But, I can definitely prepare it’s American cousin, the cottage pie. When I was in high school, Starbucks served this in the Philippines, at least the Starbucks in front of my school. But that only lasted for about 2 years or so. I kept ordering it until they stopped serving cottage pie (marketed as shepherd’s pie, of course). Basically, it’s really been about 12 years since I’ve had this dish, and I only thought of making it now. And I really shouldn’t have waited this long because it’s super easy. Well, because it is a dish of humble roots, the ingredients are staples in your fridge and pantry. Anyway, let’s get to it so you can enjoy this simple yet hearty meal!

Ingredients – for 4 large servings – but for us, it was about 9 servings

1 1/2 lb potatoes

1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons)

3/4 to 1 whole chopped onion

2 to 2 1/2 cups of assorted vegetables – I used carrots, peas, and mushrooms

1 1/2 lb ground beef – but hey, if you like lamb, go ahead and make the real shepherd’s pie!

1/2 cup of beef broth

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

How it’s done:

1. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees C. Peel the potatoes. Cut them too into quarters, which I obviously forgot to do. This will make it easier for you to mash them later. Place them in a pot of salted water to boil, approximately for 20 minutes.

2. While that’s going on, melt 1/2 a stick of butter in a large frying pan. Another oops, I also forgot to cut the stick of butter before taking the picture.

3. When the butter’s completely melted, add the onions and any of your harder vegetables – in my case, carrots.

4. If you have any harder veggies, like I said, add them now. Then, add your ground beef.

5. Mix in the meat very well to make sure you’re cooking all parts. Cook this until all the pink meat is now brown.

6. Add salt to your taste.

7. Also add pepper. I’m liberal with adding pepper because I always like a bit of zing.

8. This is when you add your softer vegetables, here, the mushrooms.

9. Toss in the peas.

10. Add the beef broth and cook uncovered until the broth is reduced. This will take about 10 minutes.

11. Add the Worcestershire sauce and mix well. Keep this cooking, to continue to reduce the broth.

12. Now get back to the potatoes. Discard the water from your pot. Add the remaining 1/2 of butter to the pot with the potatoes.

13. With a masher, well, mash away.

14. Then, season with salt and pepper.

15. Transfer the beef in a baking dish.

16. Then, layer the potatoes on top of the beef. Distribute it evenly.

17. Rough the potatoes up with a fork to give it some peaks.

18. Place the baking dish in the oven that’s been heating at 400 degrees C. Cook for approximately 30 minutes, basically until you can see some bubbling. You can broil for a bit as well to get some desired browning.

That’s it!! Very easy right! And like I said, a very hearty meal! Enjoy!

Nostalgia aside, this dish is one I found from a newsletter email that I get, which I can’t even pinpoint which one (The Dish, Epicurious, Foodista?! – I can’t remember). In these cold spring nights, one craves for a hot dish – temperature and flavor-wise. I love this because you can make it as hot as your palate can take. I like mine super spicy, and Chef prefers his medium, so I found a perfect balance in between. With the couscous, this becomes a pretty hearty meal. I guess this is my way of cheating with my No Rice lenten sacrifice.

Ingredients: 

(As I always note, I only really measure when I bake, so these are approximations.)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 pound of boneless chicken (could be thigh or breast) cut into cubes (or however you really want, but square is my go-to shape)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

1 3/4 teaspoons Kosher salt

3 or 4 potatoes cut into half-inch cubes (the recipe actually said sweet potato but I didn’t have any hehe)

1 zucchini cut into quarters 1-inch thick

1 small can of tomato paste (about 1 cup)

4 cups water

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup couscous

How to do it:
1. Heat oil in a large pot and start cooking the onions until they become translucent.

2. Add the chicken and stir occasionally, making sure all sides of the chicken pieces get heated.

3. Add the cayenne pepper. Feel free to add more if you please. I added another pinch for that extra kick.

4. Add both cumin and salt to the pot.

5. Grind pepper on the chicken. This is another one that you can add more of depending on your taste. Stir very well so all the spices are distributed properly.

