Yes, I’m back. And things did get really busy for me. To catch you up:

• My little online bakeshop has been doing very well. It’s gotten to the point where I sometimes have to decline orders. This makes me a little sad, but I’d rather not overwhelm myself with so many orders that quality suffers (I bake everything myself).
• We quietly launched the Food Bloggers Network, a project I’m obviously extremely passionate about.
• I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter. I have two accounts: a personal one and one for my bakeshop.
• I now blog regularly about several things: web development over at Devlounge, recipes at bFeedMe, and all things Apple at Apple Gazette. I also create and post video tutorials at Tubetorial.

What a busy bee I’ve been. Of course, with all of this going on, sometimes my husband and I don’t have time to prep and cook meals for ourselves. Which is how I discovered what’s become one of my favorite take-out dishes ever:

The truth is, the thought of Cheeseburger Pizza never appealed to me. Shredded lettuce? Burger sauce? But the other day, already in a bad mood from the heat and hunger pangs, I grudgingly ordered a Cheeseburger Pizza from Shakey’s, requesting a “New York Hand-Tossed” crust.

I loved it. The lettuce, the sweetish sauce, the cheese… all of them worked surprisingly well atop a chewy crispy pizza with lots of mozzarella.

I’d like you to meet one of the loves of my life. This is Kitty, and she’s a pink Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer. I’ve had her for around six months now, and she’s still as beautiful today as the day we brought her home. Actually, she’s more beautiful now, having churned out hundreds of cupcake and cookie batters, whipped up a whole lot of cream and meringue, and valiantly kneaded bread dough. Kitty rocks.

If you’ve been on the fence about buying a Kitchenaid stand mixer, here’s my advice: do.

There are some awesome deals on the stand mixers now at Amazon- I like to check it once in a while if only to ooh and ahh over all the pretty colors: KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixers at Amazon.

My products currently include some of the best cupcakes you’ll ever have, as well as some cookies and bars that I’ve developed throughout the years. Please do check it out »

However, the good news is that in true Lorraine fashion, I’ve been subliminating my grief by baking up a storm- and will be blogging my successes (and okay, yes, my failures) here in the next few weeks. So don’t cancel your RSS subscription just yet… there will be yumminess coming! I promise.

The cupcakes were delicious. I cut down on the sugar in both the cake and frosting recipes, and they were still fantastic. Soft and moist and very light. But the best part was icing them.

I only have a very old, very cheap hand-me-down plastic icing decorating kit, so it was quite messy, but the cupcakes came out so pretty. Sorry, no photos- but I served some to guests last night, then sent the rest to various family members- and they were all gone before I could remember to photograph them!

Anyway, what I really want to say is that I LOVED piping the frosting. Even with my hot hands, even hotter kitchen, and el cheapo of the cheapest decorating sets, I had such a blast doing it. Now I want to buy a new set- but I need some advice. Should I order one of these?

…or stick to a more traditional set like this?

Your comments and suggestions please!

Being sick always brings forth my sweet tooth somehow, and I swear I’ll make Smitten Kitchen’s Caramel Walnut Upside Down Banana Cake as soon as I can bear to be back in the kitchen for more than five minutes. Seriously, this cake looks like it might even be worth airconditioning my kitchen for.

Then, of course, there’s Christine’s Simple Strawberry Trifle, which just oozes coolness and sweetness and tartness, and looks like the perfect summer snack right there.

My favorite Pioneer Woman has a recipe up for Carrot Sheet Cake with pecans in the icing. I don’t own a sheet cake pan (my oven is too small, sigh), but I’m considering making this in several layers and sandwiching them together with more icing… mmm.

And finally, this one has nothing to do with food, but please see this photo over at Dooce. It’s my favorite photo of the week, maybe the year.

The springtime colors are adorable, and I would love to set out a bowl much like the one above at our Easter Sunday table. You see, because these doughnuts are Krispy Kreme, you know that they’re not just pretty- they probably taste awesome as well.

Visit Krispy Kreme Philippines’ website or one of their shops at Bonifacio High Street, TriNoma, SM Megamall, Mall of Asia, or Greenhills Shopping Center.

This is something we’ve been working on that I’m very excited about: the brand spankin’ new Food Bloggers Network!

It’s a community driven site where members submit their favorite posts from food blogs, and vote on them! (Think “Digg” for food bloggers).

I hope you’ll join in and share your delicious food blog posts with us!

Devil’s Beef Stew

First up is Dhanggit’s Kitchen’s Devil’s Beef Stew Blazing in my Cracked Pot, “devilish” because of its outrageous spiciness. Is it also devilish because of the amount of rice you’ll eat with this mouthwatering looking dish?

Pata Tim

Here we have I can do that’s Pata Tim. Whoever it was who invented Pata Tim, a tasty Chinese dish of the softest pork imaginable, is a genius. Oggi definitely had a stroke of genius when she decided to make it in a crockpot. Mmm….

Pork Estofado

Next up is Snug’s Pork Estofado, slow-cooked with saba bananas and served with crusty french bread to sop up all of that lovely looking sauce. Okay, we’re getting too hungry now…

Braised Pork Spareribs

Now, feast your eyes on ISKAndals’ Braised Pork Spareribs, one of the simplest recipes I’ve seen- made up of just pork, garlic, soy sauce and sugar- and oh so gorgeous. You just know that meat is falling off its bones…

Rib Ends

Homemade green tomato relish is the “secret ingredient” in Cooked From the Heart’s Rib Ends Braised in Green Tomato Chutney, creating an explosion of sweet, spicy and tangy flavors. We’re talking star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and szechuan peppercorns, people.

Pinatisang Manok

And finally, here’s my very own entry, Pinatisang Manok, which I wrote about here- and my husband is already asking for again.

Thank you so much to everyone who joined in and supported this Lasang Pinoy. These are all recipes I can’t wait to try out myself!

My crockpot was perfect for the job. In true lazy-cook fashion, at 10 a.m. I put the chicken in its frozen state with about 1/4 cup of good thai fish sauce (patis), a teaspoon of chopped fresh ginger, set the crockpot on low, and went back to bed.

Four hours later (around 2 p.m.), I added another 1/4 cup of patis and another teaspoon of chopped ginger.

At 7 p.m. (we were expecting guests at 7:30), I added some chunks of green papaya (from our tree!), a tablespoon of rock salt, and a few more dashes of patis to the already awesome smelling pot, and started the rice.

At 7:30 p.m., we sat down to a lovely dinner of this:

Okay, so crockpot cooking doesn’t give you the prettiest dishes, but oh- the flavor! The chicken, tender and juicy, was falling off the bone… the “sauce”, made up mostly of the chicken’s own juices, was tasty and not fishy at all… the green papaya was still a little crunchy, but that’s how I like it.

Taken with lots of sticky white rice, it was a very comforting, very filling meal.