ENERGETIC CHEF

JANUARY, 2012 CHALLENGE: Back to Basics:Scones (a.k.a. Biscuits)

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000+08:00

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers' host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!"Scones (biscuits) contain only a small number of ingredients they are fast to make, quick to bake, only cost cents per batch and most importantly are super FUN to eat. In England and Australia scones

KULINARYA COOKING CLUB JANUARY 2012--HEALTHY BIRTHDAY DISH

2012-01-21T18:06:00.006+08:00

Our hosts for this month, Pearl of My Sassy Chef and Thea of Words and Nosh gave us an excellent theme to start the year for Kulinarya Cooking Club. They decided to let us make a dish that we would like to have on our birthday and give it a healthy twist. I will be turning 40(!) on my birthday this year and I wanted something that is definitely over the top and not my usual favorites. I couldn't

TAMALES (Filipino Version)

2012-01-16T14:42:00.009+08:00

I've just finished the Daring Cooks' January 2012 challenge which was Mexican Tamales, finding ingredients for which was a challenge in itself. Aside from the filling, I don't think I'd be making it again.Here in the Philippines, we have our own version of Tamales which uses toasted rice flour. Much like the Mexican Tamales, it is also wrapped, steamed and encases a filling. My sister and I

THE DARING COOKS’ JANUARY, 2012 CHALLENGE: TAMALES

2012-01-14T16:42:00.002+08:00

Maranda of Jolts & Jollies was our January 2012 Daring Cooks hostess with the mostess! Maranda challenged us to make traditional Mexican Tamales as our first challenge of the year! Happy new year to the Daring Cooks! What a great way for us to start the new year..., this is the first time I will be making and tasting Mexican Tamales, it was really exciting! Some of the ingredients however were

Hello 2012!

2012-01-04T14:36:00.003+08:00

The start of a new year always makes me look back with gratitude for everything that I have experienced because I know that however unpleasant some of those things may be, I learned something from them. The year that was 2011 is not so easy to forget...on the second month, I found out that my mother had cancer and in 4 short months, she passed away. To say that the first half of 2011 has been

Christmas Leftover Ham Soup

2011-12-26T13:57:00.006+08:00

It's the day after Christmas and we are still eating food from the Noche Buena feast! The roast chicken has been deboned and sauteed with celery and red bellpeppers, the cheese we are still eating while having our family tradition of watching The Lord of The Rings trilogy extended dvds. What to do with the ham...I decided to slice it into thin pieces to store in containers inside the chiller. But

KULINARYA COOKING CLUB DECEMBER 2011--Ensaimada for Noche Buena

2011-12-22T11:26:00.005+08:00

"Huli man daw at magaling, naihahabol din"I got so caught up with the Christmas holiday season this year that I completely forgot the dates...no kidding. So sorry to my fellow Kulinarya Cooking Club-bers, but here is my post for this month's theme. I've always been thinking and planning Christmas Eve Dinner or Noche Buena as we Filipinos call it, but I noticed that it was always the savory items

The Daring Cooks’ December, 2011 Challenge: CHA SUI & CHA SUI BAO

2011-12-14T08:07:00.005+08:00

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!I was very excited when I read this month's DC challenge, making Cha Siu from scratch...awesome! However I didnt want to use maltose and artificial coloring for my Cha Siu so I chose Sara's alternative recipe

THE DARING BAKERS’ NOVEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: FILIPINO DESSERTS

2011-11-28T09:45:00.005+08:00

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.I have a confession to make, I didn't make the Sans Rival because I was so

Daim Bars

2011-11-23T08:45:00.005+08:00

What could be more satisfying than candy? A dessert made from that candy that's what! One of the things I really liked about living in Singapore was that IKEA was just a bus away. I didn't go there just to buy things but I would go there to eat...and have a Daim cake for dessert. I first came across this dessert in IKEA Beijing and totally fell for it, and the rest is history. And then I

KULINARYA COOKING CLUB NOVEMBER 2011--ARROZ CALDO

2011-11-20T00:00:00.000+08:00

Our theme for Kulinarya Cooking Club for this month is ARROZ CALDO which literally means hot rice in Spanish. Arroz caldo which is like the Chinese congee or porridge is the ultimate comfort food for most Filipinos. Everytime someone is sick and it really doesn't matter if it's fever or stomachache, he/she is bound to be fed with arroz caldo. But it doesn't mean it's served only for that purpose,

Quick Escape

2011-11-17T00:00:00.001+08:00

Brother: Achi (elder sister in Chinese), do you know any nice resorts that are reasonably priced in Batangas? Me: Yes, I know a few...why?Brother: My friends and I are going on Thursday...you can come if you want.Me: Yay!!! Yes I'm going with you and I'm going to call for reservations now! (stumbles upstairs to laptop for list of Batangas resorts)This was how it started, one of my brothers

THE DARING COOKS’ NOVEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: Cooking with Tea!