6. Toss in the potatoes (or sweet potatoes) and zucchini.

7. Add the tomato paste and water.

8. Then, add the chicken broth. Mix in the paste very well to let it dissolve.

9. Bring the soup to a boil. What you want is for the vegetable to get tender. This will approximately take 10 or so minutes. I suggest grabbing a bite of the potato to test.

10. Finally, add the couscous. Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT add more than 1/2 cup of couscous. I stress that because, going back to the “just-add-water” bit that I had above, the couscous will expand. And, if you add more than required, yes it will be soupy now, but believe me, a few minutes later, it will absorb all the water. 1/2 cup is the perfect amount that has room to expand in this broth.

11. Let it simmer for 5 minutes after adding the couscous (to give it time to expand), and immediately remove from heat.

After that, serve and snuggle!

When traveling with Captain Awesome and Little HRH, I make sure that we always get to experience something new and unique. Thankfully, we are the kind of family that have very diverse interests. The trip-planning challenge does not lie much in coming up with fresh travel ideas, but in choosing from my long list of options on where to go next.

When my parents confirmed they were coming over for a week-long visit in November, I thought would be a great idea to add a Princeton day trip in their [pretty empty] itinerary. One of the places we got to cover was the Bainbridge House. It is one of quite a number of ancestral-homes-turned-libraries-slash-museums in the Princeton borough. Today, it serves as one of two locations that house exhibitions curated by the Historical Society of Princeton as well as the said organization’s headquarters.

The Society’s website says admission to the Bainbridge House is only $4 per person, which, I must say, is a small price to shell out to learn about history and culture. When we got there, though, the volunteer usherette told us that admission is free. Seeing that there was a box of cash by the entrance, though, we decided to put in some contribution for the House’s maintenance and future projects.

Currently, the Bainbridge House features a special exhibit called Einstein At Home, which showcases some classic furniture pieces from the Einstein Collection.

Above photo first published at EmotionalCaffeine.com

Through these, as well as the photos and other memorabilia on display, we had the pleasure to observe an important part of the life of this world-class genius as a just another one-time [overachiever] Princeton resident.

The first floor of the Bainbridge House is pretty small, but offers more than enough information to ingest in one afternoon. (Although it could have been the large pieces of furniture that made one room especially crowded). Captions and other notes on each display are worded simply – something a person who tags children along to places like this would greatly appreciate. Captain Awesome and Little HRH found themselves so immersed in the experience. They were observant, inquisitive and, of course, participative, especially in this activity:

Ingredients for 8 servings:

16 oz mascarpone cheese

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

2 cups heavy cream

2 tablespoons light rum (if you’re using rum extract or dark rum, use less)

24 pieces ladyfingers or savoiardi

1 cup espresso

3 teaspoons light rum (yes, again, for the espresso)

cocoa powder for dusting

raspberries for garnishing

How it’s done:
1. Combine heavy cream and rum in a bowl. Beat the cream with rum until soft peaks form.

2. Once you have the soft peaks (left picture), set this aside for a while. In another bowl (right picture), prepare your mascarpone cheese.

3. Add the powdered sugar and the vanilla.

4. Beat this mixture until completely combined. Once you have a pretty homogenous mixture, fold in the whipped cream. The whipped cream is very light, and its color is not too different from the cheese mixture. But, do your best to combine these mixtures very well. Otherwise, you might get a creamy dollop one time, and a cheesy dollop on another time. And believe, the flavors of these combined is divine!

5. This next part is barely pictured. Place your espresso in a rather shallow container. Add rum to the espresso. I put 3 teaspoons, but really, this is your choice. So add it to taste. I remember adding a bit more because this will be combined with the very creamy cheese just made, and I wanted to make sure there’s a hint of alcohol.

6. Snap your ladyfingers in half. Dunk them in the espresso. Do not let them sit there too long, otherwise, you’ll get a soggy instead of bready/cake-like tiramisu. Basically, it’s more like a dip in the espresso. Don’t worry, they are very spongy so it will definitely get soaked in the liquid somehow, only on its own terms. Place a layer of dipped ladyfingers in the bottom of the glasses.

 

7. Add a tablespoon full-ish of the cream cheese mixture over the lady fingers. Place another layer of dipped ladyfingers on the cream cheese. Push it down a bit so you get a nice even layer. Then add another layer of the cream cheese mixture, and then another layer of the ladyfingers. Finally, top with a final layer of the cream cheese mixture.

