baked spag

last week, we had our PLRS christmas luncheon. one of the riders, lia, brought these decilicious baked spaghetti. i love pasta but wasn't really into baked spaghetti as i like to mix the sauce and noodles on my own. depending on my mood, i sometimes would like more sauce or less so i don't like it when it's mixed together already. however, the sauce and pasta were just perfect and the melted cheese wasto die for! so, i've been craving for it the entire week and decided make one, though i've never tried.

so here's my attempt of making baked spag. the usual "method" of cooking spag but for the noodles, i used linguine. for the white sauce to top it off - butter, cream and mozzarella cheese.

ingredients for the white sauce/topping

blurry shot - mixing the noodles in the tomato meat sauce. i included oodles of mushrooms! yum!

about to add the sauce on top of the spaghetti

VOILA! it's not as burnt as it looks...trust me :o)

can't wait to make it for friends this month! another dinner soon before our magic mic session :o)

My December...so far

just around the corner

christmas is definitely around the corner! right after halloween, it becomes official that it's the start of the christmas season. i think starbucks jump starts it with their christmas drinks and for some reason everyone becomes a coffee drinker, trying to fill up their promo cards in order to get a planner. the planner ain't that great this year but nevertheless, it's tradition.

these were taken at up ayala (techno hub)

Pook Ligaya Riding Stables

Majority of my readers/visitors, chance upon my blog when they type the following search words:

Pook Ligaya Stables
Pook Ligaya horse
Pook Ligaya Violet de Leon
Riding school QC
Riding lessons QC

What you need to know about Pook Ligaya Riding Stables -

Address : No. 1 Ligaya St, Isidora Hills Subdivision, Diliman QC
Contact person : Mr. De Leon
Phone number : 9315643
Instructor : Violet de Leon, FEI registered – Show Jumping

What you need for riding -
Helmet
Breeches
Riding boots or half-chaps
Collared shirt (preferably)
Gloves
Crop/bat/whip

...and DETERMINATION!

Edited: Pictures enlarged

The place

entrance to PLRS

can you believe this is in the middle of a city? love the huge trees!

you can sit under the big tree while watching a lesson (and another bird bath)

view from the treehouse. yes, they have a treehouse!

 The horses...

meet some of the many horses :o)

perla...feisty little one!

maximus...he belongs to violet

the showbiz horse, neo. he does print, commercial and movies...on top of being a school horse. busy busy!

trojan...the competition horse

re-posting the picture of donita. she'll be retiring soon. the kids will miss her :o(

Some pictures taken during lessons...

If you have any questions, feel free to send me a note or just get in touch with the owner.

sick kid

Matt had a terrible cough for 4 weeks. On the 2nd week, we took him to TMC for a check up. I’m used to really nice pediatricians who are very sweet and friendly to kids. This was my first time to encounter one who didn’t smile and was quite a grouch. Perhaps we caught her at a very bad time. But nevertheless, right? She kept saying that Matt’s cough had improved and there was no need for him to take any medicines. Funny because it was our first time to see her so how would she know if it had improved or not? Water therapy, she said.

Two weeks after that, total of 4 weeks already, we took Matt to the ER since it was getting worse. Apparently, he had Pneumonia. But they sent us home because “he looked well”. The following day, we took him back because he had a high fever and was really sick. They had to confine him and asked why he was sent home the night before when the Pneumonia was detected? Shall we start pointing fingers now? Tsk tsk tsk!

Despite that bad experience and the not-so-nice pedia, all the staffs in TMC were wonderful! Everyone was just too nice, friendly and approachable. Even the hospital food was well presented and very tasty! Hotel service! The best part was there’s a Starbucks in front of the lobby and a lot of restaurants since it’s right beside Rockwell Business Center. Though we didn’t pay for anything in the hospital, we spent trying out each restaurant. Worth it.




my poor baby!




killed time playing PSP







matt's "parishioners"




feeling much better



French Vogue - September issue

it's interesting how women can have girl crushes. mine is charlotte casiraghi. she's the daughter of princess caroline, the daughter of grace kelly. good genes, indeed! what got me interested in her is not only is she beautiful but she's also an equestrienne. she's the endorser for gucci, the equestrienne line. imagine all those gucci freebies!

she was the front cover of french vouge's september issue. lucky for me, my best friend is a flight attendant so she was able to get me a copy while she was in germany. too bad i couldn't enjoy reading the write up on her. everything's in french (obviously!) and i'm very rusty. je nais comprends pa!