2011-11-14T00:00:00.001+08:00

Sara of Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks' hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry. I was surprised when I read this month's challenge at the forums because I had just finished taking pictures of my sister's current

THE DARING COOKS' OCTOBER 2011 CHALLENGE: MOO SHU

2011-10-13T20:54:00.010+08:00

First of all, I'd like to say I'm so glad to have participated in this month's Daring Cooks' challenge because Shelley and Ruth are two of my favorite bloggers...I always read their posts and comment on their blogs. And secondly, I love anything Eastern/Asian because I am Asian..duh. So I knew that I couldn't and shouldn't miss this for anything in the world!The October Daring Cooks' Challenge

Of Rice Terraces, Hanging Coffins, Waterfalls and Perfect Breakfasts...

2011-10-03T11:49:00.007+08:00

I can officially cross out backpacking to the Mountain Province from my list of Things to Do... and I had fun doing it, okay not everything was fun (more than 24 hours on a bus isn't something I'd classify as fun). But most of it was really fun and adventure-packed. A friend once told me that I should visit the Mountain Province and experience spelunking (what?) hmmm...the official definition

THE DARING BAKERS’ SEPTEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: FRESH, FLUFFY, FRENCH

2011-09-29T08:52:00.003+08:00

Yes I know I'm late for the Daring Bakers challenge this month...but as they say--better late than never! I actually finished them about a week ago but I went on a backpacking trip and then I came home to a fierce storm which meant my internet connection wasn't so good...etc...etc...but enough of that. The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members,

Nomama Artisanal Ramen

2011-09-18T09:07:00.006+08:00

Like what I said before, I don't really post entries about restaurants unless I really liked the food there and the whole "experience". So this is one of those few-and-far-between entries...I first saw Nomama last Saturday September 10 and I thought it looked very nice from the outside so I made a mental note to check it out, I called them the next day which was Sunday but no one was picking up

THE DARING COOKS’ SEPTEMBER, 2011 CHALLENGE: STOCK TO SOUP

2011-09-14T07:42:00.006+08:00

Peta, of the blog Peta Eats, was our lovely hostess for the Daring Cooks September 2011 challenge, "Stock to Soup to Consomme". We were taught the meaning between the three dishes, how to make a crystal clear Consomme if we chose to do so, and encouraged to share our own delicious soup recipes!This month's challenge has brought back sooo many memories from culinary school! I remember stressing

Breakfast by the Beach and Dinner on the Roofdeck

2011-09-08T08:59:00.007+08:00

Davao is both familiar and unfamiliar to me, I've been going there (work-related) since 2009 and I think I've sampled some of the more popular eating places there. But on a recent trip (last week, actually) I was reminded of how much I really like going there because it's a city, hey Ayala's Abreeza Mall just opened with TGIF (Fridays), Italiannis, and finally a Starbucks outlet but at the same

Pastillas de Leche

2011-09-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

I've always liked eating pastillas de leche(milk bars) , it's a Filipino candy made from 2 kinds of milk (condensed and powdered) and rolled in sugar. I've always wanted to make my own but somehow I always forget about it...until last month's Daring Bakers' Challenge which was all about candies when I suddenly remembered about it. I added chopped walnuts and almonds to my recipe to give added

August 2011 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Candylicious!

2011-08-27T00:00:00.000+08:00

The August 2011 Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy! I'd

The Daring Cooks’ August, 2011 Challenge: Appam and Curry

2011-08-14T00:00:00.000+08:00

Mary, who writes the delicious blog Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks' host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Linkan dish to go with the warm flat bread. Time does really fly fast, not only when you're having fun but also when you are terribly busy! Hmm...4 more months or is it 3, and it's going

Farmville for Real

2011-08-11T10:31:00.008+08:00

Going organic is the "in" thing in the Philippines nowadays with the relatively new interest on wellness. The opportunity came for me to visit a real organic farm and I didn't think twice about going, working in the food industry has made me interested in farming and agriculture and being aware of where the food that we prepare comes from (from farm to table). We drove for about 4 hours (EDSA was

A Little Bit of Sun

2011-08-03T10:25:00.006+08:00

I love my job...I really do but from time to time I have this urge to get away, it's the wanderlust in me. So last month, I took a short break and flew to Puerto Princesa in Palawan which is a little over an hour from Manila hoping for a little fun in the sun and this was what greeted me on the first morning: (Cloudy skies and low tide on the beachfront of Microtel)Thankfully the weather improved

Kulinarya Cooking Club JULY 2011--SINIGANG

2011-07-31T00:00:00.000+08:00

This month's Kulinarya Cooking Club theme is Sinigang...come to think of it, I don't remember if I already posted a Sinigang recipe here on my blog aside from that it's also perfect for this stormy weather we are experiencing at the moment...Sinigang weather!For the uninitiated, what exactly is Sinigang? It's a sour soup filled with vegetables--the most common being sitaw (string beans), labanos