As expected, these were a hit with hubby and our first grader!  Major beauty points for me yet again! :D

Fish Balls are a popular street food in the Philippines.  Practically everybody eats them, from students to graduates (that includes people on a medical job search) to  yuppies.  Everybody!  And don’t let anybody tell you otherwise! ;) Unfortunately, those street balls are highly processed and probably contain very little fish, and that’s if there’s any fish in them at all!  One funny thing about them is that they grow really big while being deep fried and then become flat almost as soon as they’re taken out of the hot hot oil.  Pffft!  Hee hee.

I posted the recipe with photo tutorial for Shrimp and Fish Balls more than a year ago.  That recipe was from a Chinese recipe book.  The recipe I used for these fish balls is the exact same recipe for Steamed Fish Paste Cake (Kamaboko), which is immediately below this entry.  I simply rolled the fish mixture into balls and deep fried ‘em.  What I would really like to get my hands on are the recipes for the dipping sauces of the street kind. Or am I better off not knowing what’s exactly in them?  Oh well.

It’s a long weekend for us!  And our restless feet will most probably take us somewhere fun.

Cheers, y’all!  Have a wonderful wonderful weekend!

I have to say, it’s going to taste a heck of a lot different from frozen ones, which are really more flour than fish.  This is fish and will taste like fish. ;)  It’s been a while since I posted a photo tutorial for a recipe as it is quite hard to be photographer and  home chef at the same time.  Hee hee.  I’m happy to have come up with a photo tutorial for this one with a little help from Hubby. ;)

INGREDIENTS:

18 oz (500g) white fish fillets, skinned
1 egg
1/2 T ginger juice
2-3 T cornstarch
salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Grind the fish fillets in a food processor.  Add egg, ginger juice, cornstarch and salt.  Mix well.

2.  Divide into halves.

3.  Brush 2 12″ x 10″ sheets of aluminum foil with oil.

4.  Shape kamaboko paste into logs approximately 4.5″ in length and 2″ in diameter. (By all means, shape it into the length and diameter that you fancy!) Roll up and seal both ends.  Steam for 30 minutes over high heat.  Test for doneness by inserting a skewer into the center of the log.  If it comes out clean, then it’s done!

5.  Slice into 1/2″ rounds or thinner.

You might want to try what I did, which was to brown the logs in a pan coated with oil before slicing.

Next time, instead of forming the fish paste mixture into logs, I’ll form them into balls.  I just might do that tomorrow! ;)

Cheers, y’all!

And here’s the week that was in home-prepared lunchables…

Monday

For Monday, I packed  rotisserie chicken (saved from Sunday night’s dinner), half a Hawaiian roll, some grapes and sweet corn in my daughter’s Hello Kitty food container (Thanks, Tita Rina!).

Tuesday

On Tuesday, my daughter had stuffed mushrooms and brown rice.  She has been asking me to make stuffed mushrooms since she saw the pack of mushrooms in our grocery cart last Sunday!  Fruit was packed in a separate container.

Wednesday

For Hump Day, my first grader had Ground Turkey and Green Beans with Brown Rice.  The ground turkey and green beans were sauteed in oil with a little ginger, some garlic, white cooking wine, soy sauce and sesame oil.

Thursday

I’m not very proud of Thursday’s lunch.  My daughter wanted pork buns and I didn’t have the ingredients to make some from scratch.  But I did have some store-bought pork buns.  Unfortunately, they have MSG. :(  I promised my daughter the next pork buns she’s taking to school will be homemade, if only to avoid the MSG.

Friday

TGIF!  On Friday, lunch was Chicken Adobo and Brown Rice. How can you go wrong with that?  You can’t, specially if you’re from that country in Southeast Asia…the Philippines. :)

I’ve got my work cut-out for me tomorrow, Sunday.  There’s been a request for dumplings almost everyday this week.  And it’s about time they make an appearance in the lunch room next week. ;)  I wonder when sushi makes a grand entrance.

