Figs for Bri Fundraiser

Hi everyone
Even though I've never met Bri, I stumbled upon her blog, Figs with Bri through Wandering Chopsticks foodblog (who's linked through San Diego's MMM-Yoso ). Even though I've never met Wandering Chopsticks either, Bri's story appealed to me. It's for a good cause and also one that I've been dealing with personally these past few months, breast cancer.

Yeah you heard that right. That is a BIGASS reason why I haven't been blogging as faithfully. Hearing something like THAT made me realize I had more important things to take care of instead of blogging. I'll be honest with you, it FKG sucks especially since I'm so young (just turned 39, but I look and feel young!), but cancer is indiscriminate towards age and doesn't care who it hits. The most important thing is that the cancer was caught early enough and it was treated. Having one less boob is a small price to pay for having my life. They say cancer changes your life and that it has. As cliched as it sounds, I am really looking at my priorities and life in a more reflective manner and being as positive as I can about this experience. That's my only choice because I can't afford to wallow in negative thoughts.

Since the "news", I've taken time off work since my diagnosis in late March (I'm in Stage 2-A). I had my mastectomy on my left breast in mid-April (yeah, happy late birthday to me!) and and have just completed my third round of chemotherapy a few days ago. I have one more treatment to go, then it's five years of Tamoxifen and hopefully no more of this bitch of a cancer.

Had my head shaved last month because it sucked seeing my hair all over the place. I had TC with me and the trooper that she is, took photos of her mommy getting her head sheared. No more cool rocker chick haircut. Now I look like GI Jane. But not as buff( I wish!)! Please, no Mrs. Clean or Sinead o'Connor jokes! I'd like to be as hot as Persis Khambatta (Lt. Ilia in the Star Trek - The Motion Picture, 1979) or Natalie Portman in "V is for Vendetta". Although I have 3 different wigs to play around with (one is black and looks like my old hair, the other two are dark brown - a bit of a conservative "Posh" bob and what I call my very tamed Robert Smith of the Cure shag), I rock the bald look at home. I hope my hair grows in to at least Billy Idol length by the time I plan to start work again, which I haven't yet determined the date.

Physically and mentally I'm doing pretty good, but I haven't really written about my experiences on my blog since I am normally a very private person. However, I wanted to somewhat break my silence about my condition to help Bri. This blog will still be about food and quirky things that amuse me, but I really need to expend my time and energy on healing, and spending quality time with my family especially my daughter. I won't be posting too much of my personal matters here unless I feel the need to. (update on 7/9 - I've broken out of my shell and posted a few newer posts about my experiences with cancer...guess I wanted to vent!)

But enough about me, and more about Bri. Hopefully foodbloggers out here or any random readers, especially in San Diego can help Bri reach her goal of raising money for her alternative treatments. She's almost at her goal - 97%! (update on 7/9 - Looks like the fundraiser was successful! She has surpassed her goal of 100%, which is EXCELLENT! However, the fundraiser will still go on to July 15, so it's not too late to donate for Bri!)

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This is an appeal on behalf of a group of food bloggers who are friends of Briana Brownlow @ Figs With Bri.

Bri was diagnosed with breast cancer two and half years ago. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and two years of relatively good health later, the cancer is back. It has metastasized to other parts of her body. At the age of 15, Bri lost her 41-year old mother to the disease. Now, she’s waging her own war against breast cancer. More about it here.

She is going through intensive chemo and other treatments and needs to focus single-mindedly on healing and finding what treatment works best for her. Her health insurance, unfortunately, does not cover holistic alternatives which she would like to try. Bri and her husband Marc have enough on their plates right now in addition to worrying about her medical bills.

The team organising the JUNE edition of CLICK at Jugalbandi has organised a fundraiser to help Bri and her family meet her out-of-pocket medical costs for ONE YEAR.

CLICK is a monthly theme-based photography contest hosted by Jugalbandi. This month’s theme is: YELLOW for Bri

Yellow is the colour of hope. Through the work of the LiveStrong Foundation, it has also come to signify the fight against cancer.

The entries can be viewed HERE. The deadline for entries is June 30, 2008. The fundraiser will extend until July 15, 2008.

The target amount is 12,000 U.S. dollars. We appeal to our fellow bloggers and readers to help us achieve this. Bri deserves a chance to explore all options, even if her insurance company thinks otherwise.

There’s a raffle with exciting prizes on offer. After viewing the list, you may make your donation HERE or at the Chip-In button on any participating site.

Your donation can be made securely through credit card or Pay Pal and goes directly to Bri’s account.

This month’s photo contest also has some prizes. Details HERE.

