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

A Filipino Comfort Food

My favorite childhood memory consisted of mischievous adventures with friends, birthday parties, christmas parties at school, and most of all my mom's special Sunday food! I had a lot of good memories growing up in the Philippines but one thing that I would keep craving for is my mom's cooking (thank God she lives just ten minutes away). Growing up in a small town, where majority of people grew their own food (ha! organic), we did not get to eat meat as often as we can because it was expensive. Our regular meal consisted of soup, vegetables, dried fish, fish, ramen noodles, and sardines. Mind you, it was still the best food and up to date, I still often crave for some sardines with rice. So, it is often a luxury for us when my mom would go to the city for grocery, which means hotdogs, cornbeef, and ham to stuff ourselves with until we get tired.

All of those are great memories that I will forever cherish, but, there is only one thing that I would always look forward to. Our Sunday lunch meal! Every Sunday after church, my mom heads over to the market to get the freshest vegetables and meat from the butcher. She would make a big pot of beef soup that consisted of potatoes, chinese cabbage, sweet potatoes, and plantains. I remember it being a very hearty and satisfying meal especially when it is served with rice.

On Sunday, I was rather feeling nostalgic thinking about my chilhood. It was cold outside and I wanted something very hearty to eat. Then, I thought about paying homage to my mom's Sunday meal. It is easily one of my favorite comfort foods that stays close to my heart. Now that I am comfortable in life and can afford to have as many meat as I want, I will still forever treasure those times.

Here is my own version of my mom's beef stew soup. It is very easy to prepare and make. The only thing that takes up your time is chopping all the ingredients. Once you have everything in the pot, you can resume other chores that you are doing.

Ingredients:

Grassfed Chuck Roast (this is what I had at the moment, you can use brisket, short ribs, etc). Cut this in cubes. Boil in at least 4 cups of water until tender along with chopped onions, bay leaves, peppercorns, and ginger. This will take atleast an hour or so. Since I used grassfed beef, it did have that much fat in it, so I didn't have to take out the fat scums floating on top while the the beef was boiling. Once your meat is tender, add the potatoes and sweet potatoes and wait until tender. Once the potatoes are cooked, seasoned to taste. I added a little fish sauce and some soy sauce for flavoring. Add your bokchoy and simmer a little bit. Please don't over cook your bokchoy. The steam alone can just easily cook the bokchoy. Serve with rice if you want or just have the soup alone. This was a hit with B! And I must say, I did my mommy proud:-) What about you? What is your favorite comfort food?

Have a great Thanksgiving mes amis!

Bisous,
Contessa

Not your traditional surf and turf.....

Happy Sunday! Would you have guessed that the salsa on top of this pork rib chops is made with scallops? An experiment gone good (if that's even right, ha!). It's all about using every ingredients you have in the fridge. In my case, I purchased these all natural pork rib chops from Whole Foods and wanted to stay away from the usual method of preparing it. Without a doubt, it's really good served on its own already. But I wanted to incorporate the scallops, yellow and red peppers, spinach, and tomatoes that I have left that were going bad if I had leave them out for another day.


It may seem complicated to make but trust me this whole process took me less than 30 minutes (is that you Rachel Ray?). I seasoned my pork with salt and pepper, pan seared for a few minutes, then bake in the oven 375 degrees for maybe 15 minutes. It all depends on the weight on your chops. I reused the pan where I cooked the chops, saute my chopped scallops (that I also seasoned with salt, pepper and drizzled a little bit with fresh clementine juice), added the red and yellow peppers and spinach. Season to taste and serve it on top of your chops. Voila! Dinner is ready.....and it's healthy too!

Bisous,
Contessa

Fashion Post - Friday Night's Outfit

Happy Saturday mes amis. Just sharing with you a quick outfit post. Last night B and I went to one of his best friend's birthday party at a sports bar in VA. Let me tell you that it's been a while since we have gone out and not too mention, it was freezing last night! I made sure I was layered up but still looking put together. My mantra: never conform to what the rest of the crowd is wearing. Try to always stand out!

And who says that you have to wear expensive clothing to stand out? Sheer Oversized Military Shirt is from Express. Jegging is from HM. Twilly is from Hermes. Tall brown wedge is from Sigerson Morrison. Knee High Socks is from F21. Chandelier Turquoise earrings from BCBG. Vintage Leather Fur Coat is from a yard sale. Looking good and feeling good is over course priceless. HE! HE!.

Here is a departing close-up pic. No make-up just mascara, a little cheek stain, and some lipgloss!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Bisous,
Contessa