The Host

The other day, my family and I decided to hit the mall and watch a movie “The Host,” adapted by one of Stephenie Meyer's novels.

It was a movie wherein earth is invaded by a group of Aliens or Extra Terrestrial Parasites called “Souls” that take over the minds of human hosts while leaving their bodies intact. 

In the story, a human, Melanie Stryder captured by The Seeker while protecting her little brother; Jamie Stryder and her boyfriend, Jared Howe. The Seeker inserts a soul, named “Wanderer” into Melanie's body to discover where the other humans are, in the operation. Melanie remains strong and fights for her free will. Wanderer, the “invading soul" didn't expect to find its former tenant refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.

As Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of Jared and her love ones and how they supposed to find safety and refuge with her uncle, Jeb Stryder, in the desert.  Wanderer starts out yearning for a man she's never met,and refuses to speak about what she knows. The Seeker then decided to transfer Wanderer into a different body and insert herself into Melanie's body. Melanie then convinced Wanderer to escape and set off to search for the man they both love and that leads Wanderer to the desert wherein she found by a group of humans, including Jeb.  She almost gets killed, but luckily enough Jeb stops them. The group leads her through several underground caves and she finds out that Jamie and Jared are still alive.  If you want to know more about the stories buy this book on amazon.com or watch the film.

                                                                                                                    

It is an unusual love triangle. In literature, “THE HOST” is a fascinating and unforgettable novel about love. In watching the movie, I enjoyed it a lot and if the movie was great, I guess the book is too. Hopefully I'll read the book soon.

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Looking For Alaska

“Looking For Alaska,” by John Green, takes place in Florida and tells the tale of Miles Halter, a boy who is fond of the famous reputed last words of Francois Rabelais "I go to seek a great perhaps" as an excuse to leave his home to attend Culver Creek Preparatory High School in Alabama for his Junior year.

After adjusting to the school, he meets his roommate, Chip Martin or nickname as the “Colonel.” Miles later get his own nickname, "Pudge" and soon after meets his first ever crush, Alaska Young, one of Colonel's friends, a girl who is emotionally unstable, but a definite beauty.

 On Pudge's first night in the school, they grabbed, duct taped and tossed him into the lake nearby as a ritual by a group of snotty rich kids called the "Weekday Warriors." They earned the nickname because they stay in the school on weekdays and go home to their mansions on the weekends. But this time when they have thrown Pudge into the water, it was different and seemed unusual for the Colonel. So, he decided to avenge Pudge and went into a prank war with the Weekday Warriors and within the war the group of friends gets closer to one another and sooner or later Pudge falls in love with the-ever-so beautiful, Alaska. One-night while Alaska and Pudge hooked up and drunk, after a while Alaska gets a call and freaks out.

She asks the Colonel and Pudge to help her out with something, and that something is to escape from the campus grounds. Sooner after helping her out, the Colonel and Pudge realized that in helping Alaska escape, resulted into the death of her. Devastated and mourning over the loss of their friend, they do everything and anything to figure out the cause of it and they also pull of a prank in honor of their dear friend.

Do you want to know why Alaska Young was so freaked out about that call?  Why she died and what really happens? Buy the book on amazon.com its worth spending time reading it and enjoying the moments with Colonel, Pudge and Alaska Young.

I didn't regret spending my free time sitting down and reading this book because reading it made me feel like I knew the characters personally and we were all so close. As I flipped into its last page, I felt the sudden hit of reality that Alaska was not real nor was real nor was Pudge nor was the Colonel, but then they were real in my imagination, they were all so alive to me and it’s one of those books that I want to read all over again.

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The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars

Another one of John Green's wonderful books that I have learned to love with every flip of a page and reading his works make me feel like I'm somewhere else, like I'm in the book, but then again that happens to me in every good book I read.

 The story is about a 16-year-old teenager girl named Hazel Grace and diagnosed with stage four thyroid cancers. She was forced by both of her parents to attend a support group that should help her and at one meeting she met the love of her life sitting right across her in that support group, his name? Augustus Waters. 

They meet each other and they talk, Hazel somehow persuaded Augustus into reading her all the time favorite book of Peter Van Houten "Imperial Affliction". And as soon as Augustus, reads the last page of the book, he immediately rings up Hazel and elaborates his thoughts on the book. As they started to hang out and go out more together, they start to learn more of each other and one of the things Gus learns about Hazel is that she wants to go meet Peter Van Houten, but sooner or later, Gus also finds out that Hazel used up her cancer wish.

(If you want to figure out what a cancer wish is, you got to go read it the book because it's good.) to go on a Disneyland trip, but then Gus hasn't used his up yet so ... figure it out. Gus used his cancer wish to go on a trip to Amsterdam to meet Van Houten as to make Hazel really happy and everything turns out differently at the end because Gus finds out that his cancer came back and that things were going to be harder for both. If you really want to get into the details of the book, I suggest you go grab a copy of it and get a mug of hot chocolate, sit down and read it.

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Chicken Festive

INGREDIENTS:

1kg                       chicken breast and thigh, cut into serving portions

4 cloves                garlic, crushed 

1 can                    button mushrooms, sliced

1 pc each             large red and green bell pepper, cut into cubes 

1/4 cup                 pitted green olives, sliced crosswise

1 pouch                Del Monte Sweet Style Spaghetti Sauce

1/4 cup                 chopped fresh parsley, (optional)

WHITE SAUCE:

1/3                       cup butter

2 Tbsp                  all-purpose flour 

1 pc                     small onion, chopped

1/2 cup                 all-purpose cream

1/3 cup                 water 

STEP1:    White Sauce: Heat half of butter. Add flour. Cook over low heat 
               while stirring until light brown. Gradually add water, stirring until smooth. 
               Stir in onion and all-purpose cream. Set aside.


STEP 2.   Season chicken with 1 tsp iodized fine salt ( or 1 Tbsp idodized
                rock salt) and 1/4 tsp pepper. Saute garlic and mushrooms
                in remaining butter. Add chicken. Cook until slightly browned.

STEP 3.   Add bell peppers, olives, Del Monte Spaghetti Sauce
               and salt to taste. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add white sauce.
               Stir once. Top with parsley.

TIP:   If your sauce is too thin, do the butter and flour mixture again 

          in a separate pan and add it to your white sauce.. If the sauce 

          is too thick, simple add more water or milk.

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Wild Salad Ala Nicoise France

INGREDIENTS

1 pack            CDO Luncheon Ham, cut into 1" cubes and pan-fried

1/4  cup          black rice, soaked in water for at least 2 hours

1/2 cup           water

300 g              assorted lettuce

1 cup              tomatoes (cherry),cut into halves

3 pcs              boiled eggs (hard), quartered

1/4 cup           pitted black olives

50 g                French beans or chicharo, blanched

FOR DRESSING

3 Tbsp             lemon juice

1 Tbsp            vinegar

2 Tbsp            mustard

1/2 tsp            minched garlic

1/2 tsp            salt

1/3 cup           olive oil

1/4 cup           corn oil

2 Tbsp            sugar

STEP 1  Cook rice in water over low heat and let cool before using 

STEP 2   In a bowl, arrange greens, tomatoes, eggs, olives and beans.  

               Top with CDO Luncheon Ham. Then chill.

STEP 3   Just before serving, toss in dressing and serve with heated baguette.

STEP 4   To make dressing, place all ingredients in a bottle and shake well. 

TIP:   If the dressing is too strong for you, add a teaspoon of vinegar at a time 
          until the balance is right.

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