Culinary Shenanigans

So the past month I went to a high-class Silver Anniversary event of some distant relative/family friend. I just have to post the food pictures because they are absolutely delectable. Oh, to be rich! Also, dad was supposed to be with me but since he couldn’t make it, Ha-chan and I had his share, which allowed us to try all 3 sets of food. ONCE AGAIN YES WE ARE FATTIES. xD

Food pictures and fancy-schmancy menu descriptions below! :D

Starter Choice 1
Maple Togarashi Cured Kobe Beef Carpaccio
cocoa nibs, romano, watercress, ume-su vinegar, horseradish oil, guava pate de fruit

Starter Choice 2
Smoked Almonds Dukkah Coated Wild Prawns
agrumes bulgur tian, coriander sproutsr, ancho chile aioli

Entrée Choice 1
Pomegranate Macadamia Crusted Loch Duart Scottish Salmon
multigrain timbale, baby bok choy, linguica, buddha hand verbena essence

Entrée Choice 2
Pistachio Crusted Maine Diver Scallops
Red quinoa, heirloom melon, boudin blanc, lemon basil, absinthe emulsion

Entrée Choice 3
Country Meadow Rack of Lamb
ras el hanout, leek humboldt fog bread pudding, rosebud jam, old vine grenache reduction

Dessert Choice 1
Dulce de Leche Caramel Cheesecake
almond shortbread, meringue kiss, mara des bois sauce

Dessert Choice 2
Royal Kahana Crème Brûlée
roasted hawaiian pineapple, plantain chip, cassia sugar crunch

Dessert Choice 3
Gold Dusted El Rey Chocolate Cake
spicy cocoa nibs, morello cherry coulis, pistachio tuile

I really liked the “appetizer” cheese spread too. It was pretty. I’m pretty sure I had over five thousand calories that day. xD

Ghost Peeps marshmallows topped on fudge brownie cupcakes I baked. Used buttercream frosting that I food-colored bright orange. Undecorated photos below! :D

The past week was a rare week in that Ha-chan didn’t need to leave from work uber late like he usually does. So the other night he made me some Ebi Furai! Yum~!

We had a mountain of fried shrimp!!! I can eat the amount of ten men so I scarfed down more than half of that with lotsa spicy sauce! :D There were a few pieces left over too, so Ha-chan made me a bento for work! He knew I wanted to take pictures, so he actually went to the trouble of buying vegetables to garnish and make things look pretty, but not without the disclaimer of telling me not to expect nice presentations next time because he is lazy (he would rather just dump food on a plate ’cause we go NOMNOMNOM and annihilate any plate of food incredibly fast anyway) xD.

The day before Ebi Furai day, Ha-chan made Mapo Tofu with beef! I would always be sorta sad ’cause Mapo Tofu always came with pork when you want to order it in restaurants, so this edited recipe let me enjoy the dish, made super spicy for me as well! :D

On a related note, I finally gave in after a month of avoidance and weighed. As I expected, I almost cried at what I saw: gained almost 3 lbs. over the past couple of weeks and I know exactly where those extra calories came from, as I have been snacking so frickin’ much on top of the late dinners with Ha-chan! )X

Also, I have been baking but keep forgetting to take pictures! Next post should definitely be one of my own baking shenanigans! Seriously, though, I love Ha-chan’s dinners, and the pictures always manage to make me drool and want to eat them again xD.

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I feel so guilty posting two unhealthy things in a row. But I just had to make cookies because…because…ok, so I didn’t have to make cookies ~_~.

I am not the biggest peanut butter fan but these were just…yummy. Yummy fatty yummy. Made 36 cookies, each about 110 calories each, and scarfed down quite a number when they were freshly-baked and semi-cooled, so the peanut butter cups were still gooey and melty and awesome. I brought half of the batch to work, else I would’ve ended up eating every last piece. >_> Read the rest of this entry »

I had my very first biscuit at a McDonalds’ during one of the first few times I visited the States; I had ordered a McMuffin or some breakfast sandwich and noticed they used a different type of bread compared to back home. I took a bite, it tasted good, felt my arteries clog, and found out they were called biscuits and that you can get them almost anywhere but particularly from fast-food joints that serve fried chicken. Saturday morning I woke up wanting some. I looked for a recipe online, thought it doable enough, and did some impromptu breakfast baking!

Now, these little babies are bad for you. Horribly bad for you. They are basically made out of butter and lard, meaning fat fat fat. But they are good. I figured they were unhealthy anyway so might as well have half the batch kneaded with grated Parmesan cheese for even more deliciousness! Since they are homemade, I’d like to believe they don’t have the preservatives that make them light and fluffy. Then again it was my first time to make some so the airiness/texture could’ve probably been better xD.

So this week was not a good week. By “not good” though, I mean “not healthy” because I had super greasy fattening buffet the past weekend and that is always awesome…but so bad for your body! To make matters “worse,” I bought so much candy when I was at the grocery (hah, I’m starting to call chocolates “candies”!): Reese’s peanut butter cups, York chocolate and Belgian dark chocolate squares. Not to mention I passed by Carson and just had to get, among other Filipino grocery items, polvoron and quezo ice cream. Food tempts me so easily! T_T

Because I felt really guilty ruining a supposed “diet” (Hah! What diet?!), I started to look around for healthy things I could make and came across some recipes that made use of bran. I have read and heard of bran muffins but have never actually had one but they seem to be a good, healthy, carb-loaded food that can kick start your day with extra energy so I decided to try and make some. Read the rest of this entry »

In an effort to start baking healthy, I made banana oatmeal cookies with some modifications: I used applesauce instead of oil or butter and took out unnecessary additives. Read the rest of this entry »

So Hay finally got to test his hot plate or hot pan or flat pan or whatever it’s called with “Japanese Barbecue”. I guess it can just be simply called barbecue, or decidedly Asian barbecue, what with the generous amount of soy sauce that went into the marinade.

The hot plate failed a bunch of times, unfortunately. When doing this sort of thing at home it’s best to use a high-quality non-stick type of cookware, but cheapskates like us had to settle for something a little less pricey :D. It worked decently enough, I guess, for me. Hay was livid and thought it could’ve been a hundred times better, though -_-. He used steak meat and sliced them thinly, and we would wrap the cooked pieces of meat in lettuce or eat it with sticky rice.

Another Batch of (Moogle!) Birthday Cupcakes Read the rest of this entry »

I have finally gotten around to using those carrots I had in the fridge, which I bought specifically to make carrot cake with, into carrot cake cupcakes. I used lowfat philadelphia cream cheese for the cream cheese glaze and it came out pretty tasty. The glaze and carrot cake went sooo well together! My only nitpick is that the glaze was too runny, and it was hard to frost the cupcakes because of that consistency.