The Colour of Fall

wow… so far I’ve been keeping my promises haha! Not that I don’t coz I do… it’s just that I forget sometimes hehe… but it rarely happen of course! *ehem*

Anyway hehe, here are pictures we took going around the local areas here marveled at the beauty that is fall. But first, here’s a beautiful poem, which simply captures the way I see this season.

Autumn Leaves
by Paul Berube

Palettes of orange, yellow and gold
a mixture to tease the darkest of souls.
An arrangement of hues both bland and bright
blown through the air when the wind hits just right.

All shapes and sizes their structure may be
but one can distinguish their genesis tree.
Elms, maples and the mightiest oaks
shedding their cover, baring their coats.

It's sad just to see them tossed in the breeze
when I think of the way they pleasure and please.
If ever a season could put me at ease
I'll always remember those fine Autumn Leaves

Now, the pictures :)

trees around the house and neighborhood

trees around our area

us driving around taking pictures : )

Hairdos

Warren and I stopped by the Colonie center mall after work to get something and happened to pass by this new Halloween costume store and so, out of curiosity hehe, we made a quick peek inside and tried out things hahaha!

we’re such a goofball! a perfect much indeed! LOL!

Btw, it’s starting to get cold in here now :( so out we bring our sweaters and coats. But the good thing is the leaves are starting to change their colors too! Oh the beauty of fall! We’ll take some pictures and show them to you in another post : ) coming soon!

ang kalabasa, bow!

We have this mini vegetable garden at the back… on pots hehe. Well, I said “we” but it’s actually all Warren’s hard work hehe. Through out the cold season he’ll save up seeds from tomatoes, melon, squash, peppers, anything! that we have at home with seeds… he’ll try to grow it. Anywayz, it was not as fruitful as last year because of all the rain we got this year, but still, we are able to harvest something : ). We are usually successful with tomatoes and peppers (I said “we” again hehehe i helped! promise! :p ) but this year we got something different and mind you, warren plant it from scratch! I mean, not bought as sprout from home depot or from some green house place, but from a seed, pretty impressive, huh? I think so too… and that is *drum roll* an Acorn Squash, TA-DA! We are so happy! And proud of our self too of course hahaha. Btw, ‘Kalabasa’ is the tagalog word for squash, in case one wonders : ).

Now, this is the part where my expertise comes in *lol* cooking the kalabasa. One of our favorite kalabasa dish is the one with coconut milk and string beans. My nanay is an expert on this mmm mmm mmm! But I think I did a fairly decent job on this one : ).

So, what do we need? It’s very simple *ehem* just make sure you have garlic, onion, coconut milk, pork, the kalabasa of course, string beans, and salt and pepper to taste. That’s it! And then…

You have to peel off the skin of the kalabasa (this is the hard part!) then cut it in cubes. Cut the string beans in small strips. Sautee garlic and onion Add the pork and let it cook until it's tender Then add the kalabasa, string beans and coconut milk. Bring to a boil then simmer for about 15 minutes or until the kalabasa is cooked. You can put the salt and pepper whenever you want just don't forget it hehe.

ginataang kalabasa (kalabasa in coconut milk)

And it’s done!

Serve it with rice of course : )

So here we are enjoying the fruit of our labor this delicious ginataang kalabasa *lol*