Friday, June 27, 2008

Totally Random East meets West

I took this picture for fun a couple of weeks ago and totally forgot about it. As I mentioned before, it's that time of the year where local fruits are in season. We got a bunch of strawberries (on the left durrrr), which is grown locally. A couple of days ago, we hit our local Asian type grocery store for, for, uhm, I forgot what for, BUT I saw some fresh lychees. Most people probably have tried them at Chinese and Japanese restaurants, but those are canned and soaked in syrup. Fresh, they have a rough, somewhat hard yet thin skin, which is easy to peel. The edible part of the fruit itself is white, and it has one pit, like a peach. It's very sweet and has a slippery texture and is a tiny bit firmer than the flesh of say, an apricot (who knew this would be difficult to describe). One interesting side note, if I eat a lot of these on a fairly empty stomach, I start to have the aftertaste of alcohol. I think my sense of smell and taste are a tiny bit above normal.

The ONLY early memory I have of this fruit from back in the Philippines is when I was 15. My dad bought a huge bag from the street market, maybe 3 lbs or so. This is my Grandpa's favorite fruit. Of course, my Grandma told him not to eat too many, he would get a stomach ache. He just kept right on eating and eating and finished almost all of it. He then... of course.... got a stomach ache. Grandma had no sympathy.

Friday, June 20, 2008

So, for hubby's birthday earlier this month, I was supposed to make one of his favorite deserts, cheesecake. I did not have a spring form pan, so I kept delaying and delaying. Also had several busy weekends and what not. Finally gave up and just put it in a regular pie pan. The recipe was such that it took 2 pie pans rather than one springform. Not that I think hubby will complain about this much. Of course, little man and girlie pants helped prepare by putting the graham crackers in the food processor and little man helped "clean up" the bowl of the cheesecake filling.So here is the result, caramel topped cheesecake with graham cracker pecan crust. I took a picture of one of them. The other is already 3 slices empty.