Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other.It’s the time of the year when one needs to plan for the holidays. As early as September, I already know what to bake for Christmas. A childhood memory that never fails to remind me of the Christmas season is Fruitcake. I used to bake a lot of fruitcake in the past but the girls never really got around to acquiring a taste for it. They preferred the Gingerbread Man Cookies because of the story behind it after I bake the first batch. That’s my then 16 year old daughter, Lauren when she helped me with my fruitcakes a few years ago. Fruitcake flavor is best when it has been aged for a few months in a cool place (preferably the refrigerator in the Philippines).

For those of you who want to bake Fruitcakes for the Holidays, here is a recipe which I call Golden Fruitcake. I’ve modified this based from my mom’s original fruitcake recipe. My Golden Fruitcake does not have a strong taste of brandy nor is it too sweet. Anyway, there’s a lot of preparation so make sure you run down the list carefully.

Here is my Golden Fruitcake recipe

Ingredients

1 Cup butter (I use Golden Crown)
1 1/1 Cup Brown Sugar
4 large eggs (1 cup) or 5 medium eggs
3 cups all purpose four
1/2 cups flour (to dredge fruits and nuts)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 teaspon salt
1/2 cup milk
5 Tablespoon prune juice
3 Tablespoons Molasses
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (mix in molasses)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoon cinnamom
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 1/2 cups nuts (Combination of walnuts, pecan, cashew, pili)
1 1/2 cups dates
1 1/2 cups fruit glaze
1/2 cup cherry brandy

Extra Cherries, fruit glaze,nuts for decorating on top of cake
Cherry brandy to brush top of the cake

Preparation

Fruit Mix

1. Soak fruits in 1/2 cup cherry brandy overnight.
2. Drain the fruits for 1 hour.

Preparing the Baking pan

1. Don’t use waxpaper.
2. Use thick cellphane (1 piece only) and use enough to cover the cake after baking.
3. You can also use aluminum. More messy but more sure.

Batter

1. Heat oven to slow.

2. Cream Shortening and add sugar slowly until fluffy.

3. Beat in egg one at a time, beating after each addition until light.

4. Blend Flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg.

5. Stir in alternately with milk, molasses, juices and vanilla beginning and ending with flour.

6. With 1/2 cup flour. add to fruit mixture.

7. The batter is then mixed to the fruits. Add the nuts on top of the batter.

8. Put batter in cellophane lined or aluminum lined pans (4 pans)

9. Bake for one (1) hour at 300 F. ( But do check the temperature based on the pan you use. Sometimes baking can be as short as 45 minutes to 1 hour at 325 F)

10. At 45 minutes baking time, remove pans from oven and decorate top with cherries, buts and fruits.

11. Cover pan with overlapping aluminum foil to prevent burning.

12. Bake 15 more minutes until done.

After Baking

Tips

1. It’s important to drain the fruit mix for 1 hour. This is because alcohol destroys the cake batter.
2. Nuts are not placed in the batter; rather it is placed ON TOP of the batter. I still mix in the buts anyway. I use a combination of nuts.
3. Never use peanuts but do use pili, cashew, walnuts, or black walnuts.
4. The batter is mixed to the fruits so that the emulsion in the batter is not destroyed.

I have 5 recipes for fruitcake but based on my past experience, the above recipe gave me the best results.

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Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
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Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

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Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other.
New Year’s Eve noche buena must have a fruit salad on the dinner table. The most popular fruit salad is the Buko salad. The popularity of fruits during New Year’s Eve celebration is part of the tradition to bring in good luck, fortune and prosperity. Today, I will hie off to the grocery to buy ingredients for my fruit salad. Here is my recipe.

Ingredients
5 large cans of Del Monte Fruit Cocktail (Imported)
Grated Coconut meat from 10 buko (young coconut)
2 cans lychees
1 small bottle nata de coco (green)
1 small bottle nata de coco (red)
1 small bottle kaong (green)
1/4 kilo seedless grapes
3 small china apples , cubed
1/4 kilo seedless grapes
1 can condensed milk
2 packs Nestle Cream
1 can Peaches for topping
Few red or green cherries for topping

Fresh Buko, Nata de coco

Fruit Cocktail, Peaches

Procedure
1. Drain the fruits from the can for at least 2 hours. This is to prevent a soggy fruit salad.

