Saturday Night Snack - Chocolate Chip Cookie

I love weekends. What I don't like is when I get bored. My healthy eating habit gets compromised. My wasteline starts expanding and my belly starts bloating. Then Monday comes, I start sulking after I see the weighing scale. Then I vow not to eat anything sinful and sugary for the rest of my life. But who am I kidding? Who knew that consuming two chocolate chip cookies can add three extra pounds on you. HA! Thank God, Saturday was my designated cheat day to eat anything I want;-). I can burn all of that this week. No problem. Now, I am back to my protein/veggie/fruits diet.
For now, I will just let you drool over these goodness. There was a nice balance in the chewyness and crispness of this cookie. It was such a hit. I will be forever thankful to my cousin Bob, who is a pastry chef for giving me this recipe.


The dough looked like ice cream if you ask me. I could just eat this alone. LOL!



Thank God for Dolph of the Weekend Gourmet blog for giving my my first ever mixer.  You have inspired me to bake:-)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe (makes at least a dozen depending on how big you want your cookies)

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips (vahlrona or calebaut)
1 1/2 cups of white chocolate chips (vahlrona or calebaut)
1 cup of chopped nuts (macadamia or walnuts)

heat oven to 375*F. in a large bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar, butter until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg; blend well. lightly spoon flour into measuring cups; level off.
Add flour, baking soda, salt; mix well. stir in both dark and white chocolates and nuts.
Let dough cool for at least 6 hours.
Form into balls, flattening the top onto baking sheet with 2" apart from each other.
Bake at 375* F for 9 to 12 minutes until edges are lightly brown.
Cool and remove from cookie sheets.

Happy Monday!

Bisous, Contessa

My Sister's Baby Shower - The Decor and the Creative Geniuses Behind it

Mes Amis, may I present to you the hostesses of the party!!!! Moi, my Fashion Stylist cousin, Kathy and the Creative Director, Mary. If you are looking for party planners, you can hire us! Please please please:-)

And of course, the man behind all the decadent desserts, John. I am shamefully plugging our group again. If you need us to take care of your party needs (food, decorations, desserts), we got it all. HEHE!

Half of the table scape. Party utensils were from Party City, decor was from Michael's and floral were from Wholefoods.

Gourmet Cookie Favors

Yours truly, Contessa:-)

Zizi de Fiori and her creation.

View of the table scape from the stairs.

What do you all think? Next post, I will be featuring our food presentation.

Stay tuned. Bisous, Contessa

My Sister's Baby Shower - Gourmet Cookie Favors

The original plan was supposedly for John to make cupcakes as favors for the baby shower. However, due to time constraint, he opted to make his gourmet cookies instead. The Pastry Chef needs a break too, right? He's been baking for the last three days since he arrived for Thanksgiving. John, made two different gourmet cookies. White and Dark Chocolate Chunk and Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut Cookies. I was never a fan of cookies. But, after I tasted John's gourmet cookies, I am definitely hooked. Well for John's cookies, that is. HA! HA! I can tell you how many cookies we devoured while we were baking them.

Here I am as John's Pastry Sous Chef:-)

Making the first batch of white and dark chocolate chunk. Look at the size of that?! Yum yum!

Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut Cookies

In keeping with the baby shower BOW (brown, orange, white) motiff, we decided to wrap each cookies with orange and white tissue paper. We also used brown ribbons to tie each ends and put some baby related stickers on it. Simple, easy, but also affordable!

That's my beautiful sister and her husband. Congratulations to you both.

On my next post, I will be showing you our decour and the creative minds behind this successful party.

Happy Friday!

Bisous,

Contessa

My Sister's Baby Shower - John's Chocolate Ganache Cake

As I have indicated on my previous post, preparing for special events usually involves a big production in my family. Each dessert that was made and the preparation that was done requires its own post. For the chocolate lover, here is another hit that John (my Pastry Chef Cousin) made. Chocolate Ganache Cake! He actually made something similar to this for my wedding cake. I will have to share that with you at a later post. I will just let the picture speak for itself.....

