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A few weeks ago, my friend called me for an impromptu meet-up but I declined the invitation because I couldn’t leave the house that day, wala kasi magrereceive ng online orders ko. I told her next time na lang so she set a new schedule. 

How time flies. It’s been two weeks since my last blog post and I still have a long list of craft projects that I need to finish. But for now, I will pause my crafting life so I can blog again. 

Since last year, I’ve been following Chef RV Manabat’s page and I enjoy watching his recipe videos. I took note of the recipes that I liked to try and one of those recipes is the homemade pizza dough. I already tried different pizza dough recipes in the past, but I liked his recipe because all I need to do is mix all the ingredients and store the dough in the fridge. I can use my dough the following day or even after few days. 

Since we live in South Luzon, Tagaytay is one of our favorite getaway places if we want to unwind or if we want to eat. There are several restaurants that we had tried, we frequently visited and some are still on our bucket list. Sonya’s Garden is one of the places that we never forget to stop by if ever we are in Tagaytay or Nasugbu area, sinasadya namin ito sa Alfonso, Cavite. 

I am cleaning my phone gallery and I found these Jim’s Recipe’s photos, it was my husband’s pasalubong two months ago. When I opened the box, the bread looks familiar so I made some research, and true enough, this is the popular jiggly and fluffy sponge bread that I have seen before. I have no idea that this is already available in the Philippines. 

I hate food waste because I feel that I’m also wasting hard-earned money every time our foods go to the trash bin. As much as possible I try my best to reduce our food waste by planning our meals every week, making a grocery list, cooking foods enough for our family, pantry inventory to see which foods are near expiration date and lastly, eat leftover foods. 

I was browsing my blog posts and I stumbled this old post about Cheesy Garlic Bread. Ang tagal na pala namin kumakain nitong bread na ito. My husband’s colleague gifted us a United Village Breadhouse garlic bread last Christmas 2012 and since then it became one of our favorites.

I used to buy this at the bazaars only so I was glad when Landmark opened in Alabang area, so it became part of my grocery. I always have stock of this in the freezer because it is so easy to prepare, you can just toast it in the oven toaster and you have will have instant garlic bread.


Sometimes, if my son needs some potluck in school and I have no time to buy cakes, pastries, or drinks, I will prepare this garlic bread. Mas mabenta pa nga ito kaysa sa potluck na cake or pastries. Mas marami kasi nagdadala ng cakes and pastries sa school so puro sweets na.


If I have a mozzarella cheese and some leftover sausage, bacon, or ham, I add it and toast it in the oven toaster and we will have merienda in a few minutes. Mozzarella Cheese or Quickmelt cheese are staples in my kitchen because we love cheese.

Read: Recipe with Mozzarella Cheese 

December 27, 2012 

One of my husband’s colleagues gave us garlic bread last Christmas; I thought it was French bread because it’s really long. I forgot to serve it during our Noche Buena; I mean dinner so we ate it today. I made cheesy garlic bread for our merienda.



Garlic Bread + Mozzarella Cheese = YUM. Preparation is easy, just put the sliced mozzarella cheese and toast until cheese melts. Next time, I will add chopped tomatoes and bacon bits.

It’s been 12 days since the last time I went out and today is Day 8 of Community Quarantine. I mentioned before that I have no problem with staying at home because this is my life for the last 12 years. I’m an introvert and full-time mom so I enjoy being at home pero iba pa rin pala yung feeling na hindi ka talaga makalabas ng bahay because of Covid19. I suddenly miss going to the grocery, lalo na ngayon na na nasa bahay kami lahat. Mabilis maubos ang food supply.

We always have bananas at home so my husband bought a bunch of banana day before the lockdown. I’ve been saving the few pieces of overripe bananas so I can bake banana cupcake but two days ago, my husband made banana smoothies so nabawasan pa. Waah! Since we don’t have loaf bread at home, I decided to use the remaining bananas so we have something to eat. If there is no quarantine, we can easily go to the market or grocery so we can buy other ingredients pero sa panahon ngayon, it is better to stay home and use whatever ingredients we have.


I started baking when I got married and I’ve been using this Banana cupcake recipe since 2006. I got the recipe from Yummy Magazine, good thing I copied it because I can no longer find the magazine; nasama na yata sa binaha nung Typhoon Milenyo. Anyway, I like this recipe because my cupcake is soft and moist and even I remove some of the ingredients, masarap pa rin siya. Most of the time, I don’t add instant coffee mix or cinnamon sugar. If I have available chocolate chips or nuts at home, I added it to the recipe.