You can support this campaign by donating to the fundraiser, by participating in CLICK: the photo event, and by publicising this campaign.

Updates coming up

I haven't been able to blog in awhile. Lots of things on my plate.

Updates: Winner of Top Chef was Stephanie (yay!). And everyone thought the judges were going for Richard Blaise.

Purse unload post(for C) -- pictures are included in this post.

Eclipse Chocolat visit from last month -- need to upload and post

Fundraiser for Bri (she's a foodblogger and it's a good cause and I will post the info soon) and some other stuff to ramble about.

That's it for now.

Purse Unload.

Chrissie from Manitoulin, this is for you.

This is my Tokidoki Trasporto Stellina. Tokidoki for LeSportsac is the Brand. Trasporto was one of the Fall 2007 prints which feature all of the different characters using various modes of transportation. Stellina refers to the bag style. I like the Stellina because it's boxy and it has two outer pockets where I can put my cell phone and other assorted junk. I started collecting Tokidoki a little late. The collaboration with LeSportsac began in 2006, but I bought my first one in late 2007. In addition to my Trasporto, I also have Tutti and Vacanze (the last print produced) in Stellina, as well as the Famiglia in Campeggio, the Adios Star and L'amore in Ciao Ciao, and the Adios Star in Bella. I try to rotate the bags and mix it up, but I usually end up using my Stellinas. The interior lining of the Trasporto is arancia (orange).
Here is a pair of earrings (which I made) found in one of the outer pockets. The top two beads are Czech glass faceted rondelles. The top is a darker purple, the middle bead is light amethyst and the bottom is white glass. I copied this style from an Anthropologie design which they were selling for $38. Yeah-huh! Overpriced! Their design had 4 beads and the wire components were gold plated, but I made mine with 3 beads and silver plated findings. The crap in my bag:

1st and Top row - $5 off coupon for Fresh & Easy and my checkbook cover.

2nd row - my cell phone, my cheap ass Mossimo wallet from Target, the earrings we just saw, my Ugly Doll mini journal, sunblock and hand sanitizer gel.

3rd row - Vaseline lip therapy, my MAC Media lipstick, my other MAC lipstick which is Dark Side, my Sanrio Chococat mirror compact, one of those Flash devices, my Palladio black liquid eyeliner (I rock the cat eye look on the top lid), and my car keys.

4th and bottom row - my lipliner sharpener, and 2 lipliners in dark burgundy/plum shades

In additon, found in the other pockets were an Express coupon which I never used, a paper reminding me of errands, my skull pen, my flag pen, gum, my triple AAA and library card, and lastly, a $10 off coupon for South Sun Beads, where I currently feed my monthly bead obsession.

And lastly, my office and house keys which are attached to the carabiner stretch cord found in every Tokidoki bag.

Once I load the Eclipse Chocolat pictures, I will post them separately.

Dale Talde on Top Chef

For those of you that are following Bravo's Top Chef Season 4, there is a Filipino American contestant, Dale Talde, on the show. When I first saw him on the season premiere, I knew automatically that he was a Pinoy brethren and had high hopes for him. Unfortunately, like some of the chefs this season (and past), he seems like an arrogant douchebag, but that could be how he was edited on the show. In any case, I think a certain amount of arrogance and braggodocio comes with the territory if you are at the top of your game. Not to say that it's okay to be a douche! I don't know if Dale will win this season. Looks like the judges are salivating over Richard, the guy with the mohawk and culinary gadgets. I still hope that Dale comes out on top (or near the top) and brings more attention fo Filipino cuisine.

The other night, the contestants had to do a dessert for one of the quickfire challenges. Dale's dessert was Halo Halo, which is one of my favorite desserts as well. If you blinked, you would have missed the by-line describing its ingredients. I surfed the web and saw a blog post that had the recipe and a screen capture. See Dale Talde's version of Halo Halo here.

I almost missed seeing his dessert but my ears perked up when he said he made something from his (our) culture. The screen briefly flashed a few seconds of his dessert, then moved on to the next contestant. He didn't win but was in the top three that night. It was just a tiny glimpse of how starved I am to see Filipino food represented positively on TV. And I'm not talking about that Andrew Zimmern who ate disgusting mangrove worms and stir fried crickets on the Philippines episode of his Bizarre Foods show!!! That's not typical Filipino food!

It would be nice to see my ancestral homeland represented not by mangrove worm eating natives but by downhome folks in the provinces who make excellent food with fresh ingredients from their gardens and farms. Too bad the King aka Anthony Bourdain isn't going to the Philippines. The winner of a recent video challenge to be Bourdain's traveling buddy went to a contestant who will take the King to Saudi Arabia. In any case, see the Philippines video entry here made by a Filipino American from NY.

