Michi Photostory

January 15, 2013

Lemon Brownies

I baked triple chocolate chips last Saturday but I wanted to eat something not so sweet so I baked Lemon Brownies.

It doesn't look good in the picture but I swear it is yummy!

I was delighted with the result; this is really lemony lemon brownies. I only used half lemon to make this recipe and I can really taste the lemon. It was funny because when I made calamansi cupcake, I can’t count how many calamansi I squeezed to produce 1/3 cup of calamansi juice.

My son did not taste my lemon brownies because according to him he likes brown brownies not yellow. Hahaha! He was expecting triple chocolate brownies. =D I love Contis Lemon Bars but after doing this, I realized that I can do it at home and mas tipid. It is yummy even without the tart glaze.

I got the recipe from Becky Charm's site.

The "Brownie" Batter

3/4 cup all-purpose flour {King Arthur All-Purpose Flour}

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt {Sea Salt}

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Tart Lemon Glaze

1 rounded cup powdered sugar

4 tablespoon lemon juice

8 teaspoons lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease/Spray an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with butter/cooking spray and set aside.

Zest and juice two small/large lemons; set aside. {whatever you have}

In the bowl of an electric mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the flour, sugar, salt, and softened butter until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice until combined. Pour into the flour mixture and beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Pour into baking dish and bake for 23-25 minutes, or until just starting to turn golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before glazing. Do not overbake, or the bars will be dry. {even with the yummy glaze}

When brownies are cooled completely, make the glaze...sift the powdered sugar, add lemon zest and juice, and whisk together all three ingredients. Spread 1/2 the glaze over the brownies with a rubber spatula. Let glaze set. Spread the remaining glaze over the bars, and let it set. This glaze does not harden like most. Cut into bars, and serve!

January 14, 2013

Paying Real Property Taxes in the Philippines

Owners of land and buildings have to pay Real Property Tax every year. A tax that you can pay annually or quarterly but I have no idea about quarterly since we are going to pay it every year. Last Friday was our first-time experience personally pay our Real Property Tax (RPT) because for the last two years we already issued post-dated checks to our Developer for our RPT.

We went to our municipal office to pay our RPT, we’re expecting long lines but it took us only a few minutes to pay for it. We just gave our Official Tax Receipt from our Developer and pay the fee. That’s it!

Note:
Real Property tax payments are made at the Land Tax Division of the City Treasurer’s Office (CTO).

Requirements:
Copy of latest Real Property Tax Declaration
Photocopy of latest Real Property Tax payment/Official Receipt

Taxes, Fees and Discounts Taxes:

Basic Real Property Tax = Fair Market Value x Assessment Level x Basic Tax Rate
Additional Tax (Special Education Fund) = Fair Market Value x Assessment Level x 1.00%

Fair Market Value: Based on the Schedule of Fair Market Values proposed by the City Assessor and approved by the Sangguniang Panlungsod.

Assessment Level:

On Land Type /Assessment Level

Residential / 20%
Agricultural / 40%
Commercial / 50%
Industrial / 50%

* Residential 1.5 %
* Commercial 2.0%

Discount and Penalties

Prompt payment (paid on or before the deadline) - 10% discount on basic tax, SEF
Advance payment (paid before January of the taxable year - 15% discount on basic tax, SEF
Failure to pay tax - 2% interest per month on the unpaid amount or fraction thereof, but total interest shall not exceed 36 months Source:

For more information click here

The discounts depend on where you live but it ranges from 10 to 20% or even higher in some places. The deadline for the discount varies too, it depends on where you live, some places until January only while other places until March. And because I want to save money, I want to pay for our RPT every December so I won't miss the discount.

Merienda at Banapple

Banapple is one of the restaurants that I really wanted to visit because I wanted to try their famous Banoffee Pie but as usual the branches are too far. I saw Banapple in Alabang Town Center when I redeemed my free J.Co Donuts last December so I promised myself that I will be back again and eat.

So when we went back to Alabang Town Center last Friday we had our merienda here. The place is quite small especially the table, nasisikipan ako. Once seated, they will give you the menu but you have to go to the cashier for your order.

We ordered Lasagna (P180), Buttermilk Pancake (P135), and of course Banoffee Pie (P95). I don’t understand why my son ordered a pancake for merienda but he really wanted it so we gave in.

