Green goodness!

Symphony Torte

I am never a fan of green tea, even now. However, one fateful incident happened which drove me to try green tea based sweets, cookies and cakes. It all turned around when my boyfriend and I decided to eat at Lachi’s. The waiting list for the next vacant table was long but there are only two of us so our chances are bigger compared to larger groups. After 10-15 minutes of waiting, we got a chance to land a table for two. We ordered our meals; he ordered Beef Salpicado while I chose Grilled Pork Chop. Affordable meals for thrifty persons like us (haha!).

We pored over the menu on which cake we will try. I opted for Symphony Torte since it boasted “Layers of mocha buttercream and chocolate ganache separate thin layers of soft sponge cake. This elegant composition has seven layers and a fabulous taste.” Who wouldn’t be enticed to try it out? Since my boyfriend is not a sweet tooth, he opted for Greentea Cheesecake. I was suspicious since I am not a fan so I kept my reservations and proceeded to devour my meal.

Greentea Cheesecake

As the desserts were served, I happily dug into my sumptuous Symphony Torte while he enjoyed his Greetea Cheesecake. “Try it, it’s yummy.” Please, nag bisaya mi ato pero for the sake na masabtan sa tanan, i-translate nako ang thought into English. Haha. “You sure? You know I don’t like green tea flavours but I trust your judgement.” I was hesitant since I’m not a fan of green tea and even Kit Kat didn’t win me over their matcha variant. I carefully took a small sample...only to be shocked at how creamy, mildly sweet and yummy it was! I wanted more and it changed my perspective on green tea sweets. Of course, it’s still not my favourite flavour, however, I am giving green tea sweets a chance. Hahaha.

I noticed how he likes green tea based sweets and pastries (he never likes sweets!) so I decided to bake green tea based cookies. I kept crossing my fingers that it would turn out good. I asked my baker friends where they buy their green tea powder and told me I can buy it at Rafski. They close at 5:00 PM which is a pity since my time out at the office is 5:00 PM onwards so my boyfriend offered to go undertime and buy the ingredients for me. HOORAY! So I finally whipped Matcha Green Tea Cookies last weekend. It turned out alright! My mother even bought another pack of white chocolate for the recipe so I can bake another batch next weekend!

Here are the Matcha Green Tea Cookies! Thank you Fortune Goodies for your easy and yummy recipe! Even someone with a sweet tooth like me enjoyed this matcha gren tea recipe! I hope to try your other recipes in the future! I will also try other green tea sweets like crinkles or brownies. Wish me luck!

My prototype!

 Here’s the link of the recipe: Matcha Green Tea Cookies

Go ahead and try this recipe! Have fun baking!

Devil's Food Cake!

Finished product!

Devil’s Food Cake... I’ve been eyeing this recipe way back when my sister still resides with us. As Nigella demonstrates how the cake is made on YouTube, I’ve been very curious to try it myself. I lacked confidence then and I was afraid of wasting ingredients so it took me this long to try it out. It actually took me years! Aaaand finally! I was able to bake Devil’s Food Cake using Nigella’s recipe!

I kept watching the video and observed how she does it and studied the recipe a few days before actually baking the cake. I checked if the ingredients were available here and scouted for them beforehand. As that fateful day drew close, I got more and more anxious to the point that I want the day to come faster so I can get over my anxiety!

Glossy AF! XD

I planned on baking this cake a day before my mum’s birthday with the help of my partner but unfortunately he turned up late and I had to start baking before lunch to avoid finishing before brownouts takeover. I was really annoyed that he wasn’t able to help in the main baking time but I brushed it off ‘cause I don’t want to ruin the mood in making the cake.

My brown babies! :3

Lo and behold! The cake was a success! It turned out better than I expected. I kept patting the cakes lovingly while waiting for the frosting to get ready for application. My partner kept teasing me at how I’m petting the brown babies. I kept saying, “What? Don’t you wanna pat them? Aren’t my babies beautiful?” Hahahaha he must think I’m weird but I don’t care. I was filled with pride at the success of the cake. It gave me confidence to explore more recipes in the future. Thank you, Nigella, for your easy recipe!

He ended up mixing the frosting till it’s ready and helped me apply them to the cake. He said the cake was yummy and I hope he’s right and not just biased. I have this psycho thing where I think what I do is not good enough despite people saying it’s delicious or it turned out great. Anyway, it turned out beautifully, inside and out! Hurray! I hope they appreciated my efforts in baking something different. I will definitely bake some more in the future!

