It’s Christmas time again, a time to both celebrate and look back on the year that has been. And for our kitchen, here’s to update on some of our small wins as well as lessons learned — all which we’re grateful for during the second half of the year.
In July, while our teenager was still on school break and I was getting used to being a stay-at-home mom, we quite had a lot of time together in the kitchen. First in the list was our chocolate brownie with cream cheese, which he enjoyed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. A couple of days after, he tried making creamy carrot soup with some assistance. What surprised me was he also did the plating on his own! Several days later, on a weekend, we baked our very first dark chocolate pecan cake. It took us four hours to finish the cake, including time for decorating. It’s a bit lopsided but tasted really good! We just need to work on a smooth finish and better plating next time. Overall, we’re both proud and satisfied. We also had our first try at baking chocolate crinkles and, of course, the easy go-to breakfast of strawberry crepes.
Since July was quite a rainy month, we had a lot of bread and savory dishes, too. Thanks to our ever-reliable sourdough started for the boules, focaccia bread, and dinner rolls. With butter, dip or spread, and even as plain as it is, there’s no wrong way of enjoying bread indeed. And during the rainy days, salads and soups were here to stay.
August was a really exciting and busy month for us, too! I kicked off the month by attending the World Food Expo 2025 Baking Series Seminars, which were very informative and inspiring for an aspiring home baker like me. The joy, excitement, and learning I gained spilled over to the days that followed.
This month was purple yam (ube) and Guimaras mango month in our kitchen. I was so happy to be able to get fresh and deeply pigmented purple yam, which no longer called for ube extract to enhance the color of ube halaya that I was making. I also had really nice and sweet mangoes that perfectly paired with purple yam.
As such, for Part 1 of our ubemangoserye, our very first ube mango chiffon cake with buttercream frosting graced our kitchen. Making this 6-inch cake took much longer than I thought, but I must say that it’s worth all the effort. I honestly forgot to color the cake batter purple, but the inside of the cake still matched the mango toppings when sliced. And it turned out to be a fluffy cake with ube halaya filling, real ube sprinkles, and sliced mango toppings. The cake piping and the slightly lopsided cake only showed that I need more practice. Nonetheless, I’m happy to say that it’s only in the frosting that I used ube extract as coloring. All the rest were original purple yam color! Other purple yam highlights included ube vanilla yoghurt smoothie, ube halaya topped with grated cheese, and ube cheese sourdough bread. I was so mesmerized by how pretty the sliced bread looked like.
It seemed that we had not gotten enough of our ubemangoserye! Part 2 of the series included ube cheese and dark chocolate cookies, mango turon, and ube with butter icing cookies. The cookies tasted good, but I’m aiming for chunkier cookies next time. This second part of the series, however, highlighted more our ube parmesan burnt Basque cheesecake and Guimaras mango burnt Basque cheesecake.
We really couldn’t get enough of August! I upgraded our classic burnt Basque cheesecake with dark chocolate and pistachio toppings as a birthday gift to a colleague. Our teenager also enjoyed our banana fruit-and-nut bread with condensed milk. We craved for savory dishes and cooked traditional pata kare-kare, pork pochero, pancit bihon, chicken ala king Greenwich style (with a splash of 90s nostalgia), beef broccoli and mushroom, ginataang puso ng saging, and kimchi soup.
First-timers (and even dishes we had not cooked for a really long time) also graced our table this month as we had burnt Basque cheesecakes with dark chocolate ganache and fresh cherries and strawberries on top, cherry ice cream, sourdough brioche, pork pata humba, and chicken pastil.
Finally, to wrap up the month of August, we tried some uncommon yet tasty dishes along with some Filipino all-time favorites. As I wasn’t able to try the famous mango pizza of Guimaras Province when I was there, I baked one instead. I must say that it’s somehow an unusual taste for a pizza, but definitely good. Our teenager also requested salmon pesto pizza, which I also experimented with avocado. It’s a nice try, but we won’t recommend. The salmon pesto pizza is already good without the avocado. Other treats to end this month included overnight oats with fruits (which eventually became part of our regular breakfast menu), mango salsa paired with tinapa, mango ice cream, cranberry walnut sourdough bread, pork binagoongan, nachos with mango salsa, and sourdough bread with smoked salmon and cream cheese spread.
