Trying out the Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

When I got home from playing Kinect with my friends, I saw my brother preparing salad greens. He didn't have any dressing yet. I thought to myself: "Why not make the roasted garlic vinaigrette dressing that I saw from Gordon Ramsay's show?"

But then at this moment, i didnt have the recipe. I found a version from another blog here in Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body. I used that as a guide.

Salad greens, sliced strawberries, blocks of cheddar, and roasted garlic vinaigrette

Here's what I ended up using and how it ended up...

The ingredients

Ingredients for the Roasted Garlic Dressing:

• 1 whole head of garlic
• 1/8 cup of apple cider vinegar
• 1/8 cup of maple syrup (it should be honey, but we only had this)
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• small squeeze of mustard (just a little bit, optional)
• A pinch of salt
• A dash of pepper

How to:

1. Slice the garlic in half cross-wise, brush the top with olive oil. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and cover with aluminum foil. Covering it with aluminum foil helps the heat get evenly distributed and prevents the garlic from being "crunchy" after being cooked.
2. Put it in the oven for 25 minutes (in our case, we used the toaster). When it's done, wait for it to cool before touching. Make sure the garlic is golden brown.
3. When it was done, we took out the garlic meat and mixed it in with the rest of the liquid ingredients. The garlic meat got smashed and the whole thing became creamier.
4. Pour it on top of the salad greens and toss!

1) Prepare the garlic for baking 2) Bake the garlic for 25 minutes 3) Mix it all in together with the garlic 4) Chopped up cheddar cheese and strawberries for the salad.

Here's my brother's plate! For the salad, I wished we added something crunchy like nuts or bacon... the cheese and strawberries weren't enough.

Kinect at the New Eagles Nest in Banawe

We got invited to the new Eagles Nest. It used to be in Amoranto St. but it was moved to 168 Apo St. They've got Magic Card games and Kinect games. It's not open yet, but it will be open soon!

Here's a couple of photos of us playing Just Dance, Dance Central, and the Avengers.

Playing the various songs in Just Dance

Watching people dance is entertaining

Do the Hustle!

Teach me how to dougie!

I forgot which song this was

Playing Marvel Avengers!

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake from Pino

I love this. I love that it's just right, not too sweet, and that the chocolate covered cherry didn't conflict with the cheesecake taste.

The chocolate syrup on the caramel sauce looks like tiger stripes. Wala lang.

Php 165 in Pino Bar

Cream of Mushroom Soup (Inspired from Food Wishes)

Finally, we got some mushrooms! I've been meaning to try to make the mushroom soup from Food Wishes. My brother went grocery shopping and found some white button mushrooms. 1 package was Php 115 in S&R.

I served the soup to my family as midnight snack. They all said it was good! Probably because it's pure mushroom, not the flour-based cheap stuff you find in cans or in fast food joints. Or maybe they were just being nice (?).

Cream of Mushroom Soup with pepper on top

See the foodwishes video at this link so you can see the a professional do it. Chef John demonstrates it in a form of a video so it's best to watch his to learn all the details.

For my rookie version, see the photos below. Mine is a different version, because of limitations on what we have here.

Ingredients:

• 2 packs of white button mushrooms (230g each)
• 1 clove of garlic, whole, uncrushed
• 2 small purple onions, chopped
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp of flour
• 1 can of chicken broth
• 1/4 cup of water
• 3 tbsp cream (didn't want it to be too much)
• a dash of dried thyme
• a small sprig of rosemary
• 3 drops of truffle oil at the end
• salt and pepper

Procedure:

Some of the ingredients: White button mushroom, a can of chicken broth, small sprig of rosemary

1) Put the butter, mushrooms, a big pinch of salt in a soup pot at med-high heat. 2) Keep stirring, the juices will eventually come out. 3) The juices evaporate and the mushrooms are now brown. 4) Turn down to med-low heat. Added the onions and saute until clear. Add the 1 tsp of flour and mix with the remaining liquids. Add the herbs, clove of garlic, and the chicken stock and water.

I left this soup simmering for about 40 minutes to an hour (with a lid), stirring every now and then, while I check work emails and while I take a call from work.

After the soup is finished simmering, let it cool down first. Our blender container is plastic, so I can't put the soup in when it's too hot. I filled it up only to 1/4 of the container so it doesn't spill everywhere when I start to blend.  It should look like that in the right when it's finished.

When I was done blending, I put it back in the soup pot. I added a bit of cream after. When it was ready to serve, I reheated it in the stove at med-low heat.

Finished! Mushroom soup for 4 people. :) Enough for 4 small bowls or  2-3 big bowls.

I got some help from my brother. He knows his way around our kitchen a lot more than I do. Like how to turn on the stove, or where to find out flour...

My Niece's Make A Ballerina Frame

My niece brought over her new toy, called "Make A Ballerina Frame". Essentially, it's a small picture frame that you can make from plaster. The box contains a packet of plaster, mold, paint, brush, adhesives, cardboard, and glitter.

