Surf and Turf and Empanadas?!

What an unlikely combination, but we had it from one of our lunches at LP. Angus steaks cut an inch thick with a creamy pink pepper sauce, with grilled prawns, mashed potato and corn on the cob.



Melscun salad with strawberries ang grapes in rosemary wine vinaigrette. Fancy, huh? Tasty too. The dressing was superb. Tita Socky made it.



And yes, the chicken empanada which is the only thing that I contibuted to our lunch, which JJ helped me bake.



For dessert, I made a Peach Refigerator Cake which is very easy to do. Here's the recipe:



Peach Refrigerator Cake

Ingredients:
Broas (lady finger biscuits)
3 cups of Nestle (easy whip) cream (chilled)
1 can of condensed milk (chilled)
1 large can of paches in syrup, well drained and cut in crescents
Cashew and walnuts, chopped
Rhum

Procedure:.
1. In a chilled bowl, whip the Nestle cream and condensed milk until fluffy. Set aside.
2. Brush lady finers with rhum (if you want a stronger rhum flavor, roll the lady fingers very quickly in rhum because they easily absorb it and people might find it too strong, I prefer just brushing them. If you have kids eating the cake, just brush the lady fingers with mango or peach jam or skip this step completely).
3. Layer the lady fingers in a square baking dish, followed by the whipped cream mixture, cashew and walnuts and the peaches. Repeat the procedure until you end up with the peaches.
4. Chill for at least two hours. You can freeze this too and it tastes like ice cream.

The broas can be substituted with pound cake, taisan cake, or crushed graham crackers (same procedure as you would do in a cheese cake).

This recipe is also great with ripe Philippine Mangoes and would be a nice refreshing dessert to bring to a pot luck. Easy, simple, reasonably priced and delicious.

Halloween Extravaganza!

Our office organized it's first ever Halloween Party!


Art: Sydney Alcala
Copy: Missy Galang

Check out our pics!

Birthday Catch up Part 2 Grams Diner

Blogger.com only allows a certain number of photos to be uploaded so here's the second part of my post...

After browsing the mall, hubby and I came upon this Diner called Grams Diner which promised "comfort food". This is a misnomer, for me at least, since I was brought up right here in Manila, where my comfort foods were adobo, sinigang and pork stewed with red beans :-) But hubby and I wanted to try a new restaurant.

We ordered Cheese Sticks with Pimiento. It's akin to an ordinary cheese stick dish that can be found in a stall along Legaspi Street but one hundred times more expensive, the mayo/tartar dipping sauce made it "nakakaumay". A dipping sauce of fresh salsa would have made it better.



I also ordered the cheese steak sandwich. They have a huge serving which I couldn't eat because the bread they used was crusty French Bread which hurt my gums when I bite into it :-) The serving was huge, you just can't eat it :-) If you have detures, I urge you, don't order this, your dentures will get stuck, he he he!



Hubby had the Banana Split. Which was ok, I guess since the ice cream was store bought. I'm guessing Magnolia.



Overall, I would steer away from this diner. Aside from so-so and overpriced food, lousy service, our orders took ten years to be delivered, kidding! With just two tables occupied at the time, I shudder to think how they cope up with a full house. I felt robbed of my hard earned cash. Skip this. As hubby and I always say, "That's another restaurant to cross off our list, forever" he he he :-)

To make up for the lousy diner, hubby took me shopping again the following day! Yey! Happy times.

Catch up - Birthday Post Part 1

It's been a while since I blogged. Honestly I wanted to, but I didn't have the time and I felt so tired when I get home this past month. It must be my 35-year old bones creaking at the end of the day :-)

Speaking of age, here's a super belated post and super compressed on my birthday festivities. My birthday celebration was a blast and it lasted three days! The first day, which was a Saturday was spent with family members. We had A Japanese-themed dnner at LP. It wa truly a family effort. My aunt Socky made some Yakiniku Steaks marinated in garlic, soy sauce, grated apples, sesame oil and sesame seeds and grilled very quickly on a griddle. Yum.



My sister in law Angel, Angel, made some California Maki on site. Also a hit both for the kids and adults. Would you believe she learned how to make it from YouTube?



I made Mango Kani Salad with Wasabi Dressing, Sesame Peanut Noodles, Prawn and Vegetable Tempura (although I didn't do any of the frying).







And for dessert, I baked some chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cupcakes for the kiddies.





The following day, hubby took me to Seaside Wet Market (behind Mall of Asia, or MOA for short) we shopped for fresh seafood and had Sis Rose Seafood Palutuan cook it for us.





The restaurant "barkers" in the area will come up to you offering discounts and such. We chose Sis Rose because they offered "Money Back Guarantee", if we don't like the way they cook the dishes, we don't pay :-) Not bad eh? I just wished they didn't have a karaoke machine inside. We only realized there was one when one of the customers belted My Way by Frank Sinatra, sheesh my ears! Aside from the crappy singer who stopped singing after I sent him dagger looks, he he he, everything was great.









This is a nice way to celebrate my birthday, we had fresh seafood, nice view of the Manila Bay as we dined and hubby let me pick my birthday gifts at the mall :-)



To be continued on my next post.....

Spoiled

I'm so spoiled since my operation. I have a helper for the week to cook, clean, and wash our clothes for us. I could get used to this :-)

Anyway, I've been itching to cook but I get tired easily and have slight bleeding if I stand up for too long. I managed to make some empanadas yesterday with the help of the househelp. I didn't have to knead and roll the dough. Sweet. Hubby calls me "senyorita" he he he :-)

Live from Asian Hospital

Hi. It's been a while since I blogged. I hoped it was under better circumstances. I just had an operation yesterday to remove some polyps and have a D&C (raspa). It's quite depressing getting the D&C even before I got pregnant. Sheesh.

There's avideo of my operation taken from the camera probe. I told my doctor I'll show it on our next halloween party. He he he.

My operation almost got cancelled since my blood pressure spiked. Fortunately they were able to bring it down immediately. I guess I have to lay off the pork from now on. Bummer.



My room has a great view though, I have a view of Laguna de Bay on one side and a park on the other side. My family was here alst night to welcome me from my surgery. That was great seeing familiar faces after such a gruelling experience.

I had an interesting adventure with the anesthesia. It was a love hate relationship. First, I loved the feeling of euphoria and bliss. But I hated waking up from it. I was awake but unable to move my legs and had to lay flat on my back for six hours.

I'm ok now. All limbs working :-)

Saturday Breakfast with Hubby

For the past week, I've been craving for Kopi Bun. Kopi Bun is a soft and airy bread with a coffee flavored "shell". I'm so excited that there's a branch in BF homes that recently opened and I get my Kopi Bun fix whenever I want it. The Kopi Bun though delicious is very high in fat. I know this because when you touch the bottom of the bun, you can feel the butter sticking to your fingers and there's a large gaping hole inside the bun where maybe 4 tablespoons of cold butter was ensconed prior to baking. Hence, the combination of coffee and butter will entice any dieter to forget about dieting and finish at least one bun.



Hubby and I were up early last Saturday, 9:30 a.m. :-) After a quick bath, we proceeded to Kopi Roti and had our fix. Aside from the Kopi Bun, we also had soft boiled eggs mixed with soy sauce (they serve it that way), a mug each of Teh Tarik. Hubby had two Kopi Buns. I wanted to eat two as well but decided to be ladylike and not scarf down another bun.



Weekends are always so jam-packed. It's nice to have a long, unhurried breakfast with hubby once in a while.