Movie Contest

Due to my Cliff Clavenesque skills in the pompous spewing of all things trivial and pop culture , I have won a movie contest from my friend's blog. Cool and nifty! Thanks C!

The funny thing is, I've never seen any of these movies in its entirety. I just have a propensity to memorize movie titles, years/dates, actors/actresses, etc. The genre of the movies are also not my cup of tea. I'm not into weepy, tear jerkers or chick flicks.

Other than this pleasant surprise as well as turning another year older last week, my life has been filled with a lot of surprises lately as well. Some pleasant and some not so pleasant.

For other news, courtesy of Superman, I am currently reading Starman, a recent incarnation of a Golden Age comic hero. I read the first graphic novel compilation, Sins of the Father (Issues 0-5) in a little over an hour. I am currently on the second book, Night and Day and will finish that shortly after signing off this blog post. So far, I like the story line. The art work is okay. I have a lot of reading to catch up to, such as the Palomar - The Hearbreak Soup Stories compilation by Los Bros Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame (Fantagraphics Books), the series Concrete and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman - Endless Nights compilation.

More on the Sandman here.

Newest favorite movies:

Shaun of the Dead (funny as hell!)

Hot Fuzz (even better than Shaun of the Dead)

The History Boys (which has a great soundtrack by the way!)

Would like to see:

Run Fat Boy Run and

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Gotta go and finish reading the 2nd book of Starman!

2 Year Blogaversary

Wow, it's the 2 Year Blogaversary of Pink Candles at Ridgemont High! Two years of online blathering on various topics like food, recipes, things that I like and what bugs me and whatever else...

I'm finally on Spring Break but it's already halfway over. Had a fun time at the zoo with Lotous, her beautiful baby S, my daughter and Elphie. No swinging zebra penises today! Ha ha. We're going to do the Wild Animal Park on Friday.

More posts to come when more time permits.

Fork & Spoon

I blogged recently about my collection of Filipino wooden fork and spoon decorations. This is my favorite pair of all. This lovely pair is about 3 feet long, maybe a tiny bit more. I got it for $8 at a thrift store 8 years ago. It is hanging in our kitchen, next to my poster of the Philippine Basketry Exhibit from UCLA's Fowler Museum (1998), and above our rice dispenser, one of our favorite wedding gifts. This is near our patio door by the way. Superman painted this for me several years ago. I just love the colors...Red, yellow, orange and gold...
This is the fork. In fact, you could see a bit of it behind me in my profile photos. I love how Superman incorporated the limbs of the figure (demon) into the tines of the fork...The counterpart spoon...For those of you that know Supe's drawing style, this is CLASSIC Superman. With more vibrant colors.

This pair is a great conversation piece, especially among the non Filipinos. "What the hell is that!" they're proably thinking. Kidding. Why are they so big anyways? As a kid, I used to be kind of embarassed about these types of decorations, now I see it as a welcoming sight in our house. I've embraced our culture's love of these gargantuan decorations and see it as a sign of hospitality. The kitchen is the center of all activity and it's only appropriate that I hung this here.

Aren't the arrows a Prince-like touch?

Detail of face on the spoon:

I'm happy to have a piece of Supe's original art work in our home. Thankgs again man, I know it took a long time to sand all that down too!

I'll be posting more pics of the other forks and spoons in my collection from time to time.

Last Chance on the Stairway

Duran Duran never made a video for this song, but this is my FAVORITE Duran Duran song, from their album, "Rio". Nice tasty and funky bass here.

Whoever this guy is on YouTube, he's really good with that bass! Poor John Taylor. He never got the props he deserved for his bass playing. Being in a pretty boy band kind of overshadowed any musical skills he had.

Various food items

Here are some citrus fruits waiting to be eaten...at 12 o'clock, one of our freakish lemons from our backyard. Our tree finally had a lot of fruit this year. At 5 o'clock, tangerines and kumquats. The kumquats were FREE from Bert's co-worker (backyard too). At 8 o'clock, more kumquats and one lone kalamansi fruit from our pathetic tree. The kumquats are surprisingly good. I never knew you ate the SKIN, which is very sweet. The fruit itself is very tart! Yikes!
Kumquats...

These are North Italian prune plums. They are quite small and were $1.99 lb at NPP. These 3 were about 80 cents. TC liked them! I never had a chance to try it. Will buy more next time.

Never tried this brand before. I was happy to see that NPP had Filipino (or shall I say "Philipino") food items in their freezer section.

The most expensive item we bought at NPP was this:

Magnolia brand ice cream! This size was $8.99. It's $1.00 less at Seafood City but we save $$$ on the gas to drive to National City since NPP is just 2 minutes away.