2. When all the juices have been drained, mix all the fruits together in a bowl.

3. Add the condensed milk and cream till well blended.

4. Transfer to serving bowls and top with peaches and cherries.

5. Freeze or Refrigerate properly. (Buko spoils if not refrigerated or frozen. I prefer to freeze the rest of the buko salad if it isn’t eaten within the day.)

View photos of the Making of Buko Salad
——————

Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
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Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

You might also want to visit my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com.

Thanks for visiting….Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

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Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other. Baking sugar cookies are not my cup of tea. It’s labor intensive. I’d rather bake bar cookies because they are so much easier. You dump all the dry, wet, mix and voila, one gets a yummy cooky. Not with sugar cookies. Whenever I bake sugar cookies, my kids know it’s a labor of love. It’s the love that makes me continue on with this tradition even if they are now adult children. Let me share with you the Christmas Sugar cookies that have been a continuing Christmas tradition for the past twenty years in my family. You can even prepare sugar cookies weeks ahead before you give them to your friends and relatives. Just store them in a cool, dry container.

If you are located in Manila, Philippines, you don’t have to go far to Divisoria to buy your ingredients. You can purchase at Chocolate Lover.

NOTE: The Christmas Sugar Cookie recipe can be used only for your personal use and cannot be posted in your website, blog or any other site, form or means without my WRITTEN permission

Ingredients for Cookie dough

4 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup soft butter
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Procedure

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, nutmeg, and salt.
2. In a large bowl combine butter, sugar, eggs and flavoring.

3. Cream on Speed no. 7 for 2 minutes.

4. Turn to speed no. 3.
5. Add milk and flour mixture gradually beating until blended (3 minutes)
6. Refrigerate dough until easy to handle
7. Set oven to 375 F to preheat
8. Grease Cookie Sheets
9. Roll dough on lightly floured board (Tip: in this case, I rolled straight onto the cookie sheet)

10. For crisp cookies roll to 1/8 inch thick
For soft cookies, roll to 1/4 inch thick

(Note: I prefer crisp cookies because I can hang them on garlands)

12. Cut with floured cookie cutter

13. Place on prepared cookie sheets, brush with milk (optional)

(note- since I rolled it on the cookie sheet, it makes dough handling easier)

14. Bake at 375 F for 10-12 minutes until edges become light brown

15. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on brown paper or paper towelling

YIELD: 10 dozen 1/8 inch thick cookies

Icing for decoration

3 Egg Whites (1/3 cup)
3 to 4 cups Confectioners Sugar
(this yields around 4 cups of icing which you can use for Christmas cookie decorating)

Procedure

1. Beat egg whites until stiff.

2. add 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

3. Add confectioner sugar until well blended

To decorate
You will need sprinkles, icing and imagination. I assume you know how to use an icing tip. If not, then I will have to teach it in another entry.

Prepare sprinkles. I buy my sprinkles from “Chocolate Lovers”

Just outline the shapes, or ice and add sprinkles

After the icing has set, I wrap the cookies individually and hang them on the Christmas garlands

View Photos of Christmas Angel Cookies

Contact address of Chocolate Lover- to buy baked ingredients

45 P. Tuazon Blvd. corner
C. Beniztez St. Cubao
Quezon, 1109 Philippines

(632) 411-7474
(632) 724-5752
(632) 724-4964

info@echocolatelover.com
——————

Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
Pinoy Food Photo Blog for Restaurants & Food Events
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Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

You might also want to visit my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com.

Thanks for visiting….Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

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Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other.
If you’re inviting over a large number of family members and friends for Christmas dinner and have no time to prepare all that food for them, consider ordering an entire lechon paella. Lechon paella is a succulent, roasted, boneless young pig stuffed with hot, seafood paella, make the whole fare a meal in itself. The whole lechon can feed a group of about twenty people with healthy appetites and you might even have some left over for paksiw.

