August 2014 – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Recent Hauls!

Happy Labor Day Weekend Friends! With all the labor day sales going on right now,I just wanted to share my recent “hauls” that I purchased within the last 2 months (with the exception of the groceries of course!). I rarely buy things full priced, I always try to wait for sales/clearance and I love going to discounts stores like HomeGoods, Ross, and Marshalls. I also checked online shops like Groupon, LivingSocial, Zulily for good deals. I have several gift cards (from bday gifts, Christmas) that I wanted to use before the cards were completely drained. I forgot that I even had them!

I got this Kcup drawer at Zulily for $20;original price $36. I got the herbal coffee at Amazon. — I got this Kcup drawer at Zulily for $20;original price $36. I got the Teeccino herbal coffee at Amazon.

Having coffee in the morning so so easy now!

I finally got another vacuum cleaner for our 2nd floor. It's a Dyson DC39 multi floor vacuum. — I finally got another vacuum cleaner for our 2nd floor. It’s a Dyson DC39 multi floor vacuum.

I’m so loving this Dyson vacuum cleaner. It’s really light and powerful. I only use this for the second floor of our house (no wood floors). I got this in a Groupon deal for $251 (it’s refurbished but works like new). I’ve checked the price in amazon it’s around $449 new!

with gift cards I paid $20 for all perfumes! — After gift cards I paid $20 for all perfumes!

I have gift cards from Homegoods/Marshalls and I saw these perfumes on clearance, they looked like a pretty good deal. Speaking of perfume, I also used my Nordstrom gift card and bought Jo Malone perfumes. They smell so good and light. I love it! I got the Nectarine Blossom and English Pear.

And now to the more “exciting” parts, my grocery this week. I shopped at Fred Meyer and another local discount store in Issaquah, Champion Grocery. I think Champion Grocery is my new go to store, they don’t sell fresh produce but they do have the basic staples like coffee, dried fruits and household stuffs.

Champions Grocery: my fave deal was the Kcups! $7.50 for 36 Kcups; i checked on amazon their 40 kcups cost around $25! This Haul cost me $47:) I will probably pay around $100 if I bought this in the regular grocery store.

Camping!

Couple of weeks ago, we had our first camping trip (the 3 of us) with our friends. The camping site is around Mount Rainier National Park. It was fun, tiring (in a good way), and just great time hanging out with our friends. Riley was so good 90% of the time, he didn’t like our sleeping bed so much. He had a hard time on it, after all he sleeps in a comfy california king bed with us (he’s so spoiled!). It’s my first camping experience here in the U.S (the Hubs had a lot of camping experiences), and I really like it. Being in nature, no computer / tv, and relaxing with my hubs and friends, eating “camp” food were my favorite parts. We also went to the Sunrise Visitor Center hoping to see and take some nice pictures of the mountain but it was totally blocked by clouds :(. It will definitely not be our last camping trip!

Riley can smell but he can't eat smores(dogs can't eat chocolate) — Riley can smell but he can’t eat smores(dogs can’t eat chocolate)

This is Riley's "I miss our comfy bed" look! — This is Riley’s “I miss our comfy bed” look!

family picture (too bad it was such a cloudy day)

Pork Belly Humba!

I made this Pork Belly Humba a couple of weeks ago and I just wanted to share this because it’s really easy and such a hearty filipino dish. It’s similar to the famous adobo (cooking style) but the major difference is the flavor because of the pineapple juice. One of my favorite sites to follow for Filipino dishes is the Panlasang Pinoy site. The directions are simple, and he also has a video so it’s easy to see and follow the procedures. Although I “adjusted” the recipe (I only put 1 bay leave;no banana blossom) because my Hubs doesn’t like bay leaves, and seasoned it to my liking (I added lots of pepper). It turned out great! I only wish I had doubled the recipe so I could have extra humba in my freezer. Oh well, I can always go to the asian market and get all the stuff I need to make this dish again.

it's so important to brown the meat,DO NOT skip this part. — it’s so important to brown the meat,DO NOT skip this part.

I added eggs in the last 10 minutes of cooking time because I like eggs with my humba

I sprinkled a little parsley just for color!

Humba Recipe (www.panlasangpinoy.com)

Ingredients

2 lbs pork belly
1 cup Pineapple juice
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons salted black beans
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup dried banana blossoms
2 pieces dried bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole peppercorn

Cooking Procedure:

Heat the cooking pot then brown the pork belly.
Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft.
Put-in the soy sauce, peppercorn, bay leaves.
Pour-in the pineapple juice and let boil. Simmer until the pork is tender (add water as needed).
Add the vinegar and wait for the mixture to re-boil. Simmer for 3 minutes.
Spoon-in the salted black beans and brown sugar then simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the dried banana blossoms and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes.
Transfer to a serving plate and serve. Share and enjoy!
Number of servings (yield): 6

Weekend Fun!

