A simple family feast
Sundays are always reserved for our little family get-togethers. Without fail, we all flock to my parents-in-law’s house, which is, luckily for us, less than 2 kilometers away from ours, and in the same village. At 75, Mom still personally cooks for her brood of five sons and one daughter plus their spouses and children every Sunday. After cooking lunch for about 20 hungry people, she proceeds to prepare merienda. She’s a superwoman, Mom.
Sometimes, though, when a family member is celebrating a birthday, anniversary, promotion or whatever special occasion, that person/family takes care of merienda. Last March 11, it was my turn.
One of our househelp makes the best beefy, cheesy lasagna that’s really a hit with our family. It’s a very special secret recipe and I bet if she decides to make it into a full-blown business, she’ll be a rich woman in no time. I also ordered garlic sticks from Greenwich, which go perfectly well with the lasagna. For my vegetarian in-laws (Claro and family), I had a family size garden fresh pizza delivered, also from Greenwich.
Claro and his family know how much I love food, so they gave me a whole chocolate hazelnut cake from Chocolat (SM Mall of Asia) as a birthday present, upon my request. It’s everything that one looks for in a chocolate cake–perfectly moist and subtly sweet. This one claims to be of "the deep, dark kind" and has blocks of velvety smooth hazelnut chocolate on top. It’s remarkably good, but I wish it had more of the chocolate fudge icing.
Foodies in the know are no stranger to the chocolate cake of Polly’s Specialty Cakes and Desserts. It is a very popular cake for office parties and events, and also a regular in our family gatherings since Ms. Polly Garilao lives only a few streets away from our house. For my birthday treat, I ordered something different–the torta de cebu cupcakes. It’s actually quite good, but it’s nothing extra-ordinary. For me, it tastes just like Red Ribbon’s taisan loaf. It’s a nice cake to go with my morning tea, but not special enough for our family.
I also served bite-size pieces of food for the gods and carrot walnut squares, both from Mary Grace (available in most malls). Then there was brazo de mercedes in individual servings. This really yummy dessert was made by our neighbor Dollie, who is a fantastic homebaker. I ordered 2 dozens of the brazo and everyone liked it very much. I’m not fond of commercially-made brazo de mercedez myself, but Dollie’s is just wonderful–not too airy, and with a rich custard filling. Finally, I had wanted a really nice Hello Kitty birthday cake but I was on a budget, so I just bought a colorful ready-made cake from Art Cakes (vanilla, mocha, chocolate chiffon) and decorated it with a tiny Hello Kitty keychain from my collection. And with that, my 33rd birthday week celebration is officially over. 
