I have been loving this beautiful spring weather, how about you? After this long winter it feels so incredibly wonderful to get outside! Soon it will be time to start planting my herb garden and picking out flowers, one of my favorite things to do. The trees are all blooming right now, I wish they would stay that way all year facial treatment!

Yet again this year I missed seeing the Cherry Blossoms in D.C. I swore last year we would make it downtown to see them. I thought it was so perfect this year that our Spring break even landed right when they were blooming. Well, when my friend and I loaded my car up last week with the kids and headed into D.C., our goal was the zoo or one of the national parks in D.C. After a stop for one child getting car sick, then running into construction everywhere we turned, and the gps taking us through all the residential areas, we finally pulled up to the zoo at 10:45 a.m. to find the parking lot completely full! As we passed the entrance to the National Zoo, we saw that it was packed! And there were still people coming from everywhere! Yes, I understand, it’s the National Zoo, but this is one of our favorite places to go, and I have never seen it this busy. Not even on the 4th of July! I guess everyone thought it was a great day to go Loan!

So we set forth to find one of the National parks in the area. We couldn’t remember the name of it so we Googled and well let’s just say it was supposedly “the best kept secret” in Georgetown, that led us to a park with no parking cheap designer handbags.

 

I was never any good with kids.  Which seems strange considering that I am the eldest amongst all my cousins, on both my mother’s and my father’s side.  You would think that I would be besieged with babysitting duties growing up.  But for some reason unknown to me, this was not the case.  My cousins grew up around me, and it only was when they were a little bit older that I was comfortable around them.  Babies did not enthrall me the way they did other girls, who would coo and carry them as if they were born to the task.  I took one of my toddler cousins to a children’s party once upon a time and I was so tense (don’t you dare fall off that swing!!) that I had a stiff neck and a stiff drink afterwards TV Mobile Stand.

I never held an infant until my own daughter was placed in my arms.

I hoped, fingers-crossed and salt-over-the-shoulder, all those nights when little C grew inside of me, that something magical would happen when I gave birth and I would turn into…a mother.  A mum.  A mama.  Someone who knew instinctively what to do.  Someone who effortlessly sat her happy and content baby on her hip while spouting things about the benefits of nursing and infant-led-weaning.  I wanted to trust all those well meaning, and seemingly more experienced, women who said that it would all come naturally Bordeaux wine.

What did come naturally (and with shocking force) was the complete and absolute (and often irrationally hormonal) love I have for these two little beings.  A love so powerful it borders on painful paranoia sometimes.  Sometimes I just want to stay home and smell them – that kind of weird love…that if it wasn’t your own kids somebody would be calling for a restraining order Flowers in Hong Kong delivery.
 

The original recipe uses chicken breast fillets and pan fries them, and then adds the sauce to the pan, letting it bubble away for a bit.  I didn’t have any breast fillets, but I always have chicken thighs hanging around so I used those.  And because I prefer cooking in the oven rather than on the hob (because ultimately I am lazy) I decided to bake them.  I’ll give myself plus points though because I used homemade marmalade (here’s the recipe).

I loved how this turned out.  Firstly, let me just say I could drink this sauce.  Just from the first lick I knew I would like the finished product.  It’s sweet, savory, sticky, and if you use the chili oil, can also have a bit of a kick.  Basically all that I gravitate towards in a sauce.  So, at that point, I was already sold.  Added to that, it’s a breeze to make and quite thrifty too if you consider chicken being one of the most affordable meats here.  This is definitely going to be made again…along with other variations: maybe with prawns next time (not so thrifty but we all deserve a splurge sometimes right??).

There are more dishes I’ve bookmarked to try, like the World Cup Chilean Chicken and the Sunny Mango Sponge cake.  What I like about this cookbook is its relaxed and approachable vibe.  It focuses on the basic concepts of healthy eating without being too stringent about it, especially important and appealing I think for moms who, between work and family, have hardly a moment to cook.  I also secretly like that it’s written by two Filipino moms – I love seeing more Filipinos out there, being published and sharing their great ideas with the world!