From Sagada with LOVE

I saw this, as i wake up to the bright and breezy morning in the sleepy town of SAGADA, Mt. PROVINCE last 2012... Wishing of coming back to this lovely place.

As simple as me :)

Why I love climbing mountains

My father asked me why I love climbing mountains. He said it was very exhausting, not a very  safe activity for a lady like me and consumes my savings. 

I laughed as an answer. It is because, he was actually the reason. He influenced me to explore mountains! Back then when I was little, He shared to me his adventures as a hunter back in his earlier days hunting for wild boars in the virgin forest of Isabela and Cagayan Valley. As I listened to him, my fondness for nature grows and I long to be on these places. Now that I had the chance to go, then I decided to set sail and of course come home safely to share my experiences with my family. Here are the mountains so far I have gone through:

Mt. Maculot 03.17.12

Mt. Batulao 08.17.13

Mt. Makiling 04.05.13

Mt. Timbac 12.22.13

Mt. Gulugod-Baboy 06.29.13

I just climb mountains for the surreal bliss I felt everytime I am at the summit. I love the idea that climbing mountains is just like making love, slowly and exhausting but will take you to the peak of the summit. Uh-oh... I encourage you also to climb :) Just try it, especially when you have the time and the resources. Bring your friends with you or your love ones. It will be surely fun!

Count your Blessings :)

With my adviser after my defense. Hurray!

With my happy family :D wacky shot!

My motto in life is : "Do your best, God will take care of the rest."

I learned the importance of prayers especially when we pray about our plans. It is truly important that God acknowledge about it and through His loving grace, He will turn these plans into blessings.

I hope and prayed for blessings and believe with all my heart that God listened and already gave it to me: 

happy and loving family, a man who truly loves me, a job that can influence others (teaching), a graduate studies (I am now on the completion of my Ms degree), healthy life and a lot more blessings He provided. 

Another blessing came today: an scholarship for a month-long training. I have been excited to join the training especially very much happy for the field trips (yes, for free!) but thinking I will be away from home on my birthday made me sad again. Anyway, it is a very good opportunity for me to explore food and Nutrition Security and I am very grateful.

Another blessing!

I am really thankful in every way possible for all these blessings coming my way. I cannot ask for more. I am very much contented and I really enjoyed everything that I have right now. Yes, challenges come but they only make me stronger and left me with so much lesson to learn. For example, right now I am very tight with my budget but yes, I am learning to spend on the most important things and practice good financial management that I can also follow once I am earning my own money again. What is more important are the blessings that keep on coming and counting them only replicates the happiness they bring. Thank you dear Lord. I am done with my MS thesis defense, now I need to focus and keep doing the important things.

I will be posting my progress and activities regarding this training. I want to share my experience and discoveries here in my blog. Life is a continuous process of learning and such given opportunity to learn is rare. I will do my best and I really do appreciate this birthday treat from God.

Family + the wandering basang = Birthday Happiness

YEAR 2012... 

It was 5:50 am as I opened my eyes in a not so familiar place, a small room with a wide window. I opened it a little to let the sunshine in, to see the trees and the beautiful place.

Yes, i thought i was just dreaming but it is true. I'm here on Sagada on my birthday!

Seeing the scenery outside made it finally dawned to me that yes, i thought i was just dreaming but it is true. I'm here on Sagada on my birthday. Suddenly I remembered home and I miss my family especially my mama. Reading their early birthday messages, I was moved to know that they are planing to prepare foods for me tonight as I arrived home... I wondered why I was here, celebrating my birthday alone. To cut off the drama, I just remembered I had an egg pie ( I finished the lemon pie yesterday) in my bag and a cold yogurt from the nearby food house, the Yoghurt House. I just happily munched on the blessings.

Happy 22nd birthday to me :)

YEAR 2013...

Then came again, on my 23rd birthday, the hard headed and wandering basang (ilocano term for young lady) and that's me (!!!) was still away from home. I was on the muddy seashore of Quezon's long stretched beach and was with fellow volunteers picking seashells locally called "litug" for lunch. I joined an immersion activity organized by the a community development and outreach organization, the UPLB Bahay ng Pahinungod. i participated in the 10-day immersion program which aims to dwell with the people in Brgy. Sipa, Padre Burgos, Quezon and be familiar with their daily lives and routine. It was indeed a happy day of my life.

We had walked a long stretched of rice fields and hilly coconut farms just to reach the shore where there are lots of seashells. Most of the people nearby will pick the shells to make soup for their viand or sell them to those far from the shore.

We experienced how to provide and prepare our own lunch.

