Out of curiosity, we gave Freddy’s Frozen Custard a try a few months ago.  We never went back.   Nevertheless, I’d like to share our experience with you. Here’s what we had…

Shoestring fries – strips of thin and crunchy potatoes – accompany the meals  at Freddy’s Frozen Custard.  My little girl had the Kid’s Hotdog Meal…

Hotdog Kid’s Meal

As if the fries that came with our meals weren’t enough, we placed an additional order for Chili Cheese Fries – shoestring fries smothered with a generous amount of chili and topped with cheese.

Chili Cheese Fries

We must have been really starving when we went to Freddy’s!  Hahaha!  The Chili Cheese Fies was all right, but I did not turn into a fan.  I guess my tastebuds are more accustomed to the nachos and chili cheese combo. That or I’m simply a regular fries and ketchup kind of gal.

Hubby had the Original Freddy’s Steakburger – Single (available in single, double or triple)…

It doesn’t really take much to please hubby and me when it comes to burgers.  Just give us  moist and not so bland burgers and we’ll be happy.  A nice thick patty would be nice, too!  Unfortunately, the patty in hubby’s burger was on the thin side, which is probably why there’s an option for a double or a triple.  It was kind of dry, too.  Tsk, tsk.

I had the Chicago Style Hotdog Meal….

It was the first time I ever had a Chicago style hotdog.  I realized then that this particular style of hotdog isn’t for me.   For one, I’m not particularly fond of onions.  Two, I found the hotdog to be a tad small.  (Did I just complain about serving size?  Uh-oh, I’m so used to hefty portions already! )

For dessert, we ordered Chocolate Custard…

This was our meal’s saving grace, as it should, because after all, the fastfood chain’s name capitalizes on frozen custard and it was what lured us to this place.  I have a very different idea of frozen custard before this visit to Freddy’s.  I now know that it is gourmet ice cream which has more eggs added to the ingredients making it smoother and richer than ice cream.

I like places with the diner-of-old look, you know, the reds and whites, the stripes and the cozy booths.

There was one thing on the wall that caught my eye….

The caption under the photo reads:

“Freddy is pictured here standing in front of the General Doughlas MacArthur Memorial on the Island of Leye in the Philippines.  Freddy was revisiting the scene on October 20th, 2004, marking the 60th anniversary of the historic battle which led to the liberation of the Filipino people. Freddy, with Troop A of the First Cavalry, landed in the first wave of soldiers approximately 6 hours prior to General MacArthur.”

If and when we do go back to Freddy’s, it may very well be to escape the Texas summer heat via frozen custards. Well, a side of regular shoestring fries might be good, too.

Anyone who grew up in the Philippines, I’m quite sure, will have a story to share about having taho for breakfast or as a snack and buying it straight from the friendly neighborhood taho vendor.  What is taho anyway?  Wikipedia defines it as…

“a Philippine snack food made of fresh soft/silken tofu, arnibal (brown sugar and vanilla syrup), and pearl sago (similar to pearl tapioca)”.

Taho traces its origin in China, which is why we usually have it for dessert whenever we eat at a Chinese restaurant.

At the Asian supermarket several weeks ago, I found myself at the section where different kinds of tofu were displayed.  I suddenly remembered a blog post on taho by one of my blogger friends, The Chef’s Wife, which also reminded me that I haven’t had taho for some time already.  Since the taho vendor isn’t coming to our neighborhood ever anytime soon, I thought it was about time I made some taho!  So I grabbed two packs of silken tofu.

This is so easy to make it will blow you away!  The three components of taho are silken/soft tofu, caramelized brown sugar and tapioca pearls (sago).  All you have to do is cook the tapioca pearls as per package instructions.  I had two kinds of tapioca pearls in my pantry – the tiny ones and a the regular sized one.  I chose to use the tiny pearls because my regular-sized tapioca pearls were of different colors.  Hee hee.    After it’s cooked, set it aside.

For the syrup, I simply caramelized about 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar in 1 1/2 cups of water over medium fire.  And then, the two packs of silken tofu, I transferred to a bowl and heated them up in the microwave for about two minutes at increments of one minute.  That’s it!  Now you’re ready to put everything together.

You may serve taho in a bowl or in a glass/cup.  I did both.   Remember to scoop thin amounts of the tofu!  Here’s taho in a bowl…

And here’s one in a glass…

I was going to use a regular drinking glass, believe me, but all our drinking glasses were in the dishwasher when I made taho so I grabbed a wine glass instead.    It did give the taho a nice fancy touch, I think!…very different from the plastic cups they are usually served in.  Hee hee!

I know some prefer chilled taho but this kind of quick and easy fix is better served warm.  Otherwise, the tofu will be too firm and won’t be as close to the one you enjoyed back home.

We each had two servings of taho.  And for sure, we’re going to have this again and again and again.

Last Friday, I decorated a cake (baked the previous night) which was a first in a number of ways.  It was the first whole fondant cake that I gave as a gift.  I normally present my friends with a quarter of a cake that I made for practice and taste-testing purposes.   That’s what I did with my first two failed-attempts at fondant which you can read about here and here.

This is the first fondant cake that I decorated for an actual celebration, the 8th birthday of Kyle.  And for the first time, I will not rant about the flaws of this cake, which it has a number of.    Some of them you will see if you look closely but most of them, I was able to hide under the presents.  Hee hee.

In spite of the flaws, this is a cake I am quite satisfied with.  This is my first smooth-looking cake, compared to the two elephant-skinned ones I’ve made previously.  The design is a combination of two cake designs from the Wilton Celebrate with Fondant book -  “Gifts Up for Grabs” and “Rockin’ Wrapping”.  I was also inspired by a 2-tier cake that my Virginia based cake decorating guru friend, Sarah, made that had gifts all around the bottom tier.

In case you’re wondering, this is chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  It took me more or less 6 hours to decorate, I’m most embarrassed to admit.  Hee hee.

There may still be hope for me after all, as far as fondant is concerned. *cross fingers*

Have a great week ahead, y’all!  Cheers!

It’s all about “The Compatibility Factor” this week at WifeSpeaks.  And I have just the perfect food entry…Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake!

It’s an ice cream cake consisting of three different flavors – strawberry, chocolate and vanilla – yet so compatible with each other.  This is my second do-it-yourself ice cream cake which I started layering yesterday and finished decorating this morning. I made my first my first ice cream cake, last month in celebration of my brother’s birthday.

I made this for a special guest who is overly fond of ice cream, so instead of regular cake, I made her this instead.  Now that’s a compromise!   She got to eat her ice cream and I still got to practice cake decorating.

I was initially fearful that this wouldn’t turn out nicely because I was working against the summer heat.  The ice cream was melting so much faster than I would have wanted.  I felt better only after I piped the pink decorations and after I saw that the layers were still distinguishable from each other and looked quite decent.   The layers actually looked better than my first ice cream cake.

Chocolate. Vanilla. Strawberry. Whipped Cream. Strawberries. Perfect combination!

As a post Mother’s Day celebration, my mommy girlfriends and I had a Girls Night Out (GNO).  It was just a movie night capped by a round of drinks at a restaurant/bar.  This is the drink I had…

…a Frozen Pomegranate Rita.  It is one of Z Tejas’ stronger margaritas.  And I have to say, it brought out the tisay in me. I’m blaming the alcohol, of course!   Hee hee.

The cupcakes turned out nicely, to my surprise.  I initially thought the recipe would be a failure because as per the recipe book, the minimum bake time is 20 minutes.  I usually follow the minimum bake time when checking cakes and cupcakes for doneness.  I was so glad I took a peek at the cupcakes at the 16-minute mark because at that point, the edges of the tops of the cupcakes were already starting to brown (which meant brown bottoms, too!)!  I immediately checked for doneness and lo and behold, the toothpick came out clean.  Whew!  I was almost too late!  I would have ended up with toasted if not burnt cupcakes.  Tsk tsk!

