These adorable mice in our kitchen

Just a few more days before Christmas, and here I am still baking in our kitchen. I'm not complaining, really. After all, it's one of my happy places. I just wish I have someone who does all the washing for me while I bake. You know those cooking shows in TV where celebrity chefs cook stuff and the kitchen remains spotlessly clean? I want that hahaha. A girl can dream, right?

These cute little mice are this year's new addition to my Christmas goodies. These ones don't require baking. Gather some Kisses, maraschino cherries, and some red and green round candies and assemble them. Voila!

I'm planning to serve this on new year's eve right beside the cheese tray.

Last week, almost everyday after work, I made some French macarons. I did 4 batches with Swiss meringue buttercream fillings and added the following flavours: pistachio, coconut-pineapple, strawberry, and chocolate with walnuts and sea salt.

I'm taking my sweet time working in the kitchen this season. I didn't have to worry about the decorations as I started way early, second weekend of November, believe it or not. I spent three days putting them up, taking them down, putting them up again. I didn't want my decors to look overly done so I did a lot of "editing" hahaha.

Here's a 25-cent tour of my heavily edited Christmas decorations btw -

Main hallway

This is MDH's fave corner when he does serious thinking :)

Corner of MDH's office/study

Traditional red and green on the display in our kitchen cabs. The Christmas balls on the windows are new additions this year.

From the kitchen overlooking the Christmas tree in our living room. I've used burlap instead of the standard wired ribbon around the tree. All LED lights, of course.

My fave kitchen in the whole wide world -

Sugar and spice

... makes Christmas nice.

Well, not exactly true. But I ran out of ideas for this post's title so that will do for now.

We have an on-going bake-athon at the office. Every morning, freshly baked goods are brought and sold. It's a fundraising event. I was this Monday's volunteer baker and I brought one of my all-time favourite cookies - cranberry-cream cheese cookies. Well, the original recipe didn't have cranberries. I just added them to make the cookies look festive.

I've had some nice feedback and some of my colleagues had asked for the recipe. So I thought of posting it here in case you my lovelies, are interested. It's a very simple recipe I think anyone can do it. Here goes ...

 ½ cup butter or margarine
 ½ cup sugar
¼ lb (125 g) cream cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

1.) Cream together butter or margarine and sugar. Add the cream cheese and the egg.
2.) Add sifted dry ingredients.
3.) Shape into rolls and wrap in waxed paper. Chill and then slice thinly and place on a greased cookie sheet.
4.) Bake in a 350 F (180 C) oven for 10 minutes.


Like I mentioned earlier, I added the dried cranberries (about half a cup) to make the cookies look Christmas-y. I guess you can add any dried fruit that you like.

Enjoy!

It's a piece of cake

It's been awhile, I know. Life has taken over. Memories are made, significant milestones happen, some lessons learned, little achievements celebrated, life continues. Amidst all these, I constantly remind myself that: I am planted, not buried, so move I must no matter how uncomfortable it is at times. It's how growth happens.  Maybe one day I'll be able to write about them here and hopefully share some lessons learned and be able to say "That was a piece of cake."

And speaking of cake....

Piece of cake with a side of tea. Yumm.

 
Let me share this recipe I tried in our kitchen. It's your classic pound cake with a twist. Milk is replaced with sour milk (lemon juice plus milk). I love the tartness of the lemon. I also added some  raspberry jam and significantly reduced the amount of sugar specified in the original recipe.

So, without further ado....


Ingredients:
    1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    1 1/4 cups white sugar
    1/2 cup butter
    1/2 cup milk with lemon juice
    3 eggs
    1 pinch baking soda

Directions:
    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9-inch square pan.
    2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the sour milk and eggs.
    3. Add flour and pinch of soda, mix well.
    4. Pour into the pan.
    5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

I like my piece of cake with a cup of tea. How do you like yours?

Looking forward to a warm winter

This was our weekend project. Am happy with how it turned out.

Sunday Morning

This is what I'm working on today. It will be a busy week up ahead again as we are prepping for something we're about to embark on :) I know "embark" sounds overly dramatic. What I'm really trying to say is that after Tuesday's art class, I will have to temporarily park my art thingie-majigs for sometime. And hopefully, when I come back, I will have more to paint.

Some progress on my art endeavour -

• My benefactor a.k.a. MDH got me an easel and I'm using our kitchen as my art studio in the meantime. The plan is to have a designated area in the laundry room where I can paint. The room has a window and a sink/tub which is perfect. So the laundry room will be our next reno project I guess.
• I am enjoying my art class. Very much. There's so much to learn.
• For now, I think I have all the materials I need - detail brushes, paints, etc. I think the best material I bought is the "stay wet" palette. By using it, I get big savings on the paint and most of all, I can take my time as I don't have to worry about my paint drying quickly