I went how to Samar over the weekend to see my parents, siblings and realtives.  It was a bit of an effort going there for you will have to ride a ferry for 2 hours the ride a bus for 4 hours just to get to my hometown.  A lot has changed over the year that I was there.  I guess that was what becoming a city is about.  But going there was definitely worth it for I get to see how my love ones are doing and I also get some time off thinking about how and where will I get my meal for the day and how high the prices are these days for I just gave the money to my mom and let her buy whatever she wants to prepare for lunch and dinner.  Not seeing how much I spent on a pack of pasta or whatever sort of lowered my stress level.  You see when I am here in Cebu, I would usually go to shops with promotional products (meaning they sell products with discounts or products with freebies) when I go shoppping.  Why?  To save money of course.  Call me cheap but I guess that’s just how you would feel when you spend hard earned money.

I didn’t realize how important life insurance is in the US until I saw an episode of Oprah on taking care of one’s finances.  On that episode her guest specialist scolded a couple for the wife has no job, the kids doesn’t have health insurance and the dad doesn’t have a life insurance.  You might say so what if they don’t have an insurance?  I guess the guest was a bit concerned about waht will happen to the kids if something happens for the couple has a very large debt.  Like what if the dad died.  Who will take care of his family when he’s gone?  I don’t know how a person qualifies for a life insurance there but in the Philippines, you will have to go through an extensive health examination before you get a policy.  If things are the same in the US then I wonder how Oprah’s guest will react on a no exam life insurance?  I guess she will be handing out pamphlets and forms to everyone she meets and make them get a policy from a company who offers it just to make sure everybody is insured.   Thinking about the discussion that I listened to in that episode, it made me think to get a policy now.  You know just to make sure that everything will be in place if ever something happens.

One of my favorite chefs in the world is Wolfgang Puck.  He is from Austria and learned how to cook from his mom (like me! hehehe).  I saw him once on the Lifestyle channel and I loved his recipes right then and there.  They are simple to do and they taste really good.  He is one of the celebrated chefs in Hollywood and owns a chain of restuarants.  He has a website which I love to visit for you can find a lot of recipes there that you can make at home.  One thing that I like about chefs like Wolfgang is their love to share information.  He loves to give out tips that will make cooking easier for those who are adept in cooking and those who are just starting out alike.  You can find some of these tips on his website as well. One of the recipes that you will find online is his pancake recipe which he also loves to serve to his kid.

Play is a great way to teach kids and develop their imagination.  I don’t know if you’ll agree with me but some kids get to learn what they want to be when they grow up by playing games.  When I was growing up, we didn’t have PSP or XBOX then so I would usually play with my cousins.  And since we didn’t have that much toys to play with, we would make our own toys.  The boys will make there own slingshots and toy guns using bamboo sticks and wet paper while the girls and the less violent boys would play “bahay-bahay”.  One of the favorite games that we love to play is building a small community were some kids would have a small business like a restaurant while the others will take on the consumer role.  Before the game starts, we would collect candy wrappers for our play money, collect small pieces of vegetables in the market which we use in the restaurant and gumamela flowers which we chop up and use to color and thicken the water that we use as palamig (a local term for juice in the Philippines). I remember being one of the kids who chops the vegetables into smaller pieces and cooks it on our make shift stove (we use a lamp as a stove and a tin can as our pan). And since we don’t have a lot of toy plates to play with, we would use softdrink caps and crowns as plates and crowns. Hmmm… I guess that’s the reason why I love to cook, dream of becoming a chef and own a restaurant.

One thing that I don’t like about being upset aside from being upset itself, is I have this urge to shop like most women do.  It will be good if I find myself in the supermarket for how much could you spend on groceries right?  But it will be very bad for my finances if I ended up in the shoe department in a mall because if I have a lot of money with I could end up buying three or more pairs of shoes.

A few days back, I had an argument with my mom over the phone, a very petty argument but I ended up so upset with myself because I know that I have lost the argument and I have hurt my mom (a lot) which I don’t really know how to fix just yet.  So I went out of the house and ended up in a mall and found myself having the urge to spend.  I was thinking of eating at the Sphagetti Factory (since eating is one of my ways to calm myself) however, I thought about my financial state these days so I decided to visit the supermarket.  Since I was craving for sphagetti and some grilled pork I bought 3 pieces of pork steak, 400 g. of sphagetti and 500 g. of lean pork meat (yes, am a carnivore).  I spent around three hundred pesos (ouch!) but comparing it to the amount that I could spend on eating in a restaurant, it’s a lot cheaper.   So here’s my Pan Seared Pork Steak with Rosemary and Oregano And Aglio Olio Sphagetti with Parsley which reminds me of a dish I had at Casa Verde last weekend. I think it was Tommy’s steak And Aglio Olio (which has beef steak instead of pork).  After preparing and savoring my creation, I felt a lot better (though it did not take away the fact that I still have an issue to fix with my mom).