Hubby loves the bread

When my order came, I took this photo and immediately tasted it and after few minutes…

Chocolate toppings were gone

…and my son was eating my banoffee pie. Thank God, his pancake arrived.

We enjoyed our food, Bannaple is not that expensive and the serving is big.

January 10, 2013

Macau: Hotel Sintra Review

One of my dilemmas while I was doing our Hongkong-Macau itinerary is our Macau accommodation. I know that there are so many hotels that I can choose from but I dislike the rates, it is too expensive for my budget.

I have few lists of different affordable hotel, hostels and guesthouses but the problem is they don’t have website and I’ve read some not so good reviews. Some people reserve a room through email but when they arrived in Macau they have no room. Some people even called long distance to confirm their booking but the hotel/hostel staff can’t speak English. I don’t want to experience that.

I was thinking of going to Macau on the day of our departure so I can save on accommodation but I don’t want to take risk like, what if there’s problem with ferry and we can’t travel to Macau. Are we going to enjoy our tour if we’re always in a hurry because we need to finish everything before our flight? So after several months of thinking I booked our hotel which is four months before the trip.

Hotel Sintra is one of the most recommended hotels in Macau so I booked here. It was an online reservation and there’s no down payment. You can reschedule or cancel your reservation two or three days before the trip.

Tip: If you are going to Macau, as much as possible don’t visit during weekend because the rate of the room is very expensive, the rate from Sunday to Thursday is cheaper than Friday to Saturday.

I did not know this before and our Macau trip falls on Friday and Saturday so the rate is high. Waah! If I knew this before I should book Clark to Macau and Hongkong to Clark.

Anyway, fast forward to our trip. We took TurboJet ferry from Hongkong to Macau; it was more or less one hour trip. Hotel Sintra has free shuttle bus unfortunately there was no shuttle bus at the time of our arrival.

Thank God for casino free shuttle, we rode Grand Lisboa free shuttle bus and from there we walk on our way to Hotel Sintra. We had a hard time looking for the location because people can’t speak English.

We’re all tired and exhausted and my son doesn’t want to walk anymore so ang daming buhat. After checked-in, my husband bought some food for dinner and we slept immediately.

Likes

1. Good location. It is located near New Yaohan shopping mall, commercial area and tourist spots so you can save on transportation.

2. Free shuttle bus.

3. Service is good.

4. Free wifi

5. The room is nice. The bed is comfy and we have four fluffy pillows.

6. Towels and toiletries replenished every day.

7. They have a free shuttle bus going to COD or City of Dreams.
8. Free Macau Booklet and Tourist Map

Dislikes

1. Shuttle bus is not always available. During our 2 nights and 2 days stay, I haven’t seen their shuttle bus so we have to walk to Grand Lisboa to avail free shuttle bus.

2. I paid our hotel upon arrival and I don’t understand why they have to charge my credit card again. I received SMS message that there are unusual transactions (floating charge) on my credit card.

Hotel Sintra

Address: Avenida de D.João IV, Macau

Tel: +853 2871 0111

Fax: +853 2856 7769

E-mail: rsvn@hotelsintra.com ( For reservation )

eo@hotelsintra.com ( For general )

Website: http://www.hotelsintra.com

Toll-Free Hotline:

Hong Kong: 800 969 145

China: 4001 20 0225

10 800 153 0025 (China Telecom)

10 800 853 0025 (CNC)

January 09, 2013

Nutella Brownies

Nutella is one of the staple spread in our pantry because my son loves this hazelnut spread so when I saw this Nutella Brownies recipe in Pinterest, I immediately repin it for my recipes to try. I’ve been baking for the last few weeks but I haven’t tried new recipe so I check my board in Pinterest. I baked Nutella Brownies yesterday and I was expecting delicious brownies for our merienda.

Here’s the recipe from ‘Instructable’ site

1 cup (280g) Nutella

2 Eggs

10 tbsp (62g) flour

Directions:

Put it in a bowl. Mash it up.

Pour into a pan or muffin tin.

Top with hazelnuts if you're feeling extra fancy. Bake at 350F (180C) for around 30 minutes (less time for cupcake form, more time if the centers aren't baked through).

