TOPAZ HORIZON

Have y'all visited Yummy magazine's spankin' new website? It's gorgeous, filled with fabulous photos of easy recipes you can do in 30 minutes. The best part about it is it's so easy to navigate! My favorite part is the specialized search--type an ingredient and the recipes with that ingredient appear!

So yesterday, Vince told me, "Are we ever going to eat the mozzarella?"

Are we ever going to eat it indeed! I've had that block of soft cheese for a few months now. I popped onto Yummy.ph and decided to make a Linguine with Tomato and Mushrooms. It had all these ingredients (yes, count them and rejoice, oh busy wife!):
Then you just saute them all together in a wok (I like a wok better than a pan):

Then you twirl pasta onto some nice plates, top with the mushroom and tomatoes (I added a few slices of leftover steak):

Then you finish by breaking up pieces of soft creamy mozzarella on top!

That's it! Dinner was amazing--Vincent made googly eyes at me all night and then some! And for that alone, I am a fan of Yummy.ph forever. Go to the site now for recipes that can improve your health, your mood and perhaps even your marriage!

P.S. My friend Mariel is also their food blogger! Yey!

I know I said I had a very stressful November--my birthday month!--but do know that I had a wonderful wonderful wonderful birthday because of my husband. Vince gave me my blender! And a clothes steamer, too! These may not sound very romantic to you women out there who prefer diamonds and trips abroad but if you're a homemaker/career woman like me, believe me, it's the home gadgets that you'll scream over!

Vince, thank you for my silver Osterizer and for now drinking yogurt smoothies against your will yet you do so happily for me. Thank you also for the clothes steamer and for bearing with me and the mountains of clothes to be pressed that now no longer exist because of your wonderful gift. Thank you also for my beautiful tulips and for telling me that I am even more beautiful than the gorgeous flowers. I had a great birthday. Thank you!

I am a huge fan of Lord of the Rings. I have a deep love and respect for this mighty work, both the books and the movies. While I love all the characters, I have a special fondness for Theoden, King of Rohan. He is a man of peace but when that peace was threatened, he became a man of war. These days, his words ring true for us Filipinos. Listen.

"So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"

"Tonight we remember those who gave their blood to defend this country. Hail the victorious dead!"
  
"We shall have peace... We shall have peace, when you answer for the burning of the Westfold, and the children that lie dead there! We shall have peace, when the lives of the soldiers, whose bodies were hewn even as they lay dead against the gates of the Hornberg, are avenged! When you hang from a gibbit for the sport of your own crows, we shall have peace!"

"Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!"


Today marks the seventh day of the Maguindanao Massacre. To the government--both in power and those running in the upcoming elections--we are watching you. To the suspects who are still at large, we will hunt you down. There shall be no peace while the blood of 57 murdered people cry out for justice. There shall be no peace!

UPDATE: The body count is now 64.