Hello, 2011. Goodbye, 2010. Do you miss me already?

Writing the last post of 2010 with the warmest greetings for the new year.  Wishing everyone great eats, great Bikram yoga practices, and best of all, great discoveries!!!

Looking forward to 2011 with open arms, a hungry spirit, and a thirsty mind!

Manigong Bagong Taon to all my Pinoy peeps, especially the alembongs and kiks!!

I shall leave you with a picture of round edibles as a symbol of prosperity and wealth in the new year!!

Namaste, peeps.  Nah-mah-steh!!

Let it snow!

Oh where so I begin? It has been a fun holiday for this piggy so far with of course, a mishap or two everyday.

It's nice to slow down and have a good break from the hustle and bustle of everyday. Food, friends, and fun! Although my plans haven't been as expected due to mother nature, I'm still having a great time. Days are seriousy centred on what to eat and where to go. Wait, that's everyday. Ok nevermind hahaha!

Had a great hot chocolate with the biggest marshmallow you could fit in a cup, desserts galore, and some spicy food in my very first tweet up with a fellow Bikram/food blogger Catherine from http://backtothemat.blogspot.com/. She wasn't a creepy old man, thank goodness :p Actually, she's really nice and lovely and funny and didn't wince one bit when I asked for fish sauce. Hee. I unfortunately will have to bring her pancit another time.

I haven't been able to make it to any Bikram classes due to the entire city being in a state of chaos after a heavy snowfall (my thoughts on this later) and transportation being spotty at best from where I am at. I'm definitely feeling it especially with the holiday mode and tv-watching all around. So I gladly offered to shovel an entire driveway of snow for almost 2 hours because I'll take any physical activity right now! I'm even tempted to go into the ridiculously hot bathroom to do some yoga...tempted is the word :p.

Now I'm off to spend the day with fam and enjoy the sun and snow.

Oh ps, I got a questionable Christmas sweater as a gift. No ugly sweaters parties coming up soon so it was regifted within hours lol (unexpected gift exchange). If that makes me a terrible person, so be it. I thought it was kinda smart...until karma kicked me in the behind with an equally qestionable set of pjs in the gift exchange LOL! So now, I gotta figure out who to pass on these extra big leopard print polyester fleece sleepwear to...

Here's the piggy wishing all you peeps a safe and happy holidays and a new year full of adventures!

Kulinarya Cooking Club: Cheesecake Truffles

Oh the holidays.  They bring out the warm goodness in humanity, but they also bring out the worst in people, especially during rush hour or the mall on the weekend before Christmas.  I don't know where I was going with that line, so let's talk about this month's Kulinary Cooking Club challenge instead.  December's theme was on homemade gifts for Christmas, chosen by Ate Joy of Joy's Misadventures.  This is so right up my alley!

I mean not because I make gifts for a living (I don't), but because almost every dessert I make, I have to give away.  Otherwise, I'd be nursing stomach aches all year round and I'd never leave the hot Bikram studio just so I can make sure the sugar and butter doesn't wreak havoc on my body.

I was craving something sweet (actually, I was craving the act of making something sweet) and was dreading the walk to the store for heavy cream needed for truffles I had my heart set on.  Initially, was going towards a savoury gift route for this month's KCC but on the 11th hour (literally), I found a recipe for truffles using cream cheese.  I went with that cuz I had no time to make something...Filipino, lol!

The truffle recipe I found called for:

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

I wasn't sure how they'd turn out, but I knew that a) chocolate with a lil butter makes things better and b) I could alter the sugar without ruining them since they require no baking.  Sugar in average quantities actually makes my stomach hurt (a blessing in disguise) so I try to fudge around recipes a lot to make them more edible to me. 

I had no desire to roll dozens and dozens of truffles so here's my adaptation of the recipe, resized.  And also, 3 cups of sugar is just way too frigging much.

1/2 package cream cheese (4 oz)
1/3 cup icing sugar
3 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 tbsp butter
pinch of sea salt

I followed the instructions though (that's a first!).  Well, ok, I skipped the sifting of the sugar and the chilling for one hour part, cuz I didn't have 1 hour to chill around for.  Oh, and I also added butter.  And a pinch of salt.  Ok, fine!  I attempted to follow instructions.

After mixing the cream cheese, sugar, salt, and the melted chocolate and butter, I popped them in the freezer for 15 minutes and prepared my toppings of cinnamon w/ icing sugar, roasted coconut, and crushed cashews (kasoy).  I wish I had pinipig for a true Filipino flair, but the kasoy and coconut will suffice.

