Category Archives: I LOVE CEBU!

Crab Fried Rice

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The husband has been bugging me to make Crab Fried Rice and I thought I’ll share with you my quick and easy recipe.

You will need:

  • 1 1/2 cup day-old cooked rice
  • 1 cup cooked crab meat
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 tbsp Fish sauce or Patismansi (fish sauce with Philippine Lemon)
  • 1-2 cloves of chopped garlic
  • 1/4 cup chopped spring onions & carrots (optional)
  • pepper to taste
  • canola or olive oil

Use rice that’s been cooked ahead instead of newly cooked steaming hot rice from the rice cooker which will yield a mushy fried rice. The drier rice will yield a fluffy fried rice.

Most crab meat from the grocery are pre-cooked but taste it to determine how much fish sauce you will need later. Using a very hot wok or pan, pour oil and sauté the garlic and crab meat quickly. Right before I add in the rice, quickly stir in the carrots, half of the fish sauce and pepper  for a few seconds. If you’re in the Philippines or have a Filipino or oriental store nearby, try to find Patismansi. It has a better taste than ordinary fish sauce.

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Add in the rice and stir. Make room at the side of the wok to scramble the egg (chefs do it in the middle of the wok. I can’t seem to do that trick + I’m not a chef , tee hee!).  Add a drizzle of oil and crack the egg. Scramble the egg and slowly incorporate the egg to the fried rice. Work your way from the outside and gradually stir in some rice. The first time I did this, I incorporated the egg altogether with the rice even if it was not well scrambled. It was a disaster! If you don’t feel comfortable doing this trick, you can always scramble the egg separately and add it in the fried rice.

Add the remaining fish sauce and season with pepper to taste.  Turn off heat and stir in the green onions. You may garnish with a few more spring onions or cilantro leaves.

Super quick and easy Crab Fried Rice.

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Last-Minute DIY Projects

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After a series of seven days of workshops, we capped off the orientation for the new hires with a really cool activity. It was a birthday party-inspired Culminating activity. Instead of the usual and very formal (and boring) activities to formally welcome them, we thought of doing this instead. However, we only had a couple of hours to set up and half a day to plan. What can you do with half a day of prep? Scramble ;-)

I’ve been notorious for doing last-minute DIYs lately. I seem to find myself in situations that require me to be resourceful and efficient.

I thought of making some really easy DIY projects for this birthday party-themed activity:

1. Lollipop Topiary

2. Candy Tower

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Since it was children’s party-inspired, we had candies, lollipops, cupcakes, etc. We used baking cups and filled it with lots of candies and arranged it on the Candy Tower. The Candy Tower was a very easy project and since it was made on the 11th hour, I had no choice but to use whatever was available in my craft supplies. I only had gift wrapping paper to cover the sides and bottom. Couldn’t even find my pinking shears so I just made crude scallops on the edges. But I think it came out pretty.

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I had a lot of birthday party decorations sitting in my tiny craft room. This was strawberry shortcake and Dora themed-decorations that I bought from Party City in Baltimore. I kept them and was put to good use yesterday.

Our team did a really great job preparing everything from the AVP to the food, loots, decorations and our most awesome dance number (wink *wink).

The Paper Pompoms were very last-minute but tied everything together for the theme.

A birthday party won’t be complete without loot bags. It was a simple Dora paper bag that we cut to look like t-shirts and we had the participant’s faces on to a superhero caricature of themselves. How cool is that?

Who says office workshops and culminating activities have to be so boring?

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Organizing Jewelry-making Tools with Vintage Tins

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The husband’s law books has taken over the tiny craft / office room (sob! sob!). Thus, I find myself beading and crafting in any space I can find around the house. Sometimes in front of the TV, on the dining table most days or even outside the house in the late afternoons.  I have to carry my supplies all over the house and it’s a mess, to say the least.

Ok, I hate to admit this but I have become quite the craft supplies hoarder. Over the years, I’ve learned new and interesting crafts and have collected quite a number of craft supplies. They have in fact taken a life of their own with my craft organizers overflowing with stuff. Yikes!

