'Birthdays & Parties' archive

Smoked salmon and cream cheese canapés

Thinking of easy to prepare but delicious and memorable canapes for a cocktail party on New Year’s Eve? Try spreading this filling made with smoked salmon and cream cheese on wheat crackers. Or use it as a sandwich filling, cut up the sandwiches and serve as mini sandwiches. I love smoked salmon. So when I saw three different versions of this filling — in a cookbook, in a TV food show and in a website — I figured it must be a sign that I should try and make my own version. The result was so good that even my daughters who are not particularly fond of smoked salmon have been snubbing the ham and cold meat in the fridge when they make sandwiches. Instead, they reach for the container with the smoked salmon and cream cheese filling.

Roast pork with baked potatoes

Cut the kitchen labor and cooking time by cooking a side dish of baked potatoes together with your roast pork. And the best thing about this short cut is how the potatoes actually catch the flavorful drippings from the pork. I must warn you though that if the meat you’re roasting needs more than an hour to cook, there is a chance that the potatoes will get too browned and the edges too crisp. It happened when I cooked this roast pork for a dinner party and I’m lucky that I had such uncomplaining dinner guests. I have reached the conclusion, however, that henceforth I will only use this technique of cooking baked potatoes when roasting chicken (which is thoroughly cooked in just about an hour) so as not to overcook the potatoes.

Pumpkin and walnut cake

Pumpkin and walnut cake? Yes. Think carrot cake but with pumpkin instead, covered with thick cream cheese frosting lattice style. The sides are smothered with chopped walnuts while larger chunks are mixed in. Darn, it was good. Nothing saccharine sweet but just sweet enough to satisfy the taste buds which made it perfect with coffee.

A snippet of the product concept from the Wheatberry website: “Wheatberry’s main products focuses on breads which uses natural and healthy ingredients…”

Tiramisu, party style

Serving a cake during a party means placing the cake tray on the table, cutting it and placing individual servings on dessert plates. What if the cake can be apportioned several hours before without sacrificing on looks and presentation? What if all that the hostess has to do is take the individual servings out of the fridge and hand them out to the guests? Wouldn’t that be more convenient? Wouldn’t that be so much less stressful?

I love tiramisu. And I wish that I can serve it on New Year’s Eve when my husband’s family, and mine, come over for an all-day, all-night party. But with the number of people coming, I think my straight hair will turn frizzy if I have to attend to the cake cutting and individual serving right there and then. What about my right to party, eh? So what I’m going to do is serve the tiramisu in wine glasses.

Baked macaroni for a Halloween party

Every year, when I celebrate my birthday, it’s like Christmas is just around the corner… There’s my birthday (I had my party on October 18), then Halloween, then my brother’s birthday… Then, it’s December and our wedding anniversary and, soon after that, it’s Christmas.

That means a lot of party cooking and, ergo, a lot of recipes that are good ideas for Christmas and the New Year. So I started updating the Noche Buena blog.

A casual dinner

When we entertain at home, I don’t stray away from the most important rule: I am entitled to enjoy the party as much as the guests and the rest of my family. Ergo, I make sure that the food does not require slave labor that will leave me catatonic by the time the first guests enter the front door.

My choices for last Saturday’s dinner: chicken and cabbage spring rolls; baked spaghetti with creamy cheese topping; bangus steaks a la pobre; chicken and mangoes in yogurt; and, for dessert, buko pandan.

My daughter’s 14th birthday

My daughter, Alex, had a few classmates over yesterday. They were supposed to do an ecology project but since yesterday was also her 14th birthday, a few other friends, non-members of the ecology group, joined us and we had pasta, chicken, toast and cake for merienda. The menu might look like fastfood fare, the stuff kids love, but the chicken was NOT fried, the toast was buttered whole wheat bread, the pasta sauce was all-natural and the cake was made with frozen — not canned — blueberries…

Oven-proof plastic bakeware by Glad

My own children are not immune from the charms of my baked mac and my younger daughter, Alex, requested that I prepare a tray of baked mac for her class’ Christmas party today. I did. But since I preferred not to send the baked mac in any of my Anchor Hocking glass baking dishes, my intention was to use one of those disposable aluminum trays. I found something better last night in the supermarket — oven-proof plastic bakeware by Glad which comes with transparent covers.

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House On A Hill

Noche Buena

• Chicken in sour cream
• Corn dogs
• Fresh tropical fruits salad
• Pepperoni and cheese stuffed bread rolls
• A Christmas Eve story
• Cooking for Christmas and the New Year
• Bangus belly steaks
• An all-Filipino menu at a family reunion
• In my kitchen: taking it easy
• Adobo, quail eggs and rice

Oh, so sweet!

• Christmas jello
• Green tea and rambutan dessert
• Easy dessert crepes
• Mango-rum sorbet
• Chocolate coated gummy bears
• Coffee jelly dessert
• Mandarin Orange Royale
• Mango and jelly (jango) dessert
• Mango Royale
• Peaches and cream