These are tea biscuis from Turkey:

They are dry and twice baked. I ended up slathering Nutella on these crackers. The crackers you see below are Marias biscuits from Spain. These are so good with Nutella as well as that caramel spread you can buy at Latin food stores.

Dry biscuit:

Bert bought some Lavash to eat with a spread made by his Russian co-worker's wife:

These would make good wraps for salads and sandwiches:

This is not really the mustard. It's just the jar used to hold this incendiary vampire repellent known as Russian salsa. Okay, that's not what it's actually called, but you could do a number on someone by breathing on them after eating this...

Can you see the garlic pieces? That's chopped, raw garlic. There are also tomatoes and onions in there. I'm not sure what else is in it, but it's pretty good. It smells quite strong.

Mmmm....

Yeah, a lazy post, but I wanted to crank it out.

Tomodachi

I'm finally posting this on 3/5 instead of the February date you'll see at the bottom of the post. It was raining that weekend. After church with Bert's mom, we went out to lunch at the local sushi place in Otay Mesa, Tomodachi. This is located right off the 805 and Palm Avenue exit. It's behind the KFC and next to a bagel place. Here are some reviews from Yelp.
This place has been around for about 3 years. The sushi guy is the parent of one of TC's classmates. Didn't realize it until I saw him at a school function. Anyways, if you are a sushi connoisseur or are expecting really high quality stuff, this isn't the place to go. It's middle of the road and the prices are decent. When we got there, the place was empty. When we left about 1 hour + later, more people showed up. One girl had her 18th birthday party celebration there that day.The waitresses are nice and the service was attentive. It's quite large in this place. They remodeled the booths on the perimeter recently. You can't see them in this photo, but the booths are now elevated on a platform.

When you walk in, all along the left side of the wall are dozens of photos of the customers and their families. My sis and her friend are up there somewhere. Many of the rolls and specials are named after their customers.

You could see the booths on the far wall in this pic. They are elevated. Before, it was just a regular table with chairs. The booths add a nice touch. You also get a stupendous view of the cars exiting the offramp from the 805 to Palm. Nice. I remember, this used to be a haircut place.

For starters, we had the edamame, which was a nice warm snack for a cold day. Plus, we wanted to eat something green and healthy.

This was the Salmon Skin roll. But you know what, they didn't really have any salmon skin in there. It was salmon and no crunchy salty skin!

I believe this was the shrimp tempura roll...eh...not that great. It didn't even have the shrimp tail sticking out on one piece. : (

Iceberg salad with ginger dressing...

TC's Beef Sukiyaki rice bowl. This was a regular item, not a kid's meal. We knew it was too much for her to finish, but we wanted her to have salad plus vegetables instead of some fried crap. This ended up being her breakfast and part of dinner the next day. She even liked the tofu. There's a ringing endorsement for you.

This was the Special California roll. It actually came without the fish eggs on top. I had to ask for it after I realized it was missing. I thought they served the eggs wrapped on the outer layer of rice. So, they just dumped a lot of it on top of each piece, which was fine with me! More masago for me!

Bert's eel roll. I'm not a fan of eel, so I stayed away from this:

This was the Seafood Bento which Bert and his mom ordered. The fried stuff you see were fried fish, scallops (one that I bit into was so watery, gross), shrimp and those fake crab sticks. Disappointing. There were 2 kinds of pickled vegetables, a tartar sauce, rice and salad.

Anyways, that's Tomodachi. They have other items on the menu, the standard stuff like Bento Boxes, the regular rolls of sushi you see everywhere plus teriyaki this and that. Regular Japanese fast food type stuff but in the local neighborhood. A nice option if you don't want to eat at a burger joint, a taco place (and there are a lot down here in my old neighborhood) or Filipino food.

Answer to Greenbox #12

The answer is:
Near the corner of Coronado Avenue and Saturn Blvd, next to the side of Victoria's Mexican Food.

Nuggets

At TC's potluck, there was a plethora of good food, like two kinds of sio pao, pancit, broccoli beef, pancit palabok, and chicken wings. But did I go for those dishes? No...I spied 2 containers full of these...
Yes, the antithesis of all that is good food, the Chicken McNugget. Preformed and highly processed chicken parts, shaped into nuggets and fried, and of course, devoid of any discernable nutritional value. I know how they're made and how they're bad for you. But I haven't had one of these in years! Dammit, I just had to have one...
with Sweet 'n Sour Sauce!

and another!

I scarfed down four, along with fried rice and a couple of chicken wings. Having satisfied my craving for McNuggets (and the other greasy foods), I slowly realized I would have to "pay" for this greasy treat later...on the throne!