The Unofficial Cook

On our last visit to Younger Sister in Florida last Thanksgiving, she handed us a tub of Olivio Premium Spread for our toast at breakfast.  I was first intrigued by the packaging because it carried Lee Iacocca’s name on it.  But when she told me that it was made from olive oil, I got even more intrigued.  My first taste convinced me that this was the one product I would always choose to have on my toast.  No matter who makes it, or what it’s made of, IT IS DELICIOUS.  it doesn’t hurt that it is also has 85 percent less saturated fat than butter and is cholesterol-free. (more…)

Thank goodness for unpredictable Colorado weather!  It got warm enough for Spouse and I to indulge in a pint of another untested flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

This time we decided to try “Peanut Butter Cup” and were not disappointed.

My first spoonful reminded me of “Choc-Nut”, my favorite Philippine sweet.  Choc-Nut was the reward I got from the sari-sari store owner off 11th Street?in New Manila. My yaya would take the day’s pig slop from my grandmother’s household to the store owner who had her little pigpen in her backyard.  I was just a toddler but remember accompanying my yaya and being handed a Choc-Nut or two when we said our good byes.  I have always loved Choc-Nut.  I found it in a Filipino store here once but was disappointed to find the Choc-Nut had gone old and stale. (more…)

Spouse just read in some Yahoo group that Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was available in Angeles City, Pampanga. That’s a big surprise cause I thought it wasn’t available at all back home. I thought we’d have to go to Hongkong or Singapore if we wanted another spoonful of our favorite Cherry Garcia once we moved.

Ben and Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book (more…)

The recipe I used for this cake was actually not a good choice.  It’s called a Kentucky Butter Cake and I found it in the website www.allrecipes.com

I have to admit I was impressed with all the positive feedback the recipe generated.  It’s just too sweet for our taste and if I ever do this cake again, some adjustments have to be made.  First of all, I will not leave the cake in the pan as long as I did.  It got stuck in the pan after I left it in the refrigerator for a day and took me a long time and a lot of hot water to get the cakes out.

So, instead of getting into the recipe, I’ll give you some tips for the assembly. (more…)

“The following is a paid review:”

Hi, this is the Spouse chiming in here at The UnofficialCook. Mita and I have been enjoying working on this site for several years now. Recently I signed up with a company called ReviewMe which offers bloggers a chance to write reviews of products that advertisers want to showcase. We’ve been eagerly looking forward for the first appropriate assignment, and here it is. I’m sad to say it can’t be very positive, but hey, here at “The Cook” you’re always going to get the unadulterated truth. The product in question is a web site sales service known as:

Absinthe Alcohol Online. I strongly suggest you read the rest of this review before you run off to visit them, though. There are a few reservations .. well more than a few .. I have to share with you. I’m going to break them into two sections … Legalities and eCommerce concerns:

Legalities:

The very first thing that came to my mind is the question, is this legal? The answer is a little muddy on several levels. I’m going to address first the legality/illegality of Absinthe in the United States … because that’s where most of our readers are and that’s where the body of legal data is concerned with. If you live elsewhere then you need to check up on the local laws in your country because they likely vary widely from the US “take” on the issue.

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I was at Hi-Top Supermarket along Quezon Avenue in Quezon City with Eldest and Youngest Sisters, the Father, the Spouse, the Nephews and Eldest Sister’s Youngest Daughter on Maundy Thursday. Hi-Top is one of my old stomping grounds and I’ll write more about it when I have a photo to go with the post. For now, take a look at the ice cream photo here. Have you seen a greener ice cream?! If you’re Filipino, you’d probably answer in the affirmative. We’ve all had Avocado Ice Cream after all. Yes, you read right – Avocado Ice Cream. (more…)

This sherbet is made with young coconut which we call “buko” in the Philippines. Buko is perfect for a sherbet because the water from a young coconut has a slight sweetness that makes the perfect base. The tender coconut meat when chopped fine and churned with the buko juice also enhances the sherbet’s texture, making it amazingly creamier.

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 Has anyone tried the new slow churned ice cream Dreyer’s has been advertising with that goofy commercial?  I say goofy because I didn’t get it that the man who enters the supermarket is the manager…oh well, my brain was slow-churning I guess. (more…)

I bought dried fish from the Filipino Sari-Sari Store the other day…my craving for a Filipino breakfast overcame my apprehensions about getting one of good-quality.  This wasn’t so bad.  But man…was it salty!  My tastes must have changed more than I realized.  I used to enjoy dried fish. 

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The Filipino food bloggers’ event, Lasang Pinoy celebrates it’s first year anniversary this month of August. Congratulations and here’s to more participants and anniversaries!

This month’s theme, Definitively Pinoy, was not so easy for me.  I wanted to do  the Ilokano dishes “dinengdeng” or  “pinakbet” that my mother does so well.  I could,  but it just wouldn’t be the same without the best ingredients.  So instead, I decided to feature a very Pinoy food product everyone who grew up in the Philippines will remember from their childhood:  Choc-Nut.  Just the mention of this chocolate and peanut confection elicits happy memories for Pinoys.  (more…)

This is Number 6 in the Top Ten Flavors from Ben & Jerry’s.  I’m surprised it isn’t higher on the list!  I scooped out a bit of the ice cream to show some of the chunks.  If you’ll look closely, the ice cream is almost overflowing.  That’s really because of the lower air pressure in Colorado.  Products packaged at lower altitudes have this tendency to almost jump out of their packaging when we open it here.  Looks like there’s more of the product….and that works fine for me.

This is really THE chocolate lover’s dream ice cream.  The base is a smooth milk chocolate, not too sweet, which is just the way I like it.  Then they  put a lot into this little pint.  What isn’t in this ice cream?  Not much.  It had generous chunks of white chocolate (my favorite), walnuts, chocolate covered almonds, pecans and dark chocolate chips.  If you haven’t tried it, you really must.