Welcome to My MissAdventures, a spin-off of my personal blog which you can find at miss-monologue.livejournal.com.

My MissAdventures is where you'll find wonderful, descriptive tales of my travels, shopping finds, food trips, and anything under the sun that brightens my day.

So sit back, relax, and let me do the talking.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Mezza Norte : Mercato of the North!

The past week has been crazy as there had been so much to do. I had recognition dinners to attend to,  braved the rain and flood for the PRC Oathtaking Ceremonies last Saturday, and started with a new project right away last Sunday. There's so much to post and share, but given the amount of time I spend on our new project, I shall do that soon. 


For the meantime, I just want to share that Mercato's spin-off in my dear Quezon City is finally here! Aptly named, Mezza Norte The Mercato Experience in the North, it's the same Mercato feel at our own turf! As I'm writing this, I am in the coffee shop in front of the venue and they have started setting up. The space is smaller, but I expect it will expand as soon as the people and the concessionaires start flowing in! 


It's a dream come true to have a foodie's haven in Quezon City. We used to go all the way to BGC to have some of our favorite foods only found in Mercato. I'm also happy that Mezza Norte begins at six in the evening, making it a good dinner venue. We always had the problem of arriving at Mercato either still full from dinner, or too hungry because we didn't have dinner and we get that nalipasan na ng gutom feeling. I'm excited to discover the new food finds and eat my favorite food tonight! Then I might go back tomorrow with my family. Talk about an overload. 


I'll get back soon to share my food finds. Let me know if you're dropping by Mezza Norte tonight as well. :)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Days Spent in the Hospital

I'm currently at The Medical City to keep my mom company and since my blog is full of food entries, I've decided to hold that food entry for a bit. If you asked me how many times I've spent in this hospital, I would just say a lot. I don't know all the nooks and crannies but I sure know all the food spots and where I can get the better deals on water and other hospital essentials. The hospital isn't my favorite place but I am lucky I am able to get services from a good hospital. 


Besides that, having a health care provider is heaven sent. Yet it is a privilege that's bound to be abused, or at least overused. I'm sure mine is. I'm still supported by my dad's company's HMO even at 24. I don't know how that came to be but I'm glad about it. (Shhh!) Whenever I feel that I'm on the verge of an infection, fever or I'm just paranoid that I've some illness, I could easily go to any hospital and have a checkup care of the HMO. What makes it more convenient is that there is a The Medical City Satellite Clinic at our neighborhood malls, a.k.a. Waltermart and Trinoma. It doesn't feel like going to the hospital at all because I can go shopping right after or while waiting for lab results. 


Lab tests are another story. The benefit of having a health care provider is that most of the lab tests are covered as long as they are requested by a doctor. I have had countless lab tests, x-ray and ultrasound procedures that cost up to Php 4,000 a pop! The only thing that isn't covered is outpatient medicine. I cry inside whenever I have to buy medicine. But it's not like I can forego taking them anyway. The only consolation is the sudden generic medicine boom. Php 50 meds sell for Php 2 at the generic drugstores. 




Back to The Medical City, I'm glad the Rockwell Business Center put up all sorts of establishments. It doesn't only cater to their employees / tenants but to the people here in the hospital, too. There's a bank, a salon, and lots of food establishments to choose from. Now I don't have to choose between North Park and North Park. Haha. The volume of people at night ( thanks to the BPO) also makes it a more comfortable place to go to. The 7-11 with it's pine-orange juice, hot choco, yema and Dole bananas is a home away from home. The Strip seems like a very far place already.


It seems that no matter how I try to veer away from writing about food, it still wraps me in. I probably should end here or I'll end up talking about more food. But don't worry, I will never, ever write about hospital food. They really are no good. 


Monday, July 16, 2012

Baking Afternoon: Nestle Toll House Easy Double Chocolate Chip Brownies and OREO-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever since I've become an official bum (after the boards), I've started baking again. What else is there to do when you're stuck at home?


Two weeks ago, I was craving for some brownies. My GIANT pack ( and I mean giant at  72 ounces) of Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips had a lot of recipes on the back and it had a brownie recipe aptly called Easy Double Chocolate Chip Brownies which included melting the chips instead of using cocoa powder and(!) adding more chocolate chips to the batter. Now that's a brownie!



The result was chocolate heaven! It was moist and fudgy, and the burst of chocolate per bite was a chocolate lover's dream! I realized I put a little too much chocolate chips and should lessen them the next time I make this recipe. Yes, it is a bit too much even for a chocoholic (me!). I should also buy the Baker’s Edge Baking Pan i first mentioned in my older brownie post. Chocolate and chewy-crunchy edges are the perfect match, right? 


Hello Brownies!


The Baker's Edge Pan

The brownies live up to their name as they're so easy breezy to make. I was still bitin and wanted to make more so I tried to look for more recipes that used chocolate chips and basic ingredients but wasn't the usual chocolate chip cookie. I use Epicurious on my iPhone to search for recipes because it's so convenient and I came upon an ingenious recipe! It was Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies! And all I could think was, "Where was I when people discovered this?". Haha! It's like a wicked Oreo or fried Oreo, however you called it, but it's baked (not fried!) and packed with a lot more calories and chocolate goodness! And it was fate because I had a huge box of Oreos in the pantry. I Googled more on the recipe to find if there were other variations but they were pretty much the same. Here's the recipe I used. 

Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from Jenny of Picky Palate
2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
10 oz bag chocolate chips
1 pkg. Oreo cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter and sugars together with a mixer until well combined.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, salt and baking soda.  Slowly add to wet ingredients along with chocolate chips until just combined.  Using a cookie scoop take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie.  Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo cookie.  Seal edges together by pressing and cupping in hand until Oreo cookie is enclosed with dough.  Place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet and bake cookies 9-13 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Makes about 2 dozen VERY LARGE cookies. 

Baker's math : Chocolate chip dough + Oreos = ?



It's a very hands-on recipe where you get to cover the Oreo cookie with dough. What I did was keep the dough in the freezer every time I didn't need it so it wouldn't be so soft when I had to wrap the Oreos with it. I was scared my cookies wouldn't turn out perfect but I was glad the dough didn't run off and baked beautifully. 

How to explain the taste? It's like a Fried Oreo but better. Jenny actually recommends using Double Stuffed Oreos, which will probably result to a much sweeter cookie. I don't think I can take eating that much calories though! With one cookie, I'm already eating 2 chocolate chip cookies and 1 Oreo! It's great to eat warm and a la mode. 



The Final Products. Ta-dah!

I can't say which I loved better; being a chocoholic, I prefer the brownies while my Oreo-loving sibs loved the cookies. But overall, it was a successful bake. Today is another baking afternoon. I shall update you about it sooner! For the mean time, you can read all things brownie in my older post, here

I'm back!

Hello! I'm back! After resigning from work, taking the Architecture Licensure Exam and passing it, here I am ready to write again! I have to write. I need to write. For my sanity! Being unemployed, or self-employed, gets boring and I have long wanted to revive my blog! I'm losing touch of my writing skills. I'm losing touch of everything I love to do! 

So here's to my new attempt to write, and chronicle my experiences. Yay! Cheers!



P.S. for the next few weeks, or months, I'll be doing a lot of backlog writing. So please bear with me. :D