Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies

There was a birthday celebration at the office last week and the catering was just super. As expected, birthday cakes abounded as gifts but everybody raved at the caramel cake from Estrel's.

I craved for it since then. So this afternoon after my trip to the salon, we headed to Scout Tobias, Quezon City with all the intention of buying a cake.

But to my disappointment, there was no cake available anymore at Estrel's. Everything on display were pre-ordered and all their buffer stocks for the day were already sold out. It was only around two in the afternoon mind you.


Hubby and daughter at Estrel's Caramel Cakes bakeshop.

Estrel's Caramel Cakes along Scout Tobias, Quezon City.

My daughter settled for the chocolate chip walnut cookies on the shelf so we bought some. And it was a good thing we did! Delicious. Not overly sweet, not too hard. The taste of the chocolate cookie and the walnut are distinct and they complement each other. This cookie is at par, if not better, than Mrs. Fields.

These cookies saved our afternoon craving for some good snack. :D

For some more weekend snapshots, you may visit here.

Banana Smoothie

My daughter likes watching and listening to Nat and Alex Wolf of The Naked Brothers Band. This band became popular through the tweens channel, Nickelodeon. I have asked and have researched why the band is named such, that story will come in other posts.

One of the brothers' favorite is banana smoothie. Seeing the banana in our kitchen, my daughter had this brilliant idea of making us some banana smoothie last Saturday just after lunch.

Get the chopping board. Take a picture of the banana for posterity.

Slice them using the spatula.

Put them in the blender with one teaspoon of vanilla, 4-oz milk and some ice. Blend for a minute.

Voila...banana smoothie in seven minutes or thereabouts. I have to make a quick check if we are doing the right thing. Just to be sure since this Mommy is not an expert on anything about the kitchen (but tries really hard).

Successful with the banana smoothie according to my dear daughter. :)

Fruity Dinner

We did our grocery in the afternoon and as always, every first week of the month I buy the latest issue of Yummy Magazine. I was browsing the magazine while going around the supermarket. I fancied the Chunky Chicken Salad recipe so I picked up all the ingredients for it. That's how amateur I am. I need a reference even for a simple dish. We had an impromptu chicken salad for dinner.

One thing that made me decide to prepare this already is the salad greens. Though they're packed and has shelf-life, I'm afraid they will get wilted in no time if I keep them in the refrigerator.



Here's the complete recipe lifted from Yummy magazine (I don't know why Yummy Mag has no website. They only have this.):
1/2 kilo chicken breast, cooked and cubed
1 piece red apple, cubed
1 piece green apple, cubed
1 stalk celery, diced
1/4 cup roasted walnut
1/4 kilo seedless grapes

For the dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup all-purpose cream
2 teaspoons all-in-one seasoning granules
salt, sugar, pepper to taste
grated cheddar cheese as garnish

This makes six to eight servings. Very easy to prepare as the ingredients only has to be combined. No sweat. It was really filling.

We had the salad together with papaya and some more apples. I believe we will often have dinners like this.




You may want to see what others has for their weekend snapshots. :)

Mr. Rockefeller

I met with a good friend last Friday and had a light dinner. Light because hubby and daughter will fetch me and I know the two would want to have dinner. That's when I will pour in all my appetite.

They arrived thirty minutes past seven in the evening. A little bye-bye to my friend and off we went around Greenbelt 3 to scout for some fine dining place. Mr. Rockefeller was the final choice. Mr. Rockefeller - Steaks, Ribs and "Spanking Good Oysters".

The interior is uncluttered, simple, almost zen-like. A few oyster decorations here and there on the walls and a few writings on the green board for their menu. Samba music is playing if I am not mistaken, it's a little bit loud when seated at the first half of the dining area.

It took a few minutes before our order was taken. Oh yes, hubby was the one who called on the food attendant for our orders. Maybe like ten minutes from the time we had our table.

I prefer a seat at the dining area with soft light. I wanted a cozier atmosphere. I checked that the interior dining are mostly in big groups or families. And also, the cameras keep on clicking on that side. I would want to be there definitely as people won't stare at me if I take pictures of my family and our food. They're doing the same thing anyway. I won't be disturbing anyone with the flash of the camera.

Rating: Food: Good. Service: For Improvement. Cleanliness: For Improvement.

Anyway, I asked the food attendant if we can transfer to the vacant table inside. I don't know why she has to ask their manager but she politely excused herself and asked the one in charge that night. She came back and apologized since the table is used for their extra plates and glasses for drying. Huh?

Maybe the look on my face showed great interest sitting inside. A few minutes later, the manager asked me if I wanted to transfer. I said yes. He said they'll just clean the table and set it up. And so I waited. In vain.

