After my third try, I was finally able to produce an okay lemon cake. The past two weekends were a disaster -- the mixture would curdle when I add the third or fourth egg. But, with more tips from gelliebean, I was able to do it right this time!


Fresh eggs from the Salcedo Market


Creamed butter and sugar. =)


After adding the second egg, I was able to mix it well and keep it nice and fluffy.


After the fourth egg, I folded in the flour, lemon juice and zest and the poppy seeds. I didn't put almonds anymore. I don't like almonds much.


The cake mixture before I popped it into the oven.


And after 20+ minutes... The cake! It wasn't as tall as I expected it (from the picture in the book), but it tastes good and the texture's just right, so I guess it basically worked. My friend says it might be because my pan is too big. And I think so too, because the quantities of the ingredients are very small. The next time I do this recipe, I will use a smaller pan. And perhaps I'll use a loaf pan =)That way, it'll be easy to store and pack as baon, too!


The drizzle icing -- tangy! Yum.


We had a slice (or two) for merienda today. Yey!

Labels: food, photographs

I got my kitchen implements and my ingredients today for my lemon cake project. I'm using Jamie Oliver's recipe which I found in his book Cook with Jamie. =)

Labels: food, home

5 stars for:

1. Chowking's Nai Cha
2. Sunny summer weekends
3. Sketchcrawling
4. New pencils (and sharpening them)
5. Wai Ying

Labels: art, food, lomo, paperjournal, photographs

Manila Chinatown

Lunch at Wai Ying -- yummy and inexpensive: white chicken + roasted duck + rice + century egg + hakao + milk tea jelly.





Walked around. Took pictures. Bought a bouquet of pencils! Sketched. At 5:30, headed back to Makati on the Pasig River Ferry. I loved today.

Labels: art, food, paperjournal, photographs

In Power Plant, there's Lulu Belle.
In High Street, there's Yogurt Froz.
In Il Terraza (Tomas Morato), there's FYI.
In Rustan's Supermarket Makati, there's White Hat.
I love everything!
Next in line: California Berry at Paseo Center =)

Labels: food, photographs

Labels: food

Got up a bit late again today and totally missed breakfast-time. Went straight to an early lunch at the Salcedo weekend market with F. Got me grilled tilapia and monggo (both my favorites!), while F got some lapu-lapu sisig and lechon kawali (quite yummy as well). For dessert, we shared a small tub of frozen yogurt. Nice and light =)

It was a nice day, although it could've been sunnier (it's still too gray for my taste), so we spent an hour more at the park just hanging around. F sketched in his journal, making a nice spread with our leftovers as subjects.



I myself haven't been doodling much, but I hope that'll change soon. I have a bunch of new journals, after all. In the meantime, I just snap photos using whatever camera I had the urge to bring with me that day.

Finally got some grocery-shopping done. Stocked up on food so I won't have to always step out to eat. We also decided to make dinner instead of eat out tonight. Got a bunch of meats that we plan to grill. But, for tonight, we decided on something light, simple, and fast. Salmon! I can't thank my cooking show staff enough for that wonderful gift of a grill pan!

I kept it simple -- seasoned the fillets with salt and pepper while heating up the lightly oiled pan. Once I had a very hot pan, I grilled the fillets for less a minute on each side. Yummmmmeehhh.



Roasted potatoes and bell peppers again (still had some left-over) and whipped up a light dressing of sour cream mixed with feta cheese, seasoned with garlic powder and oregano. It was nice on the taters and veggies. =)

It was a really yummy day. To cap it, we're having mango-strawberry and yogurt smoothies (got the fresh fruits from the market this morning!). Got lots more left for tomorrow. Perhaps this will be my breakfast. Mmmm.... I do love food. And what do you know, I like to make it, too.

=)

Labels: food, home, photographs

Got my share ready for tomorrow's Yale party ready.

Clockwise from upper left:

1) Legolas Green Dip -- mix in a blender: 1 cup of fresh basil, 4 cloves of garlic, some salt, cream cheese and some sour cream.

2) Napoleon Dynamite -- Mash some feta cheese and slices of jalapeno peppers with a fork, put some olive oil, mash mash mash; you can actually stop here. Nice with toasted pita bread. But, if you want it a little dip-py, add some plain yogurt.

I fear I put too much jalapeno. When I was tasting the dip, I couldn't taste the peppers too well, so I kept adding bits. And then I remembered that the party is tomorrow. So, the peppers will have time to steep in the dip. I wonder what will happen...

3) Lemony Snicket Mayo -- just a tub of light mayo with a bit of lemon juice.

Labels: food, home, photographs

A few hours before the beginning of 2009, we had a quiet home-cooked dinner accompanied by some wine.



