Author: hitormissus

Hi, I'm Carla. I'm a writer and a homeschooling mom to Hannah, 5, and Rafael, 2.
marriage

Day 32

hitormissusLeave a comment

What an eruption.

Image by news.discovery.com

On the first day of our second month, what do I give my sweet, sweet husband? A glimpse at a nasty, infected zit right smack in the middle of my face.

Sigh. It looks like a volcano — and there’s no hiding it.

I guess that’s one glaring difference between being married and un-married. Couples can still pretend to be ideal. When we were dating, he never saw me with hair tangled up in snarls or with sleep-encrusted eyes. I could pretend that I start each day wearing heels and not my ratty shirts. Morning breath did not exist. Now, everything is so… out there. Without makeup. And with zits.

So the question is: how do I maintain the illusion that I’m so put together all the time?

food

Day 31

hitormissusLeave a comment

One month mark. It is absolute love.

tag teamed dinner

: rice and chili shrimp by me

:parsley and basil pesto chicken by my husband

Chili Shrimp

Ingredients

Olive oil

1/4 kilo deveined shrimp

1/2 cup flat leaf parsley

2 pieces Thai chili with the seeds taken out

1 tablespoon ketchup

1/2 cup flour

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon grated ginger

Procedure

Clean out the shrimps by taking out the heads and the shells. To devein them, run a knife to split open its back and wash the black much out with running water. Shake out the water and cover the shrimps with flour. In a skillet, heat some olive oil and saute the garlic, ginger, and chilis. Add the shrimp. Once the shrimp is cooked, remove from heat and add the chopped parsley. The heat should wilt the pasley a little to tame the flavor a bit.

marriage

Day 23

hitormissusLeave a comment

Part of being a married couple means having to make an effort to like what the other person likes. My husband is completely supportive of my shoe and bag obsession as well as my freelancing, anything-but-regular job. So in return, I cheer:

GO AZKALS!

image from inquirer.net

My husband loves football. I, on the other, am more emotionally invested in Iron Chef and Master Chef.

food

Day 22

hitormissusLeave a comment

The dearth of entries is partially due to technical difficulties and my own erratic schedule. It’s hard to keep track of what needs to be done when there are just so many things that jostle to be at the top of the priority list. It would not feel right if my blog was faithfully updated when I’m falling behind on my work. Personally, I would not have minded — its just that the universe might judge me.

Anyhoo, all of these things is nothing that a hearty breakfast cannot cure.

Already half-eaten when I remembered to take a picture

Scrambled eggs with Himalayan salt, sourdough bread, edam cheese, and tomatoes I lightly fried in some olive oil just to heat it up topped with basil leaves.

marriage

Day 17

hitormissusLeave a comment

Someone who has been married for a really long time posted this on facebook today:

personal

Day 16

hitormissusLeave a comment

Ok, this is a cheat entry. It’s technically Day 17 but I was too tired yesterday to go online. I had a show last night and then household stuff when I got home.

All I can say is that it’s really tough to maintain the house and hold a job. To think, my job does not even require me to be at the office for an x number of hours! I can hardly imagine how others do it, especially those with kids.

Given all these, I have reached two conclusions: (1) going to the laundry shop is the way to go and (2) i’m putting off getting a dog (since we really were waiting to have a child, we were thinking of exercising parental instincts on a puppy. With my husband and I so busy, it would be cruel to get one.)

“If you had the time, would you have loved me?”

Image source: dogpuppy.cn

food

Day 15

hitormissusLeave a comment

dinner tonight in its uncooked state

I love being in the kitchen. Honestly, I would rather be alone in the kitchen than be out in the mall shopping. Since we’re still on a budget to recuperate from the wedding expenses, we need to be creative with our meals. Aside from banning dinner outs and being the poster kids for packed lunches,  we also pick out meals that make use of the least expensive ingredients. Ergo, no steaks for us.

For dinner tonight, I made what I can dumbly call an Asian fish dish. It doesn’t really have a name because its a mishmash of the things we have at home. It started out as a recipe for scallops with sugar snap peas, flavored with garlic chili sauce. Since I didn’t have scallops and I didn’t have the sauce, it evolved to fish with Chinese peas.

