I always have two trays of eggs (18 in each tray) because of all pastries in the world, I love those that are made of eggs. For my dinner postres, I love a taste of leche flan or macaron or brazo de mercedes. They end meals just right---nothing fancy but oh ooo satisfying.

Leche Flan

    Not broken hearted--just playing...

    More meringue-ish than macaron-ish

    But tastes just as good

Really good with chamomile tea

Yesterday I stayed home with my darlingest because he was not feeling well. It was such a nice day though, so Zach and I decided to take a walk on the  beach and catch some vitamin D. We watched the lifeguards put up their gigantic orange  chairs. We forgot to bring our stale bread for the seagulls---just as well, looks like the birds are done with breakfast they were nowhere to be found.

 By the way, Zach decided he was Spiderman that day so off I went to the beach WITH Spiderman who was a little under the weather BUT...when you're  Spiderman---

      You gottta do what you gotta do!

 I found a spot and leaned myself against this flimsy fence---closed my eyes and enjoyed the morning sun while Zach at this point sat down and started playing with sand.  When we started for home , my foodie heart started thinking of Brazo de Mercedes. I put Zach to nap and worked on this favorite (again, eggs!) dessert of my childhood.

While we called  these Brazo de Mercedes (Mercedes' Arm), in Spain they call it Brazo de Gitano (Gypsy's Arm)

     Hmmm....I ate a piece and walked nostalgic down memory lane.

Quiet Pleasures of Home


While I puttered around my little garden, my  Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear sat on the porch, yapped and tinkered with his doll occasionally yelling "To infinity and beyond." I revisited my pink and  white Bleeding Hearts and as usual, my delight seeing them knew no end. They are so delicate and so at peace with their environment sometimes swaying with the wind and the  musical chimes. Let alone the fact  that yesterday was prophesied as doomsday, my bleeding hearts hung from their stems like regal princesses unfluttered by non-sense  news, one can't help but smile to see them.

Zach prefers these white bleeding hearts to the pink one

 white and pink bleeding hearts together---they're simply beautiful!!!!

  Buzz Lightyear guarding the unchartered planet...
(In the background, a pot of snakeplants I bought from Home Depot---this will be divided into 4 pots and will be enjoying some part-sun-part shade in the summer. I am really preparing them for the next winter to be put inside the house as my air cleaner and additional oxygen supply.)

Moving on to my Lily of the Valley, I marvelled at the tiny simple bell-like beauty that it is, emitting  a fresh faint smell that makes one feel envigorated. Just like Jesus (as He is called the Lily of the Valley) the humble plant quietly grows lush and flourishes in the shade just like He does in our hearts when we pursue Him.  I remember a song I learned in church:

                                  Everybody ought to know (2x)

                                  Who Jesus is...
                                  He's the Lily of the Valley
                                  He's the bright and morning star
                                  He's the fairest of ten thousand
                                  Everybody ought to know.

Then I was surprised to see that the wild columbines have actually budded and opened up. These were seedlings I transplanted from the Poconos and I did not expect  them to appear this spring. This is another flower that is so delicate and simply gorgeous usually gracing moist woody areas. They are amazing in how beautifully these plants  seem to live serene lives not caring  if they will be  appreciated or not. They  just live to beautify and  relish life.

Having been inspired by the many shapes I saw in the garden, I went in to conitnue celebrating my quiet and peaceful life. I thought of  making bread with my hands and enjoy the simple pleasure of handling dough and forming it into something that extends my  enjoyment and appreciation of anything plant. What else could it be but the beautiful artisanal fougasse (leaf-shaped bread)? Hmm..again reminds me of Jesus who's called The Bread of Life. A lot of lessons can be learned from these interesting biblical  analogies. Take a look at my fougasse:

 This reminds me of the big holey leaves that used to climb up our humongous mango tree back in my childhood.

 My husband likes the taste of artisan bread---rustic and hearty dipped in olive oil infused with herbs.

I also made two potato loaves for Zach's lunch sandwiches in school.This always gets nutella for a spread.

So there...the simple pleasures of life on ordinary weekends. Truly, life can be celebrated even in peace and quietness, no fanfare, no best bargain buys from mega sales--- just family, home and little ordinary things that can be enjoyed without having to spend a wad of money. And you can sit back and relax with a warm cup of tea (or  mango-spinach smoothie ---Zach's preference) and a slice of artisan bread with nutella spread on it----among the flowers. What delight!