We are the best company for each other, I agree.

Labels: food, home, photographs

Among the lovely things I got for Christmas was this bottle of oil flavored with rosemary and caperberries.

I decided to use it today, when I used my electric oven for the first time. I've had this oven ever since I moved here, but I never really considered using it because I was intimidated by it. Finally decided to give it a try today.

I thought roasted potatoes would be a good and easy dish. So, we picked up some at the market and I pulled up a simple recipe on allrecipes.com to guide me.

I diced the potatoes, drizzled the oil over them, seasoned them with black pepper and salt. Then popped them into the pre-heated oven (400 degrees F). While waiting for the potatoes to be ready, F made some burger patties and grilled them using my new grill pan (also a gift!). Didn't get to take a shot of it with my phone though.

It was a yummy home-cooked meal. Looking forward to more!

Labels: food, home, photographs

I inherited a 10-minute cooking show and it is a very filling project to work on. 

Labels: food, lomo, tv work

The food-and-friends combo can't be beat!

Friday night with Gel and Danisha, dinner at Amici: We had more than gelato: margherita pizza, vongole, maccheroni al gorgonzola, italian sausages, then profiteroli for dessert and a cup of gelato each. We passed our cups around ala 1-2-3 pass so we could sample everyone's chosen flavor. Yummy.



After dinner, we decided to catch the 11pm screening of Ratatouille (yes, more food!).

Today: I had my first official visitor to the condo. Ava was a frequent visitor at my apartment in QC where we would have dinner in or out at a nearby resto. This morning, we bought food at Salcedo market. We got a huge serving of spinach lasagne (P270) and a pack of hungarian sausages (P200 for 4 pcs). Three people can share the lasagne, it's a really big serving, and very yummy.

Labels: food, photographs

I was in a cooking (and eating) mood all weekend. I checked out some simple recipes online and decided to give em a shot.

A friend of mine came over last Saturday to help with the first dish that I wanted to try: Pasta with basil cream sauce. Yes, yes, i was hoping that it will taste like Cibo's genovese pasta. We even put oyster mushrooms in it. It turned out alright, though not spectacular.

In any case, it was fun trying out the recipe. And the salad was fine =) See salad below.



I steeped some cubes of feta cheese and one crushed clove of garlic in extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled it with pepper and oregano.



This would be my dressing of sorts for the lettuce. I threw in some chopped tomatoes as well.

The following day, I decided to make a similar concoction for the pasta. It's simple and requires no cooking! I got the recipe here. Here it is:



I liked it better than the green sauce we made the night before. But, the nicest one was the sauce I made for Sunday dinner. Simple white sauce -- sauteed some chopped oyster mushrooms plus a ridiculous a amount of garlic in butter, then added cream, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese.

Yummy. No more pic of that one cos I couldn't be bothered. I was hungry eh.

=P

Labels: food, photographs

Finally got to try that resto i've been seeing on Tomas Morato for some time now. Their fare is similar to Country Waffles', but less expensive. I love the Vigan longganisa meal. Lifey tried the Wapple Wonder. When you order waffles (or pancakes), the server puts down an array of yummy syrup on your table. Maple, pineapple, coconut, and peach.

The service is nice, too. I went there today (my second visit) for breakfast. Had to wait 10-15 minutes to get a table. But, they made everyone comfy while waiting, served us complimentary dalandan juice. When I got a table, they gave me complimentary pancakes while waiting for my real order to be ready.

The manager(?) remembered me from two days ago -- I guess it's because I cut up their paper placement to put in my journal. =P

Labels: food

Olive oil, LOTS of garlic, fresh tomatoes and feta cheese, seasoned with oregano, make for a light and yummy pasta sauce. It could use a bit of chili flakes, though. Maybe next time.

I wish my digital camera was here, so I could take a photo of my dinner this evening (as suggested by A). The feta cheese, which I put in a jar of olive oil and herbs, has been a real treat. Very nice with salad, or even just pandesal. And now with pasta.

And now that my microwave is fixed (yahoo!) reheating left-overs is quick and hassle-free again. On top of that, I can have microwave popcorn! And just in time for my TTT extended edition DVD, too.

Labels: food

I brought home some food from my mom's birthday dinner last Saturday. My lola's food, prawns in gata and some yummy chicken. I've been saving it for today's lunch, so I could have a nice leisurely home-cooked lunch here at home. When I got home from my weekly Monday morning meeting, someone had eaten all of it already.

My tita and cousin are here pala. They probably thought they were my left-overs.

Oh well, so much for that plan. Back to McDonald's for me. I'm not always this selfish, but I feel so bad.

Labels: food