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Hope these made you smile today! :)

Some Like It Hot!

...and sour, apparently









I'm the official Martha Stewart wannabe in our family. Just ask my sister. She's the one who loves to tease me by adding the title Aling before my name.

Atchie: Aling Neeneen! Patahi naman ng button sa dress ko.

And it doesn't help that today our cook was on vacation and lunch hasn't been prepared yet.
Yep.
Aling Neeneen.
At your service.

My mom's a great cook. So is my grandma. I don't really cook at home. I know how but I just don't. Today I felt a little adventurous, though, and decided to try and make my first attempt at concoting a Chinese favorite, the Hot and Sour Soup. (I will not be posting the actual recipe since the ingredients of the soup may vary depending on the taster's preference. That and the fact that I didn't exactly follow it.)

Here's what I added in mine:

chicken broth
soy sauce
white vinegar
white pepper
mushrooms of your choice, sliced
young corn, sliced
firm tofu, sliced
chicken, stripped
cornstarch, mixed with cold water
eggs, beaten
chicken powder
sesame oil

***Note: Black vinegar is a much better choice than using both soy sauce and white vinegar.


One of the things I enjoy in cooking, aside from knowing that you can always remedy any mistake you make, is chopping. With this soup, I probably did one too many: shitake mushrooms, button mushrooms, young corn, and firm tofu. (My brothers commented that there was more sahog than broth in the soup.)

But the thing I absolutely love when I do cook is the idea of pleasing my family with something I made from scratch. Mind you, they really are hard to please being such harsh critics and all (well, except for my mom). Which is why I especially love it when they give me that smile of approval.

Today, after handing my mom and dad a bowl of Hot and Sour soup, she said to me, beamingly: Mmmm, pwede na. Masarap! (Aww!)
And my dad: Mmmm. Medyo mapait, ay, maalat. Slurp slurp. Kulang sa asim. Some more slurping. Mmmm. Pwede na. Pwede na magtayo ng restaurant. ---> (Haha! I was half-laughing when he said this.)


I then asked my brothers and sister if they liked it and my dihya teasingly answers: Yuck! Pwe! Kadire!

Thing is, I would have believed him.
If not for that emptied soup bowl beside his plate. ;D

A Shutterbug's Passion for Fashion

Back in Grade School, my friends and I would always head out to Virramall and/or Shoppesville to unwind and spend what little time we had before having to face another homework-filled night. Once the bell rings, as if on cue, students would start huddling to plan where in Virramall or Shoppesville they would meet up.
Everyone called it their third home.

Our Virramall/Shoppesville itinerary usually looked something like this:
National Bookstore
Tiangge
stopover for some snacks (if we’re hungry)
Tiangge
Gift Gate
Regina’s
Tickles
That small magazine stall near Giordano
Giordano
And maybe a few more Tiangge

That third to the last trip is probably the one I enjoyed most. I ♥ magazines. Fashion ones, to be exact. When I was younger, I would always borrow my sister’s magazines (YM, Teen, Dolly, Girlfriend, et al. And yes, I went through a Teen Beat/ BOP phase as well, shamefully) and read them until I fall asleep.
I remember stumbling upon my first ever issue of InStyle back in 7th Grade when I was contemplating on spending my money on a fashion magazine I’ve never read before (and had Matthew Perry on its cover) or buying another issue of a teeny-bopper magazine whose contents were beginning to feel a little too monotonous for me.

I was debating with a friend on why I think InStyle was a much better buy than Seventeen. She wanted to see Sarah Michelle Gellar/Alicia Silverstone but this new, more mature fashion magazine really got me interested. I decided to satisfy my curiosity and was glad to know that it was, in fact, a good buy.
I have never missed an issue since then.

I added 2 more to my Must Buy List: Teen Vogue and Lucky.

It would be a dream of mine to work in a fashion magazine, and an even bigger dream to work in Teen Vogue. It’s one of my faves because I like how they photograph clothes and their models. There’s nothing blah about their photo spreads. There always is a story.

