Bro Jojo's Birthday

The Birthday Cake

 March 5, 2012. MONDAY is the start of work week, and the 21st birthday of my little brother Jojo, who is now onboard for work. He made a call just in time for dinner and we sang a birthday song to him, we MISS him. We celebrated his birthday at home with favorite dishes served at MO2 Restobar and Grillers Oysters and Carlo's Bakeshop: selection of food made by Mom, my little bros Jaja and Jhaz and me. Here are the dishes served during dinner:

Baked Oysters of GRILLERS OYSTER HOUSE

Oysters/Talaba   is steamed and then baked with a coated with a creamy cheesy sweet  substance . My FAVORITE!

P 78.00

Spicy Bulalo of MO2 Restobar

This  is a different version of the classic bulalo  because  milk is added  for a creamy and tasty feel and fresh peppers for spicy  appeal.

P 160.00

Chicken Skin by MO2 Restobar

This dish is Jhaz' favorite, he is a chicken skin lover and already satisfied if he found one on the table. Crispy and chewy with a a spicy vinegar for dipping.

P 85.00

Pinoy Paella by MO2 Restobar

A favorite of Mom, every time we visit MO2 she never fails to order this dish. This is a yellow rice, not sticky, with seafood mix including crabs, shrimps, fish fillet and calamari. 

P 170.00

Spicy Gambas by MO2 Restobar

This is a traditional sizzling gambas in mouthwatering spicy pepper sauce with lots of fresh garlic and peppers mixed on it.

P 120.00

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Hawaiian Pizza by Pizza Hut

During our dinner, this served as the side dish, but none of us took a slice of it. I brought 3 slices of this at work the next day.hehehe

Mocha Crunch by Carlo's Bakeshop

The cake is a flavored chiffon  with some nuts and crushed biscuits layered in a butter icing.

Nothing fancy about this cake.hehe  

P 420.00

THE BIRTHDAY BOY ONBOARD MV CORRAL STAR

Doughnuts on a Lazy Day

Sugar glazed dougnuts

March 4, 2012, Sunday. It's family day, Sunday is about getting lazy all day, doing nothing, but it is the best time to bond with our families and loved ones. It is also a day to most Filipinos to praise and worship our Lord, a must do especially in our family. I started my Sunday with a call from my love (as always), a hearty breakfast and a Holy Mass. The homily was about carrying our own crosses as we get through life, some are big, some are small, some are black, some are white, and its up us to carry it and get a lesson out of it. These crosses God gave us has reasons and God gave these to us because He know that we can rise above it. One example is this: we complain that we have no enough shoes, but we don't think of people who doesn't have a foot or a leg , for that reason alone, we must be grateful for what we have. This homily exemplifies the reason in every pain or heartbreak we encounter, that at the end of the day, we have a GOD that is always there for us. After the mass, of course, we took our lunch and while watching TV, I've decided to spend the Sunday productively, I made doughnuts for merienda, with ingredients found in the kitchen.  Yehey!
Please see below the ingredients, procedure and the finished product.

Step by step process

INGREDIENTS
For the doughnut
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup fresh milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 medium size eggs
2 tsp baking soda/yeast
1 tsp salt
For the glaze
1/4 cup fresh milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
PROCEDURE
Doughnut
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the milk, salt and 1 tsp of sugar.
2. Add on the yeast, 2 cups of flour, eggs and the remaining sugar. Stir in one direction only until sticky.
3. Gradually add the remaining 4 cups of flour in the mixture and knead it at least 5 minutes.
4. Set aside the dough and let it rise for a least 1 hour.
5. After an hour, knead the dough and flatten it using a rolling pin. Cut round molds on the dough and set aside to rise. Make round holes on the center for the shape of the doughnut.
5. In a frying pan, put an ample amount of oil for deep frying in medium heat. Fry donuts leaving each side brown and turning the other side for parity.
6. Dip the fried doughnuts in the glaze and place it on a rack to settle.
Glaze
1. In a saucepan of medium heat, combine milk and vanilla, put into boil and add the powdered sugar.
2. Stir gradually in one direction and set aside.

Sylvanas out of boredom

Sylvanas

November 25, 2011 at around 5:00 PM in the afternoon Mr. Erwin Williams approached me if I could help him in making sylvanas. Since work is done I opted to join him and learn the easiest way to bake sylvanas at the hotel kitchen (Yehey!). For those who are not familiar of  sylvanas, these are oval-shaped, large cookie-sized desserts with a thin meringue on either side of a butter cream filling and dusted with crumbed cookies. Not overly sweet, they are rich, crisp, chewy, and buttery all at the same time (Sounds delicious???). Working in the hotel kitchen is a chaos (but I feel happy of all the chaos.hehe), food for events are prepared on the other side and at the same time dishes for restaurant orders are also being cooked. But it seems magic that at the end of the day everything goes smoothly and guests both from the restaurant and the hotel function are satisfied and pleased. The magic of every dish prepared is credited not only to one chef, but to all the staff who poured out their hard work and dedication in preparing those quality and delicious food.  Teamwork in the kitchen is very important; this is because without cooperation in every kitchen staff, the taste and quality of food will be ignored. 