Banana Cupcake and Banana Bread Recipe 

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2 mashed bananas
1 + 1/2 tsp instant coffee dissolves in 1+1/2 water
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Procedures

1. In a bowl, mix together ½ cup butter at room temperature and 2/3 cup sugar.
2. Add 1 egg and 2 mashed bananas.
3. Mix in coffee (1 ½ tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 ½ water)
4. Add 1 cup plus 2 tbsp flour, ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda, and ½ tsp salt.
5. Spoon the mixture into paper-lined muffin cups. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (1tbsp sugar and mixed with ¼ tsp cinnamon.
6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit about 20 to 25 minutes or till sides are lightly browned and top no longer look wet.

Using the same recipe, I can also make banana bread, I just increase the baking time. It took me 45-50 minutes to bake the banana bread when I use the loaf baking pan. I doubled the recipe and was able to bake 32 pieces of cupcakes and according to my son same taste (meaning masarap) pa rin kahit kulang kami ng isang banana, instant coffee, and cinnamon sugar.

Life has been so unpredictable these past few days and we can’t help but feel worried. We worry about our health and our future. But I know that worrying won’t help, we just need to have faith that we will get through this and this too shall pass.

I hope you are doing okay despite the coronavirus health scare. Today is Day 4 of community quarantine and it’s been more than a week already that I’m inside our humble abode. I am a SAHM so I have no problem with staying at home because this is my life. We need to stay home until April 14 and I hope that our food stock will last so my husband won’t need to go out anymore. Tipirin na lang kung ano laman ng fridge and pantry namin.

Anyway, we always have a loaf bread at home but there are times na hindi siya napapansin like this week. My husband bought roll cake and mamon before the lockdown and because of that hindi namin nakain yung bread. But this expired bread will not put into waste because there are so many ways to save stale bread or expired bread. Especially now na wala naman kami stock ng loaf bread, may value ito expired bread. You can either make bread pudding or French Toast, I prefer French Toasts because you can cook this in less than 30 minutes.


I always cook French Toast because my son loves it. I remember, when my son was still in toddler years, he is/was a picky eater who only considered breakfast and snacks as his mealtime. He rarely eats lunch and dinner and if he eats lunch and dinner, we are the happiest people on earth. He does not like rice but he likes pasta, noodles, oatmeal, cereal, and bread.

From time to time, I cook French toasts but most of the time, he is satisfied with bread and Nutella. Until now, he still eats Nutella sandwich kahit yan lang ipabaon ko sa kanya sa school, happy na siya doon. And because of that I have no problem whenever we go to Norway because nabubuhay sa tinapay anak ko. lol

Going back to French Toast, this is very easy to make because I’m pretty sure that you have all the ingredients in your pantry such as bread, egg, butter, milk, sugar, and cinnamon powder. Cinnamon is optional because not all people like cinnamon powder. There are so many French Toasts recipes that you can find online but this is how I cook our French Toast.

Ingredients: 

6 slices of bread
1 egg
1 cup of fresh milk
1 tbsp of sugar
Butter

Optional: 
Cinnamon powder
Powdered sugar
Maple Syrup

We went to Festival Mall to replace my son’s eyeglasses and for his post-birthday celebration. On our way to Starfinder Optical, may pa FREE taste si Bakers Maison so we tried some samples and because of that, we bought some bread before going home. Okay din na strategy ang pafree taste, ilang beses na rin ko napagastos after ko tumikim ng free taste. Hehehe!

I’m not sure kung kelan pa sila nasa Festival Mall but it was my first time to try their bread. Bakers Maison is from New South Wales, Australia and it was established in 1998 so matagal na rin pala. While buying breads, we noticed the staff preparing some cookies and my husband said parang frozen yung mga product nila. I searched about it and my husband was correct, all bread of Bakers Maison are delivered frozen to the store, all breads are partially baked and they will finish the baking process at the store.


We bought White Bread PHP68, Coffee Cream Cheese PHP55, Cheese Royale Croissant PHP60, Butter Croissant PHP45 and Buy 1 Take 1 of Luscious Dates and Walnuts Loaf at PHP150. Good thing that I checked my receipt kasi 2 Cheese Royale Croissant yung nilagay nung staff, sayang PHP15 ko.

Yung Coffee Cream Cheese Bun ang natry ko sa free taste so I bought one. I like the combination of coffee flavor and cream cheese. For Cheese Royale and Butter Croissant, the taste is almost the same. It is light and flaky, the only difference is may konting cheese yung isa na nasa dulo naman, so I rather buy Butter Croissant.