8. Smoothen the top layer of cream cheese mixture with the back of a spoon. Also, wipe the rim of the glasses in case you got cream on it, which you most likely will.

Let this sit for a day or two. I did a hold study on this and the one I let sit for 2 days actually came out better.

9. When you are ready to serve and only when you’re absolutely ready to serve, dust some cocoa powder on each glass using a sifter. Don’t add this ahead of time otherwise, it will combine with the cream. Then, garnish each glass with 2 pieces of raspberry.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

6 oz dark chocolate

2 tbsps water

3 large eggs

2/3 cup sugar – I would go to 1/2 cup of sugar if you’re using semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup flour

raspberry extract – to taste

orange liqueur – to taste

powdered sugar – to dust with

ice cream – to top with

Tools:

saucepan

heat-proof bowl

spatula

whisk

ramekins

baking pan

oven

How you do it:
1. Fill your saucepan with water and bring it to a boil. Just gauge how much you would need based on the size of your heat-proof bowl. Basically, the hot water is to provide indirect heat to your mixture. Once your water is boiling, turn the heat off and place your heat-proof bowl on top of it.

2. In the bowl, combine the chocolate that has been broken or chopped up, the butter, and the water. Mix them well with your spatula. You should get a nice glaze on your chocolate. Hint that it would be as delectable as it should be.

3. Whisk the eggs in a separate bowl. Add this to the chocolate mixture. Make sure you add it slowly and mix very well as you add it, otherwise, you’ll be cooking them and end up with some scrambled eggs!

4. Now it’s time for some dry ingredients. Add the sugar to the mixture. As mentioned already, if your chocolate is already sweet, you can add a bit less of the sugar. Or not, if you really want a very sweet chocolate cake. Ensure the sugar is incorporated into the mixture very well before you proceed.

5. Next, add the flour. Same as the sugar, make sure that the mixture is homogenous before proceeding.

6. Add some raspberry extract and orange liqueur. I suggest you add amounts based on your taste. To me, I added 1 teaspoon of the raspberry extract. Then about 1/3 cup of orange liqueur. That may be too much for some but I really wanted to get that hint of alcohol. Remember, this will become a cake, so the strength of the alcohol will diminish a bit. Mix very well.

7. Evenly divide them into your ramekins and place the ramekins in a baking pan.

8. Fill about half of the baking pan with hot water. What you’re doing here is trying to cook the outside a bit before you bake the entire thing.

9. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes.

10. Pre-heat your oven at 395 degrees F. Once your oven is ready, place the ramekins in there and bake for 12 minutes. I’ve used my regular oven and my convection oven for this and 12 minutes worked best, no more, no less. Too much and you bake the lava. Too little and you have a runny one. But, of course, this may be different with your oven so try it a couple of times.

As you see, I only baked 2 at a time. I found that I don’t have to cook them all at once because this is really best served hot, with the chocolate all molten inside. So, cook only when you’re just about ready to eat it.

11. Dust with powdered sugar and/or top with ice cream or any other topping you wish.

And voila! Easy! It was perfect with champagne on Valentine’s Day! Enjoy, loves!

See, one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to finish work before the Captain Awesome and Little HRH are home from school. That means, I should not be blogging at this hour. But, my blogger friend, Ces, shared this video of 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf last night and I find it really, uhm, informative. Consider it public service.

You’re welcome.

Scarf: EMU Australia Bussleton

So, how are you wearing your scarf today?

Ingredients:

(I have to note that these measurements are just approximations. As I do when I cook, a lot of this is just eyeballing. Not the same when I bake though. Also, this serves a lot as I made it in a 4 quart saucepan.)

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chopped onions

4 cloves chopped garlic

5 cups white rice

1 can of tomato sauce

1 1/2 cup chopped carrots

1 1/2 cup peas

4 tablespoons chicken bouillon

1 tablespoon butter

How to do it:

1. Using a large strainer, give the white rice a rinse. For the life of me, I cannot believe I’ve been doing the rinsing-in-the-rice-cooker-attachment-and-dumping-the-water-then-repeat-3-times technique since I learned how to make rice. Using a strainer is actually so much more efficient! I learned this from my husband and apparently all of Mexico does it this way.

