A's!☺

April had been quite a busy month for my mother's side of the family, 3 very special occasions were celebrated. A christening of our little angel cousin, a debut of a lovely lady cousin and a wedding of a dear cousin.☺

During my cousins' occasions particularly the christening and the debut, I baked cupcakes. It was my first time to bake cupcakes and I loved it to bits! Baking is quite tiring yet so fulfilling! What I love about these orders, they gave me freedom to choose the flavor of the cupcakes. Everything is up to me, they trust me that much! And I'm paid! Would you believe? :p

Here are my chocolate cupcakes for Baby Ash!♥ 

A closer look of the cupcake.☺ It has chocolate buttercream frosting and chocolate sprinkles to top it off! This is a chocolate indulgence indeed!♥

And as for my now legal cousin, I decided to make the very sophisticated and popular Red Velvet Cupcakes.☺

Red Velvet Cupcake with Cream Cheese frosting. I put only a little frosting 'coz my piping skills is yet to be practiced! And oh, I need to buy good piping tips too!☺ I wanted this to be more red but I don't know why it didn't happen. I should experiment on this one soon.

And that's it for now.. I wanna make an online shop soon after more practice and adjustments on my recipes. I've asked the people who tasted both cupcakes their comments and suggestions and I put every good and not so good comments to heart so I can do better on my next 'project'.☺ If you wanna order something, just contact me through twitter @alyssaalejandro or email me at alyssalejandro@yahoo.com.ph! Support me, please! It would mean a lot to me.☺

xx,

A♥

Proud Asian!

I'm in love with Asian food, I have a thing with Japanese, Malaysian, Chinese and Singaporean food. Korean is something I wanna explore soon though. Anyway, I think I got my love for Asian foods from my parents, both of them adore Asian foods so much I spent my entire childhood, well up until teenage years eating at different Asian restaurants. Now, make way for my favorite Asian restaurant here in Manila!☺

I've been in love with Banana Leaf Asian Cafe for years now, if I could marry a restaurant, I'd probably have married it along time ago! :p I would just like to thank my cool Tito Wennie and Tita Phola for tagging me along with their whole family to eat here for the nth time.♥

Penang Char Kway Teow

This stir fried noodles is my family's favorite. Every time we eat there, we always order this one. Always. We never skipped.☺

Stir Fried Oat Prawns Singaporean Style

I've tried this in Sg and I want my cousins to try it too because I loved it! It tasted just like the one I ate in Sg. It's sweet and crunchy, you know you'll love it!☺

Mee Goreng

I can live eating noodles and pasta everyday, just as long as you serve me different Asian stir fried noodles and Italian's very best pastas.☺

Tilapia Fillet with Assam Sambal Sauce

There's nothing special with tilapia fillet, but mind you the sauce is to die for! It's love! I can still remember the taste! It's sweet, salty, and full of spices! Pardon me if I can't mention all of the spices in it, I'm still not equipped with that special Chef skill though I hope soon enough I'd learn to! 

Deep Fried Chicken Strips Malayan Style

This is not your ordinary chicken strips. It has an after taste of, are you ready? Curry! Oh, I love it! It's like a firework, a savory surprise at the end!

Iced Tea Tarik - Malaysian Pulled Tea

I only realized I haven't taken the pic of this wonderful drink when I already drank half of it! Annoying. Anyhow, I can finish two glasses of this one! I've been drinking this since I was a child. I can honestly say that before the milk tea craze here in Manila, I'm already a milk-tea fan.☺

Roti Canai

I haven't taken the pic of this favorite appetizer of mine! I love it dipped into curry sauce when I want a savory type of snack and sometimes I dip it into a condensed milk, a cheap yummy dessert! :p

xx,

A♥

18.

Last April 18, my cousin Ressa Angela celebrated her 18th birthday(hence with the title) at their place. The event started a little too chaotic because the electricity went out but luckily with our answered prayers, God guided Meralco to give us light to continue the celebration. The program or the 18s started a little too late but thankfully some of the guests were still there. And as the saying goes, the show must go on!☺

I'm advertising my cutie little cupcakes, I'm gonna make a special post on that one soon. Pardon w the clothes hanging at the back! Oh, considerate neighbors.

COUSINS FOREVER!♥ (L-R) Lyka, Tin, Patty, Angge, Jhillin, Jaja, Jeje & moi.♥

Happiness!☺ I'm always oh-so-happy when I'm with them. When God showered great cousins, I was so there arms wide open.☺ (L-R) Patty, Jaja, moi & Drix.♥

Pardon us, we're simply camera whores. :p

I was the not so traditional host that night and Drix(left) was the dj and Apols(right) was just hanging with us in our corner or should I say the dj's corner.☺

I just had to have a photo with the callalily. I love lilies!☺

Here I am, striking a pose with the now legal, Angge.☺ (So sorry for my slippers, my feet were already sore this time due to my heels that's why I gave up and changed into this out of theme slippers.)

