Party Ideas Archives - Certified Foodies

Our #ClaraOlePotluck Fiesta, Boodle Fight Style!

We’re from Malabon, and if you know anyone from there or you’ve attended at least one fiesta or party hosted by someone who lives in our hometown, you know how festive ourÂ celebrations could be. And if you’ve been to one of our parties at home, you’ve seen how lavish we are when it comes to preparing food for our guests. We did just that when we hosted our own Clara Ole Potluck Fiesta party a couple of weeks ago.

The party took almost a month to prepare. The Clara Ole team gave us one task – to prepare a menu showcasing the wide variety of dishes you can make using their products, and how convenient and easy it is for anyone to serve delicious dishes, whatever level your cooking skills are and however small your kitchen is. We personally use Clara Ole products in my little kitchen in my Makati condo, and I tell you, everything I cook with their products come out perfect. 🙂 My favorites would be their pasta sauces and marinades.

Going back to our party, Ken and I thought of hosting a boodle fight, and we all agreed on the Pinoy Fiesta theme for our friends. Since it’ll be a boodle fight, Ken knew serving a couple of dishes won’t be enough. So, he came up with a menu composed of 14 dishes + the punch, which serves as my only contribution. 😀 All of the dishes were made using Clara Ole products, as listed below.

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Getting Creative with Menu Bingo

Anyone who likes to experiment in the kitchen will tell you that having so many recipes under their belt can be both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand, you have so many recipes to choose from when it’s time to prep your meals; on the other, making the choice can be quite difficult when you have too many options. An article on the New York Times goes as far as calling the problem of having too many choices “a paralyzing problem”.

You’re bound to experience these paralyzing choices more often with the Yuletide Season rolling in, but luckily, you can use a fun bingo game to create meal plans and menus, eliminating the hassles of having to rifle through the hundreds of recipes you’ve mastered to be able to prepare something new for your family every day. Bingo has helped many households in surprising ways, with the UK Food Standards Agency even using it to promote healthy eating with Eatwell Bingo, and even Iceland Foods has been unable to resist the charms of the industry, launching Iceland Bingo in 2012. Now bingo can help you and your family too, all while making meal planning much more fun and interactive.

To play Menu Bingo, go through your recipe books for five recipes for each of the following categories: Main, Side 1, Side 2, and Dessert. Once you have these twenty recipes, you can then plot them out on a bingo card template, with one column standing for each category. Label each item in the columns a number from 1-5. You could also fill out there boxes by asking the members of the family what they feel like having and taking those down. Once you’ve made your bingo card, it’s time to roll a die, with the number that you roll corresponding to the dish that you’ll be cooking. Take turns rolling the die for each category, and when someone rolls a six, they get to choose which of the items to have. Once an item has been picked already, make sure to mark it off, and then proceed to roll for the rest of the days of the week.

You can have many variations of this game, such as a bingo card with seven items in each category – one for each day of the week – or even a bingo card each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. By taking some time out of the start of the week, you can cut back on your cooking prep time!

Fun Times, Good Food at Detalle Bar + Kitchen

Because we’reÂ food bloggers, Ken and I are usually our friends’ go-to resource personsÂ when it comes to restaurant recommendations. We haveÂ manyÂ favorite places (we haven’t written about most of them yet though), and so we have an arsenal of personal recommendations. One place that has been on top of my list since we went there a few months ago is Detalle Bar + Kitchen in Ortigas.

Detalle is sort of a hidden hangout. They don’t have a huge sign that’ll help you pinpoint their place, but that’s one of the reasons whyÂ I love them. The thingÂ that’ll help you locate this restobar is the Century Tuna billboard at the corner of Meralco Avenue and DoÃ±a Julia Vargas Avenue – they’re right below it. 😀

Detalle is owned by sisters Bernice and Denise Lim, with cousins as partners who also happen to be their friends, which is why you’ll get that friendly vibe as soon as you enter their restaurant. Detalle has this particularly chill environment where you can spend time catching up with friends or even getting to know someone new… and special. 😉 It’s the perfect venue to enjoy their cool drinks, aÂ relaxing ambiance and delicious food.

My favorite spot is on the second floor lounge where you’ll find big couches and coffee tables. They also have a bar there so you can easily order food and drinks whenever. Their staff has been quick in attending to our orders or needs the 2 times we’ve been there. 🙂

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Have a Merry Cremas with Alaska Crema!

All year round, especially during the cold months of December and January, we find ourselves longing for some good ol’ comfort food. But not just any kind of comfort food, we crave for something rich, hearty, delectable and, most of the time, creamy. That’s why, they say, calories don’t count during the holidays. 😉

We were invited as judges at the Merry Cremas Food Bazaar in Eastwood last month. Good thing it was a Sunday so Ken and I were able to go together.