Photography. I ♥ photography. Every time we would go abroad my family would tease me about wasting film (or file space) on sceneries rather than on people. So I guess this is where 2 of my passions merge.
And thanks to Norman Jean Roy, one of my favorite photographers who I discovered while admiring an amazingly shot photo from a page of Teen Vogue, my passion for fashion photography was born.

Here are some of my N. J. Roy favorites. With the perfect angle, focus, lighting, exposure, and mixture of colors, he can capture the carefreeness and the sensuality of a woman. Of a fashionably clad woman, rather.

“I started taking pictures at a very early age. I think I was six when I first started. I never thought of it as anything more than taking pictures for fun. But that's when I got addicted to the idea of freezing a moment; there was something about that concept I thought was cool, to just go click, click, click and know that you're stopping moments in time.”

- N. J. Roy

Jack Johnson's No Other Way

Is it just me or does listening to this particular JJ song make you wish you were with someone special and you're slowdancing while watching the sun set by the beach?

I think I've seen way too many movies.

I especially love the first 40 seconds of the song. =)

Have Your Chocolate Cheesecake And Eat It Too

I'm sure every baker is equally proud of each baked goodie that comes out of his oven, but there will always be that one dessert he will consider his best work yet. His masterpiece, or his signature dessert, if you will.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no pro. I don't bake a lot. The first batch of cookies I made back in 5th grade? Hard as rocks. Although I have improved a great deal since then, I'm still no expert. But Mrs. Fields or no Mrs. Fields, I'm telling you-- with all biases aside: I do make one hell of a chocolate cheesecake.

I'd like to share to you this recipe I got from the magazine Martha Stewart Living. In that issue, she featured various cheesecakes like the classic Baked New York, Frozen Espresso, Raspberry Swirl, Citrus Ricotta, and even the No-Bake. Being such an avid fan of the deepest darkest chocolate, I just had to try the Chocolate Cheesecake recipe.

Well, technically, the recipe is Martha's but taking into consideration the few adjustments I did here and there, I can call it my own now...At least that's what I tell myself. :P













Photo by Elaine


NEEN'S CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE-- Haha.
Serves 8-10

1 cup finely ground chocolate wafer cookies (5 ounces; about 22 cookies)
***note: chocolate wafer cookies is just a posh baker's lingo for Oreo.
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
***note: I added a little more to make the cheesecake richer.
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, room temperature
***note: I'm loyal to Philadelphia.
Pinch of salt
¾ cup sour cream, room temperature
***note: I only added around 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup. Depends on your preference, really.
3 tablespoons Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs, room temperature


(1) Preheat oven to 350°. Stir together cookie crumbs, melted butter, and 3 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl. Press crumb mixture firmly onto bottom and up 1 inch on sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake until set, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool. Reduce oven temperature to 300°.
(2) Melt chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring, about 2 minutes. Let cool.
(3) Put cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add remaining cup sugar in a slow, steady stream. Add salt; mix until combined. Add sour cream, cocoa, vanilla extract, and melted chocolate; mix until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing each until just combined (do not overmix). Pour cream cheese filling over crust.
(4) Bake until set but still slightly wobbly in center, 50 to 60 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on rack. Refrigerate, uncovered, 6 hours or overnight. Before unmolding, run a knife around edge of cake.


And here's what the critics have got to say on my take on Martha Stewart's Chocolate Cheesecake:

One forkful melted into a velvety mass accompanied by a burst of real deep chocolate. The sweetness from the chocolate was evenly tempered by the sourcream. The crust was thick enough and even crunchy like, it tasted like it had roasted nuts in it, but it didn't. It left me in a subliminal state. Even my brother, who's not really a dessert person, couldn't resist a second helping. He aptly described it as "a cross between a chocolate bar and chocolate ice cream."

- Elaine, excerpt taken from "The Only Chocolate Cheesecake For Me," dated March 13, 2006 from her blog Just Desserts

Undoubtedly THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE I have ever tasted! So heavenly!

- Margarita

When all else fails, there's always delusion.

- Conan O'Brien

Okaaay...I added the last one just because I'm a HUGE Conan O'Brien fan.
Aaand...I don't really know anyone named Margarita...