Happy New Year!
Goodbye, 2025. Hello, 2026! Grateful for all the good stuff in 2025 and for all the connections I've cut off after unveiling their real intentions. Yup, some people be better off and deserve no access as I move to a new chapter of my life.
Anyway, as usual and as part of the New Year's Celebrations for the Asean Hive Challenge, I will be sharing my New Year's Eve menu and simple celebration. NatNat was inviting me to celebrate NYE with his family but I refused because I already bought the ingredients for the foods I'm making and even reserved pizza that I have to pick up on the 31st. Lol. I'll just go to his mother's birthday instead.
This 2026 New Year's Eve, I chose simple foods, something that won't require much effort and time to make. I had jello, fruit cake, puto cake, salad, a few slices of christmas ham and queso de bola, and pizza.
I made two small jello fruit cakes. This one on the photo is 5 inches, the other is 4 inches which I will be bringing when we go to the cemetery. The small cake is perfect for solo. Actually, I thought I wouldn't be able to make this cake because my digital weighing scale broke down but I found an alternative way to measure the ingredients. I also used apple juice instead of water for the jello.
The fruits in the cake were mango, grapes, and cherry. I was supposed to add kiwi but the kiwi on the grocery looked like it was beginning to rot. Then I decorated it with a small cake topper. Ah, doesn't it look good?
Holidays are notorius for oily and sweet foods so I added a healthy bowl to make my feast healthy. I don't know what to call this salad I made. Haha. It has lettuce, apple, cucumber, grapes, pineapple chunks, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and parmesan cheese. Then I used olive oil and a bit of vinegar for the dressing. This salad is experimental but the taste is okay.
There's this puto cake I saw on Facebook while scrolling about a month ago and decided to add it the last minute because I still have some plenty of hours yesterday. Okay, honest review. The taste is kind of bland but those parts with cheese and salted egg tastes good!
Then I had a plate with two slices of christmas ham, a slice of queso de bola, and a slice of pizza.
The flavors of pizza I ordered were creamy spinach dip and sushi bake. These are my favorite flavors from this pizza restaurant. I already ate one slice each for my lunch.
It was a good decision that I had reserved my pizza order three days ahead. There was a long line for walk-in orders when I arrived at the restaurant. It probably took me less than five minutes to get my reserved pizza. I didn't even have to line up at the cashier to pay because there's a staff assigned to assist the payments for reserved orders. It's really good to reserve orders during holidays.
And for my drink, I had the extra apple juice I used for the jello. I'd rather have this drink or even water over any alcoholic drink. Lol.
When midnight came, I lighted some of these cheap sparklers I bought late afternoon of yesterday. I noticed that there were less firecracker vendors in our town this year. Even our neighbors who used to light fireworks was quiet this year. I assume they took an out of town vacation or maybe celebrated on a different country. There were still some neighbors who lighted firecrackers, however, and some kids were having fun with sparklers and party horns.
Then after lighting this sparklers, I went back to my room and called my sister. Few hours after, I talked to NatNat next.
I hope life gets better for all of us as we entered another year! Choose growth and spend your time and attention to things that would improve yourself. Get yourself busy so you don't mind other people's businesses.
Happy New Year!