Cooked with affection, cooked to perfection!

Hellooo! Cara here! Yes... The busy one who isn't really a bum. 


Something surreal really happened today, I went all domestic! What was supposed to be an afternoon spent getting a facial (with the real busy bums, of course), turned out to be an afternoon of grocery shopping, dishwashing, and dinner preparations! 


Yup! I did all of that out of my own free will.. And a few coincidental circumstances (Ate Leah wasn't there to cook or do the dishes for me, Nicole and Mae took so long, and I felt bad for restricting Abran from eating rice for dinner, HAHA).


So while waiting for Nics and Mae, I was looking for some recipes online. Of course the ever-trusted allrecipes.com led me to a yummy chili-lime chicken kebab recipe! You can check it out here. I took a quick look at the ingredients list and rushed to the grocery. Met up with Mae and Nics after that and next thing I know, I was cooking dinner! They helped me of course... And I couldn't have done it without them! 

It turned out to be aweesomeee... Although the recipe didn't have it, I wanted to add some bell peppers, onions, and pineapples to make the dish more colorful and balanced. We also tweaked the recipe some more by adding this really juicy and tasty sour cream sauce with some spices and a little bit of olive oil. To complete the theme, we got some pita bread! 

You almost can't believe how unbelievably soft and tasty the chicken is! It was very spicy and tangy at the same time! It really had a kick, so the sour cream sauce and pineapples was definitely a good idea. I can't wait to make some again... Maybe this weekend! 

Look how happy (and hungry) they are!

 

Woohoo! Dinner is finally served!

A parting gift for each one of us... Guess who's who.

-Cara :)

The Chef Recommends...

Mae: So I was busy doing nothing when Nicole suddenly knocked on my door and asked if I could go with her. I said ok even though I had no idea where we were going. (I'm such a good friend aren't I?) Turns out, Nicole got a certificate for a free dinner for 2 at the Eastwood Richmonde Hotel from a friend she ran into at school this morning! Yay! The moral of the story: Go to school, someone might give you free stuff. Anyway, it was the first time for both of us to eat at the Richmonde Hotel so we decided to try and explore the food critic world. p.s. THANK YOU NICOLE!!! I LOVE FREE DINNERS!!!

Unfortunately, no buffet for that day (a bit of a disappointment, i love buffets) since it was a weekday so instead we'd be getting a four course meal that the chef recommended. This made it more fun actually! It was like a mini-adventure, but for our tummies! Every course was a mystery.
Nicole: Throughout the blog, you might notice that I'm the negative one while Mae is sunny and positive, don't mind me I'm just pretending to be a snobbish critic when in reality I pretty much stuffed my face with all the foooood.

Starter: Bread and Butter
Mae: No surprises here, most restaurants start with bread and butter anyway. I liked the bread, it had a very strong herb-licious flavor.
Nicole: Hmmm....The bread was good, it could have been better if it was fresh though!

Appetizer: Tuna Ceviche
Mae: This was my favorite course of the night! I've never had ceviche before but this dish made me want to eat it more. It had a layer of stuff underneath it (yeah stuff, that's a technical term) that consisted of onions (one of my faves), and cucumber, and other things that my uneducated palate couldn't decipher. It definitely made the dish taste even better!
Nicole: Hahaha well I liked the stuff underneath the tuna too! The tuna was soft and the stuff lent an awesome crunch to the dish! The play on textures were amazing! It was fun to eat. The ceviche was finished with lemon juice or vinegar for acidity so you don't get that yucky feeling and taste of eating something raw.

Main Course: Chicken Inasal
Mae: I was surprised that they served chicken inasal as their main course. I was hoping for lamb or roast beef (naks) It wasn't bad though. Not the best I ever had, but not bad. For really delicious chicken inasal though I still prefer Jo's Chicken Inato, Matias, or Andok's. It was served with garlic rice, and you just can't go wrong with garlic rice! I momentarily gave up my no-rice-eating-streak because I just couldn't help myself!
Nicole: Yeah... as Mae said, that Chicken Inasal was a shocker. I wanted steak :( Anyway, the chicken had this funny smell, I think it's because of the lemongrass? Well whatever it was, it didn't stop me from eating it anyway. I think I was just really hungry!

Dessert: Mango Bulcan
Mae: This was an interesting dessert, I've never even seen it before. Haha it had a layer of some thin wafers, pastillas, and mango cream (hence the mango in the name) and had a garnish of chocolate and caramel. It was scrumptious actually but i found the pastillas too thick. It gives you the kind of feeling where something gets stuck to the roof of your mouth and that makes it hard to chew. In the end, I couldn't finish it, which is quite heartbreaking since dessert is usually my favorite part of any meal. I would recommend this to people though, especially with the caramel garnish to dip the dessert in (makes it even better!) Although next time, I won't eat so much pastillas.
Nicole: This was such a delicate looking dish! I am a sucker for caramel so I gobbled the whole thing up! The pastillas were too huge and too much of it though, but seriously, at that moment I didn't care! The caramel sauce was heaven, until I finished it all though, the pastillas did not sit well with me. :s

Nicole: Since Mae got to start the Blog I shall finish it! Richmonde Hotel was a great experience. I would visit again, definitely! Of course not all of the courses were amazing (I will order steak next time damn it!)  but hey it was a free dinner, one should not complain. Anywho, thanks to my friend Kendrick Barcena for dinner! Much love coming your way from two satisfied stomachs!




