The Honeymoon Cafe [Houston, TX]

I have found my new favorite breakfast place there’s one catch though—it’s in Houston! On our way to getting lost further in downtown Houston in search of a place to brunch, we found this French café and decided to try it. The named sounded familiar then I remembered bookmarking it on Yelp under my to-try list in Houston. The place did not disappoint. Everything was delicious and the quaint ambiance made the place perfect for my last meal with J and C in Houston...for now.

I see C!

Breakfast BLT with a sunny side up egg that I ate with a knife and a fork.

French Toast. J ordered this one and it tasted like one of my most favorite Filipino desserts, saba con yelo. It was spectacular.

Smoked Salmon with Poached Egg. This was equally as yummy as it looks. 

C's cup of joe. 

Find them on Yelp here!

Foodie Adventures: MILK

It appears like I have forgotten to post these marvelous photos. Marvelous because I took them, edited them and mainly because it is all about food. On a more relevant note, like I said on Instagram, I take whatever I said back. MILK is an awesome place. You can find it in Central LA, only a few miles from LACMA...and across the street from Buzzfeed and Blick Art Store.

Attack.

Banana Dulce De Leche Ice Cream

Chocolate Chip Cookie with Walnuts

The Grasshopper: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Macaron

A Day Out in Los Angeles: LA Gun Club + Urth Caffe + The Last Bookstore

A few weeks ago, our cousin invited us to go to a firing range and because Ron and I are up for anything new, and I am personally up for anything that would allow me to spend more time with my cousins, I was so down. So we planned to spend our Sunday at the Los Angeles Gun Club. At first I was excited but as soon as we entered the area where the shooting lanes were, I started getting nervous and I wanted to run out.  Like I said in one of my Instagram posts, I did well but I did not like it. On a more positive note, I am happy that at least I can say that I have tried it at least once in my life.

I got so stressed that I wanted to eat afterwards. Hahaha! I saw on Yelp that Urth Caffe was only a quarter mile away so we went there. I loved everything that I/we tried, including the Green Tea Boba (thanks ate!) except for the salad - it was too earthy for me, I wish I had asked for a sweeter, fruitier dressing.

Ysa's Fruit Tart to start her meal (right) ;)

The "New Yorker" Sandwich

Grilled Cilantro Chicken with Pesto

Margarita Pizza

Our last stop was the Last Bookstore. This place is wonderful. It is indeed a candy store for book lovers and vinyl collectors. Also, it gave me and my cousin a hipster-y feeling. We loved this place and I plan to make a separate post because of all the amount of pictures that I took. Also, coming back is in our to-do list in the coming months. :)

The Morning I Made Ebeskivers

I love making Christmas breakfast. However, last year, it was just Ron, my mom and I, so we did not have a breakfast feast. My mom and I also slept in so yeah, the big breakfast did not happen. We planned it though, that's why I bought this pan a week before Christmas but ended up not using until one summer morning when I woke up with no hangover (I say that because it was the morning after hanging out with my cousins). That was the morning when I made Ebeskivers.

Eberlskivers are traditional Danish pancakes which unlike our regular pancakes, are the in a spherical shape. They are as yummy but you can eat it with your hands! ;)

We also had mangoes at home, so to incorporate something that Ron loves (because he's not a huge fan of pancakes), I sliced one up and prepared it.

 For this recipe, I used Krusteaz Light and Fluffy (our favorite kind) because I was not in the mood to measure and mix pancakes from scratch. LOL! I prepared the pan by buttering it, poured a tablespoon of batter and plopped a tablespoon of sliced mangoes.

 When the bottom is cooked and starts looking like it has a thing crispy crust, turn it over and wait until the color evens out. :)

If you'd like to try this but you need a pan, here are a few options where you can buy one:

  Target for $44.99

Amazon for $18.02 (This is what I use)

Super Easy Tomato, Basil and Parmesan Pasta

There is actually a good backstory on why I made this: Epi and I cooked too much pasta for their (super duper good) Clam Pasta. Yeah, that's a really good story, isn't it? LOL

Anyway, aside from the pasta, we also have leftover basil leaves that I did not really want to go to waste because basil smells so fresh and it mixes well with almost everything! Before anything else though, if you'd like to skip the pictures, the complete recipe is at the bottom of this post.

This is probably the easiest recipe I will share on my blog. It only requires a few ingredients that almost every household has. Let's start with the "sauce," below are the three of the four ingredients you need to prepare. The fourth one is the pasta, if you don't have cooked pasta yet, cook 8 ounces of pasta according to the package instructions. If you have cooked pasta, measure 20 ounces or four cups for this recipe. For your future reference, 2oz uncooked pasta is 5oz cooked pasta. Also, every 2 oz uncooked pasta is a cup of cooked pasta. I know that from my own research. ;)

Next step is to heat a table tablespoon of EVOO and mix in the basil leaves, minced garlic and the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Once well incorporated, toss in the pasta. You can use any pasta by the way. :)

If you're serving the whole thing at the table, you can garnish it with 3/4-1 cup (or as much as you want) grated parmesan cheese. But if you're eating it one plate at a time because your husband does not enjoy pasta dishes as much as you (Hahaha), garnish your plate with as much parmesan cheese as your heart desires.

Ingredients:

• 20 oz cooked pasta or 8oz uncooked pasta (but please make sure to start cooking this before you start preparing the ingredients)
• 3 tomatoes, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, sliced
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• paremsan cheese
• salt
• pepper 

Directions:

1. Prepare pasta if needed.
2. Heat the EVOO, mix in the tomatoes, garlic and basil leaves.
3. Toss in the pasta and make sure the herbs are evenly distributed.
4. Garnish with parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Another picture just for the heck of sharing it. :p

Peanut Butter Banana Carrot Pupcakes

Because I did not want to make a whole cake for Fox's birthday last month, I decided to make little servings that we can give out to the other dogs at the dog park...which did not happen because there were too few dogs and the owners were sitting at the other end of the park from us. LOL Nevertheless, Fox and his cousin Tashi gobbled them up. Tashi even ate Fox's muffin's last bite. Haha!

I started with putting together all the wet ingredients mixing them until they are well incorporated.

 

 Then I folded in the carrots.

 Then mixed in the sifted wheat flour and baking soda.

 Then off it goes to the oven!

 TA-DAAAA!

 And of course, the taste test... I also included a link of his video eating it below. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 mashed banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey (optional)
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare muffin pans by lining them.
2. Combine the egg, peanut butter, apple sauce, mashed banana, vanilla, and honey, if desired, in a large bowl; blend well. I wanted to add plain non-fat yogurt but we don't have any on hand. It could have made the muffin a lot more moist.
3. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly. Sift together the flour and baking soda and fold into the carrot mixture. Scoop batter into muffin pans. I used my normal cookie scoop for this.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes for the mini muffins and 15 minutes for the bigger muffins. Turn out onto a wire rack immediately to cool completely.

Note: Now Fox's muffins did not come out moist like the reviews from the original recipe I got this from because I did not use oil. It just felt wrong to put oil into something that my dog would eat. However, if you're okay with giving your dog oil, you can do that as well.

And as promised, here is Fox's taste test video:

[Food] Photography Friday

I always tell myself and my family that I should be a food photographer. I love food. I love taking pictures of them. I mean, you know. But times have changed and everyone has become a food photographer so let me just show you the two scrumptious desserts we shared with the family during one of the weekends in March. :)

Evil #1: Tiramisu

Evil #2: Cheesecake