by Penny Angeles-Tan | Feb 2, 2023 | Food & Beverage
I’ve been told by my family that I am pretty adventurous as a home cook – I like trying new things and I like challenging myself with complicated dishes. But sometimes I am just too tired and all I want to do is serve my family something quick and easy so that I am not too tired to enjoy dinner with my family. This is why I am thankful that Purefoods came up with the Ready-to-Eat line that guarantees quality time made easy with my family and guarantees that the dishes are delicious and the chef (me!) gets compliments on how yummy the dishes are. 😀
Purefoods Ready-to-Eat Bistek Tagalog
A dish that is a staple in many Filipino households is the Bistek Tagalog. Slow-cooked to perfection it only takes around 10 minutes to cook. Just add onions (if feeling yamanin) to get that authentic Bistek Tagalog you are looking for.
Correct me if I am wrong but, Bistek just isn’t the same without onions, am I right?
To my non-Filipino friends, you guessed it! Bistek is the Filipino way of saying beef steak but, as with most dishes that are “Filipinized” it tastes nothing like the beef steak you probably grew up with.
Purefoods Ready-to-Eat Bicol Express
Bicol Express is probably one of my favorite Filipino dishes because it is spicy. The main ingredients of which are meat, peppers, coconut milk (gata), and seasonings. As an extender, you could add vegetables like sigadilyas (also known as winged beans), for example. I’ve seen some versions with carrots and bell peppers but I think they are more for color contrast.
When I had the opportunity to try this I was pleasantly surprised at how flavorful it was. With instant dishes like these, I tend to assume that I would still have to fix them to make them edible. Thankfully, that isn’t the case.
Leveling up your dishes
But just because these Purefoods Ready-to-Eat meals are instant meals doesn’t mean you cannot level up your dishes anymore. Check out the links to the recipes below:
With these Ready-to-Eat dishes by Purefoods, I don’t need to spend a very long time in the kitchen. Quality time with my family is made easy with Purefoods Ready-to-Eat
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jan 31, 2023 | Book Reviews
I received an alert a while back in my inbox that one of the authors I follow on Goodnovel had a new book. The book was called Omega’s Twin Hybrids by Saree Bee.  Part of the appeal is, of course, that the main characters (two of them to be exact) are shifters. Finch is a wolf shifter and Jack is a dragon shifter, and yes, they are twins. Upon reading this my first question was “how” but I rationalize later that in Saree Bee’s world, it is possible.
The biggest appeal for me, admittedly, is the fact that the female lead, Grace (an omega), is a full-bodied woman. In literary circles, this is also referred to as a BBW (big beautiful woman), which makes her a very relatable character. Let’s face it, all the stories where the ladies are reed thin may sound nice, but for most women that is a fantasy that we find hard to get involved in as most of us (over 30) have already gained more weight and inches than we want.
In this book, there is no doubt that Grace is loved and twice over! Fair warning, though, expect to encounter a lot of sex, sex, sex, as our man Finch (in particular) is insatiable and Jack is no slouch either. Despite all the smutty smut (lol!), Omega’s Twin Hybrids by Saree Bee really does have a good story you can follow – corporate hostile takeover, self-image angst, family issues, and prejudice.
You can find this completed story on Goodnovel if you are inclined to read it. There are only 57 chapters and the story is fast-paced so I feel confident that you will enjoy it. I certainly did.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jan 30, 2023 | Book Reviews
Stephanie does it again! Flipping through the pages of Four Fantasies by Stephanie Brother I couldn’t help but wonder at how amazing this story is. It is tender and loving and relatable all at the same time. I can easily imagine myself as Lorraine having gone through something similar in life. All that is missing are four amazing men like Troy, Leo, Dante, and Darian.
Having men offer to fulfill our fantasies would be a dream come true if we are brave enough to accept it. Just the thought of it makes me swoon.