We did have a enjoyable moment as we savor the fruit of our labor that day, seeping hot and tasty soup from fresh litug and freshly catch fishes while enjoying the view of the beach.

Happy 23rd birthday to me!

 YEAR 2014...

My birthday is fast approaching... I do not have any travels in my mind for now because I promised to myself that the next time i will be celebrating my birthday, it will be together with my family, where my heart is truly at home. I am praying and hoping.... God's blessings are always delivered in His own mysterious way.

Positivity Note Series #1: Faith + Love + Hope = Must-Have Values

God gave us three values worth of nurturing for. Having these values gave me the sanity to live in these world. We need these to survive and be at peace in mind, heart and soul despite many troubles we encounter. These 3 values are:

               

1. FAITH 

                        Faith is believing on those that are not seen by your eyes yet felt by your heart. And I am happy because I had a chance to grow on faith of God's words and fruitful rewards. Having faith makes me a better person and leads me to strive for the righteous ways of living. I pray every night to God to make me a good person and lead my hands and feet not to astray. I am still working on this one. I hope that one day, I can find myself totally immersed in God's grace and love, guided by faith in Him.

2. LOVE

                    Love comes in many packages and it makes the world goes round. I believe on this. I am blessed with family who are a lot understanding and supportive. Every time I feel so overwhelm about the world, I had these "recharging" moments, just go home and be near with my family. Their love filled my heart and that is enough to be back to real place again. God really is so good when He let me find my other half and I can't be grateful enough. Friends I had were my treasures back in my elementary days, and high school days then after that, I also meet good people worth treasuring, in my undergraduate years, at work and now that I am at school again. 

3. HOPE

                Hope keeps me going even if there are tons of works to do and lots of failed plans show. I felt very sad at times and my energy drained. But because of hope I just keep trying and trying and pray that whatever I do become successful one day. Yes, I do fall hopeless about loving, because sometimes loving means hurting myself or the one I love but because of hope, I carry on. I hope that everything will become okay and every pain be forgotten. A sun set so it can rise again tommorow.

So, for a positive Monday, I keep remembering this 3 values I have: LOVE, FAITH and HOPE.

Smile,,smile,,smile and keep remembering that life would not be easy but God's grace and presence sorrounds us and He will never let us down. Yeah! Have a happy Monday :)

And happy as can be,, now back to my thesis revision :) 

Len ^_^

Mushroom + Spice + Everything Nice = Burp!

 Mushrooms are super delicious! Plus packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals. That's why it is not really difficult to love this vegetable?!.. hmmm... it is a kind of fungi, actually. And because I love mushrooms, I bought a packed from Mushroom burger in Tagaytay which cost Php 75 per pack for around 500grams already.

Tenganng-daga (English: rat-ear)
Actually it is bigger that rat's ear! :D

All mushrooms, edible or not are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms (Arora, 1986). 

Different varieties of edible mushroom.
Picture came from here.

If mushrooms come with nutrition label, it will be something like this:

B vitamins, and minerals plus it has 0% fat! from: Mushroom Info /  website here.

When I got at the dorm, I kept them in the fridge and these variety kept really well. Compared to oyster mushrooms, these have lower moisture content and are darker in color (more phenolic compounds, i think, which are good antioxidants). Then, every time i got time to work on the kitchen, I experiment on them. (As a food scientist, i don't play with foods, it's like adding more value to the food :)

So here are the results :

"mushroom sisig rice topping"

"mushroom chips with parsley"

"dinengdeng : tomato, mushroom, bittermelon leaves and stringbeans"

"another version of dinengdeng : malunggay, stringbeans and mushrooms" 

"mushroom omelet"

"mushroom vegies" add sotanghon and it becomes pancit!

creamy sisig topped with egg and parsley garnish :)
Trying hard chef, I am.

Yes, they're so easy to cook! So fun to prepare and the outcome? Try it yourself. It depends on your creativity and of course, palate "choosiness" . I am an Ilokana (known for love of bagoong - fish paste) that's why I included dinengdeng there! Taste really good. Mushrooms are rich in glutamate, so no need to add MSG. It makes the dish savory, umami-rich. 

So now, it's your turn :) When was the last time you cook something new? 

Rice + Chicken Joy + Bread = Fun

Yesterday, i had a chance to visit the biggest bread manufacturing in the country.

Gardenia Bakeries Inc. produced 6,000 loaf breads a day

It was also worth spending time with former classmates I have not seen for a while.

Nice to see you, Camille :)

I am lucky to had joined the CLSU Food Science department in their educational trip for their students.

First, special thanks to FST teachers who let me joined the trip :)

 The educational tour includes: