Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

I was calling myself a baker until I met Top Pastry Chef Franck Geuffroy. He was just too good that I felt like a dot compared to him

Chef Franck is the training chef and consultant of Alain Ducasse Formation et Conseil.

This novice baker just got invited to a live pastry demonstration held in Enderun Colleges –  the L’art de la Patisserie (The Art of Pastry). Why would I say no to this once in a lifetime event? of course I said YES immediately Chef Franck demonstrated advanced techniques in making various pastries including the eye-catching all-edible sugar sculpture.

During the demonstration I learned that a Pastry Chef does more than just bake, he is capable of creating masterpieces. Pastries and desserts should not just be delicious, they must also be artistic, creative and pleasing to the eye.

Here are some of the traditional French pastries fusioned with local flavors giving classic pastries a Filipino twist:

Paris-Manila Brest

Paris-Manila Brest is a ring of golden brown pâte à choux pastry that sandwiches praline cream and sliced almonds. It was created in 1891 in honor of the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race.

Kouglof

Kouglof is a brioche-like coffee cake from Alsace—lightly sweet and studded with raisins.

Tropézienne

Tropézienne, from Saint-Tropez on the French Riviera, is a rich orange blossom water scented brioche that oozes buttercream.

St. Honoré

St. Honoré has a base of puff pastry topped with a ring of small, caramel-drenched cream puffs; the center of the cake is filled with clouds of whipped cream.

Citrus Entremet

Citrus Entremet is a confection of coconut mousse, citrus crème, white chocolate brownie and grapefruit.

Intense Raspberry Chocolate Brownie

Intense Raspberry Chocolate Brownie a rich concoction of chocolate brownie and raspberry marmalade.

Enderun Entremet

Enderun Entremet, a playful dessert of buttery shortbread, sour calamansi, intense chocolate biscuit, gingered milk chocolate, and crunchy peanut praline.

As you would notice, Chef Franck has been using various local fruits to flavor his pastries. This is so because this chef just loves our fruits!

“The flavor of calamansi is so strong and so fresh!” he exclaims.  “It is a pure gift from nature.  And the mangos and pineapples here are so flavorful and sweet that they are so much better than what we can find in France.”  He also loves working with coconut paste, saying that the amazing taste of roasted coconut can be used to give classic French pastries a Filipino twist.

L’art de la Patisserie (The Art of Pastry) launches Enderun Colleges’ 3-month Pastry Arts Certificate, which will begin in November 2011. The comprehensive course is ideal for home cooks who want to increase their knowledge in pastry and bread-making, professionals who want to update their knowledge, and anyone considering a career in professional pastry. Students will be given hands-on instruction in basic and advanced techniques to equip them with the skills necessary for mastering French and international pastries, confectioneries, and breads. The program also gives students the opportunity to take further studies at Ecole National Supèrieure de la Pâtisserie, the pastry arts training center of Alain Ducasse Formation.

More importantly, it gives students a chance to discover if they have the passion, creativity, stamina, and skill to be a pastry chef.

For more information about this 3-month Pastry Arts Certificate, please contact:

Enderun Colleges
1100 Campus Avenue
McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio
Taguig City 1634 Philippines
Telephone: (632) 856 5000
Facsimile:   (632) 856 4656
www.enderuncolleges.com

Being born to two working parents, I always get to choose the food that I want to eat and one of my favourites is hotdogs, but it’s not just your regular hotdogs, it has to be Tender Juicy Hotdogs.

My love for Tender Juicy Hotdogs taught me one of the basic life skills: cooking. I learned to be creative with my Tender Juicy Hotdogs. I would cook it in oil, in water, in ketchup, micro waved, grilled and when I got older, I learned the art of mixing Tender Juicy Hotdogs to my favourite ulam recipes. It’s no surprise that it always comes out delectable.

Back then my mom ensured that we have stocks of TJ hotdogs on our fridge as me and my siblings would always ask for it during meal time or meryenda. My all-time favourite would always be the cocktail size! It’s small yet chunky and fits my pan de sal perfectly!

