Illasounds

Excited to cook a special dinner to celebrate the love month? Here are simple but special dishes given a flavorful twist by Glad, leading brand of wraps and bags.

Of course for best results, use Glad Aluminum Foil (helps bake or roast food, and can be used to cover dishes to thoroughly cook it using its internal heat) and Glad Bake Paper.

As a gift for the homemaker, Glad partners with Kim’s Mixes and Sauces — for every purchase of Glad Aluminum Foil comes a free pack of Kim’s Dweaji Kalbi Mix.

DWEAHU JAKBU SWEET AND SPICY RIBS
500 g Spare ribs, cut into 3” lengths
1 packet Kim’s Dweaji Kalbi Mix
2 tbsp Sesame oil
Sesame seeds for garnish

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Place spare ribs in Glad Zipper Storage Bag. Season spare ribs with Kim’s Dweaji Kalbi Mix and sesame oil. Mix very well. Marinate for 3 hours turning the spare ribs occasionally.

Line the roasting pan with Glad Bake Paper and place the marinated spare ribs on top. Partially wrap and enclose ribs in Glad Bake Paper Roast each side for 25 minutes while basting with the remaining marinade. Serve hot.
Makes 3-5 servings.

I have always liked my religion. I have been baptized as a Roman Catholic and I was brought up a church-goer. As a child, I remember that we would rarely miss Sunday mass. As a grade-schooler, I remember being excited every first Friday of the month because it would mean that we would hear mass after class.

I know that my religion has been under scrutiny for quite some time now. Honestly, there are also some things that I find questionable in the way the religion is being carried out. Even so, I love being Catholic and I believe that part of that love comes from my fascination over some beliefs that we have. First and foremost is our belief in beings called angels.

Although it is not unique to the Catholic faith, I believe that the most elaborate description and classification of angels belongs to this religion. There is, if my memory serves me right, a hierarchy that exists among them. There are angels who serve as our Lord’s messengers, angels who exist only to praise and worship him and there are even those who serve to carry out His plans for the world.

And then, of course, there are angels who are assigned to each and every one of us, if what they teach us as children are true. They are called our guardian angels.

Read in the papers that “plutoed” was chosen as 2006’s Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society. To “pluto” is “to demote or devalue someone or something’ much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of International Astronomical Union decided Pluto did not meet its definition of a planet.

Flash then suggests that best of friends BRITNEY SPEARS and PARIS HILTON be “plutoed” for their chear slut-like gimmicks and antics.

Britney is running around with “celebutante” Paris sporting unflattering hair extensions and flashing her apparently panty-less crotch (ugh) to the paparazzi. She was also seen gambling all night in Las Vegas in the company of Paris, whose claim to fame is an infamous home video (read sex bout) with a former boyfriend.

Seen every now and then with Britney and Paris is erstwhile America’s sweetheart LINDSAY LOHAN who, in fairness, isn’t as brazen as the two best pals.

By the way, Britney and Paris tied for the No. I spot on Mr. Blackwell’s 47th annual worst dressed list. “Two peas in an overexposed pod,” Blackwell said of the skimpy attire worn by the “Screamgirls.”

“And who’s No. 3 on the worst dressed list? Lindsay, who Blackwell scolded for “turning from adorable to deplorable.”
While at it, we may as well complete the worst-dressed list of the bitchy and catty and witty Blackwell, who used to be a Hollywood-based designer.

No. 2 on the list is a member of the British royal family, CAMILLA PARKER-BOWLES, “The Duchess of Dowdy strikes again. In feather hats that were once the rage, she resembles a petrified parakeet from the Jurassic age. A royal wreck.”
(To think that one day she might just be Queen Camilla.)

Also on the worst-dressed, the fashion hall of shame, list are: in order of abhorrence:

CHRISTINA AGUILERA — a dazzling singer who puts good taste through the wardrobe wringer. All crass and no class.

You’ll love what she’s hiding underneath.

If you’re buying a new computer,is makes perfect sense to take the dual core highway to avoid hitting a wall when it comes to processor speed. Windows Vista is just around the bend, after all. And it’s never a good idea to spend upwards of 50 grand on something that will leave you high and dry in less than a year.

The Cerium M636 is one of Blue’s premium offerings to consumers who want to do some future-proofing. Powered by a flrst generation 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo processor, the 1s4636 has just the right amount of muscle for day-to-day use. Office and multimedia apps run flawlessly. Editing large photographs using Adobe Photoshop CS2 seem routine when compared to doing it on older Pentium 4- powered laptops. Yesteryear’s games, like Command & Con quei-Red: Alert 2, also run without problems, although the entry- level NVIDIA Geforce Co 6400 graphics card isn’t exactly enough for newer games. Better stay away from this laptop if you plan to use it for on-the-go gaming.

The LCD is bright but very reflective, much like that on an Apple MacBook. Save for the tinny speakers, it’s a joy to watch movies on. The screen also automatically goes on power save mode once the AC plug is detached— a useful feature considering battery life is an average three hours during normal use.

Aside for the sluggish CPU, the M636’s only other flaws can be seen on its exterior, The LCD hinge is wobbly’ and causes the screen to flail about at the hint of any vibration. The silver lid latch can only be described as ugly. There’s also a storage of USB ports, with only three at your disposal.

Pearls, through the ages, have been associated with emperors, kings, queens, rajahs, sultans, princes and the elites of various lands and climes. One man changed all that.

Japanese Kokichi Mikimoto (1858-1954) dreamt of creating pearls that would be affordable to the common man/woman but still maintain its pearly beauty and elegance.

While visiting a pearl exhibit, he learned that oysters can be induced to create pearls. This by introducing a foreign substance, like sand, to it which the oyster would immediately wrap in a substance that would eventually become a pearl.

He experimented through the 1880s and 90s until he finally achieved his aim in 1896 when he patented his Mikimoto cultured pearl.

He continued experimenting until he perfected the shape, texture, and over-all quality of his cultured pearls.
The world hailed his “invention” and called him the Pearl King as Japan became the leading exporter of cultured pearls.