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!

French Baker on a Sunday

Our usual routine on a Sunday is this: church, grocery, National Bookstore, go around the arcade for some small buys, lunch or snack (depending on the time).

I was glad to see there is French Baker inside Landmark Supermarket, Trinoma. Our feet are sore already from all the walking we did at the mall and at the grocery. We were starving. The place though is small as most French Bakers are located in supermarkets. Hubby has to bring all the grocery bags to the car so we can dine comfortably.


The coffee (Tchibo) is said to be exclusively distributed for French Baker. It's mild which is just about right for me. It comes with a bite size dessert, milk and lemon water. The presentation looks dainty with the white doily under the cup.


Beef Turn-over remains to be a favorite of my daughter. The crust has seen improvement. It used to be that the whole crust collapse when my daughter digs in her fork to cut a portion of it. It has more hold now. The beef is just so tasty. This costs around P59 (1.5USD).


I tried Tuna Turn-over for the first time. I'm into tuna these days. I was not disappointed with the taste but the filling is not as generous as that of the beef's. The price is at P60. So there's a big difference in the margin with an additional P1 compared to that of the beef. :)


Lasagna can very well be shared by two persons. At least those who consume food on the average. I find their serving big for one person. The sauce sometimes dominates the whole pasta flavor. It's a little sour for my taste.


The carbonara with its generous measure of parmesan and mushroom is a delight. I love its creamy sauce that goes well with their garlic bread.


Now the pizza looks deceiving. Nothing to rave about but it tastes a lot better than some pizza sold in other pizza houses.

Serving time is about ten minutes. The cashier is new I guess because she has to keep repeating my order and not sure about the product codes written in the order slip. Overall, French Baker is a good stop for some good food, lunch or snack time.

Other weekend snapshots are here for your reading pleasure.

Bellissimo Ristorante

It's one in the morning and I've to wake up at half past five AM later. Cookie and Wenchie's posts got me all excited to make an entry right now about our Bellissimo dining escapade. Well we have the same pictures of ourselves and our food. :) You can very well see how we had a good time that Friday night.

There was a press conference at the second floor I believe. I was mistaken for a guest. I wonder why. I look like some star's PR manager maybe or a magazine writer. Haha. Glossy lifestyle magazine writer. Movie producer na lang. :D I even signed the guest book because they asked me to. I thought it was for their customers' data base. *Grin*

Anyway, how's the resto? Staff - friendly, pasta - good, serving time - fast enough, place - intimate. The owner, actor Cesar Montano - dashing and very accommodating. These are the ingredients of a nice place to hang out with with your family and friends. Three point five stars, five being the highest. That would be my opinion. The washroom could do a little more sprucing up and so is the kitchen counter which can be seen from the deli area. Oh yes by the way, I bought Hungarian sausage since it's hubby's favorite. Quite expensive compared to other delis but hubby said it tastes better.

As Cookie said, this was the night The Eating Club was officially launched sans formal ceremonies of Vision, Mission, Values blood compact. We were five that night - in order of appearance: me, Cookie, Chats, Wenchie and Julie. Six if I may say, there's Wenchie's little Pio enjoying our company too. :) Expect more gastronomic adventures and good company from The Eating Club.








I will put caption in these pictures tomorrow night. For now, I'll get some ZZZzzzzsss.

Pancake House

The theme for the week in Photo Hunt is "delicious". I am preparing myself for all the food which I assume the majority of the photo hunters will be posting specially the holidays was just recently over. All those food, I can just imagine these delicious posts. :)

My sharing would be my family's favorite delicious food in one of the popular restaurants here, Pancake House. We often eat here when we are still out at dinner time. Weird thing is even if it's dinner, I still order something one would normally eat for breakfast.

My favorite is their Classic Country Medley, three pieces of sausage, two pieces of pancake, a choice of coffee or juice. I order coffee and sometimes additional sausage. It is really filling. See here their delicious pancake and my favorite tv series, Prison Break. :) I also like their spaghetti with meatballs. I actually order the kiddie set for this. That is just enough for me. They have a generous serving of sauce.
Hubby's favorite is the ham and cheese omelette. But any Pancake customer would probably agree with me. Their taco is the best especially with this combination of roast chicken and macaroni salad.
Last but not the least is my daughter's favorite, salisbury steak with bacon bits and creamy mushroom gravy. She can gobble up the whole serving all by herself.

I hope you had a feast. For more delicious posts, click this link. :)

Cafe Adriatico

Before anything.....From my family to yours,
Good cheers, good health, peace, love and prosperity to all of us! Happy New Year!

**********
I met my two friends at Eastwood last Saturday. We were supposed to have our dinner before Christmas but all were busy so we postponed it a week after. As always I enjoy going out with them. We had pizza and pasta at Pasto. We went around the tiangge (flea market) where I was able to buy a red blouse with puffed sleeves. It was a good buy actually, fits me well, nice feel of the fabric and below P500 (roughly 12USD).


Pasta is really good at Pasto.
More on Pasto in my food feature in coming posts.
Eastwood was jampacked as it was a Saturday night, gimmick night. There was a concert too featuring Regine Velasquez, one of the Philippines' top songbirds. My friends and I were supposed to have dinner at Jack's Loft but my, it was so full. I love the cakes at Jack's Loft. But a lot were still waiting so we have no choice but to transfer to the more laid-back Cafe Adriatico.

Around dinner time my hubby and my daughter came to fetch me. They had dinner with us at Adriatico. My hubby said the Lechon Kangkong tastes great. This dish is quite unsual for me though.

Lechon Kangkong
I was still full from all the pasta so I just had maja blanca. Maja blanca or coconut cake is a popular Filipino delicacy. For this particular order, all I can say is I only had a teaspoonful of it. My friends checked it out but didn't like it too. I was expecting a softer, corn-flavored finish. It's just plain sweet.

Maja Blanca (Coconut Cake)

My daughter is a pasta person too. She got herself a baked macaroni and consumed them all. I tasted it and it's good, it's like home-made. It's rich with sauce and the sweet-sour taste is just about right.


Baked Macaroni

We all had a grand time as we went home at almost 12 midnight. My daughter enjoyed the picture taking with her Titas at the theme area of Eastwood. The area has a really festive mood.

We had coffee and a late snack at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf again (this was our meeting place earlier). We were a little tired already and did not bother to see the fireworks outside. On the way to the parking area, my daughter dropped by Eiko, an accessories store for tweens and surveyed some items.



We had a grand time, who wouldn't? Being with family and friends are always the best. :)