2. Start heating your oil in your saucepan. Once oil is heated, brown the onions and garlic.

3. Add in the rice and toss around. Do your best to coat and sauté / toast the rice grains as much as possible. To me, the indication was the toasted smell. Remember to keep mixing so that the grains won’t burn.

4. Add the can of tomato sauce. For this, if you prefer your rice to have a more powerful tomato flavor, feel free to add another half of a can or one whole can. It’s up to you. One can will be enough to coat the grains, but the flavors would be more subtle.
5. For good measure, Chef likes to add chicken bouillon. If we had chicken broth at this time, that’s what I would’ve used.

6. Add the peas and carrots, and again, toss it around, evenly distributing them.

7. Add about 5 cups of water. This would be your initial water addition to boil. At this point, you’re cooking your rice like you would in a rice cooker. You’ll need to watch it to see if you’ll need to add more water later. We ended up adding another cup and a half to achieve Chef’s description of al dente. Make sure you don’t over add water too because it will end up mushy, or risotto-like.

8. Top it off with some butter. This is not necessary but Chef said they just do this at their house. I like it. I’d never say no to butter.

We are launching Mirror, Mirror as a new channel for our Le Critique series to showcase our reviews on beauty vanity products. We are not particularly experts in these, but we’ll try our best. 

Like many other unfortunate souls, I suffered from horrible acne breakout in my teenage years. I tried quite a number of facial products to lessen, if not to eliminate, the breakout, but nothing really worked. As a matter of fact, I made matters worse. Apparently, the problem was, not only the inevitable puberty acne drama (or the heavily polluted streets of Metro Manila), but that I also had (and still have) highly sensitive skin. I would know right away if a certain product had strong chemical ingredients as my face would react instantly.

I did find one particular Philippine brand that carries a line of facial cleanser products that are great to my skin, and I have been an avid user of that brand ever since. While I am a huge advocate of Philippine products, hoarding facial cleansers every time I or a family member go to the Philippines for a visit is probably not the most normal thing to do. Thankfully, I have finally found an alternative that I can easily purchase here in the US, Sibu Beauty Balancing Facial Cleanser!

Like all of Sibu Beauty‘s products, the Balancing Facial Cleanser contains one unique ingredient: sea buckthorn. I, honestly, have no idea what sea buckthorn was until I saw it on the Sibu Beauty box, so I checked out their website to find out what it is all about.

For healthy and beautiful hair, skin and nails

High in the Tibetan Himalayas (12,000 feet above sea level) grows a tiny but resilient fruit that resists the harsh weather conditions and high altitudes. The sea buckthorn berry fortifies itself against the elements by producing an array of powerful nutrients. With over 190 bioactive compounds, sea buckthorn is an unsurpassed source of Omegas 3, 6, and 9. And it’s a rich source of the elusive essential fatty acid, Omega-7, an essential fatty acid vital to collagen production and healthy skin, hair and nails.

1300 years of beauty

Sea buckthorn is a natural product with 1300 years of traditional uses with the modern scientific research to back it up. Our superior processing techniques and our premium and exclusive source of sea buckthorn allow us to create a revolutionary group of beauty products.

As soon as I squirted a small amount of the cleanser in my palm, I was immediately captivated by the sweet and refreshing fruity scent. It honest-to-goodness smells like real orange and I knew then that the cleanser is, indeed, made of nothing but natural ingredients. I really feel that my face is getting cleansed off of impurities every single time I use it, thanks to the exfoliating micro-particles!

The holiday season just wrapped up and I could not even begin to express how glad I am to have started using the Sibu Beauty Sea Buckthorn Balancing Facial Cleanser during this time. With holiday gatherings that called for heavy make-up here and there, I am glad that I have a reliable exfoliating cleanser that is kind to my skin. Try it out!

Sibu Beauty products are available for purchase online.

Photo Source: SibuBeauty.com

Disclosure: The product/s mentioned above have been given free of charge by the company/PR firm in exchange for a review. The views expressed are my own. No other compensation was given for this post.

