dinners and a recipe

we marked our first month of marriage with a three-day long celebration. last sunday, the 16th, jojie and i went to TGIFriday's to eat. we haven't eaten in Friday's for a looong time, ever since we decided to save and that was like three years ago! ang tagal na talaga! nagbago na nga ang menu nila! hahaha!

we had fried button mushrooms (yummy!), grilled chicken salad (sobrang sarap), and steak (ata... can't remember pero it was yummy din although naubusan na sila ng corn which i sobrang love). i love their food talaga but after seeing our bill, though, i resolved never to make aya jojie there again :)

last monday, dec 17, was our pre-anniversary. "pre-anniversary" coz 17 marks our monthly anniversary (yeah, i know mali yan. :)) as mag-boyfriend while 18 marks our wedding anniversary. i cooked sinigang for dinner and syempre nasarapan ang asawa ko. super duper favorite food niya in the whole world ang sinigang. even if i feed him sinigang everyday, he wouln't mind. that's how much he loves it.

since we already had our Friday's celeb and our sinigang dinner, jojie thought that we wouldn't celebrate 18 anymore when, in fact, i had planned for a more-special-than-usual dinner for a week. my plan was to go to the supermarket early tuesday morning to get all the ingredients i need and prepare a candlelit dinner. but my plans were foiled when we woke up at 5:30 and jojie announced that he wanted to take a leave from work that day! hay naku talaga! hindi na tuloy ako naka-alis papuntang supermart.

come lunch time, i told jojie that we were going to have left-overs for lunch. he's not really picky when it comes to food so that was okay with him. we had sinigang (left over from the night before), menudo (left-over from sunday), and ginisang kaalabasa with alugbati (left-over from saturday). ang dami naming ulam! hahaha!

after lunch, i told jojie i needed to go to my parents' place to fix their computer. i said i will also pass by red ribbon to buy cake (we try to always have a cake in the fridge so that we can have coffee and cake whenever we want). he also needed to work anyway so he was okay with me leaving him. buti na lang! hehe!

since jojie only knew about the cake and computer, i needed to do my shopping as fast as i could. i bought spareribs, fries, and the other ingredients i needed. i then went to my parents' house and prepared the beef and the marinade. of course, i was also tinkering with the computer at the same time kasi i really needed to fix the computer eh. jojie was calling me na and asking what time i was going home.

when i got home, jojie saw the marinated beef but thought it was spaghetti. sabi pa niya, "naku! nag-shopping ka naman sa bahay niyo!" hahaha! everytime i go home to my parents kasi, i end up bringing food home. jojie calls that "shopping". :)

i started preparing for dinner around 5:30. since i'm putting jojie on an eat-vegetable-as-muc-as-you-can diet, i made garden salad (3 kinds of lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, cheese, and bacon bits). i had plenty of dressings to choose from so i figured i'd just make him choose. for the soup, i opened a can of clam chowder (hehe! nag-shortcut ba?) but in fairness, nasarapan ako sa soup. for the sidings, i prepared french fries and for the main course, i prepared beef spareribs.

i asked jojie to go inside the bathroom so i could setup our dinner but he wouldn't cooperate. we compromised; he laid in bed with his back turned and promised not to peek. since our dining table was just enough for two (think of starbucks tables), i removed the rug in front of the tv and set our dinner there. i lighted a few candles and my scent burner. i played Len's Volume 3 CD. overall, the effect was pretty romantic.

although he was expecting something na, i think he was still pretty surprised when he opened his eyes. we sat down at the floor and started eating. okay na sana lahat kaya lang nung nakita ng magaling kong asawa yung ulam, tinanong ba naman ako, "pinagawa mo sa bahay [referring to my parents' house] itong beef?" i answered, "hindi, ako gumawa. bakit?" "hindi mo pinagawa kina rina [my parents' cook]?" "hindi. bakit?" "ah okay... [saying this while munching and really concentrating on the spareribs] wala lang... kaya mo ito? parang ang hirap eh!" grrrrrr! he liked the food so much, he thought there was no way i could have prepared it! kakabwisit! ('x') hahaha!

anyway, it was a funny dinner. i thought it would be really romantic with the candlelight and the scent and all. i thought it would be more romantic than our TGIFriday's dinner since i was the one who prepared it. but alas, no! unlike our dinner at Friday's when we just ordered and had time to look at each other's eyes all throughout, this dinner found me looking at my husband and he looking and concentrating really hard on his food!!! we talked but not that much kasi the whole time, sinisimot niya lang yung pagkain! hahaha! i cooked eight slices of the spareribs; i ate two and he had the rest. (he'll kill me if he reads this!) hahaha! he even got some of my fries when he had eaten his. i guess i should be happy that he really liked the food. sobra lang ironic! hehe!

so there! that endeth our three-day celebration for our first month of marriage. :)

-----

I am not saying this is really good but my husband liked it and your partner might, too. so here's the recipe for the spare ribs. :) happy cooking!

Beef Spareribs with Ketchup Sauce (a really unimaginative name!)

1 kilo beef spareribs ---> (P187 / kilo; i halved the recipe so i just got a half kilo)
8 ounce Sprite
salt
oil for frying
1 cup banana ketchup
1 tbsp. minced garlic
3 tbsps. butter or margarine
2 siling labuyo, minced
1 small bay leaf
1 tsp. black pepper, ground
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. white sugar

1. rub spareribs with a little salt. set aside for 15 minutes.
2. pour Sprite on the spareribs.
3. mix banana ketchup, garlic, butter (or margarine), siling labuyo, salt, pepper, white sugar, and bay leaf.
4. marinate spareribs in the mixture overnight [i marinated mine for like 3 hours lang].
5. heat oil in pan. scrape sauce off spareribs then fry in oil.
6. when brown, pour 1/2 cup (or more, if you like) of the ketchup marinade. simmer for 5 minutes.

voila! you have an instant sosyal food you can serve with fries, corn, mashed potato, or rice. :)