Organizing and decorating has become a bit of a challenge. Recently, I’ve been looking for something to help me organize my jewelery-making pliers. I’ve seen a lot of inspirations on Pinterest and almost tried installing the magnetic knife strips but thought I didn’t want something permanent like that on the wall. The organizer racks or bench are very pricey online. Some retail as much as $300! it’s not only pricey, I’m not too keen on the industrial design of these racks. I wanted something I could carry around, but it has to be pretty.  It should be something that can be an organizer but pretty as a decoration as well (and not cost me $300!) .

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Here’s my idea: Vintage-inspired Tins!

I like the versatility of these cans. I can use them as decorations and organizers all together.

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What do you guys think? What other ideas can you think of to organize jewelry-making pliers?

Updating the Memory Box

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I have about a week more to go before dragging myself back to work. I’m enjoying my summer vacation too much I  wonder if I could ever get the strength to wake up early again.

While on this long summer break, my diet seems to be in a bit of a vacation too. Yes, diet just went out the window  this entire break. I’ve been feeling kinda sluggish and thought I was pregnant. We’ve been trying and really praying for another baby…probably in God’s own time it will happen.

Not to feel too depressed about the whole thing, I took out my little girl’s memory box. It was actually the husband who insisted that we create a Memory Box for our five-year old.

When the husband was still trying to pursue me, he showed me an old heavy box full of stuff from his childhood. He even  had his school ID in kindergarten! He had pictures of his 4-year-old self making silly faces, an article from the newspaper with his picture and name on it as a contestant in a Spelling Bee Competition..precious, precious memories to last him a lifetime.

Looking at him with his memory box and smiling from ear-to-ear, I said to my single-ready-to-get-married self that I was going to marry this man with the memory box! Tee! Hee! He had me at ‘memory box’.

Please do’nt stop reading, I know it’s too cheesy and too over-the-top but I will stop getting too melodramatic. Trust me, it’ll get better in the next sentences.

Fast forward today, our little lady has her memory box too. We had actually changed it to a bigger and more sturdy box. We’ve kept her kindergarten class picture, her first school ID (too cute!) her pretty onesies when she was just 3 months old… Ah, so many keepsakes that bring smiles to our faces.

Memories to last us a lifetime.

Do you keep a Memory Box?

Sensory Tubs: A Handful of Fun

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As an Early Childhood Educator in the Philippines and a Certified Special Educator in the US, I’ve always believed that sensory activities provide children with another meaningful avenue for learning. Though we have a different curriculum here in the Philippines or in your school, you can always decide to incorporate learning centers in your classroom to provide for more opportunities for learning. More valuable in fact than having four to five year olds sit and listen to the teacher for more than 15 minutes. Trust me, not a good idea for these young children.

I know I haven’t updated my posts on teacher resources and some of you have in fact  emailed about teaching strategies I employ in my classroom. Here’s s peak at one of my corners.

I have a Science and Sensory Corner and that’s where I placed my sensory table/tub. I try to use different materials every quarter (operant word: TRY). My classroom does not give me the luxury of space to have as many centers as I want to but that’s never an excuse. This center should be part of your classroom. a MUST!

Cognitive Development

Sensory tubs or sensory activities promote cognitive development. While playing with the materials in the tub, they develop math skills and science concepts.

Language Development

It promotes language development too. Sometimes it’s free choice for the kids in the centers but most days, I use the pocket chart and popsicle sticks to rotate them (more of that on another post). Most of my kids want to be in the science center because of the sensory tub. I’ve noticed that they talk amongst themselves, negotiating, sometimes arguing while playing in the centers and thus promoting language development.

Fine Motor Development

There’s a lot of scooping, pouring happening in the tub and that’s what they really enjoy most. What they don’t realize is that while all the pouring is going on, they learn pre-writing skills.  Be prepared however to have spills on the floor every so often. Read: EVERYDAY! :)

Creativity

Some days when there’s not much checking to be done, I sit with the little kids and it’s such a joy to witness young children at play. Some days I hear them “scooping ice cream” and selling it to their playmate. When in fact it was all just sand or rice. This promotes creativity which builds their confidence.

The Materials

I prefer using organic materials usually food like rice in my tubs. I’ve used macaroni pasta but the corn meal and rice were their favorites. I put in the beach toys that came with the tub and some tiny cups and bowls.

That picture above was taken on the last days of school this year. Notice that the tub isn’t anymore half-filled with corn meal. You’ll have to deal with spills. I placed rubber mats under it to make the children comfortable while playing.

Will share more of my classroom centers in the next posts.