On to September we were! This month was special, not only because it’s my birthday month, but also because we started reintroducing our kitchen specials (which we hope to share with families and friends occasionally and upon request). I was amazed by how the teaser for each item turned out. I felt I could pass for an advertising job! Kidding aside, I enjoyed writing the teasers.
And for my birthday, I treated myself with a pistachio burnt Basque cheesecake topped with homemade pistachio cream and milk chocolates. I also baked a few birthday cakes for some family and friends like the mixed berry burnt Basque cheesecake with dark chocolate ganache and another one with salted caramel toppings.
Other pre- and post-birthday cakes and bakes included mini mixed berry cheesecake, gorgonzola cheesecake, blueberry muffins, banana fruit-and-nut bread, 3-cheese ensaymada, and chocolate crinkles 2.0. Some savory treats and cravings were creamy broccoli pumpkin soup paired with grilled cheese sourdough bread, mixed nuts sourdough bread, radish with liver sauce and ground pork, and pancit canton.
Lastly, my birthday month ended with our teenager and I co-designing and introducing our kitchen’s new logo. The graphics depict how our mother-son kitchen stories started. “The Muffins Project: A walk down memory lane” was the very first blog we published in this website.
October was quite a busy month, too. We kicked it off with some Filipino and not-so-Filipino savory dishes, such as Hawaiian pizza, tomato soup and sourdough toast, creamy carbonara, tuna kimchi soup with tofu and dumplings, macaroni soup, ginisang mongo and tinapang bangus, and pork igado. On the other hand, we ended the month with sweet and savory ones, including Biscoff cheesecake with chocolate toppings, almond sourdough bread, chicken Chinese fried rice, instant noodle soup with Korean dumplings, kimchi fried rice, creamy chicken stroganoff with lots of veggies, steamed pampano, and creamy beef stew with lots of veggies (again! yet it was originally intended as braised beef).
Our teenager foodie has a very versatile palate. And yes, he likes Italian, Korean, Chinese, and a lot more cuisines. He, of course, likes Filipino dishes such as dinuguan, laing, Bicol express, kare-kare, menudo, etc. — those usually served in parties and fiestas. In our meat dishes, however, I try to incorporate as much veggies as possible. As such, I deviate from the classic recipes sometimes just like in these chicken stroganoff and beef stew dishes.
The Biscoff cheesecake was plated by our teenager, topping it with a mini chocolate bar. It’s always a delight to see him try plating. In addition, the almond sourdough was a first-time bake (as suggested by a friend). While I knew that it wouldn’t have the same oven spring as the usual ones I bake, I was glad it turned out soft, smooth, and delicious!
November was a bit of a lull compared to other months, but it’s equally special. Well, probably, a bit more special as we navigated on some health concerns during the first week at least. I think I had been promoted to a soup master! Some of the soups I prepared were roasted cauliflower and sweet potato soup, corn and spinach soup, broccoli potato leek soup, and broccoli and pumpkin soup with mushroom meatballs.
Our teenager foodie prepared this green-and-pink layered pancakes for breakfast (with a little help from me, mostly in plating). He also requested that we have the baked spinach dip with chips for snacks.
In honor of a departed loved one, I prepared some of her favorite dishes. Actually, I learned to make chicken macaroni salad and pancit luglug from her during our younger years. A fond memory, of course, is that she always made them so well! This time, I also made the fruit-and-chocolate medley cheesecake, which I wished I could have personally gifted her on her special day.
