Mi Amor - Quesadillas!

Because I was inspired by the cookout I had with my colleagues, I prepared quesadillas during the send off party for a cousin.

I placed  green bell peppers and onions with cheese as the filling for the pita bread heating on top of a non stick pan. For the salsa, I grilled a bellpepper, peeled, sliced and cooked it on a saucepan with diced fresh tomatoes, basil (from the rooftop garden) and some seasonings.

The extra cheese I grated I added to the salsa.

Cutting it up in 4 pieces:

 Finished product:

Bonding Time over Food :)

According to the famed cook, Julia Child, 

"People who love to eat, are the best people"

And I need to add, ".. People who love to cook, are my bestfriends."

My colleagues and I  have a unique bond between us. It might be because we are almost of the same age and we have been together for 5 years or more. So, it's no surprise that our cooking adventure last July was both fun and entertaining. 

First off, a colleague had an idea of creating designs out of fruits inspired from the Internet. These fruits will be later served with vanilla ice cream which was spectacular,  I am proud to say that this was my creation with Trina, a colleague's young daughter:

Nice, yeah? Here are some of the other fruit designs:

This is an upside down tree on an upside down island

When we ran out of ideas, we just made the fruits look like this:

My friends already had their own menu to cook so Vanessa and I were their sous-chef (alalay :p in Tagalog). Cut, chop vegetables, wash dishes, wipe dishes, mix dips etc.

Here are some of what my friends prepared:

Baked Ziti,... so creamy and yummy :)

Baked chicken ala buffalo wings. The ranch dressing made by my colleague was so creamy and it fits the buffalo chicken... Don't mind the Hershey's chocolate syrup-- it's not involved in the dish.

We also had grilled liempo. We mixed in calamansi juice, onions and cayenne pepper. It was a hit!

And then there's the quesadilla of Meynard:

which turned out like this when it was sliced. There were 2 dips: guacamole and tomatoes and the ranch dressing of the buffalo wings. I preferred the salsa because the quesadillas already have cheese.. too much dairy!:

And finally, the centerpiece... Lani's lobsters which were boiled in water:

We were all very full, happy and content with this bonding moment..
See the evidence?

I learned a lot. In less than a week, I also tried cooking the quesadilla for a family gathering which was a hit..which I will blog later on.

Anyway, looking forward to another cook off. home :)

Stargazers

I love stargazers or as my Canadian cousin calls them , tiger lilies... not only because of their beauty but also the scent it imparts to the room when the flowers bloom. I am lucky to have been this plant by a friend on my birthday:

This was taken at the office. As you can see the flower buds did not bloom yet. And so I brought it home with me. After 5 days, i had this:

 Our room smelled amazing. And there were still 3 buds about to bloom. After 3 more days, the other buds bloomed and so I have this. Only one more left to open.

 Finally, all are open!

 

Right now, there's only one blossom left. The petals of the first flowers started falling when the last flower bloomed. I plan to keep the plant alive all throughout the years and I am researching how. I hope it would be a success.

These flowers reflect how loved I am by my friend and by God.