1 day to go

Tomorrow is THE day.

I finally got confirmation, we report to the hospital in the morning and if all goes according to schedule, we should be all done by noon. *fingers crossed*

I started panicking last night when I realized that I have not really done any research on what goes on around a C-section procedure. I did ask if my husband can be there, what sorts of cuts they will make, and I also wanted to ask or sort of make a joke about whether or not I can wear a bikini afterwards (haha!) but I didn't because the OB scared me. But I didn't really ask how long the preps were, what needed to be done, if there was anything I had to bring or prepare and the most important question of all - when do I get to eat again ?

On a more serious note, I'm trying to get things wrapped up and done today - both work and personal issues. I started turning projects over a few weeks ago and I'm pretty confident that the team has that down pat but I'm still dealing with some issues that I do not want to have to deal with when the baby comes home - bills, Finance Mortgages, and other such matters.

Please do pray for us. Please pray for a smooth delivery, please pray for baby's health and please pray that we will be good parents and raise our kid well.

Crab Cakes

I wanted to finish up a leftover bag of mushroom & wild rice that Ahya left behind from his visit last year. I couldn't think of any dish that would go well with this - though I'm sure there's tons! - so I decided to just prepare some crab cakes, I still had some leftover green bell peppers that I needed to use up, after all.

For this, I used a recipe that I picked up from a Chicken of the Sea advertisement long ago but had to tweak a little because - typical me - I ran out of ingredients.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper (used green bell pepper instead)

1/4 cup finely chopped green onions

1/4 cup mayonnaise (only had around 2/3 of this amount so I lessened the bread crumbs)

1/4 tsp seasoned salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

dash cayenne pepper (did not add, hubby does not like spicy food)

2 6-oz cans crab meat

1 medium egg, beaten

1/3 cup breadcrumbs (for crab cake mixture)

2/3 cup breadcrumbs (for coating, I skipped this)

3 tbsp melted butter (for frying crab cakes)

1. In a bowl, combine pepper, green onions, mayonnaise, lemon juice, seasoned salt, garlic powder and cayenne pepper.
2. Stir in crab, egg and 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
3. Divide and form mixture into balls.
4. Roll crab balls in remaining breadcrumbs; flatten into cakes about 1/2 inch thick. (skipped the breadcrumb coating).
5. In skillet, pan fry crab cakes in butter 3 to 4 minutes per side until golden brown.

This turned out very very good. :D

Super Bowl Sunday Sweepstakes

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of 2000 Flushes. All opinions are 100% mine.

I decided to log on to the web today, taking a break from cleaning house & getting our place ready for the baby, and came across the 2000 Flushes Sweepstakes promotion for the Super Bowl. The contest is called "Is Your Bowl Ready for the Big Game ?" and the grand prize is $10,000 for a bathroom makeover - ooh, this sent shivers up my spine. I've been wanting to have our bathroom(s) redone since last year but our wallets are not yet ready for the expense.

I'm sharing the link to Enter to Win the sweepstakes DAILY. Who knows ? If we get to be the lucky winners, I'll be sure to post the before and after pictures our our bathroom. In addition to the grand prize, you could also be eligible to win one of the 99 free products weekly prizes. There's really nothing to lose, after all, the 2000flushesbrand.com is a very reliable product which I use all the time to keep our bathrooms sparkling clean - it is a very easy to use product that keeps the bowls clean without much fuss, definitely a great help for busy people and (future) moms like me who might not have too much time on their hands left for cleaning.

So what are you waiting for now? As I said, there's really nothing to lose and remember, the more times you enter the sweepstakes, the more chances you have of winning.

Distribution of products by 2000 Flushes, a WD-40 Company, to Participating Parties (media, bloggers, or other third parties or individuals) for the purpose of review and/or endorsement are done so in faith that the Participating Parties will be in compliance with FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 16 CFR Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising and other related regulations, applicable statutes, regulations, or requirements of any government authority as they relate to subsequent posts or promotional material featuring 2000 Flushes or any of its products resulting from distribution by 2000 Flushes.

Chicken Parmesan

We were supposed to have lemon chicken for dinner tonight but when I realized that it was deep-fried and that I needed to avoid fatty & heaty foods, I decided to look for something else that I could make with the boneless, skinless chicken thighs that we were having for dinner. After checking out what we had in the refrigerator, I decided on baked chicken parmesan.

Checked the internet for recipes and looks like there are a lot of variations out there. I threw caution to the wind and picked & chose what I wanted to do. Hubby helped with this dish as well :D

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken thighs, sliced thinly (or use cutlets)

1 egg

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 tbsp chopped parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Prepare the parmesan coating for the chicken by mixing equal parts of parmesan cheese & breadcrumbs (more parmesan cheese = better). Mix in the parsley.
3. Season chicken thighs with freshly ground sea salt.
4. Dip seasoned chicken thighs in egg.
5. Coat chicken with the parmesan - breadcrumb mixture.
6. Arrange chicken on a baking rack and bake until done - around 20 minutes.

We just used bottled marinara for the sauce and made some whole wheat pasta to go with the chicken.

X days

We only have days to go before we finally get to hold our baby in our arms. It seems like it was only yesterday when we were trying to get pregnant and praying for a baby and here we are now, anxious and scared at the same time.

It is said that a baby will change your life forever, that it gives you a different perspective in life. In our case, I feel like we've spent our married life in anticipation of a baby because we always knew that we want to be parents. We worked, saved, and spent money with a future baby in mind. Everything we did was in anticipation of our family's future. We even did whatever we could to get a term life insurance quote so that we could get affordable life insurance to assure our child's future.