The manager kept looking at me as I crane my neck if the table is ready. But not a word from him. Until I saw a family leaving a table for four. I got up and reserved the seat myself. Still not a word from the manager. The waiter cleaned the table and set it up. Honestly though, crews of Jollibee and McDonald's know better in sanitizing a table. Crumbs were still on our table. You know the feeling that the table is still dump you don't want to lay your hands on it, it's sticky. Click the first picture to enlarge, you just might spot the crumbs (not intentional to capture them and that's not our table).



Hubby wanted to try oysters as they are his favorite but it's not good to have them when one's really hungry. He opted for boneless bourbon ribs with baked beans and creamed corn (P440). It was good. The barbecue sauce is just about right for my taste - not too tangy, a little sweet even. The corn is a perfect match.


I tried the linguini prawns with feta cheese and brandy (P340). We liked it too. It's very creamy and is actually good for three persons.


My daughter tried the ever safe chicken fingers with fries. The safest, easiest way to a child's taste buds. The price escapes me now, more than P150, less P250 as far as I can remember. The chicken's good, very tender. The fries is just okay.


Our orders were served quite fast than I expected, maybe around ten minutes. Are we going back? Yes because hubby would still want the oysters but I'm hoping the service will be better and cleaning of the tables will be prompt and proper.

At Least I Tried

They were barely out of the oven when the Princess said, "Mom, I thought you're making cupcakes". Oh well, I thought so too. It turned out to be different, at least how it should look. It turned out flat. I am not losing hope with my baking skills. I want to be good at this. Practice makes perfect and using the proper tools, the right temperature setting and not just estimations. It will be a celebration on my part when I get to finally bake a presentable cake.

Check out other different posts at Photo Hunt.

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Caramel Cake
This week's Photo Hunt theme is "Heavy". I would like to post my heavy dessert last night when I had dinner with my high school friends at Cravings. Chocolate Caramel Cake...the icing is really creamy. I did not finish this off as consuming almost half of it really filled me up fast.

The blog address is different on the picture because this came from my Mommy Zone blog along with other pictures of food and my dinner with my high school friends.

*I'll be out early afternoon till evening so this post is up really early. It's two thirty in the morning right now and sleep seem to elude me. Will visit other photo hunters late, late Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. Happy Hunting!

Tag: Photo Hunt

Cravings

Am I loosely using the term "friends"? I don't know. I don't think so. I just feel so connected with my high school classmates.

As we all know during high school you have your own clique. You have your own group of friends. Somehow our class has this identity we can only call our own. We belong to the top section and ours was kind of different compared to the batches ahead of us. We were branded as aloof, as people just minding our own world. Actually, until now, it was kind of implied that we are still like that. Only a few of us are attending the regular meetings for the alumni homecoming next year and to think somebody from our section should be leading this grand event. And these few people do not even attend regularly. Priorities, priorities. Are we just too busy? Or we are just, again, minding our own world. May I quote my dear classmate M, "our class was a group of individuals and we did not act as a herd and we had fun doing so". Well said.

It was a great night. M did the honor of reserving the function room of Cravings at Shangrila so we can spend some time without bothering other guests with our endless stories and hearty laughs. The small gathering of our section is sinking in to me now. I missed them. I missed high school life. I missed the carefree days of our lives. I missed our old school grounds, the library, the canteen, the bookstore. High school life, they are one of the best memories we can always look back with smiles on our faces.

Dinner at Cravings Shangrila with our Physics teacher
Our terror professor was with us! She's our Physics teacher and everyone's a little afraid of her. She has greatly mellowed and so motherly. She still have that strong presence though and still on-the-go at age seventy one.

It's good to note everybody's got his own personal achievement, both in our careers and with our families. Some added a few pounds, some retained their slim shapes and youthful looks, some improved physically. I love you all guys! Thank you for technology we were reconnected! We are all looking forward to our next meet up.

After dinner, a few of us went to Watering Hole for a little more updating. I had bottled water as I am not into alcoholic drink even if it's social drinking. I just don't like the taste.

And the food at Cravings...I took some shots of what I had and my seat mate E, my orthodontist and my good friend.

Baked Ziti
I had baked ziti after my appetizer. Big serving as should be expected at Cravings. I wasn't able to finish it off as my appetizer of bread and salsa filled me instantly. The ziti was a little bland, it needed loads of parmesan. I was expecting gooeyness of mozarella.

Al Pesto
My friend ordered this one and wasn't too happy about it. Too much oil she said. But I am a pesto fan. I actually preferred this than the ziti.

Walnut Cake
For our dessert, a Walnut cake. I'm not into cake with nuts but I had a bite of this one. I actually liked its buttery moist feel in my tongue.

Caramel Cake
I had half of this one. It's quite heavy on the stomach as the icing is really creamy. Delicious!