baby rambutan

something chocolate, i thought, to soothe my 6th grader’s ambivalent feelings about the first day of school. he’s been requesting these, for the longest time, and it was really weighing on my mind.


i never want to recycle old posts! i swear.
my baby rambutan has been on this blogworld for 7 years now, and i am really quite determined to keep her going for as long as i’m able. i am also keen on keeping things fresh and new for myself, and for all of my readers, loyal and faithful, and largely silent, but i do know you’re out there, i love you!
so i meant to just put up a link to this really delicious marshmallow clouds when, to my absolute surprise (horror! disdain! shame!) i discovered i had not even put up a title, way back when? February 14, 2005. it is a great disservice to this recipe–just you remember, my kids always request for me to make this, and if you make them, you will know why. scroll way, way down there, i don’t know how to fix it but it’s down there ↓ from babyrambutan.blogspot.com (more…)

so, who would eat healthy cookies?
i mean, it’s a contradiction in terms isn’t it–a healthy cookie? when someone says that, a cookie that’s good for you, i automatically turn on my skeptic button that goes, beep beep beep, system failure! system failure!
but when i got these cookies in the mail (my kids were thrilled no end), i immediately tore them open, sniffed them, cut them into portions for me and my kids to try…


…and we all passed judgment, and poured out the milk:
our favorites were the tropical and the original recipes. the alpine? i think it would be best to stick to dark chocolate instead of carob, but that’s just me.
who’d have thought! a delicious healthy cookie? yes! yes! yes!
with only a few ingredients and not a drop of butter or a dusting of flour, these incredibly moist and chewy and most importantly tasty cookies will impress your tastebuds.
ingredients from the website:
“Original Caveman Cookies are made with honey, almond meal, walnuts, raisins, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Tropical Caveman Cookies are made with almond meal, honey, unsulfured coconut, macadamia nuts, and ginger.
Alpine Caveman Cookies are made with honey, hazelnut meal, almond meal, and toasted ground carob.”
click here to learn more about caveman cookies and their provenance, and for more info on where to buy….

*i received a free sample of caveman cookies.*

i’ve been eating them straight out of the box, washed of course, but i think they’d be just wonderful with cakes and whipped cream…not that i have the go-ahead from the doctors or nurses or nutritionists but i would really really gobble them up like that. amen.
and here’s the current earbug to go with it!

we have really very few heat wave days in Boston.
the only thing to do is to have fun while keeping cool–i get really sentimental about how i am reminded of childhood, in the Philippines, hot summer days at my grandparents’ home in Kamuning, eating cold frozen treats.
my lola loved ice cream and she always bought us barquillos to eat with the ice cream: you stick it in, then you scoop them up like so.
like ice cream with barquillos antennae. (in this case, Royal Moments wafer rolls (roule d’or) from Delacre, a French brand of light and airy cookies.)

did you ever watch “My Favorite Martian”? Uncle Martin?
if you’re ever lucky enough to encounter this, scoop it up, like so…

ah, summer. i do love you.
i make it a point to not ever, ever complain when i am sweating it out, or baking in the hot sun, and anyone who’s been in New England, January or February thereabouts, will understand.
with three kids you’ll also understand why during the hot summer months we spend a lot of time thinking about, and trolling the supermarket aisles, for frozen treats.


Magnum ice cream bars, with real Belgian chocolate…you’ve seen the fancy TV ads? with Rachel Bilson hopping on tops of cars to get to the ice cream truck stuck in traffic?

this is a new addition to our favorites list, right up there with dripping fruit bars and fancy mixed flavors and plain old chocolate or vanilla or pistachio or cookie dough.

as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received a coupon for Magnum ice cream bars.

we made our own “fire”-works at home.
my grill chef is very serious about his craft.

burgers, ‘dogs, bacon-wrapped scallops, chicken yakitori, grilled whole tilapia, pork bellies, eggplants, boiled corn, were on the menu.
we had to burn some fallen branches and twigs we’ve been collecting the past year from the winter storms and autumn winds.

and then we had berry cake with streusel topping.

recipe follows; it is from a blueberry cake, from the Boston Globe Food section, 29 June 2011.
to be honest, i am not a fan of blueberries (yeah yeah i know it’s very good for me, but still…) i do love raspberries, and blackberries? i thought i’d throw them in for a color punch.—–> (more…)

it has been one celebration after another, quite happily so, in stark contrast to same time, last year.
we’ve had birthdays, a graduation (cum laude! ), concerts, and Mother’s and Father’s Days and to top it off–just like that chocolate glaze up there…my mom’s here with us.
the city of Boston too has something really big to celebrate, so big that there has been nothing else on the local news, seemingly.
while i’m not much of a sports spectator nor fan, my husband is a diehard loyal Boston sports fanatic: Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots,Bruins… he’s always there for them, win or lose. so for him, for Father’s Day, for the Stanley Cup that the Boston Bruins brought home from the enemy ice rink…and for the relaunch of the sad, abandoned and neglected baby rambutan, i decided to make the “wicked awesome Boston Cream Pie” that’s the trademark dessert Boston is known for, that’s not even a pie.
it’s a golden layer cake with cream filling and a chocolate top. go figure!

(recipe from Cook’s, March & April 2011).

this is New England, the husband always reminds me. no matter what the calendar says, nor how the crocuses are forcing their way out of the frozen soil, it hasn’t felt very much like springtime yet.
so instead of munching on crispy greens and light meals, we’re still chowing down on hot hearty stews and saucy entrees.

this wonderful large coffee table size cookbook by Jacques Pepin is my current food bible–and no i am not being compensated, haha, i am doing this out of pure admiration and of my own “free” will. in “Chez Jacques” he has simplified some classic recipes for us amateurs so that the once-intimidating boeuf Bourguignon which i’ve been longing to make all winter, is now accessible and easy to put together on a cold dreary Sunday for supper.

and in keeping with the theme of seeking cozy comfort in rich dark food…a new Classic dark chocolate layer cake recipe from “a Passion for baking”, by Marcy Goldman:
…iced with mocha whipped cream.

recipe for cake follows——> (more…)

we had an “appetizer and bubbly party”…

followed by a Belgian milk chocolate fondue, with fresh fruits and cookies and pound cake for dipping.
2010, i cannot remember you without crying.
2011, i welcome you, then.

it’s all about this…

not so much this,

nor this (homey eve’s dinner: beef rib roast, Yorkshire puddings, scalloped potatoes, green salad),

nor these:

almond cookie “logs”

crema de fruta

very nutty fruit cake. but they do make it all that much sweeter.

recipes willingly shared, in exchange for a sweet hello .