How about Italian food? Not just any Italian food- the best I’ve had in Manila.

Time for full disclosure first: this restaurant is run by my stepdad. He’s Italian American and has been a restaurateur all his life. He knows food, good food. Food like this:

That, gentle reader, is Beef Carpaccio. The dish is made up of thin slivers of raw beef tenderloin, generous shavings of Parmigiano, fresh arugula, capers and a lemony vinaigrette whose memory has my mouth watering as I type this. It is swoon-worthy perfection on a plate, a dish they’ve simply gotten right. And in the five or six times I’ve been there, they’ve gotten it right every time (yes, I order it every time).

The restaurant is Casa Nostra, opened last June in Makati. They serve lunch, but the truth is that it’s absolutely lovely as a dinner destination: slightly out of the way on a quiet corner of Pasong Tamo Extension. The perfect place to have a love affair with food.

Speaking of which:

Behold the Linguine alla Vongole, a dish I’m too often disappointed by. Casa Nostra’s version is excellent. The clams are juicy, the noodles packed with flavor. With every bite, I think this is what Italian food is about – fresh ingredients, bold flavors, and portions that would make an Italian Mamma proud.

Casa Nostra is located on the ground floor of the Ecoplaza Building on Pasong Tamo Extension.

Website: CasaNostra-restaurant.com
Facebook: facebook.com/CasaNostraRestaurant

Yes, I’m back. And things did get really busy for me. To catch you up:

• My little online bakeshop has been doing very well. It’s gotten to the point where I sometimes have to decline orders. This makes me a little sad, but I’d rather not overwhelm myself with so many orders that quality suffers (I bake everything myself).
• We quietly launched the Food Bloggers Network, a project I’m obviously extremely passionate about.
• I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter. I have two accounts: a personal one and one for my bakeshop.
• I now blog regularly about several things: web development over at Devlounge, recipes at bFeedMe, and all things Apple at Apple Gazette. I also create and post video tutorials at Tubetorial.

What a busy bee I’ve been. Of course, with all of this going on, sometimes my husband and I don’t have time to prep and cook meals for ourselves. Which is how I discovered what’s become one of my favorite take-out dishes ever:

The truth is, the thought of Cheeseburger Pizza never appealed to me. Shredded lettuce? Burger sauce? But the other day, already in a bad mood from the heat and hunger pangs, I grudgingly ordered a Cheeseburger Pizza from Shakey’s, requesting a “New York Hand-Tossed” crust.

I loved it. The lettuce, the sweetish sauce, the cheese… all of them worked surprisingly well atop a chewy crispy pizza with lots of mozzarella.

My products currently include some of the best cupcakes you’ll ever have, as well as some cookies and bars that I’ve developed throughout the years. Please do check it out »

The springtime colors are adorable, and I would love to set out a bowl much like the one above at our Easter Sunday table. You see, because these doughnuts are Krispy Kreme, you know that they’re not just pretty- they probably taste awesome as well.

Visit Krispy Kreme Philippines’ website or one of their shops at Bonifacio High Street, TriNoma, SM Megamall, Mall of Asia, or Greenhills Shopping Center.

This is something we’ve been working on that I’m very excited about: the brand spankin’ new Food Bloggers Network!

It’s a community driven site where members submit their favorite posts from food blogs, and vote on them! (Think “Digg” for food bloggers).

I hope you’ll join in and share your delicious food blog posts with us!

For 2008, my resolutions are simple:

1. Eat less junk food.
2. Make Smitten Kitchen’s Red Velvet Cake.
3. Participate in more Lasang Pinoy editions.
4. Cook at home more, eat out less, and
5. Spend more time outdoors, especially with the dogs.

Happy, Happy New Year to you!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
I mentioned previously that I would be baking these and giving them away to close friends and family. Each batch, of course, required a taste test… which we were more than happy to do! Never mind that our recipe, based loosely on Alton Brown’s The Chewy, is something we’ve perfected in the past.

Frozen Brazo de Mercedes
My best friend gifted us with a gigantic tray of this, one of the most decadent, delicious things I’ve ever put in my mouth. I know I should post the telephone number of where it came from, but I’m too lazy to go to the freezer and write it down. I will soon, though. You simply MUST try it. *UPDATE: The frozen brazo is from Ana’s Kitchen, telephone 852-8224.

Christmas Ham from Santis
I love ham, especially Santis ham, anytime of the year, but Christmas ham is somehow more special. Taken with some thinly sliced queso de bola, it’s a holiday must-eat for me.

Queso de Bola
I love having one (or two) of these shiny red balls around. For breakfast today, I grated some up and made giant cheese omelettes for us. Creamy, salty, and awesome.

I could go on, I suppose- listing every naughty treat we’ve received from well-meaning friends and neighbors (don’t you love having neighbors? I LOVE having neighbors!) this year, but I need to go have a cup of hot chocolate and watch Home Alone on DVD now. What goodies are you enjoying this season?

We celebrated Halloween at home this year, watching the kids in costume come and go, and RUNNING OUT OF CANDY IN 45 MINUTES. I’m not kidding, 45 minutes is how long our 151 bags of candy lasted.

Some of the family came over to enjoy some smoked sausages, sauerkraut, and potato salad (all made by my superstar husband), red candied apples (made by me!), and keg of beer (that’s right, a whoooole kegger!)

Naturally, I forgot to photograph the food and drinks, but here’s some of the candy:

and a photo of our staff, dressed up and ready to scare the neighborhood kids:

We’re still recovering.

outside: tons of fondant to make the tokidoki figure (and a lot of toothpicks), and to create the bag. the hearts and crossbones were hand-piped by her assistant, claire, onto wax paper, then dried and applied to the cake with more royal icing. inside: eight layers of vanilla macadamia nut cake with buttercream and a generous lashing of grand marnier.
(via the scent of green bananas)

We had to bring the husband’s iMac in for repairs at the lovely Apple Store yesterday, and thought we’d drop by Cupcakes by Sonja on our way home. The cupcakes, all eight that we bought, went quickly- so quickly that all I could photograph was the box they came in. But it’s a pretty box.

This was the second time we’ve had Sonja’s cupcakes, and have already chosen our favorites, which are:

Red Velvet Vixen. Traditional Southern Cake made with Belgian Cocoa and Cream cheese icing. My personal favorite. I will not share this, not even with my dear sweet husband.

Bunny Huggers Carrot Cake.  Very moist cake made with fresh carrots topped with cream cheese frosting. Okay, so I’m a sucker for cream cheese frosting- and for carrot cake, for that matter. This is nicely done, not too spicy.

Lemon Drop. Delicious vanilla cake smoothered in our signature lemon buttercream frosting. Tangy lemon, mmmm!

Read more about Cupcakes by Sonja at these blogs (external links):

• Ramblings from a Gypsy Soul
• Market Manila
• The Scent of Green Bananas
• Filipino Food Photoblog