Maligayang pasko sa lahat!

Currently in the Philippines for a short Christmas vacation with my family.  

Christmas is truly family time.  There's no other place to spend this holiday season except here.

A blessed Christmas to all and a prosperous New Year!

A roasting success story

Roasted native chicken was my maiden attempt at oven roasting.  I chose Jamie Oliver's recipe here and stuffed the bird with fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme), one whole pricked-all-over lemon, and salt & pepper.  Baby potatoes, carrots and tomatoes were placed under the chicken to soak up the roast juices then made gravy with the pan drippings.

I felt like I won the lottery that night, everyone loved it!  It actually wasn't enough, the adults have to temper ourselves so the kids can have more of the meat.  It was sooo good that I got repeat orders.  They want duck next, yes duck!

Chose this video for the simplest roast duck recipe.  I didn't have fresh herbs that day so did some substitutions (onion, garlic, ginger and lemon) which turned out pretty well as it removed the duck smell and lessened the duck taste.

The family is now requesting more roasted meals for our weekend meals.  Another bucket list item completed this year!

Chicken and duck :)

Crashed!

My work laptop crashed last Thursday.
The IT guy returned it with zero files.
Heart broken as the Paris/Rome pictures are all there, as well as other family pictures. 
Last backup I did was June.
A hard lesson to back up at least once a month.  I better put it in the calendar reminder.
Sad...sad...sad...