The most moist Chocolate Ganache Cake you will ever have. I mean the frosting tasted like Gelato ice cream. And this particular dessert also taste better in time.

On my next post, I will feature John's gourmet cookies, which was our favor. Stay tuned!

Bisous,
Contessa

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My Sister's Baby Shower - Making of Desserts Part 1

Can I tell you that any event my family is involved in always becomes a big production? From food preparation, dessert making , floral arrangements, to outfit changes, we got it all to a tee. I don't mean to boast, but being surrounded by so many talented individuals is a bonus and indeed a true blessing. As we would always say that the success to every parties we hold is a combination of not only our talents, but most of all, the labor of love that we put into it. The outpouring love and support my family have for one another is what sets it apart. (Now you can say, "AWWW").

Before I get all emotional, let me get back to telling you about all the preparation that was done for my sister's baby shower. The first time my sister shared the good news with us that they were expecting, on the back of my mind, I knew had to start planning her baby shower soon. I immediately started brainstorming for ideas and looked around for inspirations from other blogs. My cousin, who is a corporate employee by day, but a true creative photographer, florist (yes, she did my wedding bouquet), and fashionista by heart, helped me brainstorm for cool ideas for the shower. We wanted to get the theme down before we could start planning the menu and decorations. Since my sister and her hubby kept mum on the gender of the baby, we had to come up with a nice earthy, unisex , and of course, a chic color combination. Orange, Brown, and White, that is! Mind you, we started planning as early as August. We wanted it to be perfect for her. And perfect it was!

So let me share the one of the most perfect desserts that our other cousin, who is a pastry chef from NYC made. I know, he had no break what so ever. He was already slaving in the kitchen for our Thanksgiving desserts. It was never ending baking on his part. We are truly grateful and somewhat spoiled because we cannot eat any mediocre dessert and not compare it to his creation. We are dessert snobs if I may say. Ha!.

One of the desserts that the mom-to-be requested was Sans Rival, a very popular dessert in the Philippines made with layers and layers of meringue, sandwich with a very rich butter cream filling, and toasted chopped cashews. Sans Rival, is actually a French word meaning wtihout rival. This dessert is very Filipino, but, with a similiarity to that of an Almond Dacquoise. This luscious decadent creamy dessert is not for the faint of heart. That's why it shouldn't be eaten on a regular but on special occassions where all calories are welcome:).

Meringues cooling off to be layered

Butter cream for filling

Sans Rival is finally coming together.

Toasted Chopped Cashews

This dessert gets better in time. The long it is left in the fridge, the chewier it gets. So good! I must say that I don't remember how many slices I consumed. The number on my weighing scale does not look good at all.

Stay tune tomorrow, I will post John's Chocolate Ganache Cake. Another to die for dessert!

Bisous,
Contessa

My Family's Thanksgiving Meal

Let me apologize for not blogging lately. Bon Vivant Contessa has been busy entertaining family who came from out of town to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Not to mention, I threw my sister a baby shower over Thanksgiving weekend as well. It has been a busy week indeed. I am just finally slowly getting back to my regular routine. And I have a million pictures to upload.

Let me just share with you some pictures of what we had for Thanksgiving. I know you'd probably be feeling envious after looking at them and wishing you spent Thanksgiving with us:-)

(click to enlarge to get a better viewing)

It was also an added bonus that we are blessed to have a pastry chef in the family. My cousin, who is a pastry chef in NYC, celebrated Thanksgiving with us and of course made all the decadent, to die for desserts. Next time, I will share with you a picture of my wedding cake that he made.






(Carrot Cake with Butter cream frosting, Key Lime Pie, and Mocha Cream Cake)





Thank you cousin John for all your decadent desserts. I have successfully gained 5 lbs of eating pure butter:-)

For those in the NYC area, John can accommodate any of your dessert needs. Please e-mail me for more information.

Bisous,
Contessa