Happy Monday Friends! Hope you had a great and relaxing weekend. Ours was a fun and lazy one. We watched the movie “One hundred foot Journey” and had sushi after. I really liked the movie, though it has some slow parts, all in all it was a feel good movie, not to mention all the food they showed was mouth watering:) We also went to Gas Works Park in Seattle to take advantage of the nice weather (summer will be gone before we know it). I always love Seattle in the summer, it’s just so pretty and the view is always amazing. Hubs and I watched a marathon of the new series “The Last Ship” and we really enjoyed that series. We are still thinking of what TV series to watch next. So we’ll see!

LOL! he's so precious! — LOL! he’s so precious!

enjoying five guys burgers (closest thing to In n Out for us)

Oregon Trip!

We had a weekend trip to Oregon when my sister was here couple of weeks ago, we visited Portland and Cannon Beach, and the Seaside Area. It was more of a food trip because we just stuffed our faces with all of the yummy food that Oregon has to offer. Based on my research a must stop is the famous Voodoo doughnuts (I was totally disappointed) and find nothing special about the place. The doughnuts are fun to look at (reminded me of Gordughs doughnuts from Austin Texas) but Gordughs is so much better, moist and (IMO) worth the sugar coma you’ll get. Another place we visited was the Thai restaurant POKPOK! I had read good reviews and even Giada De Laurentiis recommend the place for good authentic thai food. I totally loved their fish sauce chicken wings, it was just the right amount of fish sauce flavor!Not overpowering at all. I think I will go back to Portland just for their wings! I think my hubs and sis find it “OKAY”,I disagree with them!

Cannon Beach was fun but the water was too cold for me. We checked out the famous Haystack Rock and it was gorgeous as I expected. We had fun strolling in the fine sandy beach, enjoyed our left over Voodoo donuts, iced coffee and just people watching.

Last place to check out was Seaside. It was super crowded though because they had a volleyball tournament when we visited. We only stayed for a couple hours, it was just too loud, crowded, and hot for me. I was really ready to go home and see my Riley Puss after not seeing him for 2 days! It was a fun weekend with my sis and Hubs.

enjoying some ice cream while listening to this cute kid playing!

if you love Thai food,you will love this one! The place was also visited by Guy Fieri of Food Network

waiting time 10 minutes because we got here early;the other times we checked it was 2 hours..it's that crazy! — waiting time 10 minutes because we got here early;the other times we checked it was 2 hours..it’s that crazy!

excited to try PokPok's famous wings — excited to try PokPok’s famous wings

our yummy drinks (thai iced tea,tamarind risky sour for hubs) — our yummy drinks (thai iced tea,tamarind whiskey sour for hubs)

Pok Pok's famous chicken wings — Pok Pok’s famous chicken wings

because their ice cream was so good, we stopped again before going to Cannon Beach

salted caramel and the pear blue cheese (it was the bomb!)

Rattlesnake Ledge Hike!

I’ve hiked Rattlesnake ledge with my Hubs before and as much as I loved the view I didn’t really plan to do it again, but my sister, Christine, really wanted to hike Rattlesnake when she was here so I did it again for her sake! It’s a 4 mile hike(total), but the uphill part is what i hate the most. I don’t mind going down, that’s the easy part! We got hungry after the hike so we decided to have dinner at our local burger and root beer place. Great place for burgers and milkshakes! My sister was shocked with the American servings, so huge compared to New Zealand where she has been living for the last 6 or 7 years! It was such a a great summer day.

I had to have my fave drink that time because it was National Root Beer day!

fave local resto!Triple XXX — fave local resto! Triple XXX

Playing Tourists!

We did the usual thing while my older sis visited, Pike Place Market (both of us really loved going to the Market),we checked out the Seattle Waterfront, and for the first time we rode the Seattle Great Wheel (it was scary at first but we got over it quickly and were totally blown away with the Seattle view!)I love Seattle during summer. The city is so pretty and it was so special to share these moments with my sis!

How cute is this store with all the hanged chilis? — How cute is this store with all of the hanging chiles?

why so expensive Morel? — why are the Morels so expensive?!

MIA!

Hello everyone! I’ve been MIA for the last 2 weeks because my older sister visited me here in Washington (State) and we just spent a lot of time doing fun things (shopping, dining, gardening, hiking, watching movies) the kind of fun things you do with your siblings! She’s already back in NYC (visiting my other sis), then off to Hawaii to yet again visit another sis! A lot of traveling for her but she loves to travel so she doesn’t mind. I’ll be posting about what we did while she was here because it such a great time and we miss her already. First weekend she was here, we went to see the Blue Angels (it was part of the SeaFair weekend). It was pretty cool to see them perform, it was kinda loud but I guess that’s part of the craziness! Hope you enjoy the pictures:)

Sis and I having a little picnic with friends while waiting for the Blue Angels!

After a fun long day we decided to have yummy seafood on the patio to enjoy the nice weather too! We had crabs and shrimps that we got from Costco! Seafood on a summer night…my kind of dinner!

Dungeness Crabs (my have) — Dungeness Crabs (my fave)