More perennials I look forward to:

                                                       Beautiful pruple alliums...

                                         Alliums growsmaller by the year..   
 

                                            Zachy can't resist smooshing the purple  puff

                                              ahh...peonies

                                                    Z checking his strawberries if their ready to eat

                                                      Pink asiatic lilies and pink hydrangea

mini-daisies

my dwarf apple tree

Ampao

Do you remember this snack?  I practically grew up on this. I loved it when I was a little girl. I found this bag in the Patel Brothers food store in Queens and immediately  munched on it on our (hubby and I) way to the Kebab King for some tikka masala kebabs. While I was hungrily looking at their  selection simultaneously munching on the ampao, an elderly waiter approached me with a paper plate on his hand and asked me if I would mind sharing my ampao to two Indian or Pakistani ladies (pointing at them) who would like to have some. Apparently, they were also having gastronomic nostalgia.

I unearthed some delicious pictures I took in one of my visits to the Philippines. One Sunday morning my brother had the fish pond  harvested and a bushelful of giant prawns  came from it. He had some steamed
and called me for the eating part.The prawns were simply steamed  and eaten with white plaine rice dipped in lemon(cito) and soy sauce. Aaaahhh...cloud 9!

                                         a bushel of cholesterol

                                         prawns are bigger than my hand

                                                              yummm!

simple meal definitely hit the spot

I must say, I have the sweetest husband this world has ever grown, for while many a Filipina I know whose husbands are not Filipino who CANNOT endure and WILL not endure  the cooking of any kind  or form of dried fish that we Filipinos are fond  to eat with our plain white rice and  dip (sawsawan)---my husband (BLESS his heart) will endure the fishy smell as I cook to satisfy my (once in a while) cravings for the (YES!) stinky stuff.

                                        (Above: danguit)

                                          (Tuyo)

                                           

I do appreciate my husband's "giving heart"  and I do try my darnedest to keep the stinkeroos down by opening the windows, turning the ceiling fan on and (above picture)  simultaneously boiling aromatics such as  star anise, five spice and  cinnamon sticks.  I also camouflage the stinkos by baking  chocolate chip cookies and  at the same time replenish the cookie jar.

My pastry sidekick chef helping out (we forgot to incorporate the cranberries in the dough)--ooOps!

Still tastes yumm-O!

Pan de Coco

Another afternoon snack that I used to look forward to eating back home in the Philippines  was pan de coco (bread with sweetened coconut flakes filling) still warm, fresh from the local bakery.  Smooth and brown outside, soft and sweet and  coconut flakey inside. Come to think of it, this afternoon snack was popularly eaten with an icy cold glass of coke or two to down it. Making these lead me mind-walking once again down nostalgia lane. The smell of bread baking accompanied by some sweet aroma of the caramelizing coconut flakes brought a flood of memories back in the days of my youth.

 Can't resist  making that great big bite of this ohhh...so full of sweet coconut flakes bread...hmm..

                                     I remember buying these pan de coco from local bakeries back home---and the sweetened coconut were scant and found myself always unsatisfied...now I make them to my tastebud's and tummy capacities specifications. ;-)

Ju Bao. [Honey Pork Buns] That's all I could think of this morning when I woke up. I have downloaded the recipe last week  from someone's blog and my hands were itching to make them. Fortunately, my husband decided to take our little one to the library, park and burrito place for lunch so I had time to make my first Ju Baos. It was nice to have the house all to myself  as I was able to do things I normally could not when the two are around like laundry, change beddings, pick up toys, books, some pieces of little clothings, read, watch tv simultaneously.

I usually buy Ju Baos from the Chinese store for a dollar each. Although it is very affordable, there is nothing like eating and making your own whenever I want. My new hobby and adventure of making bread is getting me really excited about the possibilities.

While I baked Ju Bao I pulled out the bread with sun-dried tomatoes I baked Thursday night. I am simply smitten by how it looks---so rustic and hearty at the same time. As if there were not enough tomatoes in it, I whipped up a fast marinara sauce dip that completed my simple lunch.