Though not included in the French Vogue, http://rdujour.com/

oh, birthday month!

September, being my birthday month, was not exactly how I would have wanted it to be. I pictured fun activities with people to celebrate my birthday with.
However, I wasn’t in tip top condition. Both Matt and I were sick with the flu and I was bedridden for a good 4 days and went back to work on the 5th day with a slight fever. I hate not being able to function normally. Matt got well within 3 days but his fever came back after a week. No, it’s not dengue. It’s viral, the doctor said.
I didn’t get to ride for two weeks. I even drove to the stables despite being sick, just to be around horses. And look where it got me? A truck scratched the right side of my car. I didn’t do anything about it since it was my fault. I avoided a stupid tricycle and didn’t look or my reflexes were too slow.

What I had in mind for my birthday? I just planned on having a small group of people over…cook, drink and talk/sing the night away. The kitchen needed repairs so cooking would have been tough. No drinking because of the antibiotics. Plus my cat, Vodka, is acting up and peeing on the sofa. He has his litter box but after two years, he starts this annoying habit. And the thing is, he’d only do it when I can see him. Don’t I give him enough attention? Grrr!

To compensate for my not-so-good September, I bought a saddle (nice of Violet to sell me her Pessoa). I also ordered stuff from Dover for the saddle. Overall cost wasn’t so bad but the shipping cost was ridiculous! Almost the same amount as my shopping! The package was light, in terms of weight but since Dover packed it in a huge box, I was paying for the dimensions of the box. If I knew, I would have asked them to just bubble wrap my orders. Done deal.

So, happy birthday to me :o)

i love estrel's!

so here's the big box

imagine, the huge box with only these - and two other items not for me

again, one of my first...a saddle

TADAH! trojan looking absolutely girlie in all that pink!

SEA Games 2011 Qualifier

no, this isn't me. i was watching two riders qualify for the SEA games - joker arroyo and michelle barrera. sorry but can't recall who this rider was.

jump club 2011

so when my instructor, violet de leon, called me up and asked if i wanted to join the jump club scheduled on the same day as the seminar, i'm like "sure!" but at the back of my mind i was wondering if she was sure if it's something i could already do. i mean, my jumping still needs a ton of work - challenged with keeping my balance, recovering from a jump, landing on the correct lead, changing leads, not losing my right foot from the stirrups, i bounce too much, i throw myself too forward when i should just pivot...and the list goes on. well, if she feels i can do it, then i guess i can? hahaha! doubtful :o)

it was my first time to see an indoor arena or bullring. i've been used to the open ring at pook and also in showgrounds in lusaka. from an empty ground with just poles and wings to putting up 9 jumps. in my eyes, it was impressive. admittedly when mikee came, both dennis and i were starstruck. can you blame us? afterall, when people think of equestrianism, by default people know mikee.

trojan, the horse i was riding, just had this adrenaline rush! she cantered faster than normal (reminded me of neo) and was more powerful than her usual self. she definitely loves competition or show jumping. i had to hang on to dear life when i lost my right leg from the stirrup and also lost my right reins. what a mess :o(  nevertheless, i survived and had a wonderful time. indeed an experience. so here are the pictures...

the schedule and supposed jump course

setting it up

mikee very hands on

going over the sequence with v

hmmm...almost but not yet done

cross-barr category. dennis wasn't able to take pics of the next category since he was capturing it on video

re-cap of how i did

my instructor in action. amazing!

done for the day :o)