A New Year; A New Decade

Hey everyone! Happy New Year!! :) Can you believe it's 2011 already? Time flies by so fast! So what did you guys do during the New Year? I've been reading 2010 highlights from my fellow bloggers and it made me think of what I did during 2010. It's probably too late for me to do a recap, but 2010 was a year of blessings, but we also had a fair share of trials. But we all have the Lord to thank for helping us get through day-by-day! :)

Anyway, it's our first New year at home, and we were all really psyched for it. We also finally bought fountains and sparklers for this year's celebration. And when the clock struck midnight, this was the scene on our street.




There were people in our subdivision who gave us a wonderful fireworks display.


After bonding with our neighbors it was time to chow! For our New Year's Eve feast, we once again had a home-cooked meal! We also opted for something INIHAW or GRILLED, among other food choices!

My ultimate favorite GRILLED LIEMPO!

It's a slab of meat grilled to perfection! It was so good I had two slabs of this! Cholesterolific to the highest level! :D

Chicken Inasal

This may not be a Mang Inasal, but our helper was able to "copy" the taste of the chicken inasal in our old neighborhood in Makati. This dish made Iloilo FAMOUS and when the recipe found it's way here in Manila (thru Mang Inasal and Bacolod Chicken Inasal) it was an instantaneous HIT! Must-try for foreigners when they get to make their way here in the country! :D

We also grilled this gigantic fish.

Although I'm not sure what fish this was. Mom even garnished it with tomatoes.

The next set of dishes are not grilled anymore. :D

Once again, we had tahong or clams.

Our helper already bought like a kilo of this at the market. But by lunchtime Mom and I devoured it, so we had to return to the market this time for 4kgs of these bad guys! :))

Baked lasagna.

I was kind of disappointed with this. Mom put in WAY TOO much onions, every spoonful of it had onions (yuck!). It tasted funky in the end, maybe because I'm not much of an onion person. So I made sure I got most of the cheese.

Another fishy dish, this time with sauce and vegetables. I LOVED THIS, especially it's zesty sauce, and had it for lunch on New Year's Day! :)


Pinakbet

When I was a kid, I called this pangit na sabaw (ugly broth) because of it was dark-colored. It's a native Filipino dish, which has kalabasa (pumpkin), okra, talong (eggplant), and ampalaya, and cooked with bagoong. It may look fugly and unappealing, but it tastes HEAVENLY!!

For dessert, we still had our Fruit Salad


Fruits - none of those spherical ones that they say bring you good luck.

And 2 kinds of fruitcake.

It was a simple way to usher in the New Year for our family. I am quite geared up for 2011 because we'll be finishing two important things that will mean a huge relief especially for Mom. It made our 2010 very difficult, but I'm very positive we'll make it in 2011.

Mom said that for my sign, Virgo, I'd be traveling a lot this year. That's what TV Patrol (our 6pm news) said, but I'm really hoping it would be true! I'd be kicking off my travel itinerary with my Baler comeback this January 14. I just wish I could go to Baler with two of my college barkada in February. That would be a dream come true! But then by October, my BFFs and I would be heading on over to BALI, INDONESIA so I really gotta start saving!

As for my New Year's resolution I am really trying to be MORE PATIENT (people who know will support this claim and you guys may even wish me luck hahahaha), be a bit more OUTGOING, get to meet NEW PEOPLE (more blogger friends!)), blog some more (more food and travel), and be a much better friend and daughter to my Mom.

How about you guys? What are your resolutions? Let's all try to make it HAPPEN if only we put our hearts and minds to it! Happy New Year guys! CHEERS! :D

Holiday Fruitcake