Hush-hush due to Holiday Rush

I know I’ve been neglecting this blog.  And it might seem as if I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen during the holidays. Which is exactly the opposite. I’ve been busy in the kitchen the past month– testing out recipes for the shop,  baking for friends, baking food orders and  cooking for our Noche Buena. That plus the Online shop’s  Christmas Sale and the things I had to settle and put into place before I fly off again, well, I had not much time to feel all Christmassy really. I was just glad I was with the family during the holidays.

Anyhow, I took on the challenge to prepare all the goodies for our Noche Buena in Davao.

It was just four of us in Davao–  Dad, the two younger cousins and me since mother and brother decided to spend Christmas in Paranaque since  the brother had to rush some of his thesis stuffs during the holiday.  To be a bit more festive, we decided to have the dinner outdoor in the garden so we can have cool air and the added buzz of the christmas lights from our home and from the neighbors .  Anyway, since I seldom spend Christmas in the Philippines, I wanted to do some heavy duty cooking.  In a way, I wanted to recall how it was when I was still based in Pinas and we’d spend the Christmas as a family. Starting when I was in college, I had taken the task to make our Christmas and New Year’s menu so this was something I was raring to do again.

This was the menu I made for this year’s Noche Buena:

Baby Back Ribs with homemade Barbeque Sauce

Baked Chicken Tetrazinni (my specialty, and the pasta my father loves best!)

Taco Salad

Fried Prawn Wontons

Orange Chiffon Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Festive Orange Chiffon Cupcakes

Graham Cracker Cake (made by my younger cousin)

Non-alcoholic punch

White Wine

store-bought breadsticks

fruits

It was a pretty fun Noche Buena. We slept at past two, we were all laughing recalling stories about our family, with me grilling the two younger cousins who are both still studying about  their plans  for the future.

All of the goodies for this Menu are stuffs I’ve made before so I pretty much prepped the stuffs that had to be prepped.

I made the barbeque sauce two days before and marinated the ribs for a day so the flavor could seep in.

The pasta is the sort I can make with my eyes closed so it was a breeze doing it.

The hard part was the timing. Because I only have 1 oven, I had to pace the cooking so that the food were ready by midnight but were still hot.  The ribs had to be baked for 2 hours, the pasta had to be baked for 45 minutes and the wontons had to be fried perfectly so that they will still be hot and crispy when they are served.  It almost felt like I was running a diner haha! With my two assistants following my bark of commands.

But it felt great and I think we were happy with the results.  Food were great, according to my father. And that’s  all the thanks I need.

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