For 2008, my resolutions are simple:

1. Eat less junk food.
2. Make Smitten Kitchen’s Red Velvet Cake.
3. Participate in more Lasang Pinoy editions.
4. Cook at home more, eat out less, and
5. Spend more time outdoors, especially with the dogs.

Happy, Happy New Year to you!

We celebrated Halloween at home this year, watching the kids in costume come and go, and RUNNING OUT OF CANDY IN 45 MINUTES. I’m not kidding, 45 minutes is how long our 151 bags of candy lasted.

Some of the family came over to enjoy some smoked sausages, sauerkraut, and potato salad (all made by my superstar husband), red candied apples (made by me!), and keg of beer (that’s right, a whoooole kegger!)

Naturally, I forgot to photograph the food and drinks, but here’s some of the candy:

and a photo of our staff, dressed up and ready to scare the neighborhood kids:

We’re still recovering.

It was the latter that led me to first discover Burnt Lumpia, with his entry titled I Think I Shall Name Him… Kal!, wherein he- an American Pinoy named Marvin- searches for and finds a kalamansi tree to call his own:

“Pssst!” I heard him say to me as I walked past.

“Pssssssst!” I heard the familiar call again.

“Pssssssssssst! Hoy!”

And there he was, a lone Filipino hidden behind Meyer Lemons and Valencia Oranges. I had found the one and only Kalamansi tree in the nursery. Woohoo!

Since then, Burnt Lumpia has been one of my daily blog visits. His latest post, An American Pinoy in Paris, features, among other things, some mouthwatering gelato and- my all-time favorite, and what has to beone of the greatest inventions of man- french macarons. Mmmm.

This is my first post in a new category for this blog, Delicious Food Blogs. You can expect more features on other food blogs I love coming soon.

What a complete disappointment. It didn’t even come close to the photo on their menu- it was small, narrow and flat, and the accompanying cup of caramel was strangely… grainy.

Ordered as take-out from TGIFriday’s in Alabang Town Center.

Serious Eats calls themselves “the first website for serious eaters”- and although I don’t necessarily agree (I mean, what about Chowhound?), I’m fast becoming addicted to this site that features blogs, photos and videos on food.

Yahoo Food has quickly become a daily visit for me. I must say I’m loving a lot of what Yahoo’s been doing lately. On their Food section, I’m particularly enamoured by their list of “Recipes people want NOW”- which, right now, has salmon, eggnog, soup, brownies, and salsa as the top five.

Fancy Toast is a blog I’ve just discovered, and yay! The photos are gorgeous, the writing is entertaining, and- oh, it just makes me hungry. Always a good sign. Also, I can relate to the latest post praising husbands who bake… I’m another lucky, lucky girl.

Here’s a particularly interesting read about What Happens to your Body if you Drink a Coke Right Now:

In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get it’s hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)…

Read more at Healthbolt.

I’m grateful for so many things this year- including you, dear reader.

As it is, I’ve been obsessed with figuring out which side dishes go well with a smoked turkey. A good candied yams dish is a given, and I’m considering trying out Meg’s Brown Buttered Brussel Sprouts as well. For dessert, a classic pumpkin pie- which I’ve never made before. Any more ideas, anyone?

Because we didn’t feel like preparing anything ourselves tonight, we ordered in- and went with California Pizza Kitchen’s bestselling Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad, a favourite of ours.

The guy who took my order over the phone was nice and all, but I’ve got a few bones to pick with them:

We requested extra cilantro. There must have been a misunderstanding between order and kitchen, because what they gave me was no avocado instead of extra cilantro. Grrr.

And then there was the price. Our bill shows that: one full-sized BBQ Chicken Salad (with no avocado!) cost P395, and half-sized Waldorf Salad (which was particularly mediocre) cost P425. Hmm. This, plus Value Added Tax, Food Tax, and Packaging Charge, meant that we spent a total of P1005.81 for one salad, and one half-a-salad… really not worth it.

The Bing Cherry (which I’m mentioning first because it’s a major ingredient in Cherry Garcia, and therefore sort of appropriate) was developed by Oregon horticulturist Seth Luelling around 1875, with the help of his Manchurian foreman Bing, after whom he named it.

I was surprised to discover that Melba Toast and Peach Melba are both named for the same woman, Dame Nellie Melba (1859-1931). A famous Australian soprano from Melbourne, she was living at the Savoy in London when she took ill, and could only manage to eat extremely dry toast. It was also at the hotel that the dessert Peach Melba was created in her honour by Chef Auguste Escoffier.

Then there’s the Salisbury Steak, created by Dr. James H. Salisbury (1823-1905), an early health food advocate who advised his patients to eat the dish three times a day and limit their intake of “poisonous” vegetables and starches.

If, like me, you find all this fascinating, you can read more on Answer.com’s list of foods named after people.