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A Spanish Dinner

Dulcinea
Lower Ground Floor, Annex 1 - SM City Fairview
Quirino Avenue cor. Regalado Avenue, Quezon City
+63 (02)355-6105
12 October 2010

Dulcinea - SM Fairview

Walking to Slammer Burgers (food trip shared last Sunday), sister and I passed by Dulcinea and told her I hoped we could eat there, too, because I just loved how cute the place was. Actually, my sister and I already planned of eating early dinner there before going home, but while at Nail-a-holics for sister's pedi day, we thought of sending mom a message if she wanted to meet with us. She responded yes, and asked us to send brother a message so he could meet us, too.

When mom met us, we told her we already made a decision where to eat dinner, so we walked to Dulcinea, a restaurant that serves Spanish foods. As the date stated in their restaurant, this started in 1960s, with their first shop in Ermita (Manila). It was in late 1980s when Dulcinea became popular, and now they have countless branches in different malls here in Metro Manila and in some provinces (I saw one in SM Iloilo - Mandurriao).

By the way, "Dulcinea" means "sweet," and is derived from the word "dulce."

Dulcinea - SM Fairview

The place was just small, but I loved how homey it was. The paintings on the wall, and the lights that looked a lot like lampshades felt like we were at home. At first, we were seated outside the main perimeter of the restaurant, but when a four-top table became available even before the foods were served, the friendly restaurant manager courteously asked us if we wanted to dine inside so the people will not pass by us as we eat. Of course, we welcomed the suggestion.

My sister and I already told ourselves we would go for their value meals, but once we were there, we (sis and I) had a sudden change of heart. Our meal consisted of:

Espaqueti Carbonara

Espaqueti a Carbonara. They had a pasta value meal at p99, but seeing their main pasta plate was about p160, I decided to just go for the main plate. I honestly didn't know how to photograph it because the pasta was plated so flat that it didn't have the height I needed to compose a good photograph. Anyway, even if the plating wasn't so good, the pasta was really delicious. I loved how creamy it was, and it was a big plus when they used two kinds of bacon (slightly cooked and toasted) that gave the food a good texture.

Churros con Chocolate

Churros con Chocolate. Food wise, this was the main reason why I wanted to eat here. This was the first time I ate churros, and I wasn't disappointed. I found this really comforting! The chocolate was so thick and rich - that it can actually pass as a dessert if one wanted to. However, my siblings didn't like it, because they already had a distinct definition for churros - the pastry being sweet. I told them that's the purpose of the chocolate (to make the food sweet), but still, they didn't like it.

Espaqueti a Lasagna

Espaqueti a Lasagna. Sister's pasta choice. The combination of red and white sauces was good, but I still liked my carbonara more.

Lengua Estofada Especialidad

Lengua Estofada Especialidad. I know we told ourselves we would keep this dinner as cheap as we could because we would still eat full desserts at Crepes and Cream, but our stories of brother eating Lengua Estofada at Cafe City 1888, made sister suggest we eat this, too. This dish was good, and I have nothing against lengua, but I wasn't really impressed with it - maybe because I found it way too expensive (this dish cost p370).

Value Meal Sweet and Sour Fish

Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet. Brother went for their "Favoritos Meal," which was their value meal. I gave it a taste and I liked the blend of flavors.

Value Meal Braised Beef

Stewed Beef Cubes . Another Favoritos meal, which mom went for. The beef cubes were tender, the sauce was great, and the seasoning.. just right.

Cream Puffs

Cream Puffs. All Favoritos meals included a glass of iced tea and two pieces of Cream Puffs, which was a great dessert, but way too sweet for our liking.

It was a great dinner for the family... even if we were together everyday, we still loved eating out and share stories as if we were catching up on times.

*** Jenn ***

FTFBadge

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From My Kitchen | Giniling Maskipaps

I have seen the badge of this meme quite sometime ago, but it was just now that I was able to join. I do share recipes every Fridays here on my blog, but there were days when I do cook "normal" foods that don't require recipes, and I think this meme is just perfect to showcase those dishes. Actually, I have decided that if ever I have a lot of recipes to share, then I can share it on Tuesdays, too. :)

167. Giniling Maskipaps

My first share for this meme was something I cooked two weeks ago, which I called "Giniling Maskipaps," maskipaps meaning "maski papaano." Normally, us siblings can just eat anything for lunch - we could open canned goods, or maybe cook pasta with just grated cheese and consider it a good meal already. However, our cousin Jayson stayed here in our house, and although he wasn't really picky when it comes to food, we just couldn't let a meal pass without making a little effort in cooking something for him, too.

On this particular day, we only had ground pork in the freezer. I seriously didn't know what to do with it, so when I saw this one huge potato inside the fridge, I already knew what to do. Giniling with potatoes and tomato sauce is one of our "Ulam 911" here in the house, but since I just cooked the Chicken and Soda Casserole a few days ago, I felt it would not be good to serve another dish with tomato sauce. What I did? I just omitted the tomato sauce and used freshly chopped tomatoes to give it some color and flavor.

