Homemade Sausage Patties

I’ve always been a sucker for sausage patties.  For as long as I can remember, they make truly wonderful breakfasts and pack a punch-load of flavor.  This is one reason why McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin and the now-defunct (in the Philippines, anyway) Sausage Biscuits rank high among my favorite brekkie treats.

Sausage patties, however, aren’t exactly common sights in the deli sections of local supermarkets and I haven’t seen them in most of the delicatessens I pop into.  It was a good thing I was able to discover a very good recipe for them that I can whip up whenever I need something special to start my day.

Refreshing Ways to Stay Cool This Summer (Part II)

 

Yesterday was, mercifully, considerably cooler than the previous days.  Still, it was brutally hot and I stayed home to fend off a hideous case of the sniffles with some intensely spicy noodle soup and a huge tumbler of fruited iced tea.  Need I mention that the latter is almost ridiculously simple to make?  Put three tablespoons of instant iced tea into a large tumbler and dilute with 1/4 cup of your juice of choice; fill up with ice-cold water.  (Fontana Cranberry or Sour Cherry juices are wonderful, and freshly squeezed ponkan [Mandarin orange] juice is a real pleasure.)

Refreshing Ways to Stay Cool This Summer (Part I)

It’s only the middle of April and the weather here in the Philippines has been absolutely scorching!  I mean, you come out of the house at six in the morning and the heat is already unbearable!

Times like these call for – no, demand – magnificent drinks that not only cool you off by slaking your thirst, but taste absolutely wonderful, too.  One particularly gorgeous-tasting example would be the refreshing glass of iced lemongrass tea pictured above.  Available at Cafe Ten Titas at the Araneta Center, this exotic cooler is a tangy infusion of lemongrass (tanglad) and just the barest hint of ginger.  This refillable delight comes with a lemongrass twig for a stirrer that greatly enhances the drink’s flavor.

The Flavors of Summer

Personally, I’m not really a summer person.  Truth be told, chillier climes are more to my taste than tropical weather.  However, as a foodie, I have to admit that the flavors of many things available in the summer are absolutely good and totally refreshing.

Pane al Cioccolato: Not Quite Bread, Not Quite Cake

 

To start things off for this post: Happy Easter, everyone!

I’ve been under a lot of stress of late and was unable to update either SybDive or either of the two fanfic serials I’ve posted on The Fire and Ice Archive.  So, what’s a seriously worn-out gal to do?  Easy: bake bread!

But not just any old bread, I wanted to do something rich, satisfying, and infinitely moreish.  I wanted comfort bread, a good treat after going through heck several times over.  Plus, to up the ante, I was also craving chocolate.  So, to have the best of both worlds, I decided to make pane al cioccolato.