I love making school lunches for my daughter.  Online Elementary Schools wouldn’t be so much fun for me as a mom! Haha! I do ran out of ideas a lot of times but I don’t see school lunch-making as a chore.  To me, it’s another outlet for creative expression.  Only, it’s creativity that needs to be expressed so early in the morning.  Hee hee.

Y’all enjoy what’s left of the weekend!  Cheers!

Last month, I made a Secret Agent Cake for the 8th birthday of the son of good friends of ours.  He’s into spy gadgets, really.  But I took the easy way out, opting to make a cake where the “user” of the spy gadgets is the star.  Hee hee. :P  Allow me to present to you, Agent 008…

This is  Chocolate Cake filled with Chocolate Frosting and Marshmallows.  I have to say, hubby loved this cake. ;)  It’s just too bad the birthday boy has yet to be introduced to the wonderful spy that is James Bond. I really should have asked first.  Come to think of it, he might be a tad too young for 007 movies. :D

The cake topper was a lot of fun to make!  I love how I dressed this little man.  The hair could use a little more work, that much I’m willing to admit,  but overall, I was pleased.  The bomb was just begging to be lit. ;)

I made this cake on the same day as the Yogi Cake.  To save time, I used red and black jelly beans as decorative accents.  Candies are my best friends!

I could really use a martini now…shaken, not stirred. ;)

Cheers y’all!

My daughter celebrated birthday number 6 two weeks ago with an intimate pajama party here at home.  I shall give you more details and ideas from the party on a separate entry.  For now, let me tell you about the cake I made for my daughter.

I’m actually a little embarrassed to show you the cake photos and you’ll see why in a moment.  But what the heck, the birthday girl loved it and I must say that so did I.

So what’s wrong with the cake?  I made the figure a tad too sunburnt.  Hee hee. :)  The little girl didn’t seem to mind.  I don’t even think she noticed.  Well, I only noticed how dark the figure was when the cake’s all done.  And with dishes to cook and a house to get ready for the arrival of guests, I just didn’t have the time to sculpt another one. :P

I had a blast putting this cake together.  I actually enjoy making miniature elements from real life.  It’s a lot of fun, believe you me!   I’m very relieved, not to mention very thankful to the cake gods that save for the color of the figurine, I didn’t encounter any problems while making this cake.  Everything ran ever so smoothly.  In fact, I was done by 12:30pm.  Party time was 6pm. ;)  This cake, by the way, is Mocha Chiffon Marble Cake with Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream.

The use of the color pink was very minimal because my daughter claims her favorite color at the moment is blue.  I don’t really believe that to be true, but I played along anyway.  The girl is wearing blue pajamas with pink polka dots.  To her right is a cup of cocoa, a bowl of popcorn and a slice of cake. ;)  I wasn’t sure if I did the popcorn justice.  So while I was making it, I called the celebrant and asked her what I was making.  She immediately said popcorn.  That’s all the assurance I needed to proceed. :)

I’m not what you might call a bag hag, but I seem to like making purses out of fondant.  I made one for this cake and a pair of bunny slippers, too! :)

There are lines on the quilt the figure is lying on.  It’s just too bad they’re not visible in the picture.  This ensemble won’t be complete without pillows.  I made 2. :)  Oh, and let’s not forget the eyemask!

This is the first fondant cake I ever made for a member of my family and is easily my favorite.  Next year, when Abby turns 7, I hope to make a bigger and better cake for her. :)

She had several small birthday parties with different sets of friends and we had so much fun in every single one of them.  The birthday girl was also happy to have her birthday wish granted. Too bad we were not able to get our hands on cyberpowerpc coupons before we bought the present. Hee hee.

I hope your week was off to a good start! Cheers!

