The Sassy Lawyer & Pinoy Cook on food, family and home.
Yesterday was our 19th wedding anniversary. Initially, I was planning on an out-of-town trip. All four of us. But the girls’ schedules wouldn’t permit it. Sam just wrapped up with a music video that she and her friend had been shooting for the past several weeks. They just finished post production and they’re now about ... (more)
Finally, the Christmas tree is up. A white twig tree that I wanted last year but didn’t know where to buy. Then, we heard from Speedy’s brother that we could get them from roadside stalls along Roxas Boulevard so off we went. To our pleasant surprise, we learned that we could order a tree customized ... (more)
Reading the news these days is like staring at a doomsday scenario. As though the devastation brought by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng weren’t enough, Philvolcs says that Mayon volcano is likely to erupt within the week. On the political front, it looks like Filipinos are still going to vote based on personalities. If those darned ... (more)
I was a U.P. student for eight years – four as an undergrad and another four as a law student. I have experienced the lantern parade both as a participant and as a mere observer. But last December 18 was the first time I attended the annual event with my family – the first time ... (more)
According to the news, the price of Christmas ham will probably go up by another seven per cent next week. The announcement was made by the president of the supermarket association who did not clarify whether the organization was imposing the price increase arbitrarily to mercilessly jack up its members’ profits or whether it is ... (more)
Some people clean their houses from top to bottom before the New Year; I clean out my hard drive. I’ve been deleting duplicate photos and unwanted files all day when I came upon the tons of photos from last summer’s trip to Boracay, Aklan and Capiz, including a visit to the Panay church. And there ... (more)
(Today’s column) I am so tired of writing what I think about Christmas and all the excesses that go with it. I am just as tired of ranting about relatives, friends and acquaintances who turn Christmas into a season for extortion by specifying what their children want as gifts. So I have something different for ... (more)
I woke up late, had coffee and breakfast with Speedy (he still has to go to work today and it’s their company’s Christmas party tonight), then started checking my e-mail. I read for a few hours. The neighbor started playing the radio full blast, Alex was roused from sleep and was angry. I called the ... (more)
My second floor study has a door that leads to a small terrace overlooking the swimming pool in the clubhouse right across the street. There was some noise outside, I looked out, saw the pool and sighed. It’s been weeks since I last had a swim. I debated whether I should today and decided I ... (more)
(Today’s column) According to the Web site of the University of the Philippines Diliman campus (www.upd.edu.ph), Christmas festivities kicked off on Tuesday, Dec. 2, with the traditional lighting of the campus followed by “a concert entitled Tanglaw Sentenyal: Mga Tugtuging Pagdiriwang, featuring the UP Symphonic Band under the direction of professor Leopoldo Lopez, and the ... (more)
(Today’s column) It was a strange sight. We passed by Dampa sa Libis on Sunday evening and the parking lot was not even half full. The only times I’ve seen that parking lot in such a condition was on weekdays during the dead hours between lunch and dinner. I wondered if it was because most ... (more)
For the past two years, we have been making personalized gift tags for Christmas. Two years ago, the gift tags were simple computer printed affairs but especially designed by the girls. Last year, it was something more. We cut figures from colored paper and glued glitters on the gift tags. I love doing projects like ... (more)
Casa is Spanish for house. CASA is also an acronym for Connie, Antonio, Sam and Alex. We are all surnamed Veneracion. We all love to take photos -- of anything that catches our fancy. It's a family obsession.
This is a journal of how we live, eat, learn, play and have fun. Work? Work is part of playing and having fun. Seriously.
In 2003, a time when I hadn't heard of the term "blog", I started a recipe website at cooking.houseonahill.net using a now defunct content management system that ran on ASP. Ok, never mind the geek talk, I'm sure you're not interested in that. The contents easily multiplied and, in 2004, I moved the food site to pinoycook.net. Always unhappy with the fact that the dot com versions of houseonahill and pinoycook weren't … (click here to read all »)
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