The Mommy Book

Olive Focaccia wrapped in paper and a box of The Chocolate Chamber's Mint Chocolate Powder   2 - 3 min read Cebu City, Philippines             It seems Hannah Choa, of Chocolate Chamber fame, has decided to bake homemade breads in the middle of quarantine.   She started with White Bread and now she experimented on Focaccia.             We got a sample of her Olive Focaccia at its infancy stage and it was ah-mazing!   If some people have a green thumb, Hannah sure has magic in her hands with baking!             So here we were with two packs of focaccia (along with The Chocolate Chamber’s powdered cacao chocolate with mint – plus cakes that deserve a separate article) and I wondered.   How may I serve this for my two teenage boys?   (And eldest Dad, of course.)             You’d be amazed at the versatility of this Italian bread.   So I decided 3 delicious ways of serving it.   I’ll share them with you here along with quick recipes. Olive Focaccia with Cheesy Italian

        2 min. read Cebu City, Philippines.           What makes a good bread?  There are certain qualities that people look for in a good bread.  We all have our own favorites.  For most of us Cebuanos, white bread is a staple.  And we usually have the usual sliced bread in our kitchen shelf.          Me and my boys love the commercially-available Ichipan white bread.  Sometimes, we run to the nearest Julie’s bakeshop for their rare special sliced bread.  But when a family friend introduced her daughter’s loaf to us, we were forever spoilt.     Here are 3 reasons we love Hannah’s White Bread: Freshly Baked     We all know that anything fresh-from-the-oven is heavenly.  And that’s what Hannah’s bread is all about.  She bakes it on the day you pick it up!  So it’s definitely by order basis only.  It’s still slightly warm when you hold the carefully packed loaf in your hands.  And you can’t wait to get home for a slice to bite straight into it! Just the right Texture     Hannah’s bread

Dr. Amparito Llamas-Lhuillier reads “A Story of Christmas” to the children. (Photos by Richard Ramos) As a mother of two growing boys, I am extremely particular on the adage that reading is a must for self-development.  So despite going home from a busy day at work tired and wanting sleep, I try my best to have the will and want to read a book at bedtime. My boys look forward to it.  Not only do they learn things they also know their Mom, or Dad, loves them so much and wants to spend time with them reading. Not all kids are as fortunate.  Thus I felt great motherly warmth for Cebu City Marriott Hotel for creating a heart-tugging event dubbed “A Story of Christmas.” One fateful afternoon at the posh business hotel, several kids from the Children’s Center of Cebu gathered at the Sampaguita Hall for a story-telling session.  I believe the kids had no idea who their grand story-teller was – none other than a renowned Cebu patroness and businesswoman Dr. Amparito

I believe there is no greater compliment than a child writing praises to a parent, so when I read Nancy Cudis post about her Mom, I felt her Mom is the most lucky Mom in the world.   My mother and her unusual breakfast time tales By Nancy Cudis My mother is a born storyteller, very verbose and quite animated. Just like her own mother, she remembers many stories from long ago, even from the time when she started first grade. Mind you, not all of these are happy bedtime stories that make you smile before you sleep. These are tragic tales of the Japanese occupation, of unrequited love, of regrets, and of what-could-have-beens and what-ifs, pretty much balanced off with stories of climbing the neighbor’s mango tree (and harvesting some fruits without permission), of harvesting cacao at her family’s own backyard, and of endless talking over laundry by the riverside. Unsurprisingly, my mother being my mother—a maddening petite package of bluntness and gentleness, of fr