I first shaped the 'dough' up into 1-inch balls.  Honestly, they look like balls of t*rd that I started laughing out loud to myself.  After the giggles, I rolled them around in the toppings.  Because it was cream cheese instead of heavy cream, they held their shape despite not being too cold.  It was actually easier to work the dough that wasn't too cold, so that was a bonus for my impatience.  They also tasted more like mini chocolate cheesecake so I've renamed them Cheesecake Truffles.

Finally, I let them sit in the fridge as I got ready for my Saturday night.  I placed them in mini cupcake papers and boxed them up for the concierge in my building - he's really the only one that deserves them cuz he's watches out for me all the time :) If he doesn't deserve the goodies, no one does.

PS: I made these on Saturday night, so I had to retake some pics when there was sunlight.  I had to stay true to what was said in the food blogger interview, you know?  Take pictures near the one source of natural light and make it look effortless, wherever that window might be :p.  Have you seen the vid?  Want to laugh at yourself as a fellow food blogger?  Check it out here or my previous post.

I'd hate to be a supermodel being photographed, lol.  Plus I like to eat :p

PPS: Kulinarya Cooking Club Members as of November 2010

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture & its colourful cuisine.

Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

Kath – http://www.acupcakeortwo.com/
Trisha – http://sugarlace.com/
Trissa – http://trissalicious.com/
Olive – http://www.latestrecipes.net/
Caroline – http://whenadobometfeijoada.blogspot.com/
Ninette – http://bigboldbeautifulfood.blogspot.com/
Peach- http://www.thepeachkitchen.com/
Althea- http://www.busogsarap.com/
Asha – http://forkspoonnknife.blogspot.com/
Malou – http://www.skiptomalou.net/
Cherrie – http://www.sweetcherriepie.com
Acdee – http://acdee.blogspot.com/
Valerie – http://www.acanadianfoodie.com/
Sheryl – http://crispywaffle.com/
Divina – http://www.sense-serendipity.com/
Anna – http://www.anniesfoodjournal.blogspot.com/
Dahlia – http://www.energychef.blogspot.com/
Joy – http://joyjoycreativeoutlet.blogspot.com/
Maribel – http://www.foodgeek.webs.com/
Tressa
Jen – http://www.jen-at-work.blogspot.com/
Pia – http://bisayajudkaayo.blogspot.com/
Malaka – http://thegrandinternational.com.
Mimi – http://lapinchecocinera.blogspot.com
Erika – http://ivoryhut.com/
Kat – http://twitter.com/alanokat
Lala – http://thislittlepiggywenttothemarket.blogspot.com/
Selfie – http://eats.sefiebee.com/
Connie Veneracion frm http://homecookingrocks.com/
Oggi from http://oggi-icandothat.blogspot.com/
Katrina Kostik from http://lardonmyfrench.blogspot.com/
Rochelle Ryan from http://www.whydiss.blogspot.com/
Marica – http://cuppycreme.blogspot.com
Diona – http://titaflips.blogspot.com/
Rowena - http://saraplicious.blogspot.com
Theodore – http://chefbyday.wordpress.com/
Gianna – http://the-empty-fridge.blogspot.com/
Mireille – http://dirtyicecreaminyourlunchbox.blogspot.com/
Marishka – http://rishka.multiply.com/
Annapet – http://moonglowgardens.wordpress.com/
Boyet – http://reelandgrill.blogspot.com/
Adora – http://adorasbox.net

"I am a foodie"

Insomnia has taken over my nights so I thought I would be productive and create something just for laughs.

I am a Foodie: An Intimate Interview with a Food Blogger  by the PiggyPost



Enjoy!

In every difficulty lies opportunity.

Illustration by Ed Renfro

I've been struggling with lower back pain for the past month or so.  It's been driving me crazy because I love me some backbends.  I've been working hard on them all summer, heck all year, and now...I can barely do the set up for half moon, fixed firm, and camel.

I've gotten a few pointers from a couple of instructors, and for the most part they all said to take it easy.  Ok, I got that.  But what has thrown me off is that I don't seem to have the same strength, same endurance, and (obviously) same flexibility overall.

Gah.  Argh.  Sigh.

Then today in class, I hit a milestone.  I, Little Miss Piggy, touched her forehead to her knee (again) in standing seperate leg head to knee pose.  But this time, it wasn't just a tap or a whisper of hair.  It was my forehead chillin' out with my knee, even pushing it to lock!  Whoa.  Wicked.  So that's what my knee looks like from that angle?  Interesting.

Forehead to knee postures are the bane of my existence in that room.   But maybe that is finally changing!  All I want for Christmas is to touch my forehead to my knee, damn it.  (I'm kidding, my wish list also includes a koala.)

