Christmas 2011 -BEST EVER Christmas Ham Recipe and Christmas Deco

So a few more days to come and it's going to be CHRISTMAS!!! Not really my favorite holiday of the year. Redundant christmas songs and irrelevant remixes, but other than it's fine. We've been preparing for next week! So many christmas parties to attend and so many things to buy. We're done with our decorations and we've been thinking of what to prepare on christmas eve. I tried making my own ham from scratch. From an uncured piece of hind leg, to curing it for days and baking it in the oven. But here are some photos from our house...

accents

by the stairs

more balls

and our tree

the wreath by the kitchen

and we have a 2D running sleigh by the pool

seminarians from the Oblates of Mary Immaculate came to sing

and that's my nephew Uno. he's into candles.

but obviously not into trees.

a rustic centerpiece with fake berries and dusted twigs

CHRISTMAS HAM 101

Okay so a few days  ago I did my very first ham. And what helped me during the process is this book which I got by Michael Ruhlman and Bryan Polcyn called "Charcuterie, the craft of salting, smoking and curing" ... So here goes the  recipe

For the meat, youll be needing a fresh hind leg without the bone. It must be fresh, uncured and round.  So for curing youll be needing these

3 kilos of hind leg, skin removed, without the bone

3 liters water

1 cup of kosher salt OR 1/2 cup of table salt

1 1/2 cup of brown sugar

6 teaspoons of pink salt (praque powder)

so to cure it, you must put it in a large stock pot enough to fit the whole meat. It must be sanitized and well cleaned. Mix all the curing ingredients until dissolved and put in the meat. The meat must be submerged in the curing liquid at all times, so to put weight on it, put a large heavy plate on top of the meat to keep it submerged. Put in the fridge and keep it cold. Keep it in the fridge until done. It will cure at the rate of 2 pounds per day. A large ham will take about a week. You will know it's done when the meat is firm at its thickest part.

Rinse it off and use it anyway you want. You can fry it right away or you can smoke it for 2 hours with your wood chips. I prefer using Tobasco Wood Chips. So after that here comes the GLAZEEE...

GLAZE

1 cup of orange marmalade

4 tbsps of honey mustard or equal parts of honey and dijon

Cloves

Score the ham in diamonds and stud each center with a clove. Preheat the over for 165-170 degrees Celsius. Brush the ham with the half of the glaze and put it on top of a rack with a tray below it lined with foil. Bake it for an hour and brush it again with the rest of the glaze and put it back in the oven for 30 mins or until golden. When you feel that your house is starting to smell like a deli shop, you're doing it right. Rest it for 20 mins to lock the juices inside and serve. OHH LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

TADAH!!!

Anyway, ill see you guys after a week!!!

xoxo BABINELLAs

self potrait (2011)

Todos Los Santos - Halloween

So around three weeks ago, our friends from Manila decided to spend their holidays here in Cotabato. I mean for the longest time, no one from our Manila friends ever been to our place in Mindanao. So we thought of chartering a whole boat and go to Davao. We stumbled upon this page on facebook Islands Banca Cruises Davao , well there are a lot of deals to choose from, you can just do snorkeling from different spots around the Islands of Davao or you can do mixes of it. But we did the Isla Reta (resort),  Angel's Cove (diving spot) and Dayang our last stop. The tour is about 7 hours, on board they have an ipod dock, WIFI, towels, snack bar, BEAN freaking BAGS (awesome!) and fresh cold wet towels.

wifi is working i swear...

now isnt that nice

1st stop, Isla Reta

 

Angel's Cove diving spot

we all got tired by afternoon

The next day, we didn't really have any plans of going anywhere so we decided to go to the never ending Chema's which is in Samal Island. Spell CHILL. It was almost exclusive to us, since no one is around.

blue waters and shit

spell F-R-E-S-H hahahahah

HALLOWEEN

So since our friends from Manila came in for the week-long leave and since it was my mother's birthday, we had a Halloween party. Our theme last year were all sorts of headpieces and hats etc, and this year, we did United Nations. I really wanted to be a matador and so I had one made. My brother was a Mexican and my sister was a confused Singaporean-Chinese hybrid. Our friends came out as a native american couple, greek couple, a katipunero, a karate man and my mom dressed up as an Indian lady. Ahh yes, and we also had a photobooth! hahaha how fun is that?!?!

sugar and pangging working the MIMI haha

karate, katipunero, indian, greek

kentoy

unths unths and sissy

my cousin and aunt

brother. ORALe

cookie and my nephew

photobooth starts

trix and matt

friends

momma sissy me and brother

my epic aunt and uncle

and that's my abuelo as a muslim

cousins

more cousins

more more cousins

and my epic uncle

and oh for your events in DAVAO or out of town and if you want to have a photobooth, just contact, ivents@yahoo.com or 09178202713 and look for Sugar or Pangging. YEEH!

i hope u goyzzz had fun

OH WELL THAT'S IT FOR NOW!!! im off to bed and i do miss blogging.

xoxo