Weekend Love

By She Said

My daughter and I rarely spend our weekends or even summer holidays outdoors. We prefer to stay in controlled temperature, air conditioned places. I guess the punishing heat of the sun is just something unbearable for us and being outdoors is something we really don't enjoy.

This is really a far cry from my childhood. I grew up in a beach front house where I spent most of my days under the sun, submerged in sand & salt water. I moved to Manila only when I was about to enter College, and I have been so caught up with city life that I've only gone back to my childhood home twice in a span of 28 years. 

We now live in a community that has a lot of parks, open spaces, bike trails and sports facilities that are all very accessible to us but seldom use and often take for granted. So, I had this brilliant idea to spend the Valentine weekend differently this year and take advantage of the still somewhat unpolluted air in our village in the south of Manila.

It took some time to convince my daughter about my plans because she was already planning to spend the weekend in bed glued to her iTouch and our internet connection. But with much cajoling and pretty pleases and promises that she will have a good time and good food to eat, she finally agreed! 

We woke up early Saturday morning and trooped to the Saturday Market nearby.

                      So much fresh, organic produce and seafood. I am quietly asking myself- why am I not shopping here every weekend???

                                                                      Potted herbs

 Fresh cherries

Suman

What we ate for breakfast- oven baked pork belly. Notice the morning sun shining down on our food? It's been awhile since we've eaten outdoors!

Puto Bumbong- I can eat this all year round.

Red Velvet Cupcakes from a neighbor / homebaker

Croissants

Kids with bicycles, enjoying the outdoors.

After breakfast, we visited one of the parks that has an ongoing exhibit by the village's Garden Club. They do this every year but we hardly go. This year's theme was all about "Verandas".

Spotted these plants for sale- Scented Malvarosa (used as a mosquito repellant) and Dwarfed Philodendron (Hope plant). Wanted to buy but I found them overpriced at Php600 and Php1200!

We capped off our Valentine Weekend at the nearby Alabang Town Center for a Helicopter Flower Drop on Sunday. This mall is like a second home to us. My daughter practically grew up here :)

  Blizzard of rose petals!

I think this weekend was the most time we have spent outdoors. We had so much fun that I think we are now converts and we're already planning our next outdoor adventure!

Kitchen Stories - Saturday S'mores Jars

by she said

Long time no see! It's been a while since I've posted, but hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon. Summer is coming fast and this school year is ending really quickly- I don't know if I'm quite ready to let my classmates and Soph year teachers go, but I cannot WAIT to have a stress-free few months and go on complete hibernation/cat mode.

I spent my Saturday afternoon making S'mores Jars for a few of my friends, because I am a total angel. Mom found the instructions on a Paula Deen site, and it took us awhile (read: a few months) to round up all the things we needed, but we finally came around to doing it and I'm ecstatic with how they turned out!

 

Simple S'mores Bars (adapted from a recipe by Paula Deen)

ingredients:

1 ½ cups teddy bear shaped graham cookies

1 ½ cups miniature marshmallows

1 ½ cups semi sweet chocolate chips

 ¼ cup brown sugar

1 quart size mason jar (wide mouth)

directions: 
layer all ingredients in a mason jar with an instruction label that reads:

instructions:

preheat oven to 350℉ / prepare a 9" square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray / pour out marshmallows and chocolate chips into a bowl along with ¼ cup melted butter, reserving about 1-2 teaspoons / in another bowl, mix remaining butter with teddy grahams / layer teddy grahams on the bottom of the baking dish / top with marshmallows and chocolate chips / sprinkle with brown sugar / bake for 15 minutes / remove from oven and cool completely / cut into bars

Used shipping tags we found at the grocery store to write down the recipe.

We couldn't resist trying to make our own S'mores Bars at home, so mom whipped out her baking dish and we got to work. Here are a few photos from the making...it's a miracle these aren't blurred because mom kept making me laugh.

We still don't have an oven, so we're using our toaster oven, and it turned out pretty okay!