Well, my first try was not successful; my Nutella Brownies became Nutella Cookie because it is hard as cookie. The taste is just ok, pwede na pagtiyagaan. =D One thing for sure, I should bake it in less than 20 minutes.

PHP25 Paper Bill Charge at Globe

Last December 31, we received our internet bill and I was shocked because there’s an additional P25 on our regular bill. I browsed the bill and I was really surprised when I saw the P25 paper bill charge. Waah! This was the first time that I encountered this, the client will pay an additional fee for the bill so I immediately told my husband to call Globe which our internet provider regarding this matter.

CS rep told my husband that they already sent a notification regarding the PHP25 paper bill charge. But I haven’t read any notification letter so we have no choice but to pay the P25 paper bill charge and switch to Paperless Billing.

I love the idea of saving paper but the client has really no choice but to switch unless you want to pay P25 every month. As I mentioned in my Green Living post ”Switching from paper bills to electronic billing is one of my goals to help the environment but the problem is sometimes I forget to pay on time because the ebill goes straight to my husband's inbox. Now, I have to write it on my planner so I won’t forget, or else I have to pay an additional P50 for the late payment fee. Everything has a charge in Globe Wi-Max.

How to sign up your account for Paperless Billing:

Text GLOBEGREEN to 2327.

Visit www.globe.com.ph/gogreen and follow the on-screen instructions.

Email your account number and your intention to subscribe to Paperless Billing to talk@globetel.com.ph.

Call your Talk2GLOBE Hotline at 211 toll-free from your Globe mobile or (02) 730-1000, toll-free from any Globe landline. You can also visit the nearest Globe Store.

Source

I tried the website but there are no on-screen instructions so my husband just called Globe. As of this moment, most of our bills are paperless except for water, electricity and two postpaid lines.

January 08, 2013

How to Get to Macau From Hong Kong

When I was still starting to travel, I would just book a round-trip flight and tour one city or one country, but now I’m learning to visit two or more places. It started last year when we celebrated our wedding anniversary in Bacolod, Iloilo, and Guimaras. It was a four-day trip, but I was able to visit three places, so when I booked our flight in Hong Kong, I booked Clark to Hong Kong, then I’ve made another booking from Macau to Clark because I know I can go to Macau via ferry.

Traveling in two or more places will give you more savings, we are aware that travel tax and terminal fee are not cheap so if ever you will go out of the country, as much as possible try to visit two or more countries or spend more days in that country.

I realized that when we went to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, we didn’t even have two whole days to tour the country, and if I just book a 5-day trip, I can still visit Brunei because there’s a ferry from Kota Kinabalu going to Brunei.

Anyway, there are three ferry terminals in Hong Kong going to Macau: Sheung Wan, Tsim Sha Tsui, and the Airport. Since we are from Hong Kong Disneyland, we took the ferry from Sheung Wan Ferry Pier to Macau Ferry Pier.

How to get to Sheung Wan Ferry Pier:

Take the MTR from Disneyland to Sunny Bay, then Sunny Bay MTR station to Hong Kong MTR station on the Tung Chung Line. Once off the station, walk towards Central Station, take the Island Line to Sheung Wan Station, and look for the Shopping Center where you will find Sheung Wan Ferry Pier.

It was a long walk, especially if you have kids in tow. Since we’re going to leave Hong Kong, I refunded our money on the Octopus Card.

There are several travel agencies in Sheung Wan Ferry Pier where you can buy your ticket, but I bought my ticket at the TurboJet Counter.

$HK185 adult

$HK170 child

I bought our economy ticket past 6PM, and our trip is at 6:45PM, so we immediately went to the gate. We’re really walking fast because we’re afraid to miss our ferry. I filled out the immigration form and prayed while waiting for our turn. Honestly, I still feel nervous every time I need to pass an Immigration Officer because I’ve read a lot of not-so-good experiences with the IO. It was like an amazing race trip because I had no idea how far the gate was, but we’re not late.

Immigration form

January 06, 2013

Hong Kong: Café de Coral

I don’t really have list of must try restaurant in Hong Kong because I know we will just it wherever and whenever we’re hungry but there is one fastfood that we frequently visit whenever we’re is TST area. During our first day, we ate our lunch in McDonalds and for dinner my husband bought some food in one local restaurant which I didn’t enjoy.

