Everlasting flowers

Today is Mother's Day. It is a very special day for all mothers whether biological, adoptive, god, or however we regard our mothers. I believe that we also need to honor those who basically function as mothers. Those who play significant roles in our lives to care for us just like our mothers do. They include health workers, care givers, and teachers among others who in one form or another.

Last Sunday, as we exited the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, we chanced upon one vendor selling something that brought up some childhood memories of going to church. The vendor was selling everlasting flowers. We use to buy these after going to church in St. Francis in Mandaluyong. My parents preferred these over sampaguita because, as the name implied, they lasted longer. The small garlands were placed on our home altar or hung with an image of the Sto. Nino, Jesus or Mary. 

Everlasting flowers at our altar at home

Happy Sunday to everyone! 

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Chocolate review: Cachet Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao

This is a very late post about a chocolate that we bought and ate months ago. I started writing about it a long time ago but somehow other material got in the way of my finalizing this post. Cachet is Belgian chocolate but with the cacao sourced from Africa; Tanzania to be exact.

There's an interesting slogan on the wrapper - "This bar is supporting our "Cocoa for Schools" project in South Tanzania.

Details about the chocolate at the back of the package.

Ingredients - the chocolate claims to have 70% minimum cacao

Nutrition information

I was pleasantly surprised to see the inside of the wrapper having a story to tell.

The bar retailed for 185 pesos at Healthy Options. That is not really expensive for a high quality 180g chocolate bar. I think I mentioned before that many local chocolates are overpriced considering their inferior quality. This chocolate can serve for benchmarking local (Philippine) chocolates in terms of quality as well as pricing.

I will post about the information on the inside of the wrapper in the next post.

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House Macaroni Gratin

Last weekend, I found this box of Macaroni Gratin from Japanese brand House. I had forgotten about this, which I bought at a Japanese store along Katipunan in the St. Ignatius/White Plains area. It's an easy to prepare (instant) pasta dish that you can prepare in a few minutes. You can add potatoes and even meat if you want to though cooking those ingredients properly will add to the time for this to be ready to eat.

The box contained sealed packets of macaroni and the gratin mix.

I used cheddar and quick melt cheese as topping before I placed the clay pot in the oven toaster. This is the result after I took it out of the toaster.

The cheeses served as a crust to hold the macaroni gratin. This is what it looks like after scooping some for dinner.

The gratin was a success. Our daughter loved it. It was a good foil for the savory viands we had for dinner.  The price tag is still on the box. I thought this was good value for the 189 pesos I paid for when I bought it last year. I will probably get another box or two the next time I get to go to that Japanese store. 

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