Lydia’s Lechon is famous all over the Philippines for their boneless lechon paella. The smallest lechon (13-14 kgs, which can feed 40 people) costs 7,500 pesos; the 28kg lechon paella goes for 11,500 pesos. With over 20 branches in Metro Manila, you can pick up your lechon paella at one nearest you on Christmas day itself. Our family always orders a small lechon for Christmas or New Year and it’s a big hit among our relatives. Even the vegetarians in the family are happy because they’ve got the delicious seafood paella to chow on.

The paella is just delicious.

For more information on the price list and their other specialties, visit the Lydia’s Lechon website.——————

Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
Pinoy Food Photo Blog for Restaurants & Food Events
Your Pinoy Real Estate Broker for Real Estate Needs
Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

You might also want to visit my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com.

Thanks for visiting….Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado.

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Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other.
You suddenly find that your holiday dishes are not enough for your guests. What do you do? Cooking can be stressful especially if one is faced with a lot of visitors. The thing to do is to order your Holiday dishes from reliable restaurants. Here are a few ideas of traditional Noche Buena dishes from Mario’s Restaurant:

• Embutido at 975 pesos
• Chicken Relleno at 1,100 pesos
• Chicken Galantina at 1,275 pesos
• Pastel de Lengua at 1,800 pesos
• Cochinillo at 1,250 pesos a kilo
• Paella Valenciana at 1,500 pesos

To order , visit Mario’s Quezon City, located at Tomas Morato corner Scout Gandia in Quezon City, or call 415-3887 or 372-0360 or e-mail mariosquezoncity@yahoo.com to book or reserve.

——————

Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
Pinoy Food Photo Blog for Restaurants & Food Events
Your Pinoy Real Estate Broker for Real Estate Needs
Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

You might also want to visit my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com.

Thanks for visiting….Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado.

Be a Facebook Fan of Pinoy Food Blog recipes

Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other.
Puto Bumbong from Via Mare

This is the almost perfect puto bumbong you can ever eat in an urban center. And you can order two pieces at 67 pesos at any Via Mare Restaurant. After a stressful shopping spree at Landmark Makati, I chose to rest at the Via Mare on the second floor right beside the ladies bag section. I was thrilled that they offered Puto Bumbong. I forgot how puto bumbong tasted like after my horrifying experience with the Puto bumbong vendor at the church grounds. Before I talk about Puto bumbong of Via Mare, allow me to share how some commercial puto bumbong vendors “cheat” us out of the real puto bumbong experience. Here is the puto bumbong which I bought for 20 pesos from the vendor after the misa de gallo.

Puto Bumbong from the commercial vendor

Not only does it show artificial purple color, the appearance looks like it wasn’t baked in bamboo. Instead cooked in an oven then sliced to make it appear that it was rolled. The texture was rubbery with no muscovado as topping with the grated coconut. What a cheat. You get what you pay for. It’s only 20 pesos.

Now if I were in the province, perhaps I would not be cheated out of my puto bumbong. The ones I will eat is actually made of pirurutong (the purple rice) which gives off the natural purple color. It will be light and chewy, not rubbery and dense. This is exactly what I experienced upon eating puto bumbong in Via Mare. The price is not cheap but it’s at least closest to the real puto bumbong.

Via Mare Branches

ALABANG (CLOSED FOR RENOVATION)
2nd Floor, Alabang Town Center
Tel. No. 842-9042
Telefax 842-9038

ROCKWELL – OYSTER BAR
Ground Floor, Rockwell Center, Makati
Tel. No. 898-0961
Telefax 898-0962

ROCKWELL – COFFEESHOP
Ground Floor, Rockwell Center, Makati
Tel. No. 898-1305
Telefax 898-1306

TOTAL GAS STATION
South Luzon Expressway
(Northbound) near ABI Brewery exit

PROMENADE THEATRE MALL
Greenhills Promenade, Phase 2
Tel. No. 726-8931

EDSA SHANGRILA
Ground Floor, Edsa Shangrila, Pasig City
Tel. No. 631-1506; 632-0350

GREENBELT 3
Shop 138 Greenbelt 3 Ayala Center, Makati City
Tel. No. 757-4020; 757-4023
Telefax 757-4021

SM – MALL OF ASIA
MOA – 2nd Floor Entertainment Bldg. Bay Blvd, Pasay City
Tel. No. 556-0770; 556-0812

SM NORTH – THE BLOCK
The Block – SM Annex -3 North EDSA, Quezon City
Tel. No. 442-0075 ——————

Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
Pinoy Food Photo Blog for Restaurants & Food Events
Your Pinoy Real Estate Broker for Real Estate Needs
Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

You might also want to visit my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com.

