The Much Awaited Wedding

A couple of months from now, we will be going to the wedding of the daughter of a family friend. I didn’t see this wedding coming this soon, as the couple have been engaged for two years, and we thought that if the wedding didn’t happen the past two years, who knows when the wedding will be.

It was rather a nice surprise when we received the very elegant invite a few days ago. The traditional ’save the date card’ was totally skipped, which we learned was intentionally done to make it a total surprise.

Now, I have a dilemma! I have a lot of custom made formal attires but I doubt if any of them will fit. Reason being, that they are from the old days, most of them are creations of Edgar Madamba, my designer from the Philippines. The last two formal attires that he made for me was in 2004 when we attended two weddings that year.

As for my husband, I’m almost certain that he can easily get a new tuxedo. This man is not in favor of tux rentals; whenever he needs one, he uses what he owns or buys one. He figures, he does not go to a lot of formal functions, and most of the time, when he buys, it is because his most current purchase does not fit him anymore.

It is apparent that we really need to watch our weight. If only we are both lean, then all we need to do is shop from our closet. Let’s see what we will come up with.

July 3, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Everything in between  No Comments

Milk Chocolate - Strawberry Cake

Two  Fridays ago, I had an assistant to help me  bake my cake for the weekend.  I didn’t do sifting and measuring, as I relegated the job to my husband who was off from work that day. He was more than willing to do it for me; in fact, he was very thrilled to take part and help. I didn’t realize that two pairs of  hands are better than one, as we were done in no time.

Here’s my Strawberry Cake with Milk Chocolate Icing and whipped cream-strawberry filling.

I followed a recipe for the strawberry cake but the recipe for the icing and the filling was something that I concocted, myself. Nowadays, probably because of longer exposure to baking, I now find myself creating my own recipe based on what ingredients are available in my pantry.

If you remember in the past, I wrote about my fear of trying my hands on baking. I was so afraid of failing, that I thought I would not overcome the fear at all. This experience reminds me so much of my public speaking fear dating back when I was still in freshman (high school). Little did I know, that I had it in me to even engage in extemporaneous speaking and went on to win oratorical contests. All I needed was to get the ball rolling, in this case, I was forced to memorize and deliver a 12 stanza poem (a contest piece ) integrated as part of an oral exam. The objective was to force students to memorize the long poem and hopefully pick a representative from our school to a contest. To make the long story short, I got picked and won the division and eventually the regional contest. That paved my way to the wonderful world of oration and the rest was history.

Going back to my cake, in case you want to know - it was another lusciously sinful creation!

July 2, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Chef in me, Decadent treats  6 Comments

20 Miles Away

The trek to Jollibee as I wrote previously was very much anticipated by my husband. I promised to share here what my husband ordered and the dishes we brought home. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you very well know by now that I’m married to a foodie, so don’t be shock to see the volume of food that he can put away.

I know, this blog can now be mistaken as a food blog, as I have been constantly writing about our food binges. If this keeps up I may well soon be writing about my big time search for ephedrine hcl to sort of keep our weight in check.

Check these out:

Heavyweight Yumburger with fries, Chickenjoy and Palabok fiiesta

No, I didn’t order burger, I was satisfied with my Palabok.  Believe me, my husband also had his own Palabok on top of his burger and fries.

Our food-to-go:

We brought home  Palabok, Spaghetti, Large buttered corn and 6 pieces Chickenjoy plus an additional 1 piece free. I figured, the crew behind the counter must have been delighted to serve my husband (thus, the freebie) as he was the only non-Pinoy guest at that time.

Last weekend, he was again insinuating his intention on dropping by Jollibee. The next time around, as he said, he will be ready for Burger Steak and Peach Mango pie. Oh my, now I’m afraid I’ll be seeing myself driving 40 miles roundtrip, a possible one hour traffic each way just to have a taste of home.

July 1, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Food  11 Comments

Finally… He Met Jollibee

Yes folks, this is my husband’s long time dream: to finally go to Jollibee and meet Jollibee here in New York. That dream has been elusive for quite sometime because when it opened in February, the place was too crowded, and with the very long lines outside the restaurant, we thought it was ridiculous to go, as it was in the middle of the winter.

Finally, we were there last Friday, a good 20 mile drive from our place and although it would normally take 40 minutes to get there, because of  road congestion, we saw ourselves sitting in traffic on the way home for 1 1/2 hour.

Nevertheless, we had a great time as there were no lines. One word of caution, as I learned from the Area Manager - during weekends, expect long lines inside. Jollibee Corp. has got a gold mine here in New York. This branch is not a franchise, it is company owned.

One thing that I noticed was that, not everyone that works in the restaurant are Filipinos. I was almost certain that  the lady behind the counter speaks Tagalog, but boy, was I surprised when she told me she didn’t speak the language. I then left my husband to take care of the order and let him buy ‘everything’ . He studied the menu online prior to going, just  imagine that. The food he ordered totally deserves another post. Just so you know, he placed a separate take out order LOL.

Woodside, Queens in New York is a mecca for anything Pinoy. I, myself enjoyed shopping from the several Filipino stores along the strip. My pantry is now replenished with all the basic Pinoy ingredients, snacks and what nots. When I was finally done, we were kind of hungry again, so we ended our day at  Krystal’s Cafe and Pastry Shop. As you would probably guess, I wound up bringing home tons of ensaymadas, chiffon rolls and ube rolls. I wrapped them good, and now they are in my freezer waiting to be thawed. I think I can skip baking this weekend.

June 26, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Food  22 Comments

Back In The Kitchen

When my husband was off from work this past two Thursdays and Fridays, it gave me the excuse to indulge on heavy brunch dishes. In spite of the inclement weather, we managed to still head out to brunch most days. Instead of heading out a little farther as originally planned, the rain made us shelve that initial plan.

Thus, we have subsisted mostly on dishes that are otherwise unhealthy but satisfying and delicious. After all, when a dish is that yummy, it can’t be too healthy. Check this out:

For the past two weeks, I didn’t cook at all. I’m finally back in my kitchen whipping up more healthy dishes. As great as it was not slaving myself in the kitchen from Monday to Thursday for the past two weeks, as soon as Monday came, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my first home cook dish. Surely, nothing beats home cooked food!

June 24, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Food  12 Comments

Banana Bread

I veered away from my usual Friday baking last week. Thus, this was what I could muster last Wednesday. Banana bread, anyone?

I hope I can come up with something more elaborate this week even if I’m on ‘vacation.’

June 18, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Chef in me  11 Comments

Taste Of Home In Westbury

I wish I can say I have been busy so I can justify the lack of update here, but I was not. The truth of the matter is that, I just wanted to savor my free time, as officially, my “detective” work is now over.  This is also the second week that I have not been busy in the kitchen, which means, we have been surviving on restaurant food. It’s another four day weekend for us this week, as my husband is again off from work this Thursday and Friday.

Our long weekend last week saw as grounded because of the very unpredictable weather. It was raining, and although it was not a total wash out, the original plan on going for a long drive was shelved. The farthest we drove was 90 miles round trip, and that was to head out to a Philippine restaurant somewhere in Long Island.  As always, it was not surprising to see  my husband’s love for Filipino dishes. Although I cook the same dishes every once in a while here at home, he still goes for the same when we eat out.

Here’s the spread:

It was my first time to come across the above beverage in a can. I know of the traditional freshly squeezed dalandan juice. It was not as great, but it is a good enough substitute.

June 17, 2009  Tags:   Posted in: Domestic bliss, Food  14 Comments