From there I just added ingredients. Me seeing chicken hotdogs in the chiller prompted me to slice it and add it to the dish, then when I saw some leftover corn kernels (I opened a can a few days before because I felt hungry), I added a few spoonfuls to the dish, too. Finally, I opened a can of green peas to add more color to the dish. To give it a quite different flavor, I also added a dash of oregano.

No one complained about the dish, and my sister loved it when she paired it with some nacho chips. My maskipaps dish turned out good, and I was happy it did.

*** Jenn ***



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Gardening Journal: June 28th, 2011

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly edition.

I have been away from my garden for two weeks.  My brother offered to do some maintenance for us while we were gone.  He harvested the potatoes and the onions and put them to up to store.  Even with a visitor taking care of our garden, there was still an incredible loss.

The Bad

First the bad news.  ALL of my yellow squash and zucchini plants died.  :-(
They look as if they simply were not watered.  
Also lost but not pictured was a cucumber vine and all of our Snap Pea bushes.   ;-(
If you look at the picture above, you will see the one and only zucchini 
that grew but never made it.
I suppose I was arrogant to think that I would be enjoying zucchini in abundance this year.
The broccoli was also not maintained and ended up bolting. 
This is only our second year gardening so next year, a watering timer is in order.

The Good

and a bit of the good news....
I for one was surprised to see a bell pepper harvested.

There were tons of onions, it was a good year for onions

We were not quite so happy with the potato harvest.
We yielded much more last year when we just plopped the plants
in the hard un-tilled ground.
Maybe potatoes do not like to be babied with that rich awesome soil
we have in the raised beds?

My hubs told me that the mellons would hang off the back
and drop when ripe, but I just thought that would be way too heavy.  
Can't possibly be true.
Well lookey here!

More Bell Peppers, leaving these on till they red this time.

Honey Dew Mellons

I returned home to TONS of Jalapeno's.  
I suppose I will have to learn how to put these up.

Tomatoes are getting red.  
If I time this right, I can get tons of salsa made and put up.

The Ugly...

My brother tells me that a bunny family tried to move in under the pepper plants.  Our two cats and the dog each took turns killing them off until they were all gone.  My brother tells me that it was an awful mess and was so sad about it.  I don't know how to think.  It just feels like they should have sensed that it was dangerous in our yard.

I will be linking this post to:
Wordful Wednesday parenting by dummies
Wordless Wednesday @ 5 minutes for mom
Wordless Wednesday @ Proverbs 31 Mommy

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Gluten Free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Breakfast Muffins

These are the muffins we left out on vacation with.  I had originally planned on Blueberry but forgot to purchase the berries.  My goal with this particular muffins was to have them taste like a peanut butter cup in a muffin form so the kids would like them while adding lots of protein and fiber so the adults would be happy with them too.  Eat one or two for breakfast and they will keep your tummy full and happy until your next meal for sure.

I was happy to see them keep well without refrigeration (our plug in cooler is on its last leg) and we were able to enjoy them for three mornings straight.  This is always a good thing with Gluten Free. I used Sparkpeople and plugged the ingredients in and was pleasantly surprised with the stats. They boast a whopping 7 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber per muffin.

Yield: 12 large muffins
1 cup Tapioca Starch
3/4 cup Brown Rice Flour
1/4 cup Potato Starch
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Bakin Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Flax Meal
1 cup Mashed Banana (2 medium)
1/3 cup Almond Milk
6 heaping Tablespoons of Peanut Butter (or sun nut butter)
3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
3 Eggs
1 cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Greece or paper line muffin tins.

  • Combine Tapioca Starch, Brown Rice Flour, Potato Starch, Gum, Sugar, Baking Powder, Salt and Flax Meal in a bowl and throughly combine.
  • Add Banana to stand mixer and whip until almost all the lumps are gone.  
  • Add Milk, Peanut Butter, Oil and Eggs. Whip until fully combined.
  • Add dry mix and incorporate well, scraping down sides as needed.
  • Hand fold in chocolate chips.
  • Add batter into paper lined muffin tins, about 3/4's full.
  • Bake 22 minutes for regular sized muffins and 30-35 minutes for jumbo.
I will be sharing this recipe with Gluten Free Homemaker's Gluten Free Wednesday and Simply Sugar and Gluten Free's Slightly Indulgent Tuesday.
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Menu Plan Monday: Week of June 27th, 2011


Well, we just got back from a two week trip back home and the cupboards were bare.  My brother was here watching the house and picking over the small selection I left behind. I stopped at the store and simply picked up some yellow tagged meats and frozen veggies and literally tossed a meal together while shopping.  LOL, I almost never do that. 


