Come Out & Smell the Lilacs

Every May, Rochester celebrates the Lilac Festival. I am not sure when the festival first started but I know it’s been around for a while. Some Lilac junkie (John Dunbar) planted and started a collection some decades ago and now, Highland Park boasts hundreds of kinds of Lilac bushes on that hill alongside Highland Ave. Just imagine when all those plants bloom at the same time. And they do! You can smell the Lilacs from a mile away and I’m not even exaggerating. I never really paid attention to their names but each plant is labeled for anyone who wants to go past the aesthetics and the scent. Martha Stewart came and featured the festival about 3 years ago on her show and got a Lilac named after her. That might be the only kind I know.

It always amazes me how the festival is always well orchestrated with the lilacs blooming. I think they consult horticulturists regarding this, I don’t know. But I guess it’s always been kind of predictable except this year, when Spring came in earlier than expected. The Lilac buds came out earlier than expected and the flowers are starting to wilt by the time the festival kicked off. But there was still enough for everyone to see.

This is my favorite festival here in Rochester. But the Lilacs only come second in my agenda. What gets me really excited is the food. Of course, it doesn’t help when your job is across the street from where all the action is.

Also, this year is our last Lilac Festival. At least for a long while. So this year, I went all touristy, even woke up early to see the parade.

Anwyay, here are photos. I’m tired of blabbering. I’m sure you’re tired of it, too. There will be a sequel to this. I didn’t complete the pictures. So tomorrow, during my lunch break, I will run across the street to take more pictures. I need a picture of and with the Kettle Corn Man. Yeah, he’s a legend around here. And there’s a reason for it.

The Veterans of Vietnam opened the parade. I always get teary-eyed over standing ovations and that was what happened that’s why there’s no pictures of the brave men who fought for our freedom. I would just like to clarify that I don’t believe in war but these men had already gone and done what they were called to do when they were boys so I applaud them. you should see the stream of people getting up as they pass by. It was truly a poignant moment. Back to the pictures…

First damage of the day, $5 sno cone. Whatever happened to the paper cones? But this is really convenient, though. She still managed to spill it. Don’t ask how.

Eat healthy, America! (after the Lilac Festival!)

Side shows. The stiltman does facepainting with his co-hippie girlfriend. And this duo right above is pretty awesome. They were so into their craft, it was intense as you can see in the other guys ukulele-ing. I wasn’t able to ask their band’s name or if they have available stuff online. But their performance deserves a dollar in their guitar case, though.

Of course, our trip wouldn’t be complete without a walk through the whole park even though we’re here almost every week when the weather permits. I guess to her, it feels different walking in the park during the festival. But I must admit, there’s an air of excitement when I see all the people around us. It’s just happiness all over the place.

This is one of my favorite fair foods, the funnel cake. None of the fancy schmancy stuff like how they do it in Six Flags. This is just honest to goodness, straight up, oily, trans-fatty funnel cake! Nancy’s Fried Dough makes the best! They have at least 3 stands throughout the whole park. Only look for Nancy’s, there are other ones but they are not good. bleh! The lady who took my order said.”One funnel cake Aunt Nans!” I asked quietly, “Aunt Nans? as in Nancy? She’s Nancy of Nancy’s?” and the lady said “Yes! the one and only!” Wow! I was just too shy to ask her to take her picture when I caught her during her break. She was icing her leg. Aww…God bless her and her fried doughs!

Only fresh lemons and limes for Nancy’s lemonades and limeades!

Always happy to serve you

We watched a couple of kids’ shows. They’re free. So why not. Aurora had fun most especially when Gary the Happy Pirate brought the giant beach balls out. She had a blast. It got a little crazy midsong, though and I had to get up and keep track of her. A couple moms lost their kids, only for a second, though. Whew!

While Una watched her shows, i kecked my shoes off so my feet can breathe while I slurp on some strawberry smoothie.

it was fun! I was exhausted but I had a great time. I sad that this is our last. I really love this festival. Anyway, just in case you happen to drop by festival time, may I give you some tips on how to enjoy the trip to the fullest

