Simple & Special Stuff To Try, Sweet Ideas To Spice Up Special Occasions

I love special occasions, whether it’s a birthday or an anniversary, or even just celebrating the day you and your significant other first met.  Every little occasion is something worth celebrating, at least, that’s what I believe.

A friend of mine laughingly remarked that she really was surprised when she found out my husband and I would celebrate not only our wedding anniversaries or our anniversaries as a couple (boyfriend-girlfriend days), but also anniversaries of certain days like my husband’s wedding proposal, etc.

I know, it may come across as cheesy but I don’t really care, and I don’t really mind what people say.

It’s celebrating life, for me. It’s enjoying the memory of a wonderful feeling, a great occasion, simple and big events, milestones.

On many instances and occasions, friends and family have turned to me and have asked me for some actual gift suggestions, or tips on how to spice up and add to the gifts they’d already gotten, or surprise ideas.

Here are a few sweet ideas off the top of my head that you might want to check out and try out:

1) Cupcakes with Edible Photos

- I did this recently for one of our anniversaries.  I commissioned a friend of mine to bake special cupcakes with edible photos…Photos I specifically chose for the occasion—I ordered a dozen cupcakes and chose a dozen photos of me and my husband and some with my daughter —a dozen visual (not to mention sweet and yummy) memories right there, sitting in a pale purple box, gaily tied with a brown ribbon!  I loved my husband’s reaction when he saw them…Food is always a great gift for a foodie (obviously!) but even more so when it looks as enticing as these cupcakes…It also reminded him of a lot of our own special times because of the photos!

Where to Order: Little Cakes

Contact Person: Tricia Castrodes

Website:http://www.littlecakesfactory.com/

They deliver (they bake your orders fresh!) or you can choose to get the sweets from their pickup point: Little Cakes Commissary -#4 Gumamela St. Sampaguita Village, Malanday,Marikina City
Tel. 340-5860 or 0922-8246810

2)  Try a restaurant you haven’t tried before, and order the specials.  If you haven’t tried CUILLIERE, go, go, go! Give this resto a try! Yummy, yummy food, and nice ambience! Another resto that’s a must-try is HOUSE OF WAGYU, for steak you’ll remember and keep coming back for!

I have a lot of friends who are fellow foodies, and it’s always great being able to try something they recommended.  For one of our special occasions, we went out with our friends, a couple who suggested we try a new restaurant.  In this case, I can happily recommend CUILLIERE (pronounced kwee-yer) in Serendra, Taguig, if you haven’t tried it yet.

It’s a resto that serves French food, and is known for their foie gras dishes and short ribs that just fall off the bone.

Foie gras with raspberry reduction (I did not want this part of the meal to end, soooo delicious!)

Shortribs

They also have other yummy dishes worth trying…If you feel like getting something usual, their lengua with mashed potatoes is still a great order if you’re craving for comfort food.  Their soups are wonderful (try the mushroom soup first!), and they also have great baguettes served with herbed butter, as well as a good selection of wines (if you like to drink).

It’s always sweet to spend a bit more sometimes, and to try something new. Try Cuilliere!

HOUSE OF WAGYU (in Podium) is also a wonderful place to go if you’re up for a fancy meal and the experience of trying absolutely melt-in-your-mouth steak.  The steak is laid onto a lava rock and it just needs to be turned for 3 seconds on each side as it cooks, and you’re good to plunge your fork and knife into the tastiest meat ever.

Their buffalo wings, prawns thermidore, and salad are also worth mentioning.  Dinner here would cost about P 2500 per person, but totally worth the splurge for a special occasion.

3) Try whipping up one of your homecooked specialties, something you haven’t served in a long while, and surprise your loved-one.

My mother-in-law makes mouthwatering leche flan. I always found it sweet whenever she would surprise me by sending a few llaneras of her specialty through my husband, and then I realized that apart from the sweet treat, I most especially appreciated all the trouble and effort she went through to make the dessert and have it sent to me.