Prior to the trip I’ve read so much about Café de Coral so the following day I searched for Tsim Sha Tsui branches and fortunately we found it. Since then, we did not try other restaurant in TST because we’re satisfied with the taste and price of Café de Coral.

It is a self-service restaurant, you have to order and pay in one counter and move to other counters to get your order. I always choose the table beside or few steps away from the food counter so my husband will not have a hard time in transferring our food to our table (one tray per order).

Here are the foods that we have tried. I forgot the exact prices but I’m sure it is not over $HK30 per order.

Café de Coral

1/F, Albion Plaza, 2-6 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

23691210; 27236361

7:00AM-09:30PM

Tsim Sha Tsui B1

January 05, 2013

Oven Roasted Pork

It’s not a secret here that I’m a meat eater and I love lechon so when I’ve learned that I can cook Lechon Belly at home, I immediately tried it. I served it on our Media Noche.

Pork belly

Salt

Garlic Powder

Lemon Grass

Soy Sauce

Oil

I bought less than 2 kilos of pork belly. I rub it with salt and garlic powder according to taste. Place the lemon grass in a baking dish and place the pork belly on top of it. Put some soy sauce on top of the pork belly for color.

Bake it at 350F for 1 hour and 30 minutes, brush the pork belly skin with oil every 30 minutes. After 1 hour and 30 minutes, increase the temperature to 450F and bake for another 20-30 minutes.

I was proud and happy with the result, the skin is really crispy but I know that the taste is not yet perfect. The lemon grass flavor is overpowering so next time I will just use salt, pepper, and garlic. I cooked Lechon Paksiw from the leftover.

Feel free to share your oven-roasted pork recipe.

January 04, 2013

Baked Macaroni

My husband’s family had a family reunion last December 31, I was having a hard time thinking what to bring and I don’t want to go to grocery just to buy ingredients, I hate the long lines so I just check my pantry and decided to make Baked Macaroni and Cheesy Garlic Bread. Pasta is not really my favorite but I always have this in my pantry because it so easy to cook especially if we have nothing to eat at home and for emergency like this “potluck”.

I’ve been using this recipe for years already, recipe from Quickmelt Cheese.

450g elbow macaroni

½ cup butter

1 tsp minced garlic

½ cup chopped onion

½ kl giniling

1 cup ham

½ cup red bell pepper

2 cup tomato sauce

½ cup chicken broth

1 tsp salt

Pepper to taste

2 tbsp sugar

1 cup quickmelt cheese (I used mozzarella cheese)

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. In a sauce pan, melt butter and sauté the rest of ingredients except cheese. Allow mixture to simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

3. Toss noodles with prepared sauce. Place in an oven-proof baking dish and sprinkle with grated cheese on top.

4. Bake at 180C pre heated over for 15-20 minutes or until cheese melts.

January 03, 2013

Sonya’s Garden

Sonya’s Garden is always on my bucket list, I really wanted to visit this popular destination in Alfonso, Cavite but I always have a second thought. I always check their menu online so I’m not sure if I will enjoy the food, I always say this; I’m a meat-eater. I know there are other food choices but the eat all you can rate is not worth it if I cannot eat or taste everything. A breakfast buffet would be fine so if ever we have a budget for an overnight stay, I will surely visit this again.

Anyway, Out of the blue, we visited Sonya’s Garden because my grandmother-in-law wanted to buy massage oil for her daughter so off we went. We do not know exactly the location so we used GPRS. It was quite far from Tagaytay, Rotonda. Surprisingly, parking was difficult because there’s a wedding event and of course tourists who visit the place. We just made a quick trip to their Country Store and Panaderia. We bought Hispanic bread, cheese hopia, and raisin bread. Do not forget to buy Hispanic bread or Spanish Bread; it is indeed yummy, soft, and flavorful bread. We ate it on our way home.

Sonya's Garden

Barangay Buck Estate, Alfonso, Cavite, Philippines

(near the vicinity of Tagaytay City, Philippines)

For reservations: +63-9175329097 / +63-9175335140 / +63-9175231080

email: info@sonyasgarden.com

January 02, 2013

CrossWinds Swiss Luxury Resort

Tagaytay is our quick getaway destination if we have nothing to do at home or if we want food trip. But I never been in CrossWinds Swiss Luxury Resort, I have no idea about this place till I read the post of Anney in Blog ni Ako site. I told my husband about this and we’re supposed to visit this place last Christmas after we went to Our Lady of Lourdes Church but traffic is everywhere and we don’t want to be stuck in traffic so we decided to visit some other time.

