They said that introducing myself as an author to this blog is the proper thing to do. After all, it is always nice to know the people you visit even if you only met them online. I am not very good at introducing myself but here it goes.. 

Hello I’m Irel and I am a full-time wife & a busy mother of 3 . I am originally from Cebu City Philippines and migrated in the US in 2000 and started my own family in 2002. As much as I enjoyed being a stay at home mom, I am still considering about going back to school for Nursing and hopefully will be able to get an employment once I am done with school(who knows when!) and when my children are big enough to help themselves (Probably when they finally get out of college!).  

Interests.. Let me see..

I love movies, we practically own tons of DVD’s we usually rent it  first to see if we like what we are watching before buying it. Yes I said Rent because it’s more practical than going to movie theaters especially when you have kids who can’t stand sitting still. Besides with the new prices and the current economy? I wonder who can afford going to movie theaters! Not to mention, to have no control in pausing when you need a bathroom break. (Yes, this is my alibi and I am sticking to it!). I like almost any kind of movies.  My first pick would be Thriller movies then comedy , action and drama. I also like watching international indie movies and this is one of my favorite in my local cable company they offer free indie movies to watch.

Music.. I practically listen in all types of genres. The one I cannot stand the most is when it is too much  hip-hop and too much grunge/metal/rock. For me when it’s too much it’s crap! When I was younger, I love the noise but now that I have 3 kids in the house , I don’t think I need extra noise. My only retreat is easy listening.

Books.. I am not an avid book reader. But I read at least 10 books not including textbooks and cookbooks. The first novel  I read when I was in grade school  was the book called Butterfly. It was definitely not a Children’s book. I can remember the story line even when I only read it once. And on my 2nd wedding Anniversary, my husband gave it to me as a gift.

Blogging….I have been blogging since 2006. I made a site in Piczo
one time but I wasn’t really crazy about it until my friend introduced me
to Blogger.My first blog was  My Drama and it is still running, at first it was more of a journal and then, I got crazy in generating something from it.(I still enjoy it btw!).Then I have Pinaypay and Butwhatabout. These are the same theme as my first one.

Cooking… I am still considered as a Newbie when it comes to culinary. Having a mother, an aunt, a father and a grandmother to cook my foods when I was younger was easy for me. In the Philippines, you don’t have to cook in order to eat. I don’t mean crappy fast foods either. You can buy a healthy,hearty home cooked meal right in your neighbors house. In my country, you can turn your cooking expertise into a business without having a huge restaurant and a chef certificate. It was cheap, very good food and definitely convenient. But that didn’t helped me  when I moved here in the US. The only convenient way is ordering unhealthy and costly hamburgers and fried chicken in fast foods and the most convenient way in eating really good food is when you go to a good restaurant which can also cost you an arm and a leg if you eat out all the time.  The first couple of years was fine especially when I live in Southern
California. I can still have the good food from the Philippines but
just cost me some gas and money.But when I got married and in tight budget, there is no way I have to eat out everyday! The only thing I knew how to make was boiling ramen noodles and frying eggs! I gave it a little variation from fried to scramble and add some veggies with it but still not a very good meal.That is why my husband likes to go to his grandparents house almost every night for a very good home cooked southern meal.

I felt sorry for him so I called my friend to help me out with some recipe she knew. She was telling me the procedures while I was on the phone and cooking. It took a while for me to cook  the “Pork Chop Mechado” in my liking but it tasted great. My husband liked it (well, it was his break from Noodles and egg) And then my mother in law gave me my 1st cookbook. (probably she felt sorry for her son having to eat only Ramen noodles and eggs all the time). When I got that cookbook, I made “Meatloaf” and it tasted great but I made it a habit cooking it every week and my husband develop a sickness called “Meatloafphobia” he just got sick of eating it. But I tried it again and I omitted some stuff and added a different ingredient and it turned out way better than before.  So he got over that sickness but I made sure I will only cook meatloaf once a year. Being married and having 4 people rely on me for food is really challenging. That is why I just experiment on things and try to make the best of it.

Now, I am starting another site (this one duh!) but I will focus this more on sharing
recipes but this will be a progressive food blog because I will be
posting recipes only when I try it! I don’t like posting recipes that I
haven’t tried myself! I like to put pictures with the recipe and will try my best to get a shot step by step.. So hopefully you had fun getting to know me and why i wanted to start this blog and hopefully you can come by again and say hi and contribute by sharing your recipe with photos as part my “Featured Recipe”… feel free to visit each page and come back again for the upcoming recipe postings..

Again thanks for the visit and nice to finally meet u….

                                                                                                                                                               xoxo ~irel