1. Check the weather and dress appropriately and comfortably. Sneakers or crocs works best for both kids and grown ups. Bring extra clothes for the tots.
2. Don’t forget sunscreen.
3. Bring water with you. Water bottles at the festival cost $2.00 a bottle. It also helps if you can bring small, light snacks like granola bars or cheerios for the kids.
4. Bring cash and small bills. There are ATM stations but they charge $3.00 per transaction on top of what your bank charges you when withdrawing from a different machine/institution.
5. Avoid lugging purses or bags that require you to hold them to stay secure. A book bag or a bag with a strap that you can sling on your shoulder is ideal. You would want both your hands free most especially when you have a kid in a busy place like this. Also, make sure they are roomy! Place your valuables in your jean pockets.
6. Make sure to bring disinfectant wipes, Purelle and if you can avail those small, travel-size Lysol. Or maybe it’s just me. But I don’t trust those porta potties. And kids (girls most especially) don’t know how to “hover” yet. So there’s going to be some contact, it’s always nice to have some disinfectant with you.
7. Make sure you teach your kids your phone number and address. Upon arriving at the festival, review the rules (you know, stranger danger, etc. ) And show them people in uniform like policemen.
8. Plan to arrive early most especially on weekends so you can find a parking spot that’s near the event.
9. Keep the plastic containers that come with fries and smoothies. It always costs less for refills. Half the price! Hello! just make sure you bring a plastic bag with you where you can store them so they don’t mess up your purse or bag.
10. Have fun!

Strawberry Tart and Mother’s Day

To my mother, who worked so hard to give me and my siblings everything the world can offer (and then some), thank you! To Mamang who raised me and my sister after taking care of 7 of her own children, I don’t know how you did it. You are superwoman. To my Lola, thank you for bringing a fine gentleman and an officer into this world. I can only imagine the pain you went through watching your first born depart us. But you have always been strong and I am sure Daddy is smiling down upon you. I love all of you and my sincerest thanks go out to you.

Recipe from Amy of She Wears Many Hats

I saw this recipe last week and stored it in my “recipes to tr” board on Pinterest. i never really planned on making it yet but As soon as I walked in the grocery yesterday, they had a sale on strawberries for $3.49 for 2 pounds. They usually cost $5.99 when out of season. So I grabbed a box right away and headed straight to the freezer aisle to grab me a box of puff pastry. The frozen puff pastry sheet can ba a little pricey. $4.49 for a 2-sheet pack. But for a baking novice like I am, I’d rather spend and extra couple of bucks than an entire afternoon making the perfect pastry dough. And of course, this also circumvents mountainous amount of dishes, which always is such a doozy.

This recipe is super easy. (Even though I still managed to mess it up even after cheating.) I suggest that you thaw this in the fridge so the dough doesn’t stick together. try to unfold the sheet before it gets doughy then put it back in the fridge if you’re not ready to use it yet. Top it with whipped cream or greek yogurt.

Mango Cheesecake

What’s up with me and mangoes these days you say? I honestly have no idea. No, no mango themes whatsoever, just some odd coincidence maybe. I “pin” this incredibly easy mango cheesecake recipe then the following day I find these delicious Ataulfo mangoes at Wegmans. So I guess it’s just the natural progression of things. Although I was pretty upset that I didn’t make Cinco de Mayo dishes. I didn’t even realize that it was May 5th until I got home from the store. Oh well. Anyway, there’s really no other interesting side story to this so let me just get straight to the recipe.

Oh wait, I adapted this recipe from Manjula’s Kitchen. Manjula is just far too adorable. You should check out her youtube channel. I just made some few adjustments, nothing major, I just eliminated cardamom from my recipe.

Before anything else, let me apologize now for the sucky photos.

Mango Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Ataulfo Mangoes, that’s about 3 mangoes
• 16 oz. cream cheese
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1/2 C granulated sugar
• 1 C crushed Graham crackers
• 1/3 stick melted butter
• 1/2 tsp. Lemon zest and lemon juice (optional)
• Pan spray

Here’s how:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare round 9″ baking pan and spray with vegetable oil.
2. In a food processor, add graham crackers and melted butter. Process until crackers are crushed into crumbs. Pour crumbs into the baking pan and press down. Bake for 5 minutes then take out of the oven and allow to cool down.
3. Place mangoes  into the food processor bowl and process for a couple of seconds. Then add the cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch and process for 15-20 seconds. Pour out mixture into the pie crust and bake anywhere between 30-40 minutes.
4. Take the cheesecake out of the oven and allow to cool down then chill in the fridge for about 2-3 hours before serving.

The recipe, like what I said earlier is really simple yet delicious. Mine turned out REALLY tart. I added the lemon zest and juice to achieve that bright, citrussy note towards the end, but I think I went a little bit overboard. Or maybe it would’ve worked if I didn’t put too much mangoes. The original recipe calls for only 1 huge mango. Manjula used the red kind which are significantly larger that Ataulfo. I may have overcompensated for that. And maybe next time I make this, I will try to use the recipe that requires flour and eggs because this is almost like pudding pie only harder? I don’t know if it’s the recipe or that my cake didn’t set very well since I used the same amount of cooking time as Manjula’s where she used only 12 oz. of creamcheese. I don’t know. Maybe the cheese cake experts out there can help me? but this is truly good. Perfect for the summer. Like what I said earlier, it’s a nice break from heavy and dense desserts. It brightens up your palate and this is a perfect summer treat. Hey! Don’t forget Mother’s Day, too!