I was part of Angge's 18 Scrolls and I just want to share my letter...

Dear Angge,

I’ve been lost for words when I was starting to write something up for this scroll. I don’t actually know where to start, we have known each other all our lives it’s hard to sum it up in just a piece of paper. I then searched for a quote to jumpstart my writing and found this: “Cousins are those childhood playmates who grow up to be forever friends.”  and “A cousin is a ready-made friend for life.” We’re exactly what the quotes described. We can talk about anything and everything and all these years we’ve been each other’s confidante. I can’t actually remember us having a big argument, ever; maybe because when we have contrasting ideas, we simply agree to disagree. You had been a good listener all these years, but not just that, you also know when to butt in and speak your thoughts out. You’re kind of a spoiled kid, which is given because you’re the only daughter, but I observed that you also know when to stop asking, you know when enough is enough. You’re 18 now and I want you to enjoy this stage of your life, don’t rush things out. Time flies by so fast, there’s no point in rushing. Everything will fall into their right places in your life, in God’s time. For now, all you have to do is to study hard, get that diploma on time to make Mama and Papa proud while you’re enjoying everything that’s given to you. And for all the things that you desire which are not given to you, remember that you have all your life to get these things. I’ve read somewhere that you can have it all, you just have to work hard for it. Lastly, I want you to know that I am always here for you when you need anything or even when you don’t need anything, I’m just gonna stick around and I’ve got your back all the time. “Friends are forever, cousins are for life.” I love you and happy 18^th birthday!

Much love,

Ate Alyssa

xx,

A♥

Love is..

Sometime ago, Nanay, Ace and I watched Brian Mcknight's concert here in Manila and before we head inside Araneta Coliseum, we ate first at Italianni's in Gateway Mall. I actually insisted on trying to eat there because I wanna try their food and I heard their servings were huge.☺

Here's an instagram photo of my younger brother and I while we're waiting for our orders.☺

Strawberry shake for Nanay, ripe mango shake for Ace, and watermelon shake for myself.☺

Here's Ace munching on Focaccia bread which is on the house.☺

Quattro Staggioni

I personally picked this pizza so we can try different pizza flavors in one.☺

Seafood Cioppino

Ace insisted on ordering this and he ended up not liking it because the sauce was a bit too Italian for him, what I meant was it's too tomato-y and sour-ish for him because he's used to having sweet tasting spaghetti, y'know? Kids.☺

Shrimp and Asparagus Alfredo

I ordered this for myself and I finished it all. Okay, please don't judge! It's just too good not to finish. The serving was real huge and I was so full afterwards! The alfredo sauce was rich and creamy, the asparagus were done right, the shrimp just adds to perfection! Will order this again if I'm given the chance.☺

Here's the best Nanay in the whole wide world with the naughtiest-spoiled-brat ever, Ace.♥

The food was great. My company was awesome. To top it all off, the concert was amaaaaaazing! I so love that night! If only every night of my life can be like that one. :p

xx,

A♥

Maginhawa indeed!

I've been such an irresponsible blogger lately. There's so much to blog about yet I'm not posting anything.. So this post is something about Maginhawa Street in Teacher's Village Quezon City. This particular street is quite popular for its array of small restaurants which serves cheap and at the same time, good foods.☺

We dined that night at Crazy Katsu to try it out. I've been hearing good feedbacks from friends about this one.☺

We actually ate here sometime ago that's why I already can't remember the foods' selection and our orders. I'm so sorry but I can still remember clearly that I had a good time and it's worth it.☺

After eating at CK, we stopped by somewhere to buy cakes which I forgot(again!) the name of the shop. Mainly because there's nothing special with their cakes, their cakes are not something you're going to crave for, if you can get what I mean.☺

After buying those pricey but not so good cakes, we stayed at Moonleaf Tea Shop to have our fixes and to chitchat. And that's it! That's how my maginhawa(comfortable) experience went through. I would just like to add here that my favorite shop in Maginhawa(which I think of all the time) is Good Burger. I swear to you that their burgers are really good!☺

I wanna try something different so I'm ending my posts starting from this one, with songs I love or songs I'm currently addicted to. I hope you like or love my song choices!♥

xx,

A♥

May the odds be ever in your favor.

 When my cousin showed me the trailer of The Hunger Games last year, I instantly blurted that I'm gonna watch it. The story really gain my interest..

I learned from my previous experience about books turned into films that I should never read the book before watching the movie. And so I didn't! I watched the movie first and I was really amazed with the story and the characters that I wanted to read the book right away..

And then I did! I read these 3 books for 3 1/2 days. I'm so hooked that I can't put the book down. I keep on telling myself that I'm gonna rest after a chapter only to find out reading the next and next and the next until I finish them all. Yes, the story is that good, I assure you!☺

NOTE: MINOR DETAILS FROM THE MOVIE AND THE BOOKS COMING UP!☺