nutty for coconuts

A client wanted a super summery cupcakes for her function for tomorrow. She fell in love with my strawberry cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting. She wanted the same one, only problem is that she can't pick them up the day of, she needed to pick them up the day before and so I suggested something different because of how the strawberries are 2 days after. I suggested coconut cupcakes and raspberry frosting. We both agreed that both are very summer flavors. I wanted to put a bit of twist of Filipino flavors in it, and commonly, our desserts, when made with coconut, may include pandan. Pandan is an aromatic leaf, usually we boil it to get the scent out of it. Here in America, the leaves are a little hard to get a hold of, so the extract will do. I just put a hint of it, most of the flavor comes from the high quality vanilla and coconut milk. I toasted some coconuts too to add some contrast.

Citrus Roast Chicken

Yesterday was roast chicken for dinner. I just basically threw everything in the pot. I accidentally also bought salted butter the other day and finally found use for this sacrilegious culinary ingredient. I dunno what's been going on with my new sea salt, but it just doesn't seem to be salty enough. I doused this bird with melted salted butter. It was a really good idea coz the skin was crispy and just had enough saltiness and hint of lemon and orange. I took everything out later and made a thyme gravy. This is also because I accidentally opened that beef stock for the corn-pepper risotto the other day. Oh, with rice, just HEAVEN! Roast chicken really is one of those things that take love and patience. Very comforting right now too since the summer nights have been a bit cooler.

Strawberry cupcakes

I think I have just tasted the sweetest strawberries I've had in my whole life. This weekend, we went to the farmers' market at Clayton city. We were a bit late, about 10 minutes before they were gonna close late. The only thing I really wanted were strawberries because they were a request from Brian. I asked him what kind of cupcakes did he want for my new cupcake liners I just got in the mail and he said strawberry would be nice. I finally was able to make them today. I used my own recipe, I just don't know how much I like it. They turned out a bit more muffin like than cupcake, mostly because I was too lazy to wait for the butter to reach room temperature so I used vegetable oil instead. It tastes good, just not great. I think I should have followed my instinct of making a chocolate cupcake base rather than a vanilla cupcake base. The frosting is pretty good though, a bit rich, but it goes well with the strawberries. I did a cream cheese frosting for this one. I think this one goes to the trial bin, it's not my final recipe for this. I'll definitely try again. Maybe I will use buttermilk next time.

Chicken and Risotto

Tonight's dinner was Honey Balsamic Chicken w/ corn-pepper Risotto. I don't know what was up with the new tube of sea salt I got but it didn't seem like it was adding saltiness to my food, even with the parmigiano regiano, but i asked Brian if they were salty and he said both of them tasted they were just right on the salt side. I'm pretty sure I probably put A LOT! It just didn't seem like anything really got salted right away. It was a cook what's in the pantry type of deal today. I also stupidly grabbed a box of beef broth instead of chicken broth, so tomorrow, I have to figure out a way to use the beef broth I opened. I went to my mom's house yesterday and i remember that she just got corn and they've been very sweet lately. I've always eaten rice with corn, my mom used to make this soup with malunggay (horseradish leaves) and corn with a lot of garlic, and I used to eat that with rice and carabao milk. I kinda made a twist with that today in risotto form. I had a leftover red bell pepper so I threw that in as well. For the chicken, I got tarragon a few days ago but have been wondering what to do with it. It's a very mild herb, I don't use it too often but i wanted to veer off my common herbs I use, mostly coz i'm waiting for my herb pot to get lusher. Balsamic and tarragon seem to work really work together with the sweetness of the honey. I've officially used up my whole bottle so now I have to pick up another bottle at the market this weekend. Due to my salt issue today though, the chicken didn't seem to have enough salt. Inspired by my last trip to PPQ, I wanted a sweet and sour dip sauce for my chicken. So I pulled out the bottled sweet and sour sauce I had and mixed it with some honey, lemon and salt and it ended up making enough heat and tartness + sweetness for the chicken. The boys really liked it, and I got full from it real quick. This is comfort food so I think I'm going to keep this one in the arsenal.

A very green lunch

While at Elliott's play date yesterday, our organizer of the day brought zucchini and chocolate chip muffins. My kid basically devoured the whole thing. I still have some zucchini left in our fridge since it is a staple now, so just to use it up, I decided to make some for him today too but with a more cupcake batter rather than muffin so that it's a bit lighter.


By the time I was done with the cupcakes, it was already time for lunch. I just went grocery shopping yesterday and bought these beautiful Chinese long beans, or string beans and decided to make adobo with them. Adobo doesn't just apply to chicken or pork, at least for the region of the Philippines where I grew up, it's basically cooking in garlic, onion, soy sauce and vinegar.

