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

I used this recipe I found online. Please note that I halved this recipe, since we’re- um- not a family of seven.

The crust was way too thick at the bottom- completely my fault- but my husband liked it anyway. Next time, I’ll use less crust, and pre-cook it before filling it. See the recipe after the jump.

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

Ingredients:
CRUST:
2 18″ deep dish pizza pans *note: I used my deep springform cake pan… hence the depth of my pizza!
2 Tablespoons of Sugar (Needs to be sugar, the yeast feeds on it and won’t proof without it).
4 Cups of Warm Water (110 degrees when you pour it in the bowl it will cool by the time you get everything else done)
4 Packages of Yeast or if you have the jar you can do 8 teaspoons of Yeast.
1 cup of First Press REALLY GOOD Extra Virgin olive oil.
1 Cup of Yellow Cornmeal
9 Cups of Flour (Up to 10)

CHEESE MIX:
4 Pounds of Grated Mozzarella
1 Pound of Provolone
1 Pound of Romano, Parmigiano, Asiago mix
Mix the cheese mix in a big bowl so it is blended well.

SAUCE:
4 28 oz Cans of Plum Tomatoes, Drain them and then put them through your blender for about 10 – 15 seconds you want them to be crushed up and chunky, but not liquid.
5 Teaspoons of FRESH Chopped up Basil
5 Teaspoons of FRESH Chopped Oregano
2 Tablespoons of Sugar (Or Splenda, I use Splenda)
10 Cloves of FRESH Garlic Peeled and Crushed with a Garlic Press
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/2 cup of Parmigiano Cheese Grated

TOPPINGS:
Portobello Mushrooms, sliced thin
Black Olives, sliced thin
White Onion, sliced thin
Green Bell Pepper, sliced thin
Prosciutto, chopped
Forest Ham, chopped

Prepare the Crust:
Proofing the yeast is an important part of this process. Make sure you do it right, you want your bowl of water to be about 95 – 100 degrees. Mix in the 2 tablespoons of sugar and stir it with a wisk. Once you disolve the sugar in the water, put the yeast in and make sure it all gets wet. (Yeast tends to float on the top and some of it won’t proof if you don’t wet it). Now walk away from it for about 10 minutes. It should be in a big bowl because this stuff is going to FOAM up and it will spill over if you don’t have a big enough bowl – you have been warned.

In your mixer mix the olive oil, the cornmeal and 5 cups of flour. Mix it up for about 1 minute and add the yeast slowly while it is mixing up. Slowly add the rest of the flour and let the mixer mix on about 1/3 speed for 5 minutes. The dough should not be sticky or wet, it should feel like really soft smooth elastic. Coat a plastic bowl with a little olive oil and put the dough into the bowl (Big bowl). Cover the top of it with a damp towel and let it rise until it is double the size.

Prep the Pans:
Prep your pizza pans, spread a little olive oil on the surface and sides and sprinkle yellow cornmeal on the bottom of it. This will prevent the pizza from sticking to the pan. Alternately (and I do it this way quite a bit) you can take REAL butter and really give it a good coating all away around and in the pan. Layer it on very thick. It gives the crust an amazing flavor. Sprinkle with yellow cornmeal the same way you would if you used olive oil.

Make Sauce:
Combine the ingredients together and make sure it has good time to sit and steep in the acids from the tomatoes. This will bring out the flavors of the seasonings.

Put it Together:
Once your dough has doubled again take it out and divide it into two sections with a knife. Roll it out onto your deep dish pizza pans (last chance to go out and buy pizza pans if you are using a baking dish you will not get the consistancy you need and you will not be happy). When you are laying the dough onto the pan push the dough to the edge. You can then turn the pan slowly while you pull the dough up the sides.

Add your toppings to the dough, then put half of your cheese mix on one pizza, half on the other. Use it all!

Pour your sauce on top until it reaches the edge of the dough (which should be all the way up the side of the pan), spread it out evenly and sprinkle with Parmigiano.

Preheat your oven and bake for 25 minutes on 350 degrees. After 25 minutes crank the oven up to 475 and bake for another 10 – 15 minutes. You want to watch the pizza and take it out when the top is light golden brownish and the crust is a light golden brown.

IMPORTANT: Let this pizza cool for 20 minutes, if you do not it will be all over the place. Once it cools for 20 minutes it will be just the right temp and will come out of the pan the right way. Cut and serve. This recipe should feed a family of 7 with maybe a slice left over.