Trick or Treat? Halloween is a much celebrated day in our family since my husband brought the tradition to our kids. Over the years, I have learned to be creative with party decors and festive Halloween dishes. I prepare a simple party menu that are in various hue and colors of orange such as spaghetti, or fried chicken. Usually a Halloween cake adorns our table. Here are examples of Halloween cakes.

These beautifully crafted Halloween themed cakes are from the bakery of Baguio Country Club.

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Posted: October 31st, 2008 under Baking Tips.
Comments: 1

A lot of you have found my recipe on the Perfect Chocolate Cake very useful but some of you found the fudge icing difficult to make. I have posted the original fudge icing here in number 1. It is best to use Recipe number 2 or the third recipe called “Easy Chocolate Icing” if you are beginners.

1. The Fudge Icing

Ingredients

1 can condensed mik
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup butter

1. Mix milk and cocoa with wire whisk or wooden spoon until smooth. Strain through a wire strainer.

2. Cook mixture in double boiler. Stir occasionally- when thick, remove from fire and add butter thoroughly.

3. Add desired flavor.

4. Use this icing right away. Keep bowl in double boiler to maintain warmth.

Other notes

1. You can decrease the cocoa down to 1/3 cup.
2. Icing starts getting thick when you see thick icing clinging to the sides of the bowl. Continually scrape sides of bowl until icing becomes very thick.
3. Do not over cook or else you will have a fudge candy.

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Posted: October 28th, 2008 under Baking Recipes.
Comments: 1

What do you know? I smell Christmas in the air.

Starting November, watch out for more Holiday Cooking recipes that you can plan for your family and friends. Don’t expect fancy recipes but there will be a few so keep tuned. I will also list a few restaurants that provide noche buena dishes in case you are lazy to cook.

You can start off with a few of my recipes that I’ve cooked for the past years.

Noche Buena Recipes

Pochero
Chinese Ham
Paella
Chicken Relleno
Max Fried Style Chicken Recipe
Pork Barbecue

Embutido
Bam-i, Cebuano Pansit

Western Cuisine

Cheese Fondue
Chicken Cannelloni

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Posted: October 26th, 2008 under Noche Buena.
Comments: none

A contest for you my dear readers!

Wii are in Red Box.

Another out of the box party is coming your way in Red Box!

Not only can you sing your hearts out, now, you can play til’ you drop! Completing the Red Box party mix is the Nintendo Wii!

And because Wii want you to experience a different level of karaoke and gaming high in Red Box, simply answer the question below and you can get a chance to party in Red Box with your friends for free.

Read more on How to Join the contest

Posted: October 22nd, 2008 under Site News.
Comments: 1

I’m back in the Philippines. Sorry I haven’t been updating. I just couldn’t find the time to blog ever since I vacationed in San Francisco. Everything has been hectic since I visited my two sisters in Northern California. The day I arrived in Manila, my husband wanted me to prepare a dish to bring over to his parents. Knowing my parent in laws love pancit, I decided that pancit canton was the best dish to prepare. Here is what I did.

Ingredients
1/2 kilo shrimps
1/2 kilo pork
1 chicken breast
1 egg white
1 tablespoons, cornstarch
1 medium sized onion, sliced
cooking oil ( I prefer corn cooking oil)
8 pieces Chinese Mushrooms
3 cups Chicken broth
3/4 kilo pancit canton noodles
6 dashes sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste

1/4 kilo chicharo
1 carrot, cut crosswise into 1/8 inch slices
1/2 cabbage
1 cauliflower, divided into flowerettes
4 stems celery, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 scrambled eggs
1/2 cup thin strips of ham (nice to use Chinese Ham but any will do)

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Posted: October 20th, 2008 under Noodles.
Comments: 1

Now that it is Fall in Missouri, there is an abundance of pumpkin. I see it everywhere. Knowing that I won’t be around on Thanksgiving day, my sister-in-law baked me a pumpkin pie. I loved it. I love the pumpkin spice. It reminds me a bit of fruitcake. One doesn’t even have to buy pumpkin spice if it is not readily available in your cupboard. Just mix 1 teaspoon ginger, 4 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon cloves then after mixing, store in a cool dry place. Anyway, here is the recipe.

Crust
Pastry for Filled One-crust pie

Filling

3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (16-oz) can (2 cups) pumpkin or prepare from real pumpkin
1 (12-oz) can (1 1/2 cups) evaporated milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup nuts (walnuts or pecans, chopped)

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Posted: October 9th, 2008 under Baking Recipes.
Comments: none

I know, I know. Another Apple Pie recipe after just baking Apple Crisp yesterday. Oh well, what can we do? We just have so many apples and my brother’s family just loves freshly baked home-made Apple Pie goodness. Before sharing the recipe, here is a tip for choosing baking apples. Apple varieties good for baking have tart flavor and firm texture. For best results, choose Jonathan, McIntosh, Winesap, Granny Smith, Rhode Island, Greening, Rome Beauty or Norther Spy varieties. In the Philippines, choose the smaller apples from China not the red Washington Apples. One pound of apples is equivalent to 3 medium apples and yields 3 cups of sliced apples.

Anyway, this recipe is called the Apple Cobblestone Pie because coconut is added for texture to the pie topping. Here are the ingredients:

Crust

Buy ready made pastry from the grocery or make your own using
One Pie Crust recipe.

Filling

6 to 10 medium apples, peeled, quartered (TIP: Make sure the apples form a nice heap on the pie plate)
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Topping

1/2 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons margarine, butter, softened

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Posted: October 8th, 2008 under Baking Recipes.
Comments: 1