Then few days after Christmas we visited CrossWinds Swiss Luxury Resort. My grandmother-in-law was here for a visit so my husband decided to bring her in Tagaytay. Last year, we brought her to Nuvali and Picnic Grove.

The place was indeed beautiful and it seems that you’re transported in other place. Actually when I posted my photos in my Facebook, people thought that I was in Baguio, maybe because of the Pine trees.

We checked the Christmas Store and we’re asking if they offer discounts since tapos na Christmas but there are no discounts because this store is open all year round. We forgot to visit the Santa House.

Next destination is Sonya’s Garden.

Click here for our overnight stay in Crosswinds

Klook.com

Crosswinds
Brgy. Iruhin Central Calamba Road

Tagaytay City, Philippines

Phone: +632.856.9601 (Mon - Fri; 9am - 7pm)

Phone: +632.623.7084 (Mon-Sunday; 9am-7pm)

Fax:+632.828 9141

Cell: +63917.569.6280 (Saturday – Sunday)

E-mailreservations@crosswindsresortsuites.com

December 27, 2012

Asian PsorClub Christmas Party

Christmas season is indeed a stressful season and stress is not good to me so I don’t attend all invites that I received. As much as I want to attend I have to prioritize things and attending events is not my top priority. I don’t want to waste my time travelling from one place to another because of the traffic.

This Christmas season, I only attended two events and one of them is Asian PsorClub Christmas Party. I missed the November get together because of my last minute preparation for our Hongkong-Macau trip.

It was just a simple get together but we had fun eating and singing. (oops, I did not sing.) We brought exchange gift and white elephant gift.

Photos from our Facebook Group.

December 26, 2012

Unexpected

Christmas is over and I’m pretty sure some of you need to turn on their work mode. As I mentioned in my other post, I was so busy and I really had no time to go to the malls to buy gifts and groceries for our Noche Buena food so I ended up giving homemade gifts and cooking whatever was available in our kitchen.

For our Noche Buena, I cooked roast chicken, spaghetti and no-bake cheesecake (no blueberry, hehe!). We don’t have a yearly tradition as long as we are together, that is enough for us. My son slept as early as 6PM and had no plan of waking up, I woke him up for our dinner but he wanted to sleep so hubby and I ate and slept, no more Noche Buena and opening of gifts because my son was sleeping.

The following day, we went to church and visited my in-laws to give our gifts then we went home to open our gifts. Yes, I have gifts too, I received unexpected gifts from my mommy friends in school so this time I have several gifts to open compared to my past Christmases when I only need a few minutes to open my gifts.

Thanks to Mel of Mel’s Hidden Passions for the gift. It was really unexpected. Thanks for my Starbucks planner and pen.

Lastly, my son showed me his first Christmas card and I asked him “Is this for mommy or daddy?” he said, no, it’s for Ethan. Ok fine, he doesn’t want to give this Christmas card to us. =)

Happy Holiday!

“Christmas isn’t just about giving gifts, it’s about making other people happy, making them feel God’s presence through our existence” - anonymous

December 22, 2012

Top 10 Reasons Holiday Makers Overspend

December is not my favorite month because this is the month that we overspend because we have to buy gifts, decorations, clothes, and food for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. December is also the busiest month for my husband because of three Christmas Parties that he has to attend and work that he needs to finish. Call me scrooge but I don’t like how people celebrate and tend to forget the real reason for this season.

I must agree that Christmas is not one giant party. Sharing this message from Francis Kong site.

For to us, a child is born, to us, a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Notice this, like a child He was born of a virgin, as a son He was given.

The manger gave way to the cross many years later when He gave His life for us so that we may be saved.

And this is why the real meaning of Christmas is that the Savior has come but the real meaning of Christianity is not the manger but the empty tomb.

No, it’s not about the gifts and the parties, it’s not about cash flow, it’s not about stocks inventory and it’s not about our failing economy.

It’s all about putting accepting the Prince of Peace and allowing Him to reign in our hearts so that we may spend the rest of eternity with Him.

Then and only then do we enjoy Christmas.