Please see below the ingredients and procedure in making SYLVANAS.

Ingredients:

For the meringue

8 eggwhites

1 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup flour (sifted)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup peanuts (diced)

For the butter icing

1 cup Unsalted butter (softened)

3/4 cup fresh milk

3/4 cup sugar

For the coating

2 cups crushed graham crackers/ lady fingers

Procedure

Meringue

In a bowl, stir eggwhites until fluffy.

Gradually add the cream of tartar as well as the sugar.

Slowly pour the flour in the mixture and mix carefully.

Add the nuts in the mixture.

Place the mixture in a pan covered with aluminum foil.

Bring to the oven for at least 30 mins in a 180 F

After baking, cut the meringue and form it into oval shapes.

Set aside

Butter icing

Soften butter using the electric mixer. 

Little by little add sugar into the mixture.

Gradually pour on the fresh milk to soften and neutralize the sugar.

Set aside.

Cookie

Glaze the oval shape meringue with butter icing all over it evenly.

Roll the glazed meringue on crushed grahams.

Place it on cookie paper cups and refrigerate.

The unexpected dessert

One Sunday after arranging the groceries, I came up with making Smores with honeycomb on top… snack for that afternoon for the family. Because of super day dreaming about it the past few days, I decided to make it for them. I started making the honeycomb first. Honeycomb is a sweet crunchy treat that melts in your mouth, similar to sugar brittles but more delicate and breaks easily.. (Details for the making honeycomb is listed below) This first time making the honeycomb is a breakthrough for me since this is one of those favorite desserts that I would love to make. I’ve been looking for the recipe of this kind of candy, and recently I found it and knew what the name is, and it is HONEYCOMB. One thing I would advise in making this is instead of following the recipe for the amount of baking soda, make it half instead since it gets bitter when baking soda is more. And one more thing, make sure that the sugar syrup is in its perfect syruppy condition(haha), a condition wherein it is in amber color and very velvety or I may say near to sticky, so that it won’t melt easily. After making the honeycomb, the layered Smores is the next thing to do. Smores are usually  famous campfire treats, if you have a cracker, a chocolate bar and a marshmallow, you now have a snack to bite. Smores are just more on the pattern of layering, one on top of the other. After making the Smores and topped the honeycomb on it, I tried a bite, but to my dismay I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t know why but I have a feeling that after I tasted it is not suited as a snack, it cannot satisfy your hungry stomach either, because for me, the snack I made was a dessert, because the moment I ate it, I did’nt felt it was a snack, but it was a sweet tasty treat. And basing it on the reactions of the people at home after eating, they didn't grab for more, usually if I'm making a snack for them, they want more than just one slice/layer of it, the maximum slices that was eaten as I remember was just 2 is to 1 person. The believed Smores as a snack was actually a dessert by nature for me.

 SMORES w/ HONEYCOMB RECIPE
Ingredients:
For Honeycomb            
* 3/4 cup white sugar    
* 1/4 cup water               
* 2 tbsp honey                
* 2 tsp/1 tsp baking soda
For Smores
* 1 pack graham crackers
* 1 pack marshmallows 
* 500 grams chocolate buttons

Procedure
For Honeycomb  
1. Mix sugar, water and honey in a saucepan with a wooden spoon.
Bring it into a boil until amber in color and very syruppy.
2. Add the baking soda into the sugar syrup until foamy.
3. Pour immediately in a parchment paper and let it cool.
4. Break into small pieces or as desired.
For the Smores
1. Open Graham Cracker pack to let the biscuit soften.
Cut graham crackers into square sizes.
2. On top of it, add 2 chocolate buttons, place it in oven
to melt the chocolate.
3. After melting the chocolate, place marshmallow on top,
place it back to the oven and let the mallows melt. Make
sure it will not get burned.
4. Layer another square size graham on top of the mallow.
Add another marshmallow on top of the cracker. Let it melt 
in the oven.
5. Sprinkle on top with honeycomb pieces.

Unang hirit sa blog na ito!

This is it! My very own blog about one of my life's interests.. FOOD and everything about it.. 
This blog will chronicle all of my very own revised recipes of the food I love. I will post a step-by-step process of delicious and mouthwatering dishes which I will produce this coming days..
I hope you enjoy and try making these dishes in your homes.
And for me, may this blog serve as a stepping stone to a bright future in the food business and my  cooking career.. Wapak!!!


Bon appetit!  
Guten Appetit! 
Buon Appetito! 
Chúc mọi người ăn ngon miệng!