Tips when making this:

• Use half of the plaster powder. You don't need the entire thing for such a small container. We ended up wasting the other half, when we could have just made 2 frames.
• Check the bottom of the container if there are bubbles. Having bubbles prevents that "smooth" look. Tapping the container carefully removes the bubbles. Just be careful not to spill.
• We used clear nail polish on some areas to highlight and so that the glitters stick on it. It adds to the sparkle. ;)
• The adhesives don't stick too hard. It didn't help that my niece kept touching the adhesives so it lost some of its stickiness. Maybe use mighty bond so the back really sticks.

It brought out the OC-ness in me, which didn't go so well with my niece because I got too overbearing that she cried when I got upset over the glitter mess... (meanie!) Next time, i'll keep my hands to myself and help her only when she asks for it.

See photos below:

After getting it out of the mold, we weren't able to get rid of some of the edges

My niece painting, snug on the floor

This is how I guess it's supposed to look like

The finished product! Cute shiny ballerina! No photo yet. :P

Artichoke Cheese Dip!

Because the canned artichokes at home have been left untouched for a long time, my mom asked me to use it soon.

I searched for a recipe... this one is inspired by Chef John's (Food Wishes) Hot Artichoke Dip. I say "inspired", because I don't have all of the same ingredients so it's not an exact copy.

Also, I used the microwave for cooking throughout. :) No oven and stove. In our kitchen, I only know how to get the microwave started.

With the cheese all melted together with the artichoke,  put it in a smaller container and gave it to my parents

Ingredients:

• 1 can of artichokes, drained and roughly chopped
• Some leeks, I only had 1/4 cup
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 3 fresh basil leaves and a few fresh rosemary
• Half a block of cream cheese, though ideally a full block
• 1 tbsp of mayonnaise (if you don't have enough cream cheese)
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• Half a block of grated cheddar cheese

1) Roughly chop the canned artichokes. 2) Chop the leeks, garlic, rosemary, basil and saute with butter (details below).
3) Mix in everything else. 4) Microwave together until the cheddar melts and keep mixing it all together.

Procedure:

1. Roughly chop the drained artichokes and put into a mixing bowl.
2. On a different small microwavable bowl, add in the leeks and butter first and cook in the microwave for 20 seconds. Add the garlic, basil, rosemary into the bowl and microwave for another 20 seconds. When done, pour into the chopped artichokes.
3. Fold in the cream cheese, mayo (optional), parmesan cheese, and cheddar cheese. Make sure everything is mixed well.
4. Microwave together for 1 minute until the cheddar melts. Mix it all together so the cheese mixture becomes smooth.
5. To serve, transfer into a small bowl. Ideally, I should have put it in a small ramekin and added some extra cheese on top for presentation purposes, but I didn't have time.

Halo Halo at Aristocrat

Yum...

Photos of My Anvaya-Subic Trip

Over the weekend, I went to Anvaya and Subic with my high school friends. We went on a day trip in Anvaya and stayed overnight in Subic. We stayed in Seorabeol Grand Leisure Hotel (family room) - it's our favorite go-to hotel when I go to Subic with college friends.

Here's a collection of the Instagram Photos I've taken.

Having breakfast in KFC in a gas station in NLEX. I had the Chicken Tocino meal. I will most likely not go back to KFC for their breakfast.

Arriving at Anvaya mid-day :) 

My friends attempted to play frisbee but failed because the sand was too hot.

We availed some of the activities. The ping pong was free. Some of us rented bikes for 150/hour. I fell off the bike. See my bruise in the later pictures.

We went around the place to take photos. 

The backdrop of the lake and trees were really nice

There were a lot of white ducks roaming around the place. One person was chasing it around to see how fast they can run. Another friend had a video which we're not posting online.

Now that it wasn't too hot, my friends played some light frisbee catch

I took a photo of a random couple watching the sunset

Joan again, chilling

They still had their Christmas decors up!

Back in Subic after checking in at Seorabeol, we had dinner in Xtremely Xpresso! We had bibingka after.

The following day for lunch, we went to Meatplus. The Rib Eye steak was AWESOME. It tasted very similar to Mamou. I heard somewhere Meatplus is a supplier. :P

See my bruise from falling off the bike

Pasalubong for my pamangkin: 2 Chicken Alphabet soups from Puregold Subic and the paper bag that came with it that I decorated as a puppet!

Churros con Chocolate at Sancho in QC

If you want Churros con Chocolate, go to Sancho Churreria in Maginhawa, QC. :) If i remember correctly, this was around 100 PHP.

If you want other Spanish food like in Dulcinea but don't want to fork over a lot of money, go here! :) The Salpicao and Paella we ordered were yummy too!

*I've turned my blog into a second instagram!

Anyway... I haven't been posting a lot in December and in January. Both months have been hectic in terms of work and social gatherings. I did go to the beach over the weekend. :)