 Baker's Twine, Ball Mason Jars, and these cute Chevron & Polka dot Favor Bags are available at Paper Chic Studio

We'd love to see your take on this, if you ever decide to try it out! What are YOUR little Saturday projects? :)

Lunchbox Letters ❤

By She Said

We're lucky that my daughter's school is very close to our home that I am able to send her lunch whenever she craves warm food.

I remember my own mom would drive to my school too, to bring us hot lunch. Together with my sister, we would eat in the car just by the school's parking lot.

When my daughter was in first grade, she experienced some form of separation anxiety. From the short two to three hours she was spending in preschool, she was now suddenly spending a full day in school.

There were some days that she would cling to me in the mornings not wanting to go to school so I would sometimes  stay in her classroom for a few minutes until she was able to settle down. She was never like this in preschool. She was always excited to go to school to be with her friends. I guess the eight hours or so of being away from me was just a little too much for her.

To ease her anxiety a bit, I promised her that I would bring her lunch whenever my schedule would permit so I could get the chance to say a quick hello in the middle of her day. On the days that I couldn't visit her, I would insert hand written notes in her lunchbox just to let her know I was thinking about her and some short reminders like- "don't forget to return the book you borrowed from the library today!"

And this began a wonderful exchange of notes between the two of us! She would come home with notes and letters and drawings especially for me. When work would prevent me from coming home before her bedtime, I made sure to leave her a note pasted on her bedroom door and she in turn would leave me a note by my bedside table.

She's all grown up now, all of 14 years old, and I'm glad we've never outgrown writing letters to each other. In this age of text messages, email, twitter and what have you, we've managed to stay in touch in a more personal way.

I don't send her a lot of letters with her lunch as much as I used to... she very gently told me to stop sending notes when she was about 11 years old because she was getting teased about it in school :)

Raising a teenager definitely has its challenges and I've found that this way of communicating to each other works for us. We have a good relationship, but we also have our arguments and misunderstandings. We have long talks at bedtime, but for those times that we can't find the words to say, we write it down.

  I'm glad I kept all our lunchbox letters. I go back and read them sometimes, when I'm feeling nostalgic and it never fails to bring a smile to my face.

Happy Valentine's Day, B! I love you! Know that I'm always here for you.

The Way We Ate - Ramen Yushoken

By She Said

I follow quite a number of food blogs and spend a lot of my spare time reading about new restaurants and must eats that are recommended by my favorite food writers. And based on what I've read, it seems that Japanese Ramen is taking Manila by storm. So many ramen places are opening all over the metro and Ukkokei Ramen Ron in Makati, in my opinion, would be the most talked about. They have unique policies such as no take out and strict no ramen sharing rules, as well as no shoes in the dining area.

I wanted to find out for myself what the fuss was all about so,  when my sister offered to treat me to a belated birthday dinner, I grabbed the chance and said I wanted to try Ramen Yushoken in Alabang.

 This ramen place has been generating quite a buzz recently and is quickly becoming a food destination ever since it opened its doors last December. Owned by Elbert Cuenca of Elbert's Steak Room fame, Ramen Yushoken aims to give you a one of a kind ramen house experience.

What sets this place apart is that it was put up with the help of of the son of the Ramen God.  Yes, you heard that, right. Ramen is taken seriously in Japan and Yamagishi Kazuo, credited for inventing the Tsukumen dipping noodles, is the anointed Ramen God. His "son", Koji Tashiro was recently in Manila to oversee operations at Ramen Yushoken to make sure every bowl that comes out of the kitchen is as authentic as it should be.

We made sure to be there at 530pm for an early dinner as we had already heard that lines can be long, specially on weekends. They only serve about 200 bowls of ramen in a day, and there have been stories that they sometimes close their doors early when they run out of broth.

The menu focuses on ramen and complimentary side dishes. There are no desserts, no coffee, not even background music, just as it would be if you visited a ramen place in Japan. 

No take outs allowed. I wanted to secretly wrap these perfectly seared Gyoza in paper napkins so I could have them for breakfast the next day.