Edit: In Manjula’s recipe, she placed all the ingredients together. I decided to process the mango for a couple of seconds before adding the cream cheese. In this manner, I don’t over process the cream cheese by trying to break down all the mango pieces. I also used cream cheese straight out of the fridge. This gave me more room to correct the mixture and not lose the integrity of the cream cheese. I used regular cream cheese and not the reduced or fat free variety. I don’t know but my head tells me I need all the fat to hold the dessert together. i don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong. 

Broiled Asian Salmon and Pinterest

How many of you has Pinterest? How many of you think how convenient it is? How many of you sit for hours “pinning” neat ideas and asking yourself why you never thought of sticking a panty hose at the end of your vacuum cleaner hose to easily locate lost jewelry? I say yes to everything. Isn’t it great? There are many cool websites and blogs out there but who has the time to go over page after page just to look for a recipe or a nifty idea for a weekend DIY?

Anyway, this is how I found this recipe. When I clicked on the picture, it lead me to a website that’s been sitting on my blogroll since I figured out how to use that feature here on WordPress. But if not for Pinterest, I wouldn’t have known about this recipe. Who has time to sit and scroll through 3 years worth of blogs? I’m sure some of you are saying why didn’t I just subscribe for her blog updates? Well, let me ask you this, aren’t you tired of getting your e-mail flooded with updates everyday?

Well, that’s my take on Pinterest. I guess the only thing is that sometimes, 54 different people think that that cat meme is cute so you might see some redundancies every now and then.

Broiled Asian Salmon

Ingredients:

• 3 2 oz. fillets of salmon
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 2 tbsp. distilled white vinegar
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 2-3 tbsp. soy sauce
• 2-3 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• 1-2 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tbsp. sesame seeds
• 4 green onions, sliced another 1 or 2 for topping
• sambal to taste (optional)

**The original recipe requires rice vinegar but I didn’t have any so I substituted with distilled white vinegar. 

**Sambal is an asian chili paste, I didn’t put any in my fish but it would add another dimension to the flavor. So I decided to add it to the glaze which worked out perfectly. Use sparingly, a little can go a long way. Chili flakes will work well, too or tabasco. 

For the glaze:

• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1-2 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds
• 1/2- 1 tsp. freshly grated ginger
• sambal sauce

Here’s how:

1. Combine all ingredients in a measuring cup or a small bowl. Stir well.
2. In a deep dish or ziploc bag, place salmon fillets and pour in marinade. Zip or cover with saran wrap if using a bowl and marinate for at least 30 minutes and place in the fridge.
3. Preheat oven to broil. Place rack at the upper third of the oven. Prepare a baking sheet by placing a cookie wire rack on top of it. Spray with vegetable oil and place fillets.
4. Broil for about 20-35 minutes depending on how thick your fillets are.
5. Let the fish rest and then add glaze and top with sliced green onions. Serve.

Here’s the link to the recipe I adapted this from. http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/03/toasted-sesame-ginger-salmon/ . She calls it sesame-ginger salmon but it seems unfair to all the other ingredients that also played an important roll in making this recipe super. So I decided to call it Asian Salmon. Because it is asian I think. Also, you don’t have to strictly broil this, you can put it on the grill during hot summer days when broiling is just highly intolerable. Anyway, I hope you try this recipe because it’s really easy. How Sweet It Is did an excellent job coming up with this dish.

Bright and Yellow, Humble Pie-o

Sun’s here! We’ve recently just been hit by a mild winter storm smack dab in the middle of spring. But then again, this is Rochester, NY. While we celebrated that streak of warm, sunny days in March and first couple of weeks in April when it was supposed to be snowing, we all kind of knew deep inside that it was too good to be true, taking every last strength not to say the obvious because no one wants to be the one to jinx our good luck weather wise. But just like any other Rochester spring, snow came back our way. I looked out my bedroom window after I got up that Monday morning and there it was, a sea of green and white on the ground, mostly white. “Baby, no extra 10 minutes of sleepy time. It’s time to get up. It’s snowing outside!” This past week, I have seen it snow, rain, snow and rain-snow power combo in a span of 5 hours. The sun would let out its rays for about two seconds then it would start the snow-rain-snow number again. It seemed as if the weather didn’t know what to do with itself so it poured all types of precipitation probably just to show off. Needless to say, I wasn’t impressed.

But, sun’s here! Honestly, I don’t know how long it’s going to stay all shiny and bright. I’ve heard that Rochester’s experienced snow in June! But I’m embracing the warm fuzzy feeling this lovely weather gives me. I feel like a teddy bear just hugged me. More reason to celebrate is that my sister’s in town! It’s her birthday weekend so there’s an excuse for spending a lot of time in the kitchen which by itself, makes me feel like a teddy bear just hugged me.