Our kitchen highlights mid-November were a combination of special requests from family and friends. The chocolate medley cheesecake as well as the cranberry walnut cookies were both first-time bakes requested by friends. The pancake and overnight oats were our teenager’s breakfasts. We enjoyed our plain sourdough bread with butter, cream cheese spread, and some sweet spreads. On the other hand, after a trial bake of almond sourdough bread last time, I finally baked one for a friend.
To wrap up the month of November, we embarked on the Part 1 of our Uberserye. First on the list was the ube parmesan cheesecake requested by a friend, plus an extra for us. It was followed by ube cheese toast requested by our teenager for snacks. The ube halaya is our all-time favorite dessert as always.
We had a lot on the list for this series but ran out of time to execute. As such, we’re reserving them for our Uberserye Part 2 next year. In mind are ube cheese ensaymada, ube smoothie, ube cheese buchi, ube polvoron, ube cookies, ube banana bread, ube muffins, and a lot more!
On the other hand, we’re able to bake classic burnt Basque cheesecake and walnut sourdough for a friend. We also made sugar-free version of our banana fruit-and-nut bread for another friend.
As for some of our random cravings, we had beef pochero (from leftover bulalo), and Korean cheese ramen paired with dumplings (mandu).
Finally, there’s another overnight oat breakfast for our teenager. It has actually become intentional to have overnight oats as part of our regular breakfast menu. I learned that adding two to three types of fresh fruits and some honey makes it more appealing and palatable to him.
Then came December! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, la-la-la-la! We welcomed the first day of the month with these Christmas-themed treats: buttery and fruity mini-French toast Christmas wreath; and pistachio cranberry cinnamon rolls with salted caramel and powdered sugar glaze. Our teenager woke up to this colorful breakfast of mini-French toast. He was then treated to an afternoon snack of cinnamon roll later that day.
And for our teenager to wake up excitedly each morning, I agreed to prepare him Christmas-themed breakfasts at least six days each week (we’re taking a break on Sundays) before Christmas.
Every night for three weeks, our teenager was asking me what’s for breakfast the next day. I always replied, “It’s a surprise.” Honestly, I was still thinking and would only finalize each breakfast idea in the morning. Considerations, of course, included ingredients I had at home (or what were readily available).
I felt I overcommitted, but the joy each surprise breakfast treat gave him made it worth all the effort! The whole experience was challenging for reasons that each breakfast had to be appetizing, easy to prepare, and nutritious. I hope the meals passed the “healthy meal” criteria. Honestly, it’s tempting to just do it the easier way.
I’m happy that our teenager liked everything I prepared. In the case of the chicken tortilla rolls, I asked him that particular morning if I could have the last piece. He said okay but added, “Honestly Mom, I thought of not giving it to you. I wanted the last piece because of how good this breakfast is.” Oh, my sweet boy! And to wrap up our Christmas-themed breakfast series, we made our final entry more Christmasy the Filipino way with our bibingka pancakes.
What a year it has been indeed! Life isn’t perfect, just like this cake I baked. The shape didn’t form perfectly, but I was still excited to decorate and make it Christmasy. There’s so much to be happy and grateful for — usually from everyday simple things and experiences. As I look back, I realized that many of my prayers have already been answered. Although some were not answered the way I wanted them to, I am still grateful and trust that God knows best.
As always, in the kitchen and in life in general, I put my mind, heart, and mind in everything I do. I learned recently, however, as I embrace my season as a stay-at-home mom that self-love and self-care isn’t something to be guilty about. Accidents could happen like falls, cuts, burns, bumps and bruises, scratches and the like, so mindfulness is necessary. We, who take delight in ticking our to-do list, filling up our time with tasks and chores all day long (with mental load carrying over into the night!), deserve much needed rest. As our busyness could intensity during the holiday season, we must remember that we are allowed to rest. There’s beauty in rest. And if you’re in your season of rest and waiting, embrace it with joy and hope for whatever is in store for you as your next season unfolds.
Thank you for still believing in us. We are still baking and cooking with love and happiness. We wish everyone a joy-filled Christmas and a hope-filled new year! ❤️