[ Connie's Notebook ]

We drove around Pasig and Quezon City last Sunday for a quick ocular inspection and a meet-up with a relative from San Jose. We came a bit early to QC which was good because we purposely wanted to hear Mass somewhere in the area. We found this small beautiful church in the neighborhood. It's a Sacred Heart of Jesus church. I know that there are many other churches out there with the same name. This one really is another Sacred Heart church. I took a few photos after the Mass but I'm posting only one in here. 'Would love to hear Mass here again in the nearest future. :o)

Our kamias tree is bearing flowers again. I've waited too long and now I can't wait to see kamias fruits dangling from the branches and begging to be picked and pickled or to be mercilessly sliced and thrown in to a nice pot of sinigang or pangat. This is actually our second kamias tree. Just like the first one that we had, this was a birthday present from my Mama. I would usually ask my mother for uncommon types of gift. So when she asked me a few years ago what I'd want for my birthday, I asked for a kamias seedling. She went off to the Bureau of Plant Industry in Manila and got me a seedling. Unfortunately, that first seedling was accidentally pulled out by my husband's Man Friday. I felt so bad when that happened, and when my mom heard about it, she bought another seedling as birthday present No. 2! My eldest daughter can eat kamias raw without salt or patis. I could do the same when I was a young girl, but now I can't seem to do it. No, thanks. I'd

That's what this blog told me when I finally clicked on the New Post icon. ;o) Well, hello! I’m finally back and still hoping to revive the blogging agenda. I find it awfully hard and painful to push myself to write again. It’s probably the fear of not being able to update regularly, or worse -- that horrible thought of losing all my files again. (Although that didn’t actually happen here on Blogger. Someplace else…) Life’s been quiet and crazy. I like it this way and will still look forward to a lot of quiet times by myself and more crazy times with my husband and kids. It’s really strange and funny how I don’t miss writing and blogging at all. But I must admit that publishing my thoughts out there (like here) still brings a bit of *kilig* to my bones. No, it’s not about getting comments and likes. It’s probably just the fancy thought of seeing my works published again. Who knows, I just might find myself on a roll again. Pero okay lang din if not. Heh heh. Thanks for readi

On days when I'm hardly able to cook a "feast" for lunch or dinner, I often rely on some good ol' pasta dish. My kids love pasta, and they can consume almost every kind of sauce that I make -- red, white, or green. Last night I decided to try something new but easy to make at the same time: penne pasta with Spanish chorizo and diced tomatoes This pasta dish is an easy-peasy as it doesn't require plenty of prep time. (I was actually journaling in between cooking!) What more, you will need only a handful of ingredients: penne pasta (I used about 250 grams of Cortina penne pasta by Del Monte.) diced tomatoes (I used 480 mL canned tomatoes.) 3 pieces of Spanish chorizo sausages, sliced diagonally garlic and onions, chopped dried basil and dried oregano processed cheese food, grated parmesan cheese, shaved salt, pepper, and brown sugar to taste cooking oil Here's how: Cook pasta according to package directions. Shortly before it turns al dente , turn

It's the tail-end of the first month of the year. I'm starting anew with blogging without the freshest of hopes but with enough zeal to type away and perhaps finally make that first post for 2017. I've been on a hiatus for nearly 2 years. I made attempts to blog regularly last year, but I just nursed an on-again and off-again relationship with the platform. So why am I back here? Maybe there's still that bit of a blogger/writer in me. Maybe I want to have that presence again. Maybe I'm bored. Maybe I'm missing a few good things from the past. Excuse the maybe's. I promise to not badger my readers with so much nostalgia (at least, not in this blog).