I’ve baked and decorated 3 cakes since my last entry.  This week, I will do 1 or 2 more cakes and a couple of cupcakes.  My stand mixer will definitely get a good workout this week, that’s for sure! ;)

Last July 24th, a good friend of mine, her son and I had a triple birthday celebration.  It was our 2nd Annual Pink Party.   I made the birthday cakes for mother and son.  My cake, on the other hand, was made by my cake decorating guru of a friend.  For this entry, the spotlight’s on the Yogi Boston Cream Cake I made for my yoga-junkie friend. :D  Presenting, Camille’s Yogi cake…

Camille is into yoga, hence, the Yogi cake.  She’s also kinda watching her sugar, so I searched for a low-sugar cake recipe.  I found two recipes that I wanted to try and when presented with the cake options, Camille chose the Boston Cream Cake.

This was my first attempt at molding people out of fondant. It turned out to be a lot of fun! I love how the yogi came out..and the bag…and the roll of towel. :)

You can barely see the texture on the yoga mat, if at all.  But believe me when I say that it is a textured mat. :)

The cake turned out nicely, getting the thumbs up of the birthday celebrant and our friends.  Hubby, however, thought the cake was a little dense. Hmp!  Well, he was right.  The cake was a little pound cake-ish. :)  The custard filling and the chocolate glaze were oh-so good, if I may say so myself. ;)  You can find the recipe here.

After I molded my first person cake-topper out of fondant, there was no stopping me from making cake toppers out of fondant for my next cakes. You’ll see them in upcoming posts.  Hopefully, it will not take me another full month to update. :P

Cheers y’all!

Decorations for this second cake were slices of fresh strawberries and mini marshmallows…

I couldn’t be happier that I always keep ” instant cake decorations” that  I can grab anytime from the fridge and the pantry for speed cake decorating.  Hee hee.

I decorated this cake 30 minutes before my family left the house to meet our friends.  I, of course, shared this cake with them.  And because I didn’t have to stay up late decorating, I didn’t have to worry about bumps that could have appeared the following day and needed acne treatment.  *wink*

The cake recipe can be found HERE.

Postscript: Cheers, y’all! :D

Since moving to the US in 2007, I’ve had funnel cakes several times, mostly at theme parks or festivals, the last one being in December 2009 in Grapevine, TX. My daughter and her friends enjoyed the funnel cakes so much (bless the heart of my girlfriends who bought the funnel cakes!) that I just had to learn how to make some and not have to wait for our next theme park visit.  And learned to make funnel cakes I have!

This morning, I made funnel cakes for the second time.  The first time was in December,  the very next morning after coming home from our trip to Grapevine.  Hubby and my little girl were happy to have funnel cakes for breakfast.  I topped mine with fresh strawberries, while those of hubby’s and my daughter’s were just topped with powdered sugar.

Here’s the recipe…

INGREDIENTS:1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 T cup sugar
1 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
2 eggs
1 C milk
oil for deep frying (preferably, canola)
powdered sugar, for sprinkling
fresh fruit slices, for toppings (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Heat canola oil in a pan (I used a 10″ frying pan) to 350 degrees F.

2.  Mix all dry ingredients. Add in eggs and milk and mix well.

3.  Pour 1/2 cup batter through funnel into hot oil, while moving the funnel in a circular motion. Fry each spiral of batter until golden brown and turn over if necessary, specially when using a shallow pan.  Remove the funnel cakes with tongs and lay on paper towel to absorb oil.

4.  Transfer to a plate and sprinkle powdered sugar through a sieve onto top of hot dough. Top with your favorite fresh fruit slices.  Serve immediately.

The recipe yields 2 cups of batter, enough for 4 good-sized funnel cakes.  Try making these on your child’s next play date and you and your child  just might get invited to many more such dates.  But don’t be surprised if your mommy friends ask you to bring apidexin, too, for their consumption, of course!  Hee hee.

Cheers, y’all!

On Father’s Day we had a most wonderful buffet brunch at Dulces, a newly opened Mexican restaurant that was rather upscale, located at the Lakeline Mall.  We’ve been curious about this restaurant for quite some time already and we’re glad we didn’t let the the $26.00 per person price tag on the buffet scare us.  And besides, we had a 20% off coupon. ;)

We entered the restaurant with an open mind but expectations were high.  We were informed by our server that drinks from the bar, soda, iced tea, mimosas and champagne were included in the buffet price.  From the kitchen, we can request for freshly made waffles.  Grilled meat -lamb, chicken and sausage- will also be brought to our table.  All these were included in the buffet.  $26.00 wasn’t so bad after all, we came to realize.  Oh, and the dessert table.  It was just gorgeous!