Anyhoo…

Ever since B told me about Ideeli, it’s become a habit of mine to check out the site’s featured sales before doing anything in my to-do list. Quite honestly, I’ve actually signed up to various sites for sample sales, but it’s Ideeli that really got me hooked. It must be the layout or the easy navigation that had me. After all, shopping should not be a chore.

I’ve purchased a number of pairs of shoes from Ideeli in the course of just two months (do NOT tell my husband!); so when the Christmas air started to seep in, I knew exactly where I could score amazing gifts that will show loved ones how much thought we put in on their presents (without having to pay full price).

Here are some of the gifts we sent out:

DIESEL Unisex Snowtime Snowball

for Captain Awesome

Dollhouse V-neck Sweater Dress

for Little HRH

UMA ENTERPRISES INC. Wood and Metal Wine Holder

for Um’s Aunt

(We spent Christmas Eve at Um’s Aunt’s house and this was a perfect fit!)

Waterford Robert Mondavi Decanter

for Um’s Uncle and Wife

(I was so tempted to keep this for myself and get them something else, but Um brought me back to my senses. LOL)

Okay. I tried. I really, really tried. But Ideeli really makes it hard for me not to buy anything for myself. So, I got these Diane von Furstenberg sunnies for me. Hey, I haven’t bought a pair since early 2010. So, I’m due, right?

DVF Eggplant Square Frames

Enjoy the rest of the holidays, everyone! I wish you all a Happy New Year. BTW, what are your resolutions?

Yes, yes, my greeting, along with blogposts, are a tad bit delayed. Nonetheless, it’s never too late for a good dessert recipe.

There’s actually quite a story behind my Russian Tea Cake mini obsession. Three years ago, I took an interim position at another department and met a funny group of people who have now become good friends. For every season, we decorated what we called our bullpen. Naturally, for Christmas, we decorated and hung stockings on our door. This was completely for decoration, but we found that some good-spirited stranger left us some treats in our stockings. They were these cookies covered with powdered sugar. It took us a good 30 seconds to debate AND decide that we should eat treats coming from a stranger.

Who doesn’t love anything that’s covered in powdered sugar? Perhaps only Ms. C. It certainly is an easy sell for me. So, for a month or so following that Christmas that we received these treats, I searched and searched on what this goody could possibly be called. I Googled almond, nut, and powdered sugar. And, I found it under different names. These Russian Tea Cakes are traditional Christmas desserts but they’re also apparently Mexican wedding cakes. Now there’s two cultures that couldn’t be further from each other, but seemed to have a united dessert. I’m sure the moniker Almond Snowballs was it’s American version.

Anyhoo, I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoy each bite of mine

Ingredients:

2 cups of all-purpose flour

6 tablespoons of powdered sugar (but just for good measure, I’d recommend adding an extra tablespoon)

2 cups chopped almonds or walnuts

1 cup butter (make sure you have this at room temperature – soft but not oily. In a cold winter day, I took the butter out to soften for 6 hours.)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

And a bowl of powdered sugar for coating.

This measurement makes about 3 dozens of bite size Russian tea cakes.

How to do it:

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour and powdered sugar.

3. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter with vanilla extract by mixing it in medium speed.

4. Add the flour and powdered sugar mixture to the butter and continue to mix at medium speed. So at this point, it looks dry and I actually thought I was doing it all wrong. But, that is how it’s supposed to look.

5. Add the chopped nuts to the mix. This is when the oils of the nuts make the mixture moist.

6. When the mixture is evenly blended, roll them up into 1 inch balls. (Just a note for the calorie conscious, these bite sizes can be dangerous as you may grab more pieces than you can afford to be guilty for. )

7. Place them on a cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. I filled up 3 cookie sheets for this.

8. Bake the cakes for 12 – 17 minutes. So, I tried 12 minutes first and it was more crumbly than it should be. I put it back in the oven for 4 minutes more. Basically, the cakes have to of course hold its form when you grab it, but crumbly enough when you bite into it.

9. Let them cool for a while, and once it does, roll each one in the bowl of powdered sugar. Coat as much as you want.

Hope you enjoy them! Happy holidays!! (On a personal note, I actually preferred them after a couple of hours that it’s been sitting. I’m not sure why, but I think it has something to do with the oils of the nuts that’s seeped into the flour.)