Mini Pizza

Monday is my new Sunday, and with time on my hands, I thought of ways I can bond with Zeus. Earlier we went for a stroll in our garden and we saw things we never paid attention to before. The activity made us hungry, so I whipped up an easy-to-do snack: mini pizzas!

Ingredients:

bread slices of choice (panini, foccacia, regular toast, etc...whatever you want)

pizza sauce (can be bought from the grocery or make your own)

toppings of choice (I used vienna sausage and pineapple chunks, but whatever you want or have will do)

grated quickmelt cheese

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat the oven or oven toaster (300 deg F).

2. Spread pizza sauce on the bread slices, enough to equally cover the surface.

3. Arrange the toppings on the bread slices.

4. Top with grated cheese.

5. Bake for 3-5 minutes until cheese melts and the bread toasts for a bit of crunch.

Pesto Crusted Tofu with Cheese

I absolutely love pesto. Its so simple to make and so tasty. In my family, I'm the only who has acquired the liking for it. They find the basil flavor too overwhelming. In my opinion they're missing a lot, but on the other hand it's a good thing that they don't like it -- more pesto for me!

Looking for ways to bring more excitement to the subtle flavor of tofu, I decided to experiment and combine the two; the boldness of pesto and the mildness of tofu. It's an East-meets-West recipe, and I was pleasantly surprised with the result. I was expecting a strong herb flavor but the tofu subdued the intensity. The cheese brought the flavors together with just the right amount of salt and creamy texture.

Ingrdients:
tofu, sliced into 1/2 inch thick slabs
pesto sauce
grated or sliced quick-melt cheese

Procedure:
1. Marinate the tofu in the pesto sauce for 5 minutes.
2. Heat pan and place tofu with some of the pesto sauce coating it.
3. Pan fry one side of the tofu for 2-3 minutes.
4. Flip it to fry the the other side for another 2-3 minutes.
5. While still frying the other side, place cheese on top and let it soften a bit or completely melt based on your preference.
6. Remove from heat and serve.

Gelatone Gelato

This is a repost from my other blog.

Gelato is Italian ice cream that has little air in it, making it denser than the regular ice cream. Denser ice cream = a richer, more flavorful treat. In my opinion, gelato is the greatest Italian contribution to civilizition, followed by pizza and pasta. Splendido Italianos!

Good thing that the Italians have shared with others the recipe and procedure for making this heavenly dessert. We don't have to fly all the way to Italy just to sample the creamy concoctions (but it would be a dream to be in Italy and eat gelato there too). Gelatone is one of the few places here in the metro that specializes in gelato, with over 15 flavors to choose from. It is a tad pricey though, a generous scoop will cost you around 100 Php but try it once and you'll agree that its worth it.

It's difficult to choose just one flavor when all are just oh so good, but being a dark chocolate & mint lover, the Menta for me is happiness on a cone.

2/f Greenbelt 3
Ayala Center, Makati