28 Dec
2010

Posted in: Family, Seattle
By Tanya    1 Comment

Teatro ZinZanni

A different kind of Christmas present was what Nick and I got this Christmas. Nick’s parents decided a theatrical experience was what we all needed and they were right. We had the best night dressing up, feasting, and enjoying the sights and sounds of the most amazing talents at Teatro ZinZanni.

Part of their gift was staying at a Seattle hotel so we didn’t have to go home right away after the show. It was such a great idea because most of the family didn’t live in Seattle. Nick and I were pretty much the only locals.

Getting Ready

We took a shuttle from the hotel to the theater so we had to take some photos before we left. Dressing up was pretty fun. I was able to borrow some feathery foofy stuff from Amanda, and it totally fit well with the whole theme of the night. She is the best go-to person for anything shining, shimmering splendid.

Super Excited!

Ladies of the Night

Ummm....

With the handsome man

Stace and I had to have a photo with the funniest lady of the night.

With the Fabulous and Funny Christine Deaver

Throughout the show, all I could think of was how awesome it would be if I worked there. I honestly wouldn’t mind being surrounded by artistry, theater and talented people day and night. I could be a stage manager too! Maybe after Nick’s done with school I can start thinking of another career. haha!

28 Dec
2010

Posted in: Husband
By Tanya    1 Comment

How was your Christmas?

Mine was pretty good. Nick thought he could send me away to another country. But then he ran into some packaging problems.

He couldn't really cover my head

23 Dec
2010

Posted in: Husband, Seattle
By Tanya    1 Comment

Christmas eve eve in Seattle

It’s not snowing, it’s raining. Shouldn’t be surprised if you’re on this side of the world. Today is my first day of Christmas vacation. I go back to work next year. It’s also the first time I finally got to sleep in. Vacations should always be like that.

My brothers and I

It was a bit hard for me to get out of bed today. I woke up to the sadness that I am not with my family. I am missing my parents and brothers terribly. I miss all the talking and the laughing during the holidays. We’d all go Christmas shopping together, have dinner somewhere and then be home around midnight or later.

I love my family so much. It’s hard being away from them. Hopefully next year, money won’t be an issue and Nick and I will be able to fly home to a warm Christmas.

Nick has been really sweet to me though. He is such a good husband. Making sure my Christmas, even without my family, will be the best Christmas ever. I am blessed to have him.

We’re going to be off soon. We’re going to work our way up north by visiting family and friends and finally ending at Nick’s parents house. I pray for a Merry Merry Christmas this year. And may next year be another great year for our family.

I know I kind of didn’t end this post on merry tone but Merry Christmas everyone!  I pray for blessings over you all.

18 Dec
2010

Posted in: Travel/Fun
By Tanya    4 Comments

Scenes from Leavenworth

I went on a trip with my friends to Leavenworth, WA. A tiny Bavarian town in Washington. It’s about 2 hours away from Seattle so it was a nice quick trip to see the Christmas lighting festival, and then come home that same day.

Nick couldn’t make it ’cause he had to study. Which is pretty sad ’cause it was my first time to go there, and I didn’t have him there to see me ooh and ahh at the sights and sounds.

Below are a few scenes from the trip.

Adam's happy to finally be there

Cute Buildings

My darling Alisha

This guy followed me around all night

Love how they're looking at different things

I had to take a photo of course

Loving the lights

Ummmmm

It's snowing!

We needed something warm after the Christmas lighting

Beautiful!

A photo before we leave

16 Dec
2010

Posted in: FoodLove, Living Life
By Tanya    1 Comment

December and Shrimp Fried Rice

December has been really busy that’s why I haven’t been posting as often as I want.  There are times when I look at the calendar and I get stressed with the amount of stuff that I have to go to. It’s really not work related but mostly just being at a lot of places in one day. This is usual for our family during December so I just have to deal with it.

I can’t wait for Christmas vacation and for the actual celebration of Christ’s birthday. Ahhh I get to relax for a little bit.

I noticed that my blog is turning into a food blog. I am wondering if I should have a separate blog for the food and for life. I don’t know. Just throwing the idea out there.

For now, I’ll try and catch up on my posts with December events and what I have been cooking.

So the other day, I remembered I had left over shrimp in the fridge. Again, I wanted something quick and easy. So I ended up with Shrimp Fried Rice. This is the Chinese part of me that comes out once in a while. For those of you that don’t know, my great grandfather on my dad’s side is Chinese. I remember, every time it was my grandmother’s birthday, we’d always go to a Chinese restaurant. On some of her birthdays the cook at my grandma’s house will make something Chinese. I especially love their steamed fish with scallions. Oh wow. Heaven!

Fried rice is a staple in the house I grew up in. My eldest brother and I, when we wanted some midnight snack, we always made fried rice. He’d always find some left over meat and add it to our rice and it was such a comfort food that up to now, I still make the same kind of fried rice that we used to make growing up. I guess we learned how to cook because if we didn’t, there will be no midnight snack to eat.

For this recipe, I went to Steamy Kitchen for the basics. I skipped the corn starch and forgot the sesame oil. haha! But it still turned out good. In our home, there’s always left over rice. If there wasn’t, then it’s definitely the end of the world for me. I started with the garlic on this one, I know it doesn’t say anything about garlic in the recipe but hey, I’m Filipino, I can’t skip the garlic in fried rice.

Unfortunately, Nick didn’t get to have some because he was out somewhere. So I had the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Don’t you just love going to work knowing you have some good food that you’re going to eat for lunch?

2 Dec
2010

Posted in: FoodLove
By Tanya    1 Comment

Comfort Soup

One of my favorite soups that my dad would make is sopas. Sopas is soup in Spanish, but when you say sopas in the Philippines, it means elbow macaroni in a creamy soup. The meat in the sopas is usually chicken, but the way my dad would make it is with ham.

