Lemon Bars and Tea

One of my all time favorite snacks/dessert is Lemon Bars. I just lovelovelove the combination of tangy lemons and a sweet crumbly crust. Many of the store made lemon bars here, unfortunately, are sickeningly sweet. There's just a hint of lemon in the bars and you can mostly tell that it's a (surprise!) lemon bar because of the freakish yellow color. So I set out to find a "real" Lemon Bars recipe; one that captures the tangy-freshness of lemons, with a sweet crumbly crust that compliments it. I found just the recipe. Here it is:

Lemon Bars

PHOTO BY: deepoopsie

Crust:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

Filling:
6 eggs
1 3/4 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration


1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. Combine the ingredients for the crust: flour, confectioners' sugar, and butter. Pat dough into prepared pan.
3. Bake the crust for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven.
4. Mix ingredients for the filling: eggs, sugar, flour, and lemon juice. Pour the lemon mixture over the crust and bake 20-25 minutes. Start checking at 20 minutes. Do not overbake unless you want it crunchy!
5. Dust with confectioner's sugar.

Lemon Bars.
These are store bought ones. Yes, I am quite aware of what I just said about store bought lemon bars -- their sickening sweetness and freakish yellow color. But when I get that craving for lemon bars and I don't have time to make my own, I give in and just buy from the store.



Lemon bars make me crave for tea, too!

Bananas!

So, we just harvested some bananas from our very own backyard and oh my goodness...they taste really good. Very sweet and plump. There are a lot of variety of bananas here. For example we have lacatan (this is the variety that comes to mind when I think of bananas), senorita (really cute and tiny bananas), latundan (yummy!), saba, etc.

Saba. You need to steam or boil this first before eating. Yeah, they look but they taste good. In a bowl pour some cold milk add sliced saba and some sugar....mmmmm.

Latundan. They are small, usually only about3-4 inches long, they're round and fat. Very sweet and the meat is 'denser' in texture than your normal banana. Twin bananas are normal to this variety.

Senorita. They're so cute! Talk about bite-size. Many are no bigger than my pinky.

I could several of these...

Sonya's Garden

There are few places my family visits again and again. Sonya's Garden is one of them.

One of my favorite spots in Sonya's Garden.





We first found out about this secret place in Tagaytay through my sister's in-laws. They brought us there for lunch, and the rest is history. We've been there countless of times bringing families and friends with us. The menu is simple and it never changes. At lunch time, the guests are served with Fresh Dalandan Juice, Salad with various add-ons and their famous Sonya's Dressing (which I tried to replicate, and succeeded!). The salad greens are fresh from their garden and it is an interesting mix, not your normal all-lettuce salad. This is followed by their Home-baked Bread served with Pesto, Kesong Puti, Veggies, Anchovies, Olive Pate, etc. You can mix and match these to suit your taste. Then, the pasta. It is served with two kinds of sauce you can choose from. My favorite is the Cream and Chicken. It is very rich and creamy, a little sweet and definitely filling. I normally add some sauteed shitake mushroom with it. The other sauce looks like it is tomato based. I think I only tried it once so I can't really be sure. They also serve Salmon Belly with the pasta. Yummy!!! The meal is topped off with a slice of Chocolate Cake, Banana Turon, Sweetened Kamote and Tarragon Tea.

Sonya has a beautiful collection of plates. Unfortunately, they don't use them now because some of them got damaged.


One of the things I love most about Sonya's Garden is that on a sunny day, you can take really good pictures there. I love the natural lighting in their dining area. It makes everyone look good!

A small garden inside the dining area.

Chicken Breasts with Sour Cream Gravy

I don't normally meddle with cooking and preparations in our house. I mostly leave that to those who actually know what they're doing. But last week, I decided to care. So I made dinner.

This is a tried and true recipe that I've had for years. It doesn't take a genius to put it together and it is delicious. I always tinker with the ingredients; as far as I can remember I have never followed it completely because we just never seem to have all the ingredients. It always turns out wonderful anyway, so I'm not complaining. Here is the original recipe:

Chicken Breasts with Sour Cream Gravy
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1/4 teaspoon each cayenne pepper, black and white pepper, paprika, dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon each dried basil, garlic powder
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
2 green onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, heated
1 tablespoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons cold water
flour
salt
2 tablespoons sour cream

Directions:
1. In a small bowl, mix spices and herbs together. You can add more if you like to suit your taste. (Personally I only use black pepper and spanish paprika. I never measure them. I just eyeball it. And I use real mustard.) Dust the chicken breasts in spice mixture and dredge with flour.

2. Heat the butter in a medium saute pan. Put in the chicken and cook about 3-5 minutes each side. Do not overcook.

3. Take the chicken pieces out of the pan. Add the green onions in the pan and cook until soft. Pour in the chicken stock and add back the chicken. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.

4. Remove the chicken and place on your serving plate.

5. Mix the cornstarch and water, stirring to make sure it doesn't stick to he bottom. Pour in the pan. Stir and cook until it becomes thick. (You can add more cornstarch if you need to. Remember, NEVER add cornstarch directly to the pan unless you want cornstarch blobs in your gravy. Always dissolve in cool water first.) Add in the sour cream. (I put more sour cream than the recipe calls for, about 5 tbsp.)

6. Pour the gravy over the chicken pieces and serve with a dollop of sour cream.



Enjoy!
Manila, Philippines

The Search is Over: The Chocolate Cake Recipe That Never Fails to Satisfy

Chocolate Cake is probably the most popular cake in the world. There are so many variations and recipes of just this one cake that looking for the ultimate recipe is nearly impossible. Choosing just one recipe is hard enough. There are flourless chocolate cakes, cakes with melted chocolates, cakes with cocoa powder, cakes with ground nuts in them, cakes with alcohol etc. etc. Well, all those hours I spent searching the Internet has paid off. I found a recipe that I always come back to. It is moist, very chocolatey and satisfying. Plus it is easy to make. You will only need 2 bowls. (Don't you just hate cake recipes that require you to use at lest 5 bowls?) ....

Hershey's ® 'Perfectly Chocolate' Chocolate Cake

CAKE:

2 cups white sugar

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Grease two 9-inch round baking pans and cover bottom with parchment paper. This will make it easier for the cakes to come out later.

2. In a bowl, sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl mix the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Add this to the dry ingredients and beat on medium speed of mixer until well incorporated. Stir in the boiling water. Equally divide the batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 minutes. Then take a toothpick and insert in the middle of the cakes. It it comes out clean or has some cake crumbs clinging (not batter) it's done. If there batter bake 5 minutes more then test again. Do not overbake. Let cool 10 minutes then turn over carefully on wire racks.

After 30 minutes....

FROSTING:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2/3 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder

3 cups confectioners' sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan melt the butter then stir in the cocoa powder. Put mixture in a bowl and add 1 cup powdered sugar at a time and a little of the milk. Beat well. Continue adding until all the sugar and milk and incorporated. Don't forget to scrape the sides of the bowl! At the end, add the vanilla and beat until smooth and spreadable.

So what if it doesn't look too good? Wait till you try it.