After lunch, while everything else was going on (laundry and a host of housechores) I checked on my two lambshanks thawing in a bowl. By this time the Ju Baos have graduated from the fiery heat of the oven to the counter. They smiled at me raring me to take a bite. Alas! the sun-dried tomato bread hit the spot for me and there was just no place for even one Ju Bao in my tummy. However, the cook in me prevailed, I just had to at least take a bite or two to see how they taste and look inside.  

Heavenly!

Yep! A bite would have been enough to let me know my first Ju Baos are delicious, but do you think I stopped there?  The  thought, the sun-dried tomato bread is the appetizer and the Ju Bao is the meal---was well-justified. Hello carbs!

At this point, the  barefoot Contessa came on tv, and boy did she whip up a RICH spread of  jambalaya, rice pudding and  tiramisu. The amount of cream, milk and butter present in her recipes never fails to amaze me. But then again, the food is not be eaten by one person alone, but will be shared with some others.

Later in the day, I realized that I had to make dinner for my two hombres. I pulled out my teal-colored dutch oven and started with the lambshanks. I  sent Steve to walk to the neighborhood store to get me potatoes and a bunch of carrots. He is such a sweetheart he easily obliged and welcomed the opportunity to walk outside especially that the weather today was nice and agreeable to our winter-tired bodies.

Every year, Steve and I try to visit Cape May and it was there we first ate lambshanks kleftiko at Pier House. We would not have known it if it were not for a couple who were coming out of the restaurant as we were coming in. Seeing that we were checking the menu posted outside, the man suggested to go for the  house's specialty. He said, "Get the lambshank kleftiko---it means fall-off-the bones." And we were not disappointed.

Here is my version.

KIMCHI
I was in highschool  back home in the Philippines some (WOW!) twenty-nine years ago when I first tasted Kimchi. An American  missionary couple who spent some years in Korea planted a homechurch in our neighborhood and invited  me and two of my sisters to their  services. There we learned about God and found friendships. Ate Rowena, the pastor's wife used to invite us youth to her house for sleepovers and she'd make wonderful food that were new to us. Kimchee was one that I did not like and  never forgot. It did grow on me however so much so that I started making it, When a kimchi craving hits me, I'd make a big batch that I'd eat  without second thoughts. Fast forward to married life...my husband  LOVES kimchi, so I would make him some and when I do, it seems to me as though I never stop hearing crunching and lip-smacking until the batch of kimchi is gone.

Sometimes, my kimchee morphs into a hot spicy kimchee soup that my husband is crazy about. A humongous bowl hits the spot well without leaving one with guilt. With rice or noodles, kimchee is simply delicious. Another version of the same fixings would be made with white radish, either julliened or cut into squares. I am not sure how it is spelled but I am writing its name as I hear it: Kaktogeh.

Last January, I met a Korean exchange student who (now) resides with my friend. It was his birthday so we made him a Korean dinner of  bulgogi (Korean beef barbecue), rice and kimchi. He said just before he left Korea for NY, he made with his mom kimchee using 100 heads of Napa Cabbage. He further said that they put the kimchi in clay jars which they buried in the soil to ferment during the winter season. Indeed, Koreans eat Kimchee everyday of thier lives with rice. I don't blame them They are scrumptuous!

At home, between  my husband and I, these kimchi and kaktogeh do not last for long. They become, not only appetizer and  accompaniment to rice but a snack as well.

Parisienne MacarOns

I finally gathered the courage to make  my own Parisienne macarons and the above-picture is the result. Not bad, really. The shells have smooth and crackly surfaces, chewy inside and the feet came out!  I am quite happy with this considering that this is my first attempt. I used whole almonds that I had to blanch and peel---then grind (with the food processor). A lot of work. Next time I will get the slivered almonds to grind.
I would really love my macarons to have a rounder dome as they look cuter that way, but I have to learn not to mix and fold more that it's needed. The mixture spread and thus the shells are flat.

One thing I realized fast is that after piping the shells in the pan, they really need to rest at least for an hour as this will make the feet. It's really fun to watch the macarons grow feet. I had them in the oven from 10 to 12 minutes at 300 degrees Farenheit.

One thing about my macarons, they taste really delcious no matter how they look. Just ask my little squirt---he loves them!