Hard water problems in Manila?

We’re beyond excited to move into our new house, but when we last visited, I noticed that the brand new fixtures we installed already had *gasp* water stains. We asked around and found out that our new neighborhood, although very nice, has hard water. Sorry, first world problem, I know. But seriously, hard water brings a lot of problems – build up of residue in pipes, stains on fixtures and shower walls (my pet peeve), not to mention dry skin and buildup on hair (!!!).

My husband tasked the Part Time Homemaker with reading up and finding water filtration systems within Metro Manila. I kept putting it off thinking that it would be a snap, but finding a water filtration system here is much less common than I thought. I checked online and there are so many types of systems that are available – in other countries. Hahaha. :-) Anyway, I finally stumbled upon Aqua Add-on Systems Inc, website here and they appear to have a home filtration system that will cure our hard water problems. They’re scheduled to visit the house tomorrow, will let you all know how it works out!

If any of you know of any other water filtration company/provider, please do let me know. :-)

Sewing supplies in Manila – South side!

February 10, 2013 By Part Time Homemaker in Sewing, Sewing and Crafts Tags: Sewing, Supplies 3 Comments

Living in Makati will always be near and dear to my heart but The Part Time Homemaker is soon going to pack her bags and move to the South! When our little girl came along we decided to buy a house and we are nearly done with the renovations (which of course took much longer than we would’ve liked!)

Although I definitely don’t look forward to paying for toll in SLEX, I can’t wait to see my precious daughter take her first steps in a place with some space for her to run around. And of course I’m beyond excited to cook in my totally remodeled kitchen. Yahoo!!! We had no choice but to put a lot of our wedding gifts (the big appliances, etc) in storage since our flat isn’t big enough for a full set of appliances. Plus I have a sewing room…well until another baby comes along! :-)

So anyway, this weekend we found ourselves in Alabang Town Center. I was happy to see that they’ve done a lot of renovations, with a lot of my favorite restaurants now in the South! I was on the hunt for bamboo steamers in Metro Department Store since I wanted to make shu mai, and I ran into Carolina’s which had a pretty good selection of sewing and craft supplies.

They had headpieces, beads and buttons in every color:

Carolina’s Metro Alabang Town Center

Beads, necklaces and more headpieces:

Tassels for whatever purpose you desire:

Furry accents for make your own feather boas, shiny ribbons, silver and gold chains:

Of course they had their usual selection of fabric too. Nice to know that I have a place for fabric and supplies that is pretty near even when we finally move. :-)

Things I’m happy I found in Manila

February 5, 2013 By Part Time Homemaker in Food, Home, Reviews, Sewing and Crafts Leave a comment

Most people into cooking/crafting and a lot of mommies too here in the Philippines probably share my dilemma that a lot of important things are quite hard to find, or if so, only found in specialty shops. Here’s a quick list of things that I’ve been searching for that I’m quite happy to have found in places around town. :-) Feel free to comment and/or add!

Food

Natural peanut butter (without hydrogenated oils) – Landmark Supermarket, Makati

Aluminum-free baking powder – Healthy Options (any branch should have it)

Whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, self-rising flour – Healthy Options, Market Market Supermarket

Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce – Metro Market Market Supermarket

Tahini – Healthy Options, Santis

Rennet – apparently you can order from UP Los Banos – still trying to figure out how to get my hands on some without going all the way there!

Blocks of unsweetened, dark, semi-sweet, white chocolate, Dutched cocoa and Valhrona chocolate too – Chefs’ Nook

Water chestnuts – Metro Supermarket, Alabang Town Center (then would probably have it in Market Market too!)

Whole wheat pastry flour – Healthy Options

Liquid smoke – Metro Supermarket, Rustan’s Supermarket

Lawry’s Seasoned Salt – S&R

Tapioca flour – Spices and Flavours (they closed their branch in Market! Market! so now you have to find them in the Salcedo Market)

Cooking

Carbon steel wok – True Value carries one by Ken Hom

Mommy-related items

Bellybuds – Babyland, Glorietta 3 near Mercury Drug

Breastmilk bags – Mothercare, Baby Company, or on Multiply

Breast pumps – Mothercare or Baby Company BUT I suggest you order through Amazon, even with shipping cost it is much much cheaper. I use Avent since I use Avent bottles and breastmilk storage cups so it fits seamlessly into my collection but Medela is also popular.

Lactation cookies and goodies – Mommy Treats, link here. Yummy milk-boosting treats (although some have expected aftertaste because of the herbs used). Very quick delivery too!

Lactation massage – Lita Nery

Salted Peanut Butter Cookies

January 30, 2013 By Part Time Homemaker in Food, Recipes Tags: Food, Recipes Leave a comment

My little one is now 9 months old and eats like there’s no tomorrow. There’s nothing that she won’t try, whether it be ampalaya (bitter melon), okra, crab, shrimps, or liver. She has eaten portobello mushrooms, truffle pasta, miso soup and more, and she has loved them all. But there is one thing she hasn’t tried yet that I can’t wait to feed her, but her pediatrician has asked me not to introduce it until she is a year old – peanut butter!

But once she turns a year old, salted peanut butter cookies are on top of my list of things to bake for her!! Because they are AWESOME. Peanut butter. Butter. Chocolate. I rest my case. Just take a look at these babies:

Salted peanut butter cookies

I had to make a few tweaks, those of you who also live in Manila will understand that as much as I want to remain faithful to recipes, there are some things that are quite difficult to buy here. Pastry flour is one of them. Based on this post with amazing pictures, I substituted the pastry flour for 2/3 all purpose flour and 1/3 cake flour. I was able to find natural peanut butter (Skippy) in Landmark. It was the no-stir kind but it worked just fine.

Natural and salted peanut butter from Landmark

For those of you wondering if you can use natural and regular peanut butter interchangeably, the answer is a big fat NO. I learned this the hard way – I tried using regular instead of natural peanut butter in a recipe I saw for peanut butter brownies and after around 15 minutes in the oven I could hear my batter sizzling…sizzling, people! Needless to say that was a throw away batch. After some research I figured out why – natural peanut butter does not contain partially hydrogenated oil which makes it a lot less greasy.

Another thing – use kosher salt! Do not substitute with your regular table salt. The cookies will be puffy but not totally golden when they’re done. If they look done, well, they’re overcooked. So take them out once your timer hits 18 minutes and they will slowly form beautiful cracks, and sink into peanut buttery goodness. :-)

You can find the recipe on Orangette here. Be prepared for your house to smell like heaven.

Fresh from the oven