Rest assured, my children will always have a birthday cake made by their mother every birthday. ;)

Hearts and arrows kinda date

Ever since I’ve seen pictures of people wielding bow and arrows, I wanted to pay Gandiva a visit. As a child and until now, I’ve aspired to try archery. I guess this is from playing too much RPG games but hey, it’s fascinating. I always thought that trying archery is a far-fetched dream. Where can I do that in Davao? It’s not something you can find anywhere near here so I was thrilled to see that an archery place opened in Davao and in one of the malls to boot! I didn’t have to go far or go to out of town resorts that offer this recreational activity. Achievement unlocked for me! I planned a date with my partner in advance so we can properly have this archery date.

 

I thought I can actually choose to wield this. XD

I asked friends who played there about the crowds and how long they waited and the price/s for playing. One friend told me they had to wait 1 hour and 30 minutes for their turn! Waiting is not really my strength so my partner and I decided to go to the mall when it opens in the morning to avoid the crowds that would flock the game area. We set the date and met at the mall around 11:00 AM. So much for the planned 9:30 AM meeting.

Still we were pretty early with a few stragglers along the mall and only one customer besides us at the start of our game. The price starts at Php200.00 for 20 arrows per person. We opted for the Php360 for 40 arrows good for two persons. You can say it was a post monthsary date, early “Valentine’s” date (although we don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day). The lady-in-charge assisted us and briefed us about the possibility of the string to “recoil” after we release it. Some get bruised while others really get wounded so we have leather guards attached to our arms. I was so thrilled that my palms were gathering cold sweat. Ugh! The bow was heavy and quite difficult to wield at first thanks to my sweaty palms. Eventually we were able to fire a few shots.

Let's continue facing the same direction and goal. :">

I felt a twinge of dismay that my arrows didn’t fly true. I always end up hitting the sides of the target. I shouldn’t expect so much since it was my first time but I can’t help it. Eventually the euphoria of playing chased away my disappointment and I had a really grand time. I kept laughing most of the time that I didn’t realize that I used up all my 20 arrows. I thought 20 would be too much for me to handle for a first-timer but time AND arrows fly when you’re having fun. If another chance comes my way, I would like to play again. It was one of the best dates I ever had! Aside from the fact that we got to try something new together, everything went smoothly as opposed to most of our dates with hiccups along the way. Answered prayer!

I was hoping I get to choose which bow to use. XD

We were famished after playing so we head over to Pepper Lunch to enjoy a sumptuous sizzling lunch! The smell was divine as it was served on our table and it satisfied our tummies and taste buds! Burp! To more first-time-activity dates to come!

Garlic beef hits the spot! *burp!

Halo-halo

Current favorite halo-halo: Mang Inasal's Pinoy Halo-Halo! So creamy and sweet with the right amount of ingredients! Really heavenly after eating bangus sisig! Can't eat at Mang Inasal without ordering their halo-halo. :3 Totally worth it!

Pepper Lunch & laughter for dinner!

I’ve always wanted to try Pepper Lunch and I’ve been planning on eating at that sizzling place since last year but things happened thus it’s been postponed. THAT’S why when the opportunity offered itself, I grabbed it with both hands! The opportunity presented itself in the form of meeting with college friends.
 
I haven’t seen these buddies for awhile especially Che (girl in yellow shirt). Good food plus good company resulted in a night full of laughter, remember-when’s and random talk. We felt like college students again, laughing uncontrollably.

So we chose what to eat among an array of delicious sizzling meals that colored the menu. They are really expensive but I was determined to tick Pepper Lunch off my mental checklist of to-visit restos.  So there I chose Beef Pepper Rice as my first meal to try at Pepper Lunch! Yuuuumm! When I first looked at it, I thought, “This is too much!” I’ve never been so wrong in my life! I finished the whole lot without noticing it! Hahahaha. Delish!

Darlene chose Teriyaki Beef Pepper Rice with Egg. We laughed when she said she wants the meals with egg so we joked about transferring to Taps instead if that’s her goal. She also finished her lot.

Che, on the other hand, chose Teriyaki Pepper Chicken. She was a bit awkward in eating the meal because she had difficult mixing the Japanese Classics meal so we also enjoyed looking at her poking through her food. She even mistook cabbage as pechay. She religiously avoided the cabbage and meticulously picked the corn kennels and ate them leaving the cabbage and bean pods alone.

Too bad CJ didn’t eat any meal because he kept saying he was full from eating at the office before we took off for Pepper Lunch. He just had mashed potato which made me stare at him in disbelief. I couldn’t believe he’s not hungry after knowing his appetite is 10x mine!

Anyway, I was very satisfied with their meals and I plan on going back again on another special occasion. Their expensive meal is not something I can afford on an occasional basis so another special occasion would be reason enough to splurge a bit on Pepper Lunch. A much recommended restaurant!