Karaage- boneless fried chicken

Shio Tonkutso Ramen- salt based broth. Noodles are made in house, they are firm, springy and perfectly al dente.

Chahan Fried Rice

 Aji Tamago- marinated soft boiled eggs

Tonkutso Tsukumen- is a deconstructed ramen. Soup and noodles are served separately and you eat this by first dipping some noodles with the tips of your chopsticks into the rich broth, then slurp it up :)

I had a fun and memorable dinner with two of  my favorite eating accomplices- my daughter & my sister. Thank you! We also got to chat with Elbert who told us that an Elbert's Steak Room in Alabang is currently in the works! Exciting times for those who live in the south.



Ramen Yushoken
Molito Lifestyle Mall
Commerce Avenue,
Alabang, Muntinlupa City
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Kitchen Stories - Strawberry Torte

By She Said

Our kitchen doesn't have a working oven, so we don't bake at home. But I'm hoping to change this real soon.

We have been using a very old Whirlpool brand gas range, and by all standards I would say it's an antique. It's been in our kitchen for over 35 years now.  Some parts of it still work though. We use the two top burners, and... that's it! The other two burners conked out one after the other and the oven hasn't been working in years. *sigh*

We do however, have a broiler that we use to cook whole chicken and we also have a small toaster oven for reheating bread and leftovers, and that pretty much takes care of most of our meals.

Which brings me to my story.

I've been trying to get my daughter to help out more in the kitchen these days and she always says that she wishes we could bake cookies and cakes. I've also been wanting to try some cake recipes myself, from one of our cookbooks. I love Pavlova and other meringue based desserts that are filled with lots of fruits. Yum!

So, while contemplating which brand of cooking appliance to replace our old one with, I decided to satisfy my cravings with a little bit of improvisation.

 

By definition, a torte is is a multilayered cake  filled with cream, often made with eggs, as well as sugar or ground nuts. I'm guessing some Pallilos de Milan would be an appropriate alternative for a torte type of dessert. They are sweet, light pastry sticks topped with meringue, so I think this would be a good base for the mock Strawberry Torte I'm making with she said :)

 Pallilos de Joe from Blue Kitchen
 

Simply layer whipped cream, pastry and fruits. Refrigerate no longer than two hours, or meringue will turn soggy. 

 We made this one Sunday morning and we just couldn't stop popping pieces of strawberries, meringue and whipped cream into our mouths that we were already seriously considering just devouring everything on the spot.
 

It's better to assemble these into individual serving plates if you have  guests, rather than making one big cake size. 

 The verdict: These taste amazing!

We made some filled with mangoes too.

My daughter was very impressed. I think the oven can wait another year.

P.S.  Aren't the photos just beautiful?  I'm lucky to have such a talented photographer.

Going Places ✈

By She Said, she said

We're all packed up and ready to go! 

We've been dreaming, wishing and planning to go on a vacation. But our plans never seem to go through. A lot of things have been getting in the way and we find ourselves constantly pushing our plans to the back burner.

But we believe that a strong, positive attitude creates miracles! So, we're thinking ahead. We brought out the luggage, packed our clothes, and now we're all set to go on an adventure of a lifetime. Bring it on ♥ 

Kitchen Stories - Churros con Chocolate

By She Said

We love Saturdays! It's the day we get to sleep in, have an unhurried and leisurely breakfast and then return to bed after, to catch up on more sleep. I rarely schedule anything on Saturdays unless I really, absolutely have to. We're just lazy that way.

I usually prepare breakfast depending on what my daughter feels like eating. Her requests are simple- pancakes, french toast, bacon & eggs. Regular breakfast fare that she can have any day of the week but eating on a Saturday means she can enjoy her meal without being in a rush so I try to make it extra special by setting the breakfast table real nice.

We spotted some frozen Churros, a spanish pastry, in the supermarket the other weekend plus we had some pure chocolate tablea waiting in the pantry, given to us by good friend, Leslie. 

We were both in the kitchen preparing this, and when everything was set up, I asked her to take some photos,  but she couldn't wait to dig in. I still had my way, though....

Happy Saturday  ☼