Chocolate buttercream is something of a must in your baking repertoire. So it’s good to find a reliable recipe that’s both easy to execute and flexible. You can use chocolate buttercream to frost a classic round chocolate cake or a sheet cake of another flavour, or to pipe on cupcakes. It’s a simple way to make both the kids and the adults happy.

For those who are unfamiliar, Tocino is a Filipino breakfast staple—it is cured, sweet and savory pork. Tocino is always served with sinangag or fried garlic rice, the egg of your choice, and probably some side of fresh or pickled vegetable or fruit. And good coffee. That combination is called Tosilog (tocino + sinangag + itlog or egg) and is ubiquitous in many restaurant menus throughout the country.

Over here we’ve got a certified Tocino monster in Caroline. She just loves that stuff. But my problem has always been that the tocino we get from the grocery and in many restaurants is almost unrecognizable as meat and is made with saltpeter (potassium nitrate) to preserve it and keep the red color. It’s the same chemical compound used in sausages, bacon etc. Some major non-food uses are in fireworks and fertilizer (?!?). So obviously, I wanted a version of tocino that did not include saltpeter in the recipe.

Renowned for its antioxidants and numerous health benefits, green tea is considered to be one of the healthiest drinks on the planet, if not THE HEALTHIEST. Some say it’s the top anti-ageing beverage, because of its impact on brain and heart health, as well as on your bones and eyes. So why aren’t we drinking more of it?

Milk drinkers will love Carabao’s (water buffalo) milk for its creamier taste and slightly thicker consistency. It is also higher in calcium and protein and has less cholesterol than cow’s milk. In the Philippines, carabaos are practically revered for their faithfulness in the farm and are largely grass-fed. It is a simple diet free from hormones or antibiotics. Years ago this milk was a rare thing at the grocery and a challenge to transport and keep from spoiling. We find it far more easily these days and is thankfully pasteurized. It is the milk of choice for local artisan makers of cheese, ice cream or butter (Read: next level butter). We have many plans for this milk and to start we used it to make the rich custard of our French Toast. You’re welcome.

These chocolate chip cookies are everything that we want: crisp on the edges, soft and chewy everywhere else, with a hint of salt and just enough warm, melty chocolate. They are great just moments from the oven, but the cookies are even chewier, with a more pronounced butterscotch flavor, after the dough sits overnight in the fridge (not the freezer). You add just under a cup of chocolate chips, but you can also customize each cookie by adding more chips, walnuts (YES. Or no) to each cookie, to please everyone. Which is exactly what these cookies will do.