The cupcakes were surprisingly moist but a little crumbly.  They could very well be enjoyed sans frosting .

The suggested frosting for these cupcakes, by the way, is the Fluffy Frosting from the same recipe book.  However, I still had some  buttercream forsting left over from the birthday cake I made the day before, so that’s what I used instead.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 egg whites
1 cup crushed chocolate sandwich cookies (about 10 cookies), plus additional for garnish
Frosting

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease 24 standard muffin cups or line with paper baking cups.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl (of electric stand mixer). Stir in sugar. Add milk, butter and vanilla; mix at low speed for 30 secons. Stop and scrape bowl. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add egg whites; beat 2 minutes more. Stir in 1 cup crushed cookies. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full.

3. Bake 15-20 minutes (as per my experience, but 20-25 minutes as per the recipe book) or until toothpick inserted into centers come out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes to racks; cool completely.

4. Frost cupcakes with frosting; garnish with additional crushed cookies.

This might be a good kitchen project to try with kids, specially since kids in our part of the world are on school break.  You can enlist their help in crushing the chocolate cookie sandwiches, frosting and garnishing.  Ask them to help clean up, too!  Hee hee.

One more thing, it’s going to be awfully hard to resist grabbing a second cupcake after finishing one off.  But when you do find yourself having seconds, it’s ok. No need to entertain thoughts of taking nuphedra.

Have a great weekend, y’all!  Cheers!

It’s all about “The In-Laws Factor” this week over at WifeSpeaks.   For FoodieWednesday, participants are requested to answer food-related questions about their in-laws.  I’m skipping the question and answer. Instead, I’m going to tell you how the in-law factor changed the way I cook adobo.

Ask several people from the Philippines (who does some cooking) how they cook adobo and I’m pretty sure you won’t get two answer that are exactly the same.  The recipes may be similar to some extent, but they will never be exactly the same.

My Nanay’s (maternal grandma) adobo, for one, is bordering on the dry side, meaning it only has but a hint of soy sauce when it hits the dining table, but it has lots of oil.  Some  adobo,  have the pork or chicken practically swimming in sauce, almost soup-like.  In the southern part of the Philippines, I hear, they put coconut milk in their adobo.

So what kind of adobo do I serve hubby and little daughter?  One that is not soupy but definitely saucy.   I’m also very careful with the amount of vinegar I use because what garlics are to vampires, vinegar is to my husband. Hee hee.

Since some time last year, my Mom has been telling me to add an extra step in the way I cook adobo.  That is, to fry the meat after stewing them in soy sauce and vinegar, before dumping all of them back again in the sauce.  She swears by this additional step, which came as a bit of  a surprise because we never cooked our adobo that way.  So I made a mental note to give it a try but whenever I found myself cooking adobo, I get too lazy to fish out the meat and have them fried.  I just want to dig in right away already!

Early this year, I finally got around to doing it.  Hubby was surprised to find me frying the pork and added that that’s how his mom cooked adobo.  Hubby looked very pleased, to say the least.  Awww.  Since then, I’ve been cooking adobo a tad longer than I used to.  Haha!

Some people add hard boiled chicken and/or quail eggs to their adobo, as a garnish of sorts.  And because we have a ton of eggs anyway, I decided to throw in some hard boiled eggs as well.

As a rule of thumb, I use 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1/3 cup of soy sauce per pound or so of meat and just adjust the measurements accordingly depending on how much I’m cooking.  For the adobo in the photo, I doubled the amount of vinegar and soy sauce. In addition to the pork or chickem meat, I also add some chicken liver (which makes the sauce thicker!) and chicken gizzards to my list of ingredients.