Who knew there were benefits to excruciating back pain?

In every difficulty lies opportunity.  Namaste, peeps, nah-mah-steh. :)

'I'm where I'm meant to be'

I had a fantastic couple of days and today was a good Sunday: brunch, yoga, a movie, and a freshly-baked-but-not-too-sweet Moelleux au Chocolat as I listened to my new favourite songs from Tangled, which by the way, is a great movie!

Whoo, I think that's the longest run-on sentence I've ever written on this blog.  Happy Sunday piggy peeps!

Hello, winter.

Last year, I convinced myself I hated the holidays.  But it's now time to fess up.  I am a sucker for the smell of baked desserts, of coconut milk reductions (latik), of fresh cut pine trees, of butterscotch and caramel.  I love holiday music, especially when I have a cup of something warm in my hands.

But that is not all.  I, Lala the Little Piggy, am a sucker for snow.  For my first few years in this city, I was so disappointed at the lackluster, mediocre flurry of precipitation they called snow.  I mean, I came from one of the coldest cities in the country, and here I'm being served dandruff?  However, over time, I learned to be patient for December, instead of October for a real, good blanket of snow. 

I devastatingly missed the first snowfall of the year because I was too busy sleeping.  But today, oh sweet Monday, it snowed just for me!  Sure it was cold, sure it was windy, but god do I ever love snowflakes on my eyelashes!  My jet black hair, peppered with cotton balls of winter, was shining and bouncing as I pranced around the city sidewalks.

Then...THEN!  On my late ride home from work, I noticed the downtown streets and the Christmas lights beaming with warmth, despite the cold wind that threatened to freeze my nose hairs.  I had to smile at my reflection on the streetcar and danced the few steps to home.

I don't mind late nights at work if it meant having the snow and city lights all to myself, you know?  Winter is here and I've got to enjoy it!  Tomorrow I shall enjoy some more, as I have a very late dinner to eat still.  I need to fill up before I tackle the winter wonderland!  Besides, a leftover roasted chicken was vying for my attention, and who am I to say no?  My mama didn't teach me how to be resourceful just for the fun of it.  One's gotta make do with what she's got and make the best of it.  And she also passed on to me her love of chicken salad sandwiches - so simple, yet so comforting.

Easy Peasy Chicken Salad
(no measurements. oh cmon, be spontaneous!)

leftover roasted chicken, sliced in chunks or shredded
mayonnaise (i *heart* mayo)
grainy mustard
finely chopped cilantro or chives or scallions or all of the above!
a little bit of finely chopped onions
pinch of salt
black pepper
Sriracha hot sauce (trust me on this)
lime zest

In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise with everything else except the chicken to make sure the ingredients are well mixed.  Now add the chicken.  Mix well.

Serve on a toasted piece of bread, perhaps with a few slices of cucumber and some lettuce.  Maybe even some thinly sliced celery.  Crunch is a must for chicken salad.  When you're eating humble food, sometimes the texture is where you can have some fun.  I added some sliced apples too, cuz you know, why not??  Besides, it's winter :)

It's not you, butter, it's me

I had all these grand plans this weekend to bake a tart, make some puto (steamed mini rice cakes), end world hunger, and find world peace.  But grand plans require a lot of energy - energy that I did not quite have.  Even a super heroine needs a break so I decided to pause on world peace and end one person's hunger at a time.  One person being me.

On a spontaneous whim, I decided to make Sans Rival.  Sans Rival is a dessert/cake/torte/sugar-coma-giver from the Philippines.  Like many of our dishes, there are some conflicting, confusing, and ridiculous ideas of where this dessert originated from, so I will skip the history lesson and avoid the ever so tiring 'who-influenced-us-now' chatter .  (Seriously, I get it.  Them Spaniards were hanging around for almost 400 years but we have our own thing and we're much more than Spanish-influenced, okay?.)

Growing up, I remembered tasting this only on rare and special occasions, meaning the rare times we could afford it.  Fast forward 16 yrs across the Pacific Ocean, a mountain range, and a Great Lake, a Sans Rival cake was in my kitchen and having an impromptu photoshoot.  The dessert was shining in all its glory, reminding you how it just melts in your mouth.  With varying textures of crunch and creaminess, it was in all essence, a pretty darn good dessert.

...and I only had a couple of bites.

Don't get me wrong, it tasted good.  Fantastic.  Better than I remembered.  Even better than most desserts I've had lately (well, one would hope so with all the sugar, butter, eggs, and nuts involved in making it).  So why am I not stuffed in buttercream and meringue like I thought I would be?  Cuz peeps, it kinda reminded me of a sweet butter sandwich.  No wonder my memory of it was how it melted in my mouth!

