A super special delivery

When my sweet friend D offered to send me a sample basket of her organic produce, I expected, well , just a small sampling. Instead, I woke up to the super generous and colorful bounty you see in the photo above (there's a lot more in the basket you don't see: more potatoes, onions, kalamansi , another head of broccoli, another head of cauliflower, a zucchini and more tomatoes)! Don't they look gorgeous? It made me wish instantly that I didn't have to leave for work that day. I wanted to stay home and admire my lovely present and make delicious things with them. In an ideal world, that's how that special day would have played out, with the time to blog about each and every one of the dishes.

But in reality, I barely had time to arrange the veggies and shoot this photo before I grabbed some breakfast and dressed for work. Since that day though, we've enjoyed the freshness and all-natural goodness of these vegetables in simple dishes such as tortang talong, spanish omelettes, cauliflower au gratin, eggplant parmesan, steamed broccoli in oyster sauce, and tortilla de patata. The super crisp lettuce & juicy tomatoes I take with me to work for a nice lunch salad along with various other toppings, and all the carrots have already gone into the juicer with either oranges, grapefruit, celery and/or cucumber, melon, mango etc. (boy, do I love my fresh juice!!) :)

I'm really enjoying this stash! So much so that I've asked D to put me in her 'system', with an every-other-week order. I'm really loving how accessible all these locally-grown organic fruits (she'll be adding mangoes, papaya and bananas to the next batch:) ) and veggies are becoming, giving busy people like myself the opportunity to support local farmers.

I've also placed an order with another local organic farmer to try, the same one Joey ordered from and who was introduced to us by our dear friend, Katrina. (Thanks, Kat!:)) He delivered his produce this morning, looking just like Joey's in her photo, along with a dozen organic eggs, 2 papayas and one mabolo fruit. :) I can't wait to try everything!

Thank you, dear sweet D, for such a lovely and healthy present! :)

Lovely surprise from Santos!

Because I can’t wait to share this piece of happiness with you, I have put my Ilocos series on hold temporarily to post this.

The goodies you see in the photo above are from the lovely Karina of The Scent of Green Bananas, who most of you may know as Santos. Though our hectic schedules prevented us form meeting up during my brief visit to Guam last weekend (despite the many text messages), Karina didn’t let this stop her from showing me some love. Let me tell you what a wonderful surprise it was! We had just walked into the lobby of our hotel, starving and exhausted. It was 10 pm and I hadn’t had any dinner nor lunch, just a quick burrito for a mid-afternoon snack; lugging heavy bags that threatened to snap my shoulders off their sockets, when the receptionist handed me the bright green gift bag with the note from Karina. Almost instantly the growling in my tummy and the soreness of my feet were forgotten as I peeked into the bag that was bursting with all sorts of goodies! I clutched the bag to my chest, what's one more bag to juggle?!, and hurried to my room where I could slowly pore over the contents.

Like a little kid opening her birthday present, I cooed at this item and gushed at that. There was a bag of spiced almonds (she shared her recipe here- yay!) and a jar of vanilla bean sugar – both homemade by Karina, delicious-looking (haven’t tried them yet – they all look too cute to eat!) biscotti, bento cookies and tea cookies from her friends’ bakery, Cup and Saucer! This was better than any of the other food stuff I bought, combined! Her thoughtfulness and generosity warmed my heart and touched me deeply. This was a lady whom I had never met in person; with whom the most contact I’ve had are a handful of blog comments and emails, yet that didn't matter. It just goes to prove once again that friendship can know no boundaries and I am truly grateful for all the lovely friends I’ve made through blogging. :)

Karina, you are a doll. Thank you so so much again! I am overwhelmed and touched by your thoughtfulness. I really do hope to meet you very soon either here in Manila or back in Guam so I can give you a big hug. For now, virtual hugs will have to do. :) xoxo