Thanks for visiting….Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado.

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Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other.The Gingerbread House is an impressive centerpiece in the noche buena table. The attractive candy colors will surely delight anyone of all ages and serve as a conversation piece. This particular Gingerbread house is made by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Christmas Tradition. The Gingerbread house is made with chocolate and royal icing. My friend, Reggie sells it at her online shopping site at Regalo Service for $87.00 (approx. PHP 3,741.00)

Place your Gingerbread House orders here.

Now if you want to make your own Gingerbread House, I found this Gingerbread House dough recipe and the steps in assembling the house.——————

Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
Pinoy Food Photo Blog for Restaurants & Food Events
Your Pinoy Real Estate Broker for Real Estate Needs
Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

You might also want to visit my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com.

Thanks for visiting….Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado.

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Here is the recipe for the day from pinoyfoodblog.com. If you are looking for a particular recipe, click the link, pinoyfoodblog.com and use the search feature on the right sidebar near the top . I’m sorry if I don’t get to send you a recipe every day of the week. You might also want to join Cuisinera Club and get free recipes and a chance to join monthly cooking demos. I will be there too so it’s a chance to meet each other.
It’s December 16 and the first day of the Misa de Gallo. For nine consecutive early mornings before Christmas Day, Catholic Churches throughout the Philippines ring their bells around 3 am to invite the faithful to worship and announce the start of this holiday custom. After the mass, the parishoners including myself headed off to the Puto Bumbong stand where it was sold for 20 pesos per pack.

Puto Bumbong memories only started when I lived in Manila. Growing up in Cebu till I was 16, I never knew what puto bumbong tasted like. At first I thought it was tasteless but that was because there was no muscovado in it.

Most Puto Bumbong is in bright purple color supposedly due to the addition fresh pirurutong (purple upland glutinous rice). It is topped with lots of granulated sugar and shredded coconut. The thing is I can’t taste a hint of pirurutong when I bought puto bumbong from the neighborhood stall. I thought it’d be authentic. MarketMan Manila explains it :

First, the mixture most commercial vendors use today is purchased in bulk, and not made by them at all. The mixture is heavily adulterated with plain rice (up to 50+%) which is mixed with glutinous rice to reduce the cost and “fluff up” the end result. Second, nearly all of the vendors I observed apparently used violet food coloring to achieve their purple rice cakes, and NOT the more fragrant and expensive and often difficult to find pirurutong! This whole violet food color thing does bug me immensely. Pirurutong imparts a distinct fragrance and natural color that is GORGEOUS, and replacing this key ingredient with purple dye is simply outrageous for me.

If you missed buying the puto bumbong after the misa de gallo, you can always grab a bite at the food stall in Taste Asia, SM Hypermarket. Via Mare is also known to serve great puto bumbong. For a small extra charge, one can choose to have it with cheddar cheese or grated queso de bola.

And if you’re feeling adventurous enough, MarketMan Manila generousky shares his Puto Bumbong Recipe and Cooking Techniques.——————

Have you visited my personal blog, Touched by an Angel, my husband’s blog at The Warrior Lawyer and my other blogs like

Shopping Finds for Bargain Finds & Events
Pinoy Food Photo Blog for Restaurants & Food Events
Your Pinoy Real Estate Broker for Real Estate Needs
Techie Gadgets for Cellphones, Laptops & Gadgets. Please pray for us that justice will soon be served with regards to my son’s death at the Maribago Bluewater Beach Resort.

You might also want to visit my daughter’s ukay-ukay blog at ukaymanila.com.

Thanks for visiting….Noemi Lardizabal-Dado

Add me in Facebook by introducing yourself. My facebook is at facebook.com/noemidado.

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