TJ Hotdogs were a staple in my lunchbox. I would bring 6 when we have cocktail sizes, 3 when we have the regular size on our fridge and 2 when we have the jumbo. That’s how much I love Tender Juicy Hotdogs!
My loyalty to Tender Juicy Hotdogs will be passed on to my kids, this I’ll ensure. In fact, I will bring the two of them to the Tender Juicy Hotdog’s National Hotdog Day, a celebration of Tender Juicy Hotdog as a heritage brand since the 80’s up to the present.

Tender Juicy Hotdog’s National Hotdog Day

The Tender Juicy Hotdog’s National Hotdog Day will be held on Sunday, October 16 from 1:00 – 6:00PM at the Music Hall of SM Mall of Asia. Everyone who participates in the game booths scattered around the area will sure win prizes. Games include hotdog eating contests, kiddie chef competitions and TJ trivia games. There would also be a photo wall that captures a decade’s worth of fun TJ hotdogs memories.

Hotdogs will be overflowing in the venue and most of all, ENTRANCE is FREE!

Like the Tender Juicy Hotdog page on Facebook to get more updates!

In this age when our kids would normally stay indoors and play with their gadgets, it is every parent’s dream to involve them in sports. I still remember when I was my daughter’s age, I was already “out there” playing patintero or habulan with cousins, all sweaty. These days my daughter would rather stay at home and play games on her PC than go out (which I think is better than seeing her being bullied outside – protective mom I am!)

There would be times when she would ask her dada to accompany her outside, to jog or walk around the village and sometimes she would ride her bike – so for added protection, I brought her character kiddie protective helmet and pads:

The helmet is one important piece of safety equipment that your kids need when they ride the kiddie bike or scooter. Of course we would want them to have the protection of Arai Motorcycle Helmets but usually they are heavy and not kid-friendly. These kiddie protective hekm

Get these kiddie protective helmets for only P399. Available in Disney Princess and Go Diego Go designs.

My all-time best seller are my super moist chocolate cake and cupcakes. I don’t know if it does really taste good or my clients are just so used in associating chocolate with cake. Given this, I can now prepare my cake batter with my eyes closed.

This weekend I gathered enough courage and purchased baking and sugarcraft books for inspiration. Crazy because books about baking are uber expensive but I have to buy it. It’s like I owe it to myself and to my clients. I have to improve my craft. I don’t have a culinary background nor the natural talent so it’s just right to read and learn right?

So there, this month I am planning to try out different recipes of cupcakes, not the out-of-this-world type but just something that I am not so used in making. Wish me goodluck! With the help of my newly purchased books, online tutorials and free PDFs (thank God for pdf page counters!) I know that every cupcake trial will be successful. I’ll be posting my trial photos on my food blog Project Happiness by Iris. Hope you’ll visit me there!

And uhm, by the way, if you want me to try out a recipe, please leave it here and I’ll be glad to link back

Ciao!

Receiving orders brings so much pleasure to a baker’s heart (and pocket!). It keeps our business growing and help us to do better. But receiving orders from celebrities is another story haha, especially if the celebrity herself/himself placed the order! Para siyang pi-nump yung dugo ko when I received this message a few days ago:

Yessss, it’s no less than the Quickfire 1-minute Wonder Chef, Ms. Rosebud Benitez!

It’s not everyday that a celebrity orders from someone, especially to nobody bakers like me. Honestly, this is the first time that a celebrity ordered from my humble bakehouse.

So the order pushed through no matter how hectic our schedule that week was hahahaha! Hubby was like “talagang isisingit mo ah” of course naman no??? LOL

So there, she ordered 20pcs of Angry Birds cupcake for her birthday =)

Click to see more photos of Angry Birds cupcakes

And the birthday girl with our cupcakes:

She sent me a message afterwards: “I love the cupcakes! Thank you! “

*tumbling Mommy Iris, tumbling!*

Photos grabbed from Chef Rosebud’s Facebook account

This post is should be on my eating makes me happy account but I need to post it here as well. I am running out of posts to share hahaha )

Anyway, my folks are coming over this morning and see what we’re having: TAHONG!

Tahong (Asian Green Mussels) is a kind of mollusk found in mostly in the Philippines.

It’s just sad to know that my good friend M got hospitalized because of this Good thing she has a reliable health card with guaranteed issue life insurance so she never paid anything on her bills.

