The Mommy Book

Ryan and I created a Chocolate Cheesecake for Emily's birthday. Our Chocolate Creations 2 minute read Cebu City, Philippines          Being friends with the Chocolate Queen Raquel Choa and her Chamber Keepers definitely has its perks.  For one thing, they shower us with their amazing artisanal products.  Our favorites are the Unsweetened Cacao Powder, Melted Chocolate, Tsokolate Bars and Cacao de Bola from The Chocolate Chamber .     We love these because we can create several other yummy treats from them!  So here I share with you some of our Chocolate Creations. Dark Chocolate Cheesecake      Ryan did the thick one, I did the thin one, through thick and thin!     Would you believe Ryan and I got the Chocolate Cheesecake idea from Geronimo Stilton?  So we finally baked, not one but two!  It was Emily's birthday.  The Melted Chocolate we got from Raquel was so rich and dark, very pure!  So we got the darkest chocolate cheesecake ever.     It had an equally dark Oreo Cheesecake

3 min read Cebu City. Philippines                Let me guess.  You’re worried your teenage boys are cooped up in the house playing gadgets, right?  Well honey, you’re not alone!                 In the midst of this madness of COVID 19, a lot of mommies have gotten busy in the kitchen.  I’m not a cook myself.  I have never even baked a cake ever!  So I tried to get my hand on both.  And I dragged my two teenage boys with me.                 Here I share with you 7 simple starter recipes that I used to lure my boys into the kitchen.  Believe me, none of us cook or bake.  But these make you love baking and cooking in no time! Good ol’ Pancakes               So why not start at the simplest recipe?  Pancakes!  We got all our recipes through Google – what can be more simple than that?  We used a Homemade Pancake Mix .                 We added in some chocolate chips and sometimes peanut butter chips.  We used Hershey’s and Reese’s.  And you can vary your pancakes in many wa

3 min. read Cebu City, Philippines                  Dark chocolate has always been my favorite.   Even when choosing chocolate bars, I search for the darker kinds.   I’m a big fan of our local sikwate (Filipino hot chocolate) too.   The thing is, I always thought it was not good for me.   I was always told it raises my blood pressure.                But would you believe the truth is actually the opposite?   Johns Hopkins nutritionist Diane Vizthum, M.S., R.D. i n an article titled “The Benefits of Having a Healthy Relationship with Chocolate” said it lowers blood pressure.                The article stated that dark chocolate contains antioxidants including a flavonol (compounds found in plants) called epicatechin.   Flavonols fight inflammation and protect against cell damage caused by free radicals.                Here are 2 main benefits of dark chocolate: Helps your heart.  It has antioxidants that lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of clotting and incr

To us, nothing beats Chef Ronald's Ube Cheese Pan de Sialo.           Soft, chewy ube cheese pandesal have made a comeback these days and have found its way back into the hearts of many Cebuanos.   This purple yam salt bread has flavorful cheese filling inside so it comes with a hefty surprise when you bite into it.           My boys are not really fond of ube, but my sister-in-law and I were curious as to which among the many variants sold in the city were the best ones.   We got to try five of them and here we share our two cents’ worth for quick reference. 1.   Ube Cheese Pan de Sialo           For us this is, hand’s down, the best.   The bread is amazingly soft and chewy.   The filling, oh wow, amazing!   Chef Ronald Villavelez is the genius behind this pastry.   He uses cream cheese for filling if requested, but most times, he uses aged cheddar.   Of course he uses only fresh, real-deal ube roots.   As for the bread, he uses precision in measurements, timing and t