-Mae and Nic

Cara's Lunch: Filipino Bento Box

So, the girls found out about my lunch making "skills" and since Cara is part of our country's workforce now she has requested me and Mae-Ann to prepare her lunch to bring to the office. I was in charge of the main, while Mae on dessert - she's kind of our dessert princess, her red velvet cupcakes are to die for! Anyway, our inspiration for Cara's lunch was one of those cute little Japanese Bento Boxes that you wish your mom made for you as a kid so you could show off to all your playmates in school.

MENU

  Savory Chorizo and Egg Crepe

Sweet and Sour Pork Roll

Brown Fried Rice

Coke Cupcake

Scroll down for the recipe :)

 

RECIPE

Crepe

1 cup flour

1 1/4 cup of water

1 egg

a pinch of salt

Filling

2 pieces of chorizo

1/2 cup onion

1 egg

butter (enough to saute the onions in)

Pork Roll

4 pieces of Pork Chops

1/2 cup onions

1/2 cup carrots

1/2 cup pickle relish

1/4 cup tomato sauce

Fried Rice

1 1/2 cup brown rice

2 cloves garlic

1/2 cup onions

1 egg beaten

1/2 cup carrots

*cupcake recipe: read on*

  

Crepe Procedure:

1. Make the crepe. Dump all the ingredients together and whisk.

2. Cut the chorizo wrap open and scoop out all the chorizo.

3. Saute onions in butter and add the chorizo. 5 minutes

4. Beat an egg and add it to the chorizo mixture.

5. Transfer everything to a plate and re-coat the pan with butter.

6. Ladle a small portion of the crepe batter into the pan. 

7. Instantly scoop some of that chorizo filling and place it on the crepe while it's still wet in the middle so it can stick to it, so when you cut the crepe into rolls the filling won't spill out.

8. Gently roll the crepe. To seal it pour a small portion of the batter on the edges and roll closed.

Whew! On to the next one!

Pork Roll Procedure:

1. Flatten the pork chops using a rolling pin. Or basically anything you can grab: pan, hammer etc. 

2. Place equal portions of the diced carrots, onions and pickle relish on the pork. Roll carefully.

3. Secure with toothpicks or strings.

4. Heat oil in the pan and brown all sides of the pork roll.

5. Add the tomato sauce and a splash of water. Simmer until tender. 

6. Take out the toothpicks and cut into rolls.

And... Done! 

- Nicole

Ok yay, so it's my turn! Well, one of the perks of living next door to the Philippine version of Martha Stewart is that she lets me in on some of her cooking secrets. She actually let me cook the fried rice! Woo hoo! Do I sound too excited? It's probably because it was my first time cooking fried rice, and I had no idea where to even start but Nicole just told me what to do, and *poof* fried rice appeared. I think I'd make an excellent sous chef! Last note on fried rice: I think everyone has their own version of fried rice but a sprinkle of cayenne pepper did wonders! It was soooooo good, I had to stop myself from eating everything. (My goodness, how many times did I write fried rice in this paragraph?!)

Now! On to dessert! The cupcake! I've been trying to experiment with different cupcake recipes and I was wondering if there was a cupcake that integrated Coca-Cola (yes the drink) anywhere in its recipe (I love Coca-Cola ok.) So i typed "coca cola cupcake" into google search and there was an actual recipe for COCA COLA CUPCAKES! Lucky me! I clicked the first link I saw. Here's the recipe I used: Coca Cola Cupcake Recipe

I accidentally put the cupcakes a bit too long in the oven, but I think it actually worked for this recipe. The marshmallows gave the batter a rather gooey consistency and when it finished baking, it was crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside.
So that's it for the entire meal. Let's just hope that Cara liked it? 

- Mae

So I'm the lucky one who gets to try out Mae's and Nic's experiment! I must mention that these guys woke up pretty darn early (6 AM is early for them) just to make sure that I have lunch that day. I was actually surprised to see Nicole awake before I was, already hustling and bustling in her kitchen. 

So I must say... This Filipino-Japanese fusion of a dish was very tasty! First of all, I liked the presentation. I noticed the bento box reference as soon as Mae and Nicole handed my lunch to me. The chopsticks that went with it gained some attention in the office too. Plus the Post-it note was the cherry on top for me. It definitely made me smile while I was eating my lunch! 

As for the food itself, it was a lot of fun to eat! I honestly did not know what I was eating so every bite was a surprise. The fried rice had a zing to eat and I knew right away that they went crazy with the spices (cayenne pepper right?). I also liked that it had a crunch to it, not your typical fried rice! For the pork roll.... I did NOT know that these guys placed pickle relish! That was just... Such a surprise! I know that pickle relish is good, let's say for hotdogs or burgers. But I never thought of pork chops and relish together! Lastly... My personal favorite, the tocino sushi dish! WOW! I'm a big fan of tocino so there's probably some bias there. But I must say... The egg was just soft as silk!! And the tocino with the sauce was just so sweet! It was like Filipino breakfast sushi heaven for me! Amazing stuff really... Nicole, I want some more!!! 

Anyway, I want to thank Nics and Mae for making me such a scrumptious lunch! Kalil (Nic's boyfriend) must be lucky as hell to have his very own personal chef! 

-Cara