This is what it looks like after I added it to my sweated onion and garlic. It's a little tough when not cooked through, so it does take a bit of patience before the right texture is reached. I like mine almost mushy but with a bit of crunch to it. I guess it can be easily said 'al dente' string beans. Once cooked, the green color of the beans is of course gone because of the soy sauce.

Once done, it looks like this. I always eat it with rice, my son has also developed a love for it. It's just one of those quick less than 6 ingredient one pot meals. It's simple, there really isn't much to it but it's comfort food. This is probably one of those few dishes that my Mom made that was pure vegetable that I was absolutely in love with. Alright, I'm off to my lunch date with Elliott and we're gonna go eat our very green food.

Cupcakes, cupcakes!!!

I made some cupcakes today for my husband's commander's going away picnic. They were just the regular chocolate cupcakes with buttercream and stout cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream. But since I'm having a total addiction lately for chocolate fondant, I couldn't help myself but stick some on all of them.

Sampaguita (jasmine) cupcakes with Swiss meringue Buttercream

The scent of a Jasmine, or Sampaguita as we call it in Tagalog, reminds me fondly of the Wednesdays that my mother and I would go to the church in Baclaran very early in the morning. There would always be kids selling strands of Sampaguita strung together. The air was filled with the sweet scent of it mixed with the smell of fresh baked bread in the bakeries nearby. I never really thought of baking with it, even though vanilla is from an orchid, the thought shouldn't really be too far off. I was reading my cupcake book "500 cupcakes" and got the idea to make my own version of a floral cupcake. The one they had on the book was one made out of lavender and honey, and another one with rose as a variation. I went to my local FIlipino grocery and got myself sampaguita essence. I had to pair my cupcakes with roses since I don't exactly have Jasmine nearby. It ended up tasting really great, a bit perfumy, but the lemon zest that I mixed in with the batter added freshness to them. I'd definitely make them again, maybe lessen the Sampaguita essence a bit. It's definitely a lot stronger in flavor as opposed to vanilla.

Heirloom tomato tart

During a recent trip to whole foods, I found these super gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. I planned on making chicken with it, an heirloom tomato sauce perhaps. I got some in green, orange and yellow. On a day while cleaning my kitchen, my son wanted to join me and begged profusely to stay in the kitchen as well. I gave him a pot and a wooden spoon to play with. I turned around to see him stirring something in the pot and to my horror, it was one of the heirloom tomatoes, thank goodness it barely had any damage to it, just a little hole. I washed and thought, great, now I have to use it and the chicken hasn't been defrosted. A tomato tart would be the fastest way to deal with it because between chicken breasts and puff pastry, puff pastry would be faster. Yes, I did think about making my own crust but between a pie crust and a puff pastry crust that comes in a box, convenience was of the essence that day. That itch to cook just had to be, well, scratched.

Fussilli with Pancetta and Zucchini

I guess I'm just really blessed to have a kid that's totally in love with vegetables. We always have to hit farmers' markets on a weekly basis and if we miss the chance, we'd have to go whole foods. I had a bit of need to have some Marsala chicken today but, to my demise, I find out that my fridge was not stocked with Marsala anymore. Looking around in the fridge, I found pancetta and zucchini so I made lunch out of that and the fussili that my little boy seems to love so much. Lunch date with the Elliott, sharing a bowl of pasta is such the perfect way to spend the afternoon before nap time. On another note, adding lemon zest to everything during the summer gets really, really addicting.

Birthday, Birthday!!!

This weekend was my little kiddo's first birthday. Oh how the year went by quickly, and I of course had to bring it upon myself to make the birthday cake. The cake flavor was supposed to be devil's food cake unless I find a red velvet recipe that I could use. I found one on martha stewart's on demand show on my handy dandy cable, so I tested it out, with some added chocolate to it. I found a fondant recipe which ended up being a disaster during the decorating process because, uh, I didn't make enough. Instead of having a beautiful black fondant 1/4 of an inch thick, mine was, like paper. Mental note, next time you plan on making a 3 tiered cake, more fondant! I was basically in desperation mode by the end of the baking day because i didn't have enough fondant and i couldn't find all necessary cooking and cutting tools I needed. Good ole disgusting Wilton's it is, good thing it's yucky flavor was covered by my swiss meringue buttercream. Baking 2 weeks after moving proved to be a challenge since everything was kind of all over the place, or in this case, in boxes askewed all over the house and garage. It wasn't my best work, I'd really wish for a better cake with as less cracks as i could imagine for it, but all in all, it was decent work. I've got another project for my husband Brian's 29th birthday in June. He has requested for a strawberry cake with a meringue frosting and fondant again. It just keeps coming back to haunt me.