marcos Highway (the safest way, supposedly); and Naguillian Road (the longest way if you’re coming from the south).

Read the rest of this entry »

Its our second week for the Love Month Meme and things couldn’t be more heart-filled and romantic.  Valentine’s Day is just a few days away and love is definitely in the air.  I’m pretty sure that we’re all looking forward to spending some quality time with our significant others and even with our precious kiddies.

So for this week, lets talk about our most memorable Valentine’s experience.  Lets take a walk down memory lane and try to recall those giddy moments.

And before I forget…here’s wishing you a…

Update :

Here is this week’s round-up of entries…

Maver - “For Heart’s Sake”

Wenchie - “Memorable Valentine Experience”

Cookie - “My First And Last Valentine”

[UPDATED with round-up below. Sorry for the delay, folks.]

It’s the final week for Fab Holiday Finds and the theme is RED and/or GREEN.

Please leave a comment here if you joined this week. Round-up will be done by tomorrow, Wednesday, morning. My family is travelling back to Manila from Baguio today. *sigh* Vacation is always over too soon.

Anyway, it’s been fun hosting this meme and playing it with you! Next month we resume the Lunch Box Meme. We hope you could play along again.

~~~

Fab Finds:

Ibyang’s red hot accents

MommyBa’s jade ox

Julie’s red tree and tree ornaments

Lynn’s fab daughter’s fab find

Mauie’s prettified tree

iMom’s fab ukay find

[ 2nd UPDATE: Links to all who posted entries are now complete. Sorry for the delay. Holiday bug's bitten me, hehe. ]

[ UPDATE: Round-up posted down below. ]

This week’s theme is GOLD.

Please leave your comment and link here so we know you joined. I will do the round-up tomorrow morning. Tonight I will be on the way to Baguio City to celebrate Christmas there with my family.

And, oh -

Merry Christmas to all the readers of FMB!

May your celebration be filled with making happy memories with your families and friends.

~~~

Our Fab Finds: (Links open in new window)

MommyBa’s gold ornaments

Mitch’s golden shoes

Cookie’s fab tree

iMom’s gold ‘flops

Mauie’s gold bangle

Julie’s tree ornaments

Lynn’s gold pouches

(UPDATED with round-up)

For week 3 of Fab Holiday Finds, the theme is SILVER.

Share the story of fab SILVER holiday find in your blog. I will do the round-up tonight and update this post. Have fun!

~~~

Our Fab Finds:

Ibyang’s Shimmering Christmas

Mitch’s silvery bag

Mauie’s holiday trinkets

iMom’s fasyon ring

Cookie’s silver chiller

Rachel’s fab purse n’ hook

Julie’s silvery… errr… thing and silver pan

Lynn’s daughter’s silver stuff

So now I’ve made public my attempt at the Christmas ham this year.

So this better work… Or else!

Aside from being a tradition begun by Mama that I want to keep alive, making my own Christmas ham has its many advantages. For starters, it’s less expensive. The 5.6-kilo fresh ham (pigue in Filipino) that I bought yesterday cost Php816.00 (or about USD16.50 only!). Commercial hams nowadays cost as much as Php850 per kilo!

Home-made ham is healthy. Mama never used nitrates (salitre in Filipino) and prague in her hams, and I will never too. Anyway, my ham won’t be stored for too long. It’s going to be gone shortly after midnight of December 25th! So there’s no need for other preservatives - good old rock salt has always been enough to do the trick.

In the past, I have dry-cured my hams, just as Mama did. My cure consisted of rock salt, brown sugar, ground black pepper, and cinnamon.

Approximate cure proportions for a 5-kilo ham:

1 cup salt (I don’t like it too salty so I’d put in about 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup brown sugar (I like it sweet, so I adjust this to 3/4 cup)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground pepper

*Mix all of these together.

I massage the ham all over with the cure. The ham is always deboned so even the crevices where the bone used to be get some cure massage. The ham is kept tightly covered in the ref in a plastic container.

Curing time depends on the meat size. Two years ago, I cured a 3-kilo ham for a month, and we ended up with a very salty ham. (The meat was pink and tender though - saving grace! haha) I should have soaked the ham in cold water first before cooking to remove the excess salt.

According to this site, ideal curing time is 1.5 days for each pound of meat. So for a 5-kilo (11-pound) ham, 16 days is ideal. 

Very important during curing: Read the rest of this entry »

(UPDATE: Round-up of blogs at the end of post. Next week’s theme is SILVER. ;P )

Fistly, we’d like to thank all the fab finders who participated last week. Wasn’t it fun?!

It’s now week 2 of Fab Holiday Finds, and our theme is WHITE.

I’m having quite a difficult looking for something fabulously white.  But I’m sure we will all come up with something. Don’t we women always do, anyway?

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, will be the round-up. Just leave a comment here and I will update this post with links to your blogs. Go ahead and grab the badge.

Happy hunting!

~~~

Our fab finds: (Links open in new window)

Ibyang’s Fab Folder

Cookie’s White Nativity

Lynn’s Krispy Snowmen

Mauie’s White (and blue!) Cap

Julie’s White Gifts

iMom’s Zebra Clutch

Mitch’s Holiday Cards

(UPDATED with links down below)

It’s our first week to play the FMB’s Christmas meme. Please join us -  share your fabuloso holiday finds. This week there is no color theme. Please leave a link here to your photo and post. Feel free to grab the badge (right-click on image, then select from the options).

I will update this post with your links tonight. Have fun, everyone!

Fab Holiday Finders: 

• Julie and her personalized gift tags - so creative!
• Cookie and how she bagged her finds
• Mauie’s shoe-per fabulous find
• iMom’s orange tree
• Ibyang’s Holiday mat
• Lynn’s rockin’ giraffe
• Cess’ paper-bots (that’s something new!)
• Dexie’s pretty princess cards
• Jenn’s tree ornament project
• Mitch’s Christmas tree
• Rachel’s playful puppies
• Wenchie’s comfy find

Next week’s theme: WHITE

See you all again then!

Only two days to go and December finally rolls in.

In case you haven’t noticed, mornings in the past week have been a lot cooler. Homes and streets are starting to light up one by one. Traffic in the Metro has become more horrible, and malls are full with shoppers even on weekdays.

Christmas is officially here!

To usher in this wonderful season, FMB is hosting a meme called Fab Holiday Finds.

The mechanics are simple:

1.You shop for holiday finds - they could be decor, food, gifts, the clothes you got on 70% off. You can also share about a certain shop or bazaar that simply dazzled.

2. To make it more interesting, let’s do a “colors of Christmas” theme per week. But to give everyone more time to prepare, week 1 won’t have a specific color theme.

• Week 1: any color
• Week 2: White
• Week 3: Silver
• Week 4: Gold
• Week 5: Red and/or Green

3. Post photos on your blog. Don’t forget crucial information such as where and how much. Grab the badge above if you please.

4. Drop a comment on the round-up post here on FMB, so we can link bank and visit you. As with the Lunch Box Meme, we’re doing this every Tuesday this month.

It’s not just the season of buying and spending. It’s also the season of sharing. So please join us and share your fab holiday finds. Let’s see what’s in your stash.

Fab Holiday Finds start on Tuesday, December 2.

The Lunch Box Meme will resume in January 2009.