Days to go. Days, not weeks.

Days to go till we start dealing with diapers, wipes, crying and sleepless nights. Days to go before we start waiting for that one small smile that will wipe away all the tiredness and make everything worth it.

We love you, babe. Can't wait to see you. We loved you before you were conceived, we love you even before you are born and we will love you forever.

Funny ka ah...

My brother, apparently, has been trying to get in touch with me for a few days now. But I keep missing his calls, my phone would usually ring twice and then stop ringing. I'd check out the caller ID, see the number from home and if I call back, Mom usually answers and I'd assume that it was Mom who called in the first place.

So recently, I heard 3 VMs with a male-sounding voice that says "hello?". That was it. I actually got 3 of them - one from the answering machine, one from my cellphone and another from our VOIP's voice mailbox (this kicks in if a call comes in as call-waiting and does not get picked up).

I didn't really put much stock or pay any attention to the "hello?" messages that I got, I didn't even make the effort to find out who this guy was. After all, if there was something urgent, wouldn't you have left a more substantial message ?

So... these past days, bro left me messages on YM to ask "did you get my messages?". He left me a similar message in Facebook - "did you get my messages ?"

Confused, I looked around for any messages - emails, chats, & even those social networking sites... - aside from his "did you get my messages?" message, I didn't see anything else.

I figured my brother was being funny, leaving a message asking about me receiving the message. Eh ?

Eventually, we did manage to talk to each other and guess what ? The messages he was asking about turned out to be the "hello?" messages that I heard days ago. Hay. Anong klaseng message yun ?

Shoti, funny ka ah. :D

Bidazzled

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Bidazzled. All opinions are 100% mine.

Came across a new site called Bidazzled.com which was recently launched in November. This is a Penny auction or Pay-Per-Bid auction site that was created to fund a lung cancer charity, The Ruch Foundation.

This is a different sort of bidding style compared to the one that I've gotten used to, there's no set expiration date for the auction but instead, each bid increases the countdown clock. If there are no more bids, the countdown clock continues to count down (obviously) and the auction ends when the time ends.

There are no reserves on the price. Kinda cool, huh ? Also, there aren't really any losers in Bidazzled. If you win your auction, then you get the item that you want for the price that you're willing to pay. If you do not win your auction, you still get up to 50 bonus bids that you can use to bid and use for future auctions.

I'm thinking, this would come in right on time for Christmas - remember, there are only 2 more weeks left to complete your Christmas lists! You get to shop (yay!) and get to help a charity out too. I call that killing two birds with one stone.

As for me, I wonder if there are any Naruto action figures being auctioned off ? My nephew wants one and Naruto is not mainstream enough and it isn't sold in our local toy stores.

21 more days till Christmas

We received this season's first Christmas card yesterday, it made me smile to think they (the senders) must have gotten an early start on their Christmas lists and probably spent their thanksgiving weekend writing out the cards. It also served as a reminder for us to start sending ours out - especially the ones destined outside of the US - and so I did.

Our group is also having our Christmas party tomorrow. I still feel amazed at how everything has worked out. First, we were having problems with the venue and someone agreed to host the party. And now, as I was about to order our potluck dish from Jersey City, a friend calls up to talk about the party and offers to buy our dish from another store and pick it up themselves. Now, hubby and I don't have to rush off after church tomorrow just to pick up food.

Next, while we weren't able to get something for our annual White Elephant gift exchange (we just won't join that this year), we were able to get all the shopping done for the kids' gifts. Here's hoping that the kids (or the parents of those who are getting clothes instead of toys, haha!) will like what we got them.

We were also able to get a maternity photo shoot done with our photographer friend, the pictures came out great and I'm looking forward to getting the pictures on disk tomorrow so I can see about blowing one up for the baby's room.

Broiled Scallops

The first time we made broiled scallops was Thanksgiving 2007 and if you would care to check the pictures I posted for that meal, you'll notice a big difference between then and now.

2 years has made a huge difference, obviously. Aside from experimenting on the seasoning & flavoring, now, I know enough to: (1) use an entire strip of bacon to wrap around the scallop to allow for shrinkage of the bacon and (2) to lift the scallops so that they don't get submerged in the juices that come out during the broiling.

Preparation:

1. Season scallops with lemon juice

2. Wrap scallops with bacon strips, secure the ends of the bacon with a toothpick.

3. Season the tops & bottoms of the scallops with a tiny bit of paprika and seasoned salt.

4. Heat the broiler and pop the scallops in when hot.

5. After 2 to 3 minutes, the bacon will have browned a bit, sprinkle a bit of brown sugar on the scallops and let brown a little.

6. Turn the scallops over on the other side and repeat step 5.

23 days till Christmas

Gosh. 23 days to go before Christmas (and 21 days before we're due to give birth to Swe-Cha, yay!)

I'm still missing a few items from my Christmas list - haven't gotten anything for my nephews & parents yet - and I'm still looking for something to give to a few friends too and I came across this new book by Augusten Burroughs and this seems like a very funny book and is appropriately themed for the holiday. This seems like it would make a good gift, I can definitely think of a few people who would appreciate the humor.

And in celebration of the release of this new book, You Better Not Cry, St Martin's press is offering a chance to win a copy of the book in the You Better Not Cry Book Promotion Sweepstakes. You may want to check out the book trailer too.