Handmade Valentines!

The best gifts are always the ones from the heart.
Sofia was so happy to give me valentines gifts she made herself.

I got a Valentines candle, a valentine made at the daycare,
and a valentine with Lindor truffles from school.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope it was as filled with love as ours!

Dinner at Antonio's in Tagaytay

Antonio's in Tagaytay is one of my favorite restaurants. The only downside for me, is that it's quite far if you are coming from Manila, but the beauty and ambiance of the place more than makes up for it because it really takes you away from the hustle and bustle (and stress) of city life.

It's a well maintained old house with lush gardens surrounding it, that has been converted to a high-end restaurant. You normally order your main course, and it's served as a full course meal. Additional courses or starters may also be ordered.

Since I knew that we were eating in Antonio's, I tried to save my appetite and I avoided snacks the whole day. This made me super duper hungry when we arrived, so even though I do not eat oysters, I eventually tried it after ignoring it several times.

The Oysters with Truffle Cream were to die for.
It removed all traces of my childhood trauma from oysters.
Unfortunately, when I wanted more, they were all gone. Boo!!!

I was able to eat a lot of the Mushroom Starter
while I was ignoring the oysters.

This was our end of the table,
we had a picture break while we were waiting for more food.

Sherwin and the girls who were trying to make up for leaving him.

The courses that came with our order of main course include house salad, soup, dessert and dalandan juice.

The house salad had a berry vinaigrette dressing, candied walnuts,
dried berries, stinky cheese and a very bitter leaf (the vein-y one).

The mushroom soup was ok, because it was light and not too heavy.

Sadly, at this point of the meal, we started to get full because the service was leisurely paced, more suited for romantic dates, but not that apt for a group of hungry people. Hahaha.

Din and I ordered different dishes.

Din had the healthier Sea bass Dish.

I had the heart attack on the plate.
I ordered Duck Breast with Foie Gras,
and what a big serving of Foie Gras that was!

Then there was the added bonus of Steak in the middle for sharing.

The oil was still bubbling when it was served.

I really had to make tough decisions with regards to my stomach space, so I had most of the Foie Gras, together with a big slice of steak, but had to sacrifice the duck breast because I could only eat some of it.

The capped off the meal with Tartuffo, Italian Ice Cream.
This was very rich so I only had a bite.

After a lot of chatting, we had the left over steak heated and we started picking on it for Round 2.
Hahahaha. Seriously. I even ate a few bites again because it was so good.

Cutting up the steak in bites for Round 2.

I didn't take much pictures of the place because I was too lazy to walk around.

This is the view from where we were seated.
There is also dining areas outside and in the second floor.

I also took a picture of the toilets.
Two can go at the same time, but I guess you need to be
really close to each other to do that.

I've heard that Breakfast at Antonio's is now located at the back of the main restaurant. I can't wait to try that place out next time we're in the area. just saying.

Antonio's 

Purok 7niogan, Cavite

Visit their website for more information

Snowskin Mooncakes for Chinese New Year

Call me weird if you want even if that's stating the obvious, because we made Snowskin Mooncakes for Chinese New Year. 

I do know that mooncakes are normally consumed and gifted during the August Moon Harvest Festival, but since the flood happened, my shipment which had our mooncake molds got delayed, and Tim brought us the ingredients from Singapore, Sofia and I have been waiting since October for the next Chinese Holidays... which happens to be Chinese New Year!!! 

Snowskin Mooncakes are similar to mochi in texture.
They are refrigerated and not baked,
and they quite popular in Singapore and Hong Kong.

When we lived in Singapore, Sofia and I enrolled in a Tots with Mom Can Bake class to learn how to make it. It's surprisingly very easy.

Sofia at Tots Can Bake when she was less than 3 years old.
August Moon Festival, Singapore 2010

The kids made kiddie mooncakes.

Right after the class, the first thing I did was buy ingredients to make sure
we could make it at home. Easy Peasy.

WHAT YOU NEED: 

These are the things I have no idea how to find in Manila so I just asked Tim to bring it for us from Singapore.

Fried Glutinous Flour (or Kou Fien)

Lotus Paste (maybe you can find this in Chinatown)
They also have other fillings like: Red Bean, Green Tea, Durian, etc.

Green Pandan Flavor and Purple Yam Flavor
These are my open bottles from Singapore

You'll also need other ingredients that are easier to find.

Confectioners or Icing Sugar

A few Fresh Pandan Leaves

Shortening

Making the Snowskin Mooncakes are so easy. Sofia and her yaya can do it by themselves, I just told them what to do because my nails were newly manicured.

The first thing you need to do is make Pandan Juice,
cool it, and measure 175ml.

You can make Pandan Juice by boiling a few Pandan leaves in water. Once it's at room temperature, you can refrigerate it so it's cool when you start making the mooncakes.

Measure 150g Glutinous Flour

200g Icing Sugar

Sift if your dry ingredients are lumpy

Measure 50g Shortening

Mix your dry ingredients with the shortening 

Then add the pandan juice

Mix it well until all the liquid is absorbed and you can make the dough one big ball. If you are only using one color, you can already add a few drops of the color/flavor paste in the pandan juice.

However, because we wanted to make a green and purple batch, we split my dough into two before putting in the coloring.

Half the dough with a few drops of Purple Yam Paste

The other half with the Green Pandan Paste

Just start kneading the dough from the outside until the colors
 get mixed so you don't end up with green fingers.

Sofia mixed the green with only a little help.

It should look like this when the color is evenly mixed.

Then the next thing to do, is to prepare the filling.

Get a teaspoon-full of Lotus Paste

Roll...

It should end up looking like a small ball.
If you want to be precise, 10g works well for us.

For the assembly, make sure your mooncake molds are thoroughly cleaned beforehand.

We have a Mickey Mouse and fish traditional mold,
but we normally aren't able to use it because
it has to be fully dry or the dough will stick. 

The plastic mold are so much easier to use.
Just flour the molds well before using them.

You need to get a small piece of dough, roll it in your hand,
then flatten it.
30 grams works well for us.

Then you have to put the lotus paste in the middle
and wrap the dough around it.

You can also flour your hands, so it's easier to handle the dough and it won't keep on sticking to your fingers.

Once you have a filled fough ball,
just press it into the floured mold. 

To make your mooncakes look nicer, make sure you put the smooth part of the dough ball at the bottom, and place the part where the dough meets on top, facing you.

Then you just tap the molds on all sides,
working on a clean surface.

The mooncakes will just fall out by itself if your molds are well-floured.

You can also mix dough colors to get this effect.

We ended up with all these mooncakes.
More green was eaten because they got made first.

You can already eat Snowskin Mooncakes after making them, but they taste better when refrigerated.

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone!!! 

Wishing you a year of good harvest in the Year of the Snake! just saying.


For Baking Supplies in Singapore, I go to
Phoon Huat on Bencoolen (Near Bugis)
171 Bencoolen Street Singapore 189641

Tel: 6338 1143 

Operation hours
9:00am to 8:30pm (Monday - Saturday)
9:00am to 6:00pm (Sunday and Public Holidays)
Closed on Eve to 3rd day of Chinese New year
You can visit their website for other branches.


Sofia and I enjoy the toddler + mom Kids/Tots Can Bake classes at Genius R Us
Visit their facebook page for more information.