Monday
L:
D: BBQ Country Style Spare Ribs, Baked Beans, Cole Slaw


Tuesday
L: Hotdogs
D: Fried Chicken, Mac and Cheese and Broccoli


Wednesday:
L: Nacho's
D: Spaghetti and Meatballs with Cheese Batter Bread

Thursday:
L: Pizza
D: Rotisserie Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Parsley Potatoes

Friday:
L: Chicken Nuggets
D: Pizza and a movie night.  Hawaiian for the adults and cheese for the kids.


Saturday:
Going to a 4th party and bringing Cheese Cake Cupcakes and Greek Salad.

Sunday:
Grilled Hotdogs, Macaroni Salad

Looking for Menu Plan Ideas, head on over to Org. Junkie's Menu Plan Monday for lots of great ideas. 
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Weekend Eating | Pork BBQ Minus the Stick

Pork BBq

Last week was really stressful for most Filipinos because of the endless rains. I am thankful that sis and I were still able to attend the first Bloggers' Buffet at Carol's Texan 5 last Thursday. I received two more invites for two different events and both were cancelled because of continuous rains. I pray both events will push through in the near future. :)

Anyway, mom brought home marinated pork last Tuesday or Wednesday and hoped we would cook it by the weekend... and at first I thought it was impossible as it was really difficult to grill on a rainy day, but thanks to brother's grill pan, he was able to grill the pork pieces using the stove last Saturday night. It didn't have the smokey flavor I prefer, but for this moment it was really good.

No need to skewer the pork as the pieces were quite big, and I really liked the taste of this one - it was marinated good. I am thinking of asking mom to buy some more next week. :)

So... what did you have last weekend? If you're new to the Weekend Eating meme, you can read the rules and get the badge codes HERE.



*** Jenn ***



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A Burger with a Slam

Slammer Burgers
Lower Ground Floor - New Atrium Building
SM City Fairview
Quirino Highway cor. Belfast Avenue, Quezon City
12 October 2010


Slammer Burgers - SM Fairview

It was sister's day-off, and despite not feeling 100%, she still wanted to go out and enjoy this day rather than stay at home all day. I told her I wanted to try the burger joints at SM Fairview, and she thought this might be a good day to try one, so off we went to SM Fairview to eat burgers for lunch.

Slammer Burgers - SM Fairview

Our choice for today was Slammer Burgers. There was another burger joint relatively closer to where we were that time (Army Navy), but we chose Slammer Burgers because whenever we would pass by here mid or late afternoon, the place just seemed to have lots of guests.

Slammer Burgers mainly offers baby size burgers and Belgian fries. The sound of "Belgian" seemed to be European, but the place pretty much look American because of the red/white/blue furniture.

They have eight burger meals to choose from, but we decided to go for:

Bacon Mushroom Melt Meal

Bacon Mushroom Melt

Bacon Mushroom Melt Meal. Each meal consist of two burgers, a serving of fries, and a can of soda. Each burger has their own box - I just took them out for the pictures. They may seem to look small, and the patties may appear thin, but these burgers really had a lot of flavor. What I loved most about the burger is that the cheese slices are really melted. The fries tasted good - it's like KFC minus the breading on the fries.

Double Cheeseburger Meal

Double Cheeseburger

Double Cheeseburger Meal. Sister's choice. When I had my burger, I raved about the melted cheese, but thought maybe it was like that because "melt" is part of the burger's name. When sister took out her burgers, the cheese is melted, too, so more ravings from me. :)

Since each meal has two burgers, sister and I decided to exchange a burger so we could eat two different burgers. Again, the burgers may be small, but really... one burger is enough to satisfy one's hunger. Sis and I truly had a difficult time finishing off the other burger.

Other burger meals from Slammer Burgers include: Slammer Burger (which is the most basic burger), Cheeseburger, Caramel Onion Slammers, Crispy Chicken Burger, Go Fish Sandwich, and 4 pieces Cheeseburger (for groups or for someone who really has a big burger appetite). All meals are served with fries and drink.

They also have different flavored dips for the fries, each meal has the cheesy dip. You can avail any of the other dips (Roasted Garlic, Sour Cream & Chives, Honey Mustard, Mixed Herb Mayo, Jalapeno Cheese, Barbecue, Garlic Basil, Hot Bell Pepper) for 10 pesos each.

Fish and Chips

Fish and Fries. Sister was the one who went to the counter to order the foods (while I busied myself taking pictures of the place), and seeing the small boxes, she thought it might not be enough for us, so she also ordered a serving of fish and fries - served with the Sour Cream & Chives dip. This was really delicious, and I suddenly ran out of words to describe it. :) Sis and I really enjoyed this one.

Slammer Burgers in SM Fairview is located at the lower ground floor of the new atrium building. Going there, you need to take the escalator (going down) near ACE Hardware and walk a few more steps forward.

Now that we have tasted this one, I was then hoping for the next burger adventure. Next on my list was BBB (Big Better Burgers). On a sad note, me writing this food trip now makes me feel we should've eaten at Army Navy first because Army Navy closed a few weeks after this food trip, and Slammer Burgers is still very much alive.

*** Jenn ***



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