Nick and I were buying some groceries at Safeway when I saw a package of smoked ham hocks sitting in the shelf. The first thought that came to mind was my dad’s sopas so I just had to get some some carrots and celery, and I was ready to make it.

And because I was originally making Chicken Afritada for Nick, I cooked both the Afritada and the Sopas at the same time. Take note, it was 9:30pm when I started cooking. Talk about late cooking in the Hayes household.

In the Philippines, we usually eat sopas for merienda (midday snack). I remember eating it for lunch in high school on those cold rainy days in June. Ah those days. It seemed like it was yesterday when classes would be cancelled midday because of a typhoon and we’re already in school so we have to wait for my dad to pick us up. Where else would we hang out but the cafeteria. The lunch ladies would be ready for the onslaught of orders from the excited kids who want to eat as they wait for their parents to pick them up. But I digress…

Below is the Chicken Afritada I made for Nick. I wasn’t in the mood for it since I felt that I was making it a lot, but since Nick wanted it, I made it for him.

Instead of using elbow macaroni, I used the egg noodles that we had. It was kind of the same. Texture-wise, I think I like the elbow macaroni more. I remember the days of eating soggy macaroni in the sopas. Ahhh heaven.

I know if my dad saw the photo below, he’d be so proud of me. I think my future kiddies would love this. It’d be their favorite and they’d ask me to add extra milk in it. Just as I did when I was young.

My dad would be cooking the sopas. I’d watch the whole process of how he did it and learn from him. Well sometimes he’d walk away to do other things while the sopas is simmering. What I would do is sneak in more milk into the soup to make it extra creamy. I don’t think he ever noticed. He would then say, “Wow this is really good.” He’d be so proud of what he made. And inside I was thinking, “That’s because of me, I put the extra milk in there to make it yummy.”

24 Nov
2010

Posted in: Seattle
By Tanya    2 Comments

I’m Glad I Didn’t Walk Home

I know in my heart that I really am not made for this kind of weather.  Winter is my least favorite of seasons. And whoever put this tropical woman in Seattle needs some explaining to do. Nick???

Last Monday’s snow did not prepare me for how crazy and how long the night was going to be. Ok, I didn’t walk home, but I was in a car with an officemate for almost 5 hours. We did consider walking home, but I wasn’t dressed for it and I knew I was going to freeze to death.

I was really glad that I got a ride with my office mate because there were some buses who got stuck on the West Seattle Bridge. Who knows, I could’ve been in there and Nick would have no way of trying to get to me with our car that doesn’t have chains plus the roads were extremely icy.

With my office mate’s 4 wheel drive, we waited for hours on the waterfront trying to get to the West Seattle Bridge. That didn’t work so we turned around and took another bridge, which was clearly closed, we ignored the signs and still drove on.

We had to go south to go back up north to west Seattle. It’s kind of hard to explain if you’re not from here, but let’s just say we had to go around and around just to get to my house. We encountered a few hills but the car made it through. We made it through! We left the office around 5:30pm and got home around 10:30pm.

Thankful that I got a ride home, it also made me really happy coming home to some hot food and hot chocolate. Thanks to my husband. I guess that compensates for him bringing me here huh?

Check out the video below to get a gist of how icy and crazy it was that night.

18 Nov
2010

Posted in: Living Life, Philippines
By Tanya    1 Comment

The Night of the Fight

This was the night that Manny Pacquiao won his 8th world title in 8 divisions. He made us proud to be Filipino!

I started cooking from 2pm and finally finished when I deep fried all the lumpia that I wrapped at my friend’s house, and that was at around 6pm. It was worth it. We ate. We shouted. We met new people and celebrated the victory of Manny Pacquaio.

I was so happy that my good friend Simson came to watch with us. I had no idea he likes boxing too.

My other capoeira friend, Ethan, came over to watch too. I lent him one of Nick’s Philippine shirts so he’d know what it feels like to be Filipino. hahahaha!

One of the great things of being in capoeira is meeting great friends like Giulia. She came and watched the changes that happened to Margarito’s face. From normal to looking like he was wearing a mask. Again, Margarito’s camp should’ve told the ref to stop the fight on the 8th round. They didn’t do that, so now Margarito has to get a big surgery to fix his broken orbital bone.

The aftermath of the lumpia that I made. That platter was full of lumpia. I was so happy everyone loved it.

After I took this photo, someone took all of what’s left in that pot. My adobo was a winner too.

The gang and Tanya Loca.

To celebrate Manny’s win. I made the guys eat some balut. We needed to keep with the Filipino theme and because they’re guys, a good competition is always present. After 7 years of knowing Nick, he finally had a balut. My friend Christian on the right, is half Filipino. Yet, it was still his first time to eat one. Ramon, on the left, didn’t really want to do it but because his son just ate it like it was no biggie. He had to do it as well.

It was such a great night I didn’t want it to end. Did you watch the fight between Pacquiao and Margarito too? Who were you rooting for?

17 Nov
2010

Posted in: Funnies
By Tanya    1 Comment

How are you feeling today?

There are times I feel like the cat and other times I feel like the squirrel.

Which one are you today?

17 Nov
2010

Posted in: Living Life
By Tanya    No Comments

Reaching Out

There are times when I reach out. I give and give. And it is not returned. When do you say, “That’s it. I’m moving on?” Should I just keep on going when my actions are not reciprocated?

It’s pretty hard sometimes. I guess because people change and I know I have changed as well. Have I become a bad friend? Have I said the wrong thing? I ask these questions and I don’t really get a straight answer.

Maybe I just have to wait.

Wait forever and wait for what?

On a lighter note, Pacquiao won. Oh yeah! 8th Division baby!