I literally spent the whole morning working in the kitchen. Remember the mango tart I have been itching to try since I got my bright and yellow baking dishes? Well, I was finally able to make them today. My sister even brought some mangoes she had from home afraid that they might spoil while she’s away. Wow! That’s perfect! It’s as if destiny’s telling me to make mango tart this weekend. I guess it’s safe to say this is my own recipe. I have read and watched one too many mango tart recipes and videos that they all got mixed up in my head. So I just did what I thought made sense, got some bits and pieces from here and there and voila! It was ok. I wouldn’t say it was great but it was decently good. I must admit that this may need some tweaking, though. It tastes good but  there’s this je ne sais quoi that makes it a little off. Maybe something to tie the custard flavor and mango together? I don’t know. Or maybe just forget about the custard altogether.

Mango Tart

Ingredients:

For the pie crust

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose four
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and cold
• 5-10 tbsp. ice water
• 1 tsp. granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. salt

For the filling

• 1 1/2 ripe mango, peeled and thinly sliced
• custard*

*For the custard

• 1 cup milk (I used 2% and it was incredibly light)
• 2 large egg yolks and 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar or more to taste
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Here’s how:

For the pie crust

1. In a food processor, add flour, sugar and salt and pulse until well incorporated. Add butter and pulse until it is homogenous with the flour mixture.
2. Remove the food pusher off the lid and process butter-flour mixture on low while adding ice water 1 tablespoon at a time. Check the consistency of the dough after the third spoon. Pinch a lump in your finger and if it is doughy, it’s done, otherwise, cover the food processor bowl and repeat the process only this time check after every spoon.
3. On a clean surface, dump the dough out and press the heel of your palm and smear on the surface. Repeat a couple more times then gather up the dough into a ball.
4. Split the dough into 2 and makes discs. Plastic wrap then refrigerate for at least an hour.

**This recipe is enough for a 9-inch pie or 2 9-inch pies if you wish to leave your pie open. I only used one disc since my dishes are small and I was making tarts so I didn’t need to cover them with another sheet of dough.

**Make sure the butter is cold. After cutting the butter into pieces, place it in the freezer for about 15 minutes before using it.

**Try your hardest not to knead the dough to avoid making it too tough and to make sure it’s got that flaky consistency.

For the custard:

1. In a medium saucepan, scald milk. Meanwhile, whisk egg and yolks in a mixing bowl. Add sugar and whisk thoroughly until mixture is a lighter shade of yellow and reaches a frothy texture.
2. Once the milk is done, pour about 1/4 of it into the egg mixture to scald it and whisk briskly then pour the entire content of bowl back into the sauce pan with the rest of the milk. Whisk continuously until you reach nappe consistency.
3. Remove from heat, add vanilla and whisk some more. You can strain the custard if you wish and then place in a water bath to stop the cooking process.

**I really though that the ice water bath was unnecessary until my custard was almost one lumpy concoction when I was about to pour it into my pie dish. So this is a vital step.

**Whisking eggs and sugar is harder than it looks. My right arm still hurts after that mean whisking I did this morning.

To build the pie:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Roll out your dough to a thin sheet. Cut it out to the size of your pie dish leaving enough for overhang.
3. Butter your dish then carefully place the pie dough.
4. Pour in custard, about a 1/4 inch in depth then top with sliced mangoes. Fold over hang on top of the mangoes.
5. Brush dough with egg wash or milk and sprinkle with sugar.
6. Bake tarts for about 35-45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

My pie crust didn’t turn out quite well. My sister said it tasted like flour? It kind of did at first. I was also thinking that maybe, I should have baked the crust before pouring the custard. My crust soaked up all the custard which left a mildly squishy bottom crust. I really didn’t mind it but some people can be very particular with textures (yeah, like Iron chef judges?) We still enjoyed it, nonetheless.

Rewind to friday night, I was so upset that I didn’t take a picture of that soup I made. I promise to share the recipe with you soon. It is my fool-proof chicken-noodle soup recipe which I originally used to make with my homemade turkey meatballs. But Friday night was insane. Between running to the store straight from work, then coming home to clean the house and preparing a meal for me, my Unakin and sister, it was one hell of an crazy ending to an already crazy week. And all that I did in 2 1/2 hours. And….fast forward to Saturday again, for lunch, I cooked my sister that infamous Linguine in White Wine Clam Sauce. (I say infamous because it brought traffic to my blog after being the only picture tastespotting.com had approved.) I can’t gamble lunch, too. I already risked too much making the mango tart.

It was fun. It was so much fun we decided to scratch going to the movies and just stay home. Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow, if we’re not too lazy.

All in all, it is a wonderful weekend. The nice weather, my sister’s birthday and my 5-yo driving me bonkers in my kitchen. I feel very blessed and extremely thankful.