Here’s the rest of my adobo recipe…

INGREDIENTS

1 pound of pork cubes (or chicken pieces)
chicken liver
chicken gizzards
lots of garlic (We want a garlicky adobo. )
1-2 bay leaves
1/4 cup vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 to 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns

oil for frying (if you want the additional step…and trouble. )
hardboiled chicken or quail eggs for garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Put all the ingredients in a pot and cook in medium to high heat until the sauce starts to boil.  Turn the heat to low and continue to cook until the meat becomes tender.
2.  When the meat is of your desired tenderness already, take them out of the pot and fry until brown.
3.  Depending on how much sauce you want in your adobo,  you may throw the fried meat pieces back into the pot of sauce or just drizzle some sauce over them before serving.  Don’t forget the steamed rice!

So, have you altered the way you cooked a dish for dear hubby…because that’s how his momma does it?

The thing is, I only found out it was Sam’s birthday on the afternoon of his birthday. Tsk!  You could just imagine my horror when a friend told me.  I would have wanted time to prepare for a real boy cake.  Plus, I didn’t even have time to buy a birthday present.   I made the cake the next day and got the birthday present two days later.  And this was the cake I came up with…

Guess what birthday number it was for Sam.   Sam told me he liked chocolate so I made what has become, at least for now, my favorite chocolate cake recipe and chocolate frosting.  The decorations are all buttercream.

I used a star tipe #21 for the top and bottom borders.  For the balloons and the stars on the side of the cake, I used a star tip #14 (or was it #12?).  For the balloon strings, I used a tip #2.

One mistake I made is making the balloon strings into a curly mess.  Hee hee.  It was too late when I realized that I should have piped straight lines for the strings.  Don’t balloon strings become curly only when the balloons start losing air?    Oh well.

I have to remember to have at least two or three of each star tip.  It took me longer than necessary to finish decorating the cake because I only had one tip #14.  I had to wash it every time I changed icing colors for the balloons.

Overall, I was pleased with how the cake turned out.   Buttercream is a good old friend.  Fondant and I are still very much in the getting-to-know stage.

I hope your week is coming along just fine!  Cheers!

This week’s central theme over at WifeSpeaks is “Money Matters” or “The Money Factor”.  I thought I’d share a budget friendly recipe that I tried recently.  I got it from the label of Hellmann’s Light Mayonnaise.    Never underestimate the recipe on a food label!  It might turn out to be really good, just like this Parmesan Crusted Drummettes.  I am almost sure that most of you will already have all 4 ingredients needed in your pantry and fridge.

INGREDIENTS:

your favorite chicken parts  (about 4 to 5 of the larger pieces)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
seasoned dry bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Combine mayonnaise and cheese.  Spread on chicken, then roll in bread crumbs.
2.  Bake at 425F for 20 minutes or until thoroughly cooked.

I used 10 pieces of chicken drummettes.  The amount of mayo and cheese in this recipe may be good for upto 15 pieces of drummettes.  I also used light mayonnaise.  You may substitute the parmesan cheese with your favorite kind of cheese.  Regular mayo would also be fine, too, if you’re not too fond of light mayo.

For the bread crumbs, I used the zesty variety for most of the chicken pieces and used just regular bread crumbs for the pieces I saved for my daughter. If you could get your hands on Italian seasoned  bread crumbs, well and good.

This is great with salad, if you’re using chicken breasts, as an appetizer or as main course.  This would make for a good potluck dish as well, whether for parties at home or picnics at the park…even the ones for rvs. Hee hee.

For this week’s La.Pi.S. theme, which is”Pearly Shells”, I’m choosing shellfish.   Everyone in my family is a worshiper of seafood.  Tops on our list are shrimps, prawns, crabs, mussels and oysters.  Our cooking of choice is steamed, to better enjoy their natural flavors.  Grilled and boiled in a simple soup, as a method of cooking, come as a close second and third.

Some love baked mussels and oysters topped with cheese.  I’m fine with that, too.

All this talk of seafood is making me homesick.  Back home, fresh seafood is available practically all the time.  No need to settle for frozen.

Have a great week ahead, y’all!  Cheers!