I’m thanking the good Man above for ending my weird cravings days early! My memories of the past two weeks were not so good that I want to forget it pronto!

Most of my fellow mommies were looking for diets that work, I was busy looking for weird foods at the weirdest hours! Despite that I made sure that I eat fruits no matter what The past weeks, buko juice and meat were staple on my Sunday meals, I ate singkamas (turnip) almost every day and mangoes, too!

I made a research and found out the best fruits that should be eaten during pregnancy or when one is nursing:

Fruits rich in Folate Acid:

• oranges
• strawberries
• dates
• peaches
• apricots
• raisins

Fruits rich in Vitamin C:

• apples
• blueberries
• oranges
• strawberries
• grapefruit
• peaches
• melons

Fruits rich in Dietary Fiber:

• dried apricots
• peaches
• prunes

So there, I hope this list helps!

Do you keep storage food in your pantry? We don’t.

I just don’t like the smell and taste of canned goods. It’s like eating a portion of the can on every serving. Bleeeh There are times that I crave for canned goods like tuna but we do not make it a practice to eat canned products often.

We love our food fresh from the market so hubby visits the public market twice a week to get the freshest meat and fruits

One challenge in being a multi-tasking work at home mom (WAHM) is the rarity of “me-time moments”. I rarely have time for myself because my 24 hours are divided into school (mommy-yaya moment), house chores (househelp moment), errands (messenger moment), business (baker moment), work (writer moment), and of course my wife duties. I barely have time for myself, this is why I value me-time moments a lot.

So how do I spend me-time? I read a good book and by good I mean, cheesy, romantic, fictional novels written by the likes of Nicholas Sparks and Danielle Steel.  I spend my me-time  moments at the weirdest places, in air-conditioned buses on my way to suppliers, in the bathroom, in coffee shops or restaurants while waiting for clients or simply in between tasks. The location doesn’t matter for once I’m hooked with a book, no one can disturb me

The past few weeks, my baking schedule had gone haywire and the I found a good company with reading and Dove Chocolates! Surprisingly, reading and the silkiness of Dove chocolates were the perfect duo to calm my crazy nerves. Unlike most people who gets hyperactive in eating chocolates, I get the opposite It sooths me and I noticed how perfect Dove chocolates were to cap my stressful everyday.

DOVE® is available at all local supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenience stores. retails at P45 and is available in:

DOVE^® Milk Chocolate (43g): Enjoy a pure moment with silky smooth DOVE® Milk Chocolate.

DOVE^® Dark Chocolate (43g): Yield to the devilishly dark DOVE® Chocolate.

DOVE^® Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut, Almond & Raisin (43g): Get luxuriously indulgent with DOVE® Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut, Almonds and Raisins bar

DOVE^® Chocolate with Crispy Rice (4og): Enjoy mouthful of surprises with DOVE® Chocolate with Crispy Rice

Aside from the christmas tree, a significant part of every Filipino household during Christmas is the ham. Among many reasons, the ham makes the Noche Buena special so it has to be perfect, nonetheless. This is why choosing the best ham available is crucial – because a lot maybe available on the market these days – yet none of them tastes like Holiday Ham: The Premium-Cut Ham. Take it from a non-ham eater like me!

The CDO Holiday Ham, fresh from it’s sealed pouch

(Shot taken from my trusty G11)

Here are three things why I could say that this ham is the best among the rest:

1. It is made from a whole boneless meat from the hind leg – the best cut of pork for hams. Since it’s whole, not from chopped parts of pork, Holiday ham is tastier and meatier.
2. Holiday ham is a high-quality smoked ham, the net marks attest to this. Only whole meat hams can be smoked in nets because if it isn’t, pieces would fall off.
3. Holiday ham has no extenders! Based on the picture above, the ham is meat, juicy and very flavorful.

The Holiday ham, if kept on it’s original packaging could last for 6 months, frozen. Otherwise, opened packages will last for a week on the chiller.

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Get a chance to win an iPad from Holiday Ham simply by registering with your name, Facebook page URL, mobile phone and email address!

Visit http://holidayham.com.ph/subpages/promo.aspx now!

Registration is open until December 20, 2010