Here's to Faith, Hope and Love

Hope to see the whole picture in real life in the future.

Photo credits : MJ

Mini Bundt Cakes

These were great cakes.

How I wish I could remember what recipe I used.

Home Decor

I took these photos last Mother's Day back in May.

Am not really the Better Homes and Garden type of decorator

but it is still interesting to see what other people might place in their homes.

Arranged in the proper way, this could spell MUM.

Let's Rock and Roll

I followed a link to a recipe for crescent rolls.

Reportedly, the rolls were so good they are called Heavenly Rolls.

I wanted to check them out myself.

My kitchen assistant for this baking experiment was RD

(MyGirl was busy studying.) 

Usually, RD is just involved in the eating part

but for this set of goodies, he was with me all the way.

They turned out beautifully, or shall I say heavenly.

It is definitely a keeper.

Heavenly Rolls

• 1 T yeast
• ¼ C warm water
• ½ t sugar
• 1 C warm milk
• ½ C vegetable oil
• ½ C sugar
• 1 t salt
• 4-5 C flour, divided
• 2 eggs
• butter, melted

1. Mix  yeast with warm water and ½ t sugar. Let stand until bubbly.
2. In a large bowl mix milk, oil, ½ c sugar, and salt with a wooden spoon.
3. Add 1 c of flour to mixture and mix well. Add 2 eggs and beat until smooth.  
4. Add yeast mixture and mix vigorously until smooth.
5. Add 3-4 cups flour to the yeast mixture. Dough will be very sticky. Cover and let rise until double in size (1 or 2 hours).  
6. When dough has doubled in size, punch down and divide in half.
7. Roll dough onto a floured surface making a circle about 12 inches round. Dough should be about ⅜" thick.
8. Brush dough with melted butter. Cut circles with a pizza cutter into 12 pieces (like a pizza). Roll from rounded edge to the point to make a crescent roll. Place into a large greased pan (11 x16)
9. Cover rolls and let rise for a few hours until double in size.
10. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes until light lightly browned.  NOTE: Touch rolls to see if they bounce back - if they do not, bake a little longer.
11. Brush with melted butter right while warm. 

It's a Date!

I introduced RD to this Korean chicken joint.  

He and I went there for dinner on the first Friday of May. 

We met up after office hours before he went off to watch a concert.

It's a Korean place so guess who was in our water bottle?

Song Joong-ki who I recognise from Running Man.  

We could have easily finished off two half orders of chicken.

But I decided to bring some pieces home for MyGirl to taste.

Ravioli Ravioli, Give Me the Formuoli

On Saturdays, I usually ask the kids what meals they want for the week. Usually RD asks for carbonara, lechon kawali, or pot stickers. One particular weekend, he asked for ravioli. I used his ravioli cravings to my advantage by getting him to make them.

He did all the hard parts. He prepared the pasta dough, rolled it out, filled and shaped the ravioli. The only thing I did was mix up the filling and cook the ravioli.

We used this ravioli recipe but I missed the part that said, "makes 48" so the first half of the dough made 12 pieces instead of 24. This meant we had some extra thick ravioli and  some extra filling when we were done.

Needless to say, we had one satisfied diner that evening.

B-612 : A Place Called Home

“You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them...” 
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

We've had some workplace location movement recently.

Several departments from our division moved to the 11th floor

and a team from the 26th floor moved into our floor.

This means we now share the kitchen with new people.

Although they have the nasty habit of leaving dirty dishes by the sink,

some of them have interesting mugs like this one.

This particular mug reminded me of the Little Prince.

God can live anywhere in the universe, 

and he chose your heart.

-Max Lucado

Lemons Galore

MacGyver's officemate brought homegrown lemons to share so MacGyver brought home a bag full of lemons.  I made some lemon curd and used a couple for cooking then figured I have enough lemons to make lemon squares.  

I haven't made lemon squares in a while.  When the kids were smaller, they were not particularly enthusiastic about these treats.  I got a lot of complaints about how tart the lemon squares were and I ended up eating most of it. (Oh, what a sacrifice!)

Anyway, since I really do love lemon squares, even if we had a tried and tested lemon squares recipe (it was a combination of the crust from one recipe and the filling from another), I still copied down a recipe for lemon bars in my recipe notebook so I could try it out.

It was super yummy!  We'd gone through about a third of the lemon bars and they weren't even at room temperature.  And it came as no surprise that they were even better the next day after they'd been chilled in the fridge. 

We still had some lemons so I made a batch of lemon squares using my old recipe. They were also good and got eaten in record time.

I thought I had used up all of the lemons when I found 3 stragglers in another bag hiding beside the potatoes.  And when life gives you lemons ... you make lemon squares!

PERFECT LEMON BARS

CRUST:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on bars
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter, at room temperature, cut into 1-inch pieces

FILLING:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, from 2 large lemons
• 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 3 to 4 large lemons
• 1/3 cup milk
• Pinch of salt (about 1/8 teaspoon)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9X13-inch baking pan with foil or parchment paper and lightly grease the foil/parchment.
2. Stir together the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, and salt.  Add the pieces of butter and cut the butter into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender or two knives (or process in the food processor for 8 to 10 seconds and then as needed) until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle the mixture into the prepared pan and press into an even layer on the bottom and about 1/2-inch up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
3. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, and flour in a medium bowl and then stir in the lemon zest, juice and milk to combine.
4. Pour the filling onto the warm crust (it’s important that the crust is still warm!) and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for another 18-20 minutes until the filling feels slightly firm to the touch. Cool the bars to room temperature, sprinkle with additional powdered sugar and cut into bars.

Ube Pandan

It was one of those days I was craving for something from home.

I wanted puto (steamed cake) with red egg (salted duck egg)

and kesong puti (white cheese made from carabao's milk).

When I got home, I decided to make a batch of puto

even if I didn't have the red egg and kesong puti.

I divided the batter in two.

I placed ube flavour on one half and pandan flavour on the other.

We made over two dozen pieces.

These were the last two.

I Do! I Do!

I chanced upon this poster at St. Mary's Cathedral some time in June.

I don't usually go to mass at St. Mary's and 

I normally don't read the notices on the bulletin board. 

But on that particular day, I did both.

MacGyver and I are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this year.

We were planning to go out of town on our anniversary.

That meant we would not be with the kids on that day.

This renewal of vows was on a Sunday.

If everyone was free on that day, we could attend as a family.

I  asked MacGyver whether he was interested in joining the renewal of vows

and what his schedule was like on that Sunday.

"Up to you," he said and that he was free on that day.

GI is working weekdays 9 to 5.

RD was on school holidays.

That left MyGirl, who normally works on Sundays.

I asked her what 02 July was like for her.

She said that since that was the first weekend of school holidays, 

and she was tapering down her work schedules, 

she had specifically asked not to work on that day.

So on the first Sunday of July, 

the whole family trooped to the city

and attended mass at the Cathedral.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher renewed the vows of dozens of couples.

Only those married for 50 years received certificates.

(Yes, MacGyver and I are in there somewhere.)