Troy, Leo, Dante, and Darian are dancers at the Club Red Revue but that fact is almost incidental as it serves two purposes in the story. 1) it establishes the link to book 1, and 2) it is where Lorraine first sets eyes and lusts after these four men when they fo their numbers onstage. After that majority of the story is at her home or on her dates.
The men are in their mid-twenties while Lorraine is 8 to 10 years older. The age gap bothers Lorraine at first but the men don’t seem to notice or it was never a factor to them at all. The only things she receives from her men are love and laughter. Such bliss!
You can find Four Fantasies by Stephanie Brother at Amazon for 2.99 or free with Kindle Unlimited. A paperback version is available as well for 12.99. After you finish reading this story check out the bonus chapter on Stephanie’s website. It is so sweet and rounds up the story beautifully.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jan 29, 2023 | Book Reviews
If I had to base it on the cover art and the title I had assumed that Twisted Eros by Aria Skylar is a super steamy book. The first chapter led me astray into thinking this book would likely mostly feature BDSM. This is pretty far from the truth. While BDSM is hinted at the most we will see is light bondage and domination I’ve rarely seen in the dark romance books I have read in the past.
A smart, business-savvy, and successful woman goes on an “abduction vacation” with a sexy, masked stranger to get a desperately needed break. He whisks her away to a secret haven of rest and sexual pleasure. But our masked “kidnapper” has his own agenda besides pleasuring her and as the story goes they both end up on a voyage of self-discovery that gets them all twisted.
While some reviews have not been very encouraging about this book, I actually enjoyed it despite the sex scenes mainly being vanilla. I think I enjoyed the soul-searching that happened for each character and with each other and I thought her retelling of the tale of Eros and Psyche was interesting. If you don’t know the story of Eros and Psyche then, obviously, you wouldn’t get it but as a fan of mythology growing up, it was interesting to see the parallels.
Here is a comic version of the myth of Eros and Psyche.
Twisted Eros by Aria Skylar is the first book of the Modern Mythica series and can be purchased on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as an ebook for a whopping $6.49. The paperback is $19.99. I find the price steep as I have read better stories for less, but it is still worth reading.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jan 28, 2023 | Book Reviews
Compared to the 2 books of Anika Skye that I reviewed before this I feel like the writing style of Alpha Wolf’s Fated Bride by Anika Skye is very juvenile … which is a step down from the ones that came before. As a matter of fact, it does not read as if the author wrote it.
There is too much exposition, and the author gets lost in the prose. Thankfully it is a short story and I finished it in less than a day. I really wish it were better. Since the 2nd book was an improvement on the first, I (mistakenly) thought that this would be even more of an improvement. Instead, it regressed and it feels like this is the first book this author has written instead.
It is too raw to be published. I recommend running it by a copy editor first. Hopefully, he/she knows what they’re doing and can help make this better.
Alpha Wolf’s Fated Bride by Anika Skye is only 0.99 on Amazon and is also on Kindle Unlimited if you want to check it out. If you look at the reviews there are some who really liked it so maybe it just isn’t my cup of tea.
Stephanie does it again! Flipping through the pages of Four Fantasies by Stephanie Brother I couldn’t help but wonder at how amazing this story is. It is tender and loving and relatable all at the same time. I can easily imagine myself as Lorraine having gone through something similar in life. All that is missing are four amazing men like Troy, Leo, Dante, and Darian.
If I had to base it on the cover art and the title I had assumed that Twisted Eros by Aria Skylar is a super steamy book. The first chapter led me astray into thinking this book would likely mostly feature BDSM. This is pretty far from the truth. While BDSM is hinted at the most we will see is light bondage and domination I’ve rarely seen in the dark romance books I have read in the past.
Compared to the 2 books of Anika Skye that I reviewed before this I feel like the writing style of Alpha Wolf’s Fated Bride by Anika Skye is very juvenile … which is a step down from the ones that came before. As a matter of fact, it does not read as if the author wrote it.
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