So alone on a Saturday night in my kitchen, covered in sugar, I made a startling discovery:  there is such a thing as too much butter.   I think the earth just stopped spinning.

I'm sorry, food lovers out there.  My hips can't lie.  It was a just a lot of butter.  If it's any consolation, I hear the tooth fairy is still around, though, with increased rates per tooth to reflect inflation.

My thoughts and feelings of butter sandwiches aside, the process of making it was absolute hilarity.    I used Ninang's recipe here as a guideline and she also linked me to Joe Pastry for the Pâte à Bombe filling  (adapted for 5 yolks).  As I've mentioned before, I have terrible habits in baking (ie ignoring instructions) and it seems that all of them decided to surface for the Sans Rival extravaganza.  Like, who knew making a Pâte à Bombe incorrectly will result in some rock-hard sugar stuck on your whisk?  Oh, right, it says right on the recipe.  I even managed to screw up chopping the cashews.

Then as I put the sheets of meringue in the oven, Ninang sends me a tweet saying she's reblogged the baking process and created one of the fastest blog post I've ever seen put up (maraming salamat!).  But alas, I had already started my quest.  Thankfully the sheets of meringue turned out pretty well after careful babysitting.  I did manage to follow instruction #6 which required you to find a movie to watch and I finally finished the latest season of Weeds!  See, how can you not appreciate that kind of Pinoy blogger love?  Thoughtful AND productive at the same time.  This heroine is in good company.

Back to the dessert.  I had a few bites and I must say, it was the best butter sandwich I've ever had.  But 16 yrs of distance between us changed our relationship.  I'm sorry, Sans Rival, it's not you.  It's me.  I can no longer be wooed by sweet nothings and grand gestures of butter and sugar.  Well, not on the first date anyways :P

Maybe I'll call you again when I master my ma's mocha cake and see what magic we can do together.  I'm open to that, at least.

A few notes: 
-Make the meringue ahead of time, as it takes a very very long time to dry them out in the oven.
-I also referred to this recipe for meringue guidelines.
-Follow the instructions very carefully (lol)
-You can probably substitute the filling with lighter options like whipped cream.  I said lighter, not 'light'
-I would imagine pistachios as another nut I'd use for this besides cashews.

I shall dance!

Yesterday at the studio, after seeing the gaps in between the 30-day challenge stickers beside my name, I made a conscious decision to let go of the pressure I've been putting on myself.   Who cares if I don't show up everyday?   Who cares if the last time I was in class was Saturday?  And I should stop being scared of how my body will be in pain if I missed a couple of days.  I realized that I was holding onto that fear for so long.  It'll hurt no matter what anyways, one welcome and the other, unwelcome.  The anticipation of pain hurts more than the pain itself.

So in response to letting that go, my muscles, my entire body opened and soaked up the heat as my towel soaked up my sweat.  I had one of the best classes ever.

Then the teacher told me my backbend was beautiful!  It may not mean much, that simple acknowledgment, but it did to me because despite putting a huge effort in getting a deeper backbend the past 2 months, I haven't been able to do them way I used to.  My lower back screams in sheer agony during half moon and camel every class.

I remembered a teacher telling me once that we carry a lot of emotional stuff on our backs.  I guess, literally too.  I've been using the yoga room to get away from all of the insanity around me lately:  hiding out from the longest year ever; getting over the trips taken but not wanted; distancing myself from people who I have nothing in common with; mourning the space that I used to love so much that is now suffocating, claustrophobic, and cold.  No wonder my back hurts!

So I thought about what the next year is going to be like.   It will be a year of focus, of movement, of change.  Good change.

It will be a year of fun, of frolick, of feasts.  Feast with friends who love food and yoga.

It will be a year of openness, of discovery, and of freedom.  Freedom from the constraints of mediocrity and binds of the past.  Freedom from fear.

It will be a year of shedding all the things and all the people that weigh too much.  A year spent with people who cook and sing and dance.  Oh how I love to dance!  Especially when the rain comes.

It will be a year of laughter, of wonderment, of peace. 

Maybe that's why this year has been hard.   Just like having a regular Bikram practice as part of the foundation for my health, all obstacles endured were the groundwork needed so I can have all the good things when I need them the most.

One of the biggest years is laid out in front of me and I am going to dance my way to the top.  Fun, frolick, and freedom will most definitely be welcomed.

I deserve it.  Beautiful backbends or not.

Shall we dance?