Happy 2015!

Happy 2015 to all of you! I hope your holidays were all that you hoped for and more.

My holiday hiatus from the blogging front is now officially over.

2014 offered plenty of things to be thankful for. With this blog alone, what started off as a repository of my baking adventures became something more.

I’m not a stranger to blogging. I’ve had at least three blogs before SnapHappy Foodie plus an ongoing private blog. But my friend Ash inspired me to make this blog public.

“. . .we can use the web to create a community of people who share their stories so we can learn from each other. Sometimes other people’s stories empower us and help us face life more courageously. Consider that next time you feel shy sharing your creativity to others.”

With much trepidation, I made this blog public, joined a bloggers group and things were never the same. I remember the first time that I attended a bloggers meet-up. It was amazing to meet like-minded folks who generously shared their blogging experiences and welcomed me into the fold. After that, I met more bloggers, got invited to different food events and even received food products to review.

This blog allows me to combine my love of food, writing and photography all in one take. As a firm believer in “a picture says a thousand words”, I’m a big fan of taking more pictures than writing, but at least this blog keeps me writing. Even if writing a blog post takes time, it’s time well-spent.

Now this post wouldn’t feel complete without sharing something food-related. For our last meal of 2014/first meal of 2015, I challenged myself to make as much food as I can from scratch.

Our New Year’s eve menu consisted of something sweet, something sticky, something meaty and something noodle-y. I made Philippine desserts like biko, leche flan and Philippine mocha cake. I also made ginataan bilo-bilo, but didn’t get a picture of it. I was nearly finished with the cake when I realized that I had no clue how to decorate it! So I winged it. Check out the result below.

It was my first time to bake mocha cake, which was my favorite cake growing up. We usually buy it in Queens, but this time, I was so adamant that I was going to make it from scratch. Now that I’ve tried making it myself and discovered how much work it takes, I’ll just buy it again, thank you very much. 😀 All four desserts were truly not for the faint of heart. I’ve got so much respect for people who make these desserts for a living.

We also had spaghetti with meat sauce, barbecued spareribs, and roasted Brussels sprouts and green beans. I also baked soft dinner rolls (a re-do of a an earlier experiment), which was surprisingly soft thanks to the buttermilk dough I used.

Anyway, SnapHappy Foodie is out of lurk mode and back in 2015! To those folks who found their way to my blog and read what I write, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Here’s to a wonderful 2015 for all of us!