If you notice, I kept on buying croissant now kasi hinahanap-hanap ni hubby yung croissant na kinain namin nung nag-Scandinavian tour kami. Kaso hindi pa rin daw kalasa so I guess, iba talaga ang bread sa Europe. To think na sa 7-11 (Sweden and Norway) lang namin binili yung ibang croissant. Hehehe!

We love their white bread, if Gardenia Philippines ang gumagawa nito, sana ganun din bread nila. Namimiss ko yung mabango, malambot at kahit walang palaman na Gardenia. If Bakers Maison is just near in our place, ito na magiging weekly bread namin. I gave one Luscious Dates and Walnuts Loaf to my mother-in-law but she said, okay lang lasa. But my husband and I love it, kahit hindi ako mahilig sa dates, naappreciate ko siya. On our next visit to Festival Mall, I will buy their bread again.

Happy Independence Day! Today is a holiday but because of the heavy rains, we’re stuck at home and enjoying the bed weather. This reminds me of our Baguio trip last April. After our Historical Core Tour in Camp John Hay, we passed by Food Camp in front of Baguio Country Club so we checked it out. Parking is limited, fortunately, we got a slot.


Food Camp at the Baguio Country Club is the new attraction in Baguio that offers local and international dishes such as Japanese, American, Mediterranean, Mexican, Chinese, and of course Filipino. You can see camping area, bonfire, log cabin, go-kart, and food stalls.


The Christmas Village is now Food Camp. It is the first and only food camp in the city. There is no entrance fee and will be open to public from February 14, 2018 until June 2018. But I learned that they already closed the food camp last May 31, 2018.

Opening Hours 
5PM to 10PM (Weekdays)
10AM to 11PM (Weekends and Holidays)





My son tried the Go Kart but after one round, the rain began to pour. Sayang! Since it is an al fresco dining restaurant, hindi na kami naglunch and I just bought bread. I bought banana bread, carrot bread and raisins bread. We liked the banana bread. My son and I did not like the carrot bread, we prefer the carrot cupcake that we tried at Hill Station. But my husband liked the carrot bread so binaon pa niya sa office. We gave the raisins bread to my in-laws since favorite nila ang raisin bread.


Baguio Country Club Food Camp Desserts by Kate Reed’s 

P100 Almond Brownies
P100 Baked Cheesecake
P100 Baklava
P265 Banana Bread
P100 Blueberry Cheesecake
P290 Carrot Bread
P280 Cheese Bread
P100 Chocolate Mousse Cake
P100 Cookies
P50 Cream Puff
P50 Eclair
P100 Mini Cake Choco Truffle
P100 Mini Cake Red Velvet
P100 Panna Cotta (Mango)
P100 Panna Cotta (Strawberry)
P265 Raisin Bread


Now that the food camp is closed, I don’t know if I can still taste the BCC bread or desserts if ever we will go back to Baguio.

Read: 2 Days in Baguio 

During our vacation in Norway, my mom was confined in the hospital for 5 days so we just stayed at home while she was in the hospital. You can read the story here,  so when she came back, I told her that we no longer have bread in the pantry. Bread is very important because we ate bread every breakfast and even dinner. 

She was not allowed to drive as per doctor advised so I told her that I will just go to the grocery. Since I don’t know how to drive, I will just walk to the grocery but my mom did not like the idea so she suggested that I should bake pandesal na lang. I haven’t tried making pandesal but since she has the recipe, I said yes. It’s been a long time since I bake my own bread, sayang naman pinag-aralan ko sa Baking Class. 

Read: The Day I Learned How To Bake My Own Bread



So the following morning, I woke up early so I can start making the dough and I was surprised when my mom already made the dough. I told her, bakit siya nagbake, pinagpapahinga nga siya ng doctor. She said, she is not used to doing nothing. Since the dough is already okay, we all knead, roll and shape our own bread. No rules to follow, basta kung ano gusto mo shape. hehehe! We put some fillings too like cheese, ham and green onion. 



It was sunny so while I'm baking the bread, my mom and son went out para magsunbathing. Sunbathing na balot na balot pa rin kasi malamig pa rin sa labas. Hehehe! #wheninnorway



I also made a strawberry and banana smoothie to pair with our pandesal with filling. 



Here is the finished product, don’t judge the photo because our pandesal tastes good and we enjoyed making it. After our hearty meal, we went out for a walk. As usual sa Bruholmen ulit. As of this writing, namiss ko bigla bonding namin tatlo. Hehehe! 


Watch the video here.