We know, from personal experience, that there’s a wide range of dishes you can prepare using Alaska Crema all-purpose cream. We knew there’ll be a ton of desserts and pastries there, but we were really hoping to see more savory dishes. There were only a few who did. Thankfully, they were all quite successful with their dishes too along with the food purveyors who served desserts.

With that said, let’s begin with our top favorites from the Merry Cremas Food Bazaar in Eastwood. These might help you with recipe ideas for your celebrations or any holiday, especially for Noche Buena and Media Noche.

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Bizu Patisserie’s Christmas 2013 Collection

We may be weeks away from Christmas 2013 and New Year’s Eve, but you can still feel the holiday because of the cold weather we’re experiencing the past few days. And there’s Chinese New Year coming up. If you’re still in the mood for some foodie gift-giving, Bizu Patisserie’s Christmas 2013 collection of treats are still available for you and your loved ones.

Bizu is well-known for their delectable pastries and their yearly holiday goodies. We blogged about them here and here. They usually have a theme, and for 2013, it’s Tchaikovskyâ€™s Land of the Sweets (from The Nutcracker). You can check the list of their 2013 holiday collection below this post. Most of them are still sold at your favorite Bizu store, so make sure to inquire if there’s something you fancy.

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Harry Potter Fans, Get Your Butterbeer Fix at Starbucks!

Having read all 7 books, I could pretty much say I grew up with Harry Potter. It didn’t really bother me that I just borrowed all the books from my classmates and never really owned a single copy until I finally got into college. What frustrated me the most is the fact that there are a lot of magical food in Harry Potter I could never get a taste of in real life, and one of them is Butterbeer!

There’s no way I can rub elbows with witches and wizards at Hogsmeade while downing a glass of authentic Butterbeer, and the same thing goes to my chances of heading to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando to get a knockoff version of the drink any time soon. But I’ve recently discovered a secret that would finally put my Butterbeer cravings to rest! Baristas from Starbucks cracked the code to a perfectly yummy Butterbeer. It’s a secret recipe and they don’t have it on their menu, but they will be more than willing to whip it up for you if you just give them this recipe. Take note that this is only available during the holiday season because of the toffee nut syrup, so you still have time! 🙂

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Go Bananas over Sugar Stop’s Minion Cupcakes!

The sold-out stock of collectible toy versions of these cuties, the nonstop posts from people who can’t seem to get enough of them and the thousands who lined up on the first week of Despicable Me 2‘s screening are clear indications of the minion mania here in the Philippines. Adults and kids alike LOVE them and couldn’t resist their cuteness, so it was just inevitable that edible versions of these minions will soon take over our newsfeed. On our top favorites are definitely Sugar Stop’s Minion Cupcakes.

If you’ve watched Despicable Me 1 and 2, you’d see how much more screen time the minions got in the sequel. Universal Pictures knew it, we all fell in love with the multi-lingual minions (yes, we paid attention 😀 ), so much so that people are now demanding for a movie featuring only the minions. Well, we think that’s a crazy idea, but let’s get back to the Minion Cupcakes by Sugar Stop.

We found out about them through Twitter. They sent us a tweet telling us to check out their minion cupcakes. Ken and I are both in love with these minions, so when I saw the photo, the first thought that came to me was, “How can anyone eat them?!?! They’re too darn cute!!”.

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2013 Fathers Day Restaurant Promos and Specials

For everyone who has no plans yet for Fatherâ€™s day, youâ€™re in luck! Weâ€™ve helped you find some yummy options to celebration next Sunday, June 16, 2013, with dear olâ€™ dad. 🙂 Check out these Fatherâ€™s Day promos and offerings from restaurants across the Metro.

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UPDATED: 2013 Mothers Day Specials and Promos

If youâ€™ve been following our food blog, you know how much our nanay means to us. Thatâ€™s why Motherâ€™s Day is quite important though we believe she deserves to be honored every day. 🙂 If youâ€™re looking for a place to celebrate with your dear mom, here are some Motherâ€™s Day specials and promos for you foodies.

While checking out Motherâ€™s Day promos for various restaurants, I was quite surprised that not many are offering anything special compared to last year. Well, we think we can celebrate with our moms anywhere, but itâ€™s worth knowing these promos just in case you happen to be looking for a more specific Motherâ€™s Day offering. 🙂

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Papa Johns Pizza Food Trip : Mythical 5 and PBA Meals Promo

After weeks of being stuck at home, my nanay, Ken and I finally got the time to go out on a weekend. Since I’ve been craving for pizza since the beginning of the year and we received gift certificates from Papa John’s, we headed out to their branch in SM North Edsa to try one of their PBA Meals.

Yes, our nanay is now addicted to taking photos of our food too and sharing them on Facebook. 😀

Papa John’s PBA Meals are their new offerings for friends and families who enjoy watching the PBA (or for any viewing parties of any sport, movie or TV show really) with pizza to share with their whole group. There are 2 options: Mythical 5 PBA Meal and PBA Meals for 12 (click to zoom).

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