cakes and pastries at cafe bob's

Sinful Chocolate Cake

lopue's 65th anniversary mini-cupcake

lopue's, the department store of choice by most bacolenos, is celebrating their 65th year. for every 500 pesos worth of purchase, one can get a raffle coupon. and this mini-cupcake...

gone in five seconds flat...

Sunrise Flight to Bacolod

15 august 2010

it has been sometime since i booked an early morning flight from manila to bacolod. i missed watching the sun rise as the plane zoomed through the one-hour flight. so this year, for my mother's birthday, i booked the first flight out and was rewarded with this view of the sunrise. truly, God is showing His majesty this early morning and only a few people actually saw Him.

we arrived about twenty minutes earlier than the expected time of arrival showing on my ticket. we should, since the pilot left manila at least twenty minutes earlier as well. i was ready to take a short nap at the departure area but was abruptly roused when the paging system blared out my flight number for boarding.

there were very few people on the flight. there was an empty seat between me and the woman who sat on the aisle seat. i specified at check-in that i wanted a window seat, preferably A, since this would give me a view of the sunrise.

every few minutes or so, i would take a picture of the sunrise to the east until we were almost to bacolod.








it was already day bright when we landed at the bacolod-silay airport. i texted carmela, my college friend, who offered to fetch me at the airport. she replied that she needed about five minutes to get to the airport.

while waiting for her, i took some pics of the airport premises.


here's how it looked when the arrivals first came out.


here's the same area twenty minutes later.


carmela texted again that it may take her longer to pick me up as she needed to wait for one of her aunts first. while i waited for her, i took some more pictures of the airport.


finally, after about half an hour, my ride arrived.

here's carmela, still looking as young as ever.

we went to this meat stall at lopue's mandalagan to buy pork for dinuguan for their lunch fare before she took me home.

i spied some bacolod chorizo in the freezer, freshly-made, and ordered a dozen. it ended up on the frying pan a few minutes later. hmmmm, bacolod chorizo for breakfast is the best!!!

Penne in White Sauce

What to do when the cupboard is almost bare?Raid the ref for left-overs. Which is exactly what I did. I found a couple of slices of cooked Spam. I checked the cupboard again and found some penne, a brik of soya-based Nestle cream, and a box of cheese. Enough ingredients for pasta in white sauce.


I diced the Spam, minced some garlic, and chopped up half a white onion.


Then, I cooked the pasta according to the package directions, which took around 14 minutes, just al dente. If you overcook the pasta, it increases its glycemic index and you don't want that.


Set the pasta aside with some of the cooking water and saute the onion and garlic in a little amount of canola oil. Be sure not to brown the garlic to avoid having a sauce with a bitter taste.


Add the Spam and cook for half a minute.


Add the cooked pasta to the mixture. Season with salt and pepper.


Since I have lactose-intolerance, I avoid using milk-based products as much as possible. Good thing, Nestle came up with a soya-based cream so it's easier on the tummy.



Add the cream to the pasta-spam mixture and blend in about half a cup of the water used to cook the pasta. Simmer for a couple of minutes.


Shred some cheese and add to the cooking mixture.


Blend the cheese well until melted. As soon as the sauce thickens, remove from the flame.

And voila! Dinner is served!!!