Hubby and I took full advantage of the open bar.  We each ordered a  mimosa, which was 75% champagne and 25% orange juice (or is it the other way around?).

It was refreshing, all right, but I regretted having alcohol so early in the day because alcohol makes me turn a bright crimson.  So I looked like an overripe tomato in most of our photos at Dulces. :D

There was a salad bar, which we practically ignored, because we wanted to make sure we had room for the more important dishes.  There was an assortment of cheeses and breads, all of which, we also ignored.

There was a table for cold appetizers: mussels,oysters, clams, shrimps and fruit kebabs.  This, we embraced. Hee hee. :)

Around the same time we were having appetizers, grilled meat on huge steel skewers were brought to our table one by one.  This brought back memories of Brazilian buffets we enjoyed back home.  First to reach our table were the racks of lamb…

That steel skewer is so big it looks like it can be used in the construction of a metal building.  Anyway, after the lamb came the chicken…

Here’s a better photo…

And then came the sausage wrapped in bacon…

Oohlala!  Given that hubby and I only eat beef/pork one meal a week if not at all, this was practically heaven on steel skewers for hubby.  Well, Happy Father’s Day!  :)  We loved all the grilled meat.  If only for these, we’ll come back to Dulces every so often.

Then, we moved on to the warm dishes of fish, pork, chicken, beef and meatballs in rich sauces…

Now, this is where you’ll probably have a bit of trouble if you’re not fond of spicy dishes, because most of these dishes, save for one or two, have quite a kick of spiciness to them.  But we are fond of spicy dishes so keep ‘em coming!  If only there was a teeny tiny bit more salt to the dishes.

Because I have such a sweet tooth, I have the highest expectation for the desserts.  It is the dessert table that welcomes diners toDulces and it was so nicely laid out.  It’s the best looking dessert table/s I’ve seen so far.  You can probably say that I don’t get around so much. Hee hee.

My daughter couldn’t concentrate on her lunch because she couldn’t wait to get her share of sweets.  Her eyes were twinkling as soon as we made a stop at the dessert table.

We were thrilled to see a chocolate fountain and I realized other diners were just as thrilled, adults and children alike.

We all enjoyed taking skewered marshmallows and fruits and giving them a chocolate bath at the fountain. Yum!

Of all the choices on the table, this is what I liked the best, the white chocolate mousse, all the best, I’m sorry to say, didn’t quite float my dessert boat. Huhuhu.

The flan, for instance, was pretty.  But I’ve tasted better. ;)  The chocolate cakes, on the other hand, were too dry for my taste. Sad, sad, sad.

The rice pudding could have a used just a tad more sugar…

I would have loved a glass of champagne but I was already too red from the mimosa. Hee hee.

Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience for us, a very welcome change from the mediocrity of cheap attractively priced Chinese buffets.  We love the wait staff of Dulces.  They were so friendly and attentive.  The ambiance was nice, too, and the art pieces all over the restaurant.

In spite the disappointment the desserts turned out to be, we’ll still come back to Dulces.  The call of grilled meats will just be too hard to ignore.  But, and here’s the big but, we’ll have to reserve brunches like this for special occasions or for when cravings become intolerable, whichever comes first. :)

Cheers to decent buffets! :)

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups spring salad mix
1 mango, peeled and diced (discard the seed)
3 tangerines, peeled and sliced
2-3 Tbsp Newman’s Own Lighten Up Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
Freshly grated parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

Toss all the ingredients in a big bowl and top with parmesan cheese.  Serve in individual salad plates or bowls.

It doesn’t get any simpler than that!   Plus, you get a load of natural vitamins too!

By the way, I received the Newman’s Own Lighten Up Honey Mustard Salad Dressing as part of the Foodbuzz Family Bites/Tastemaker Program. :)

Cheers, y’all!