How was your 4-day weekend?

As mentioned before, I did not have anything planned for the 4-day weekend. It could have been a good time to hit the beach because we had a sunny weather.

However, the agoraphobic in us anticipated that everyone else got the same idea like us. Instead, we stayed at home. Actually, weekend started early for us.  Friday afternoon, I played nanny for this cutie pie.

My cousin was contemplating whether he is going to adopt this cutie pie. I think he returned the doggie to the previous owner. 🙁 We were already taking care of three dogs.  I was with this doggie the whole afternoon and I let him sleep in my bed. When he was fast asleep, I sat in front of my computer to work and I took a quick glance, he already  pooped on my bed (on my new sheets!). Oh my!  I think there is some belief that when a bird poops on you, you will find luck.  I dunno about doggie poop on my bed sheet.

I guess it is true because that afternoon, my cousins brought these. Lucky us!

Except for one cousin, every person in the house is a durian eater. We love durian. Actually, Papa planted that durian more than 10 years ago and it was only last year that the tree started bearing fruits.  Papa planted the durian in his brother’s lot in their hometown using a seedling another uncle bought in Davao.  Collective ownership!   Too bad he did not get to taste what he planted. Whenever we buy durian before, Papa will not eat durian so we can get a bigger share even if he likes durian. Durian is pretty expensive so we can only afford to buy 1 fruit at a time which will be shared by at least 6 voracious eaters so he always gives up his share so that me and Mama can eat more.  (I miss them.)

My cousin who does not eat durian kept on covering her nose. I can’t remember having an aversion to the smell of durian. It seemed like I was born to eat it . 😀 She just had to be content with mangoes that were given to us which we froze. Remember the egg-shaped ice cream we ate at Malacca? Well, we kept the plastic holder and turned them into these:

Durian is rich in calories and it believed to be an aphrodisiac.  To maximize the shelf life of durian and control our intake, we made durian ice candy. The non-durian eater wore a mask because she wanted to learn how make ice candy.

I took advantage of the holiday to experiment on the White King bibingka from the box. Plus, my aunt had a craving for biko. I made bibinkang malagkit instead.

My aunt and cousin volunteered to clean my cupboards.  Yes, without me asking them.  Kusang loob.  Probably, they can no longer take how messy they are. HA!

My aunt even fixed the bedsheet I recently bought from a thrift shop.

My cousin cleaned the brass wares in one cupboard.

Because they did the dirty work, they deserved a reward. I cooked chicken inasal for them.

I experimented on a recipe I found here. It was a hit. Everybody had a clean plate. The chicken meat was juicy after being marinated overnight. My other aunt had one complaint. Flavor-wise,  it needs a little salt which we fixed the taste by dipping the chicken in soy sauce before each bite.

Sorry for the grainy photo. I used my cellphone. I forgot to charge my digicam batteries.

As a bonus, my creative aunt rearranged my living room.

As I think about the four-day weekend, I think we were pretty good when it comes to budgeting. Instead of going to the beach, we stayed indoors. We saved on gas money, food provisions and hut rentals. Instead of buying durian, we were given 4 huge fruits. Instead of buying ice cream, we made ice candy instead. Instead of buying chicken inasal which would have amounted to P540 for 6 people, we made the inasal. Cooking it only costs P300. I can only imagine how much the savings I will earn if I actually set the amount aside and learn stock trading advice from Tim Sykes.

Indeed, a four-day weekend can still be enjoyed at home.

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Some thoughts on the recent event:

I was online when I learned on Saturday that the plane carrying DILG Sec. Jesse Robredo went missing.  I do not know why I was affected by the news. I do not know him personally. I have never met him nor seen him.  I was aware of what he has done but I never put much thought into it.  When he went missing,  I became more aware of what a great man he is. I was hoping he survived. The sad news came last Tuesday when his body was found among the wreckage.

Lucy Torres-Gomez wrote some nice words on his passing.

I learned from my friend that Sec. Robredo was in the Peñafrancia festival I attended last year. It was my happy thought that day. I enjoyed the Naga he developed. Thanks, Sec. Robredo!

I found this on facebook.

41 Responses

  1. Krizza

    I enjoyed reading your post Sis! Your week end was really well spent. With all those cleaning and cooking, I guess that was indeed a worthwhile experience. I love the fact that your extended family is really helpful and so nice to do those jobs for you. You’re one lucky girl. 🙂

  3. Farida

    Spending time at home will really save you lost of moolah. Nonetheless, there are many activities that can be done at home like all you did. Oh and the durian! I love that just like my family does. My grandmother taught us to freeze it first before eating it and it becomes like ice cream. It never really gets hard.

  4. Gaylee

    My dad was the only durian eater in our family……I miss him so much 🙁

    I like your living room, maybe your creative Aunt would like to do some sideline, haha!

    RIP to Sec. Robredo….

  5. Olga

    And staying home also got you clean cupboards and a redecorated sala. LOL! I’m like your cousin, I don’t like eating durian and cringe at the smell of it. My mom loves to eat it though.

  6. aby

    same here, i’m also affected with the news.. it’s really sad to hear such a news like that especially if the person is an inspiration to everyone..

  7. anne lei

    We spent the Sunday on swimming in natural infinity pool at the bukid. The water that flowing from it came from the dams. The whole weekend was more of watching the news of Sec Robredo.

  11. anygen

    Oh Durian, where are you now… really love this fruit. It’s been long time since my last tikim… Btw: you have a great weekend sis, your post is very in-detailed plus can I have some chicken inasal? Super oozing..

  14. Rochelle

    Omg I’ve been wanting to try durian but I do not have time to visit the everything durian store I came across last month. I swear i’ll taste durian sooner or I miss half of my life! hehehe thanks for reminding me about durian again! 🙂

  15. Filman Santiago

    I love durian too… I remember back in Mindanao, I was able to consume one whole durian by myself. The result was, I was like high on drugs. 🙂 That was during my high school years. So young and hungry. I don’t think I can do that again today. I might end dead due to high blood pressure. LOL! We know how rich durian is in nutrients can also trigger hypertension.

  16. Lalah

    My 4 day weekend was spent in the hospital tending to my daughter. It was the longest weekend for us. I’m glad your weekend was fine. We could have celebrated it like you.

  17. Paula

    So how was the bibingka?
    Great way to spend the weekend. Swerte mo sa iyong cousins and of course swerte din sila sayo. Natawa ako sa comment ni Filman e.haha

  18. Aileen

    I say it was a very productive weekend for you….love that chicken inasal yummy! I was just also reading about Filman’s comment on durian and hypertension…I better stay away form it, and not because of the smell hehehe…

    • KatAuthor

      True. It is so rich that I’ve heard of stories where hypertensive people suffer stroke after eating durian. 🙁

    • KatAuthor

      i think the ‘store-bought’ version is yummier. however, nothing beats the fulfillment of cooking it on your own. 😀

  22. Shadz

    I cleaned up a lot of stuff, including my web design. You, on the other hand, did more productive things, it seems. 😀 Can you link us up to the inasal recipe you found? 😀

  23. belle

    speaking of 4day weekend, naiinggit ako! i did a bit of lakwatsa with my sis pero after awhile it gets so tiring bec i came from a one week field work. pero super enjoy bec i got to see enchanted kingdom. guess what, i changed my url sa blog so that i won’t sound like a superheroine. 🙂 at mas murag true kay over long weekends lang ako nakakapagtravel 🙁

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