Cream Dory with Chinese Peas

Ingredients

  • 4 pcs. cream dory fillet
  • enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 head of an onion, sliced thinly
  • 2 pieces Thai chili
  • 1 tablespoon ginger
  • about 1 1/2 cups of Chinese peas
  • 1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
  • the juice of two calamansis
  • salt according to taste
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch diluted in a bit of water
  • 1 tablespoon oyster sauce

Procedure

I lightly browned some cream dory in some olive oil then I set it aside. In the same pan, I sauteed some garlic, onions, thai chilis, and ginger. I then added the Chinese peas with a little bit of water. I made sure to scrape the bits of fish stuck on the bottom of the pan and added the fish back. I added a little bit of cilantro and calamansi (Philippine lemon) juice and seasoned with a little bit of salt.

I let the peas cook down. By this time, the sauce looked and tasted a little thin to me so I added a little bit of cornstarch to thicken it up. For added depth, I put in a little bit of oyster sauce.

It turned out pretty well, I think. It reminded me a little bit of chop suey when I tasted it, only with a hint of spice from the chili and the ginger. The true test of its success will happen tonight when my husband either devours it or politely stores it back in the ref. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the former.

 

personal

Day 14

hitormissusLeave a comment

Confession time: I never really did a lot of housework. I did not have chores when I was a kid. I think my parents were so charmed that I had my nose buried in books most of the time (I read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina when I was 12. I did not understand it.), that they did not want to distract me. Or maybe it was the fact that I was an only child. Whatever the reason, I never really had to help out around the house unless I wanted to.

Now that I’m out of the house and away from our helpers, I’ve been trying to get the hang of things, chores-related. Surprisingly, I genuinely enjoy it. It is amazingly tiring though. The things that need to be done never seem to end. For example, the minute the mountain of laundry disappears in hypnotic whirl of the machine, another one needs to be tackled. Unless you’re planning on laundering naked, the washing cycle never ends.

Among all the chores, my favorite is washing the dishes for some reason. I live in a country where dishwashers are for the obscenely rich. I don’t even know anyone who owns one around here. We do things here de kamay (by hand). Some tricks for washing the dishes, by the uninitiated.

1. Take the time to scrape away the bits of food left behind on the plates and utensils. It’s really gross to have to pick up the soggy, soapy food remnants that gather on the sink.

2. Rinse everything before soaping up. This enables you to use less soap and makes cleaning faster. Also, there is less grease to deal with. I find that sometimes, the grease can overwhelm the sponge and the grease just ends up just being spread around the plates. The sponge gets mucky and you have to take the time to wash it before using it to clean the dishes.

3. There is a sequence to dishwashing, I think. What I do is that I soap up in the order of least dirty (drinking glasses) to dirtiest (pots and pans). That way, the dirt does not get spread around. After I soap everything up, I rinse and I rinse from biggest items to smallest. The reason for this is that I can stack the dishes properly as I finish.

Borrowed tip:

My mom adds a little bit of fresh calamansi to the the dishwashing soap. It helps get out the oily or fishy smell that can sometimes stick to the dishes even after washing.

marriage

Day 13

hitormissusLeave a comment

With a little under two weeks of married life, I now consider myself an expert — yes, I can be presumptuous that way. I think one of the biggest adjustments that need to be made when married is how time is managed. Seriously, how did my mom ever do this? I really wish I have 12 extra hours in a day. I need time for housekeeping stuff, my work, quiet time, time with my husband to whisper sweet nothings, and sleep.

Right now, for example: the dishes need to be done and at the same time, the laundry is awaiting my attention. I also want to try out the Victoria’s Secret workout and I’m just itching to clean the bathroom.

I would love to go on a rampage of my time management skills – my mad skillz – but that would be a cliche. Instead, enjoy. I’ll be at least listening to it while I exercise by lifting laundry bags.

food

Day 12

hitormissusLeave a comment

The sign of a startup household is an un-fully stocked pantry. Our meals are slowly improving though. Our first dinner  at home consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches using the Caribbean sandwich maker graciously donated to us. The next night, we had chicken wraps with wasabi mayo also graciously donated to us. When we finally got a stove (a gracious donation), we started having hot meals.

The other night, I made a simple pasta dish. Just stewed tomatoes with lots of garlic, onions, and mushrooms. I kept the slices chunky to make the sauce seem meatier. To combat the canned flavors of the rest of the ingredients, I put in lots of fresh cilantro. Garlic bread on the side and queso de bola shavings on top and dinner is served.

I think I undercooked the sauce a little bit since the tomatoes were still very plump and whole. My husband did not seem to mind.