If you make absolutely yummy potato salad, make some and surprise hubby with it after you serve him some homecooked steak or porkchops during a simple dinner. Whatever dish it is, it’s sure to put a smile on his face, especially if it’s a dish he hasn’t tried in a long time, and it’s a dish he really enjoys!

Some of my potato salad

My husband surprised me one lunch time by preparing hainanese chicken from scratch. I’d been craving for the dish days earlier, and it was a sweet surprise to find him preparing it in the kitchen.

4) Stick to something simple, but get everyone together for an impromptu “salu-salo”

For one of our anniversaries, we surprised family with a simple “barbeque-and-palabok” merienda (we ordered from Amber’s), and it was a delight that we could share that special occasion with loved ones who have always cared about us and our welfare and who have cheered our relationship on from the start.  It’s always sweet to make a simple merienda turn into a get-together.

5) Do some major research on an item that your loved-one (in this case, husband) has been wanting to own…If it’s something that’s hard to find, ask around for contacts to specialty shops, collectors, or retail stores that carry that special gift.  If he is a collector of designer toys, or maybe a fan of basketball figurines, or if he loves the movies of Al Pacino, find a way to get your hands on these—but use stealth mode to make the moment you’ll give your gift a big surprise!  If you can get it online through a friend, or through E-bay (just please make sure you’re purchasing from a good seller), make sure he doesn’t suspect a thing!

That’s me giving my hubby one of my little surprises

6) This still has something to do with #4… It’s still about “getting everyone together for a “salu-salo” but at the same time, this time making sure you’ve prepared a lot, if not all of your loved-one’s preferred or favorite dishes.

For the food items in this photo, I still ordered cupcakes from Little Cakes, but the food was provided by HONEY I’M HOME, a fantastic food delivery service operated and managed by Maan Ramos-Oreta and Bea Ortigas.

Since HONEY, I’M HOME offers Italian, American, Japanese, and Chinese food for delivery, I tried sampling a couple of their dishes for one of our anniversaries — their minestrone soup and sardine paninis (italian), garlic mashed potato and cornflakes-crusted chicken fingers with honey-maple dip (american), stir-fried vegtables and fried rice and orange chicken (Chinese)…They were all filling and tasty.

I made sure that there was a variety of dishes that everyone would enjoy, most especially my husband, who at the time, was advised to include more vegetables and chicken (and not so much pork or beef) into his diet.  It was a delightful surprise, he said.

For orders, here’s their contact information:

Food Delivery and Buffet Catering that feels like home cooked goodness…HONEY I’M HOME.

HIMH is open Monday to Saturday, 8AM to 6PM.Call 632.502.4255

Check out their website:

http://honeyimhomeltdco.blogspot.com/

7) This suggestion’s for the guys who may be reading this.  If your loved-one loves flowers, don’t hesitate to get her flowers!  But if she’s not fond of them, no need to go scurrying to the nearest flower shop.  In my case, I’ve always appreciated flowers, and there’s nothing like seeing a beautiful bloom (or in some situations, a big bouquet! hahaha!) light up the room in a clear vase.

For someone who loves flowers, even the roses being sold by vendors on the streets during traffic would be a touching gift, especially if it’s from someone they love.  Showing love need not be extravagant or expensive.  It can be expressed in the simplest of ways.  Of course, a handwritten note is best given with any gift of your choice.  It’s always more personal and more thoughtful to hand-write a note or card, especially in this time when emails are getting to be more prevalent than ever.

9) Poetry, handwritten letters, original compositions, a painting you made yourself —these are always creative and beautiful ways of showing how you feel.  I have seen for myself the delight of people who have been on the receiving end of these gifts from the heart…You can’t put a price tag on originality and something you’ve created and poured your heart into.

More sweet suggestions very soon!  I’ve tried and come up with so many ways of artfully expressing my affection for the people I love, and it’s always a joy to be able to share these ideas with people who aren’t afraid of wearing their hearts on their sleeves too.

Have fun! It’s really a grand time when you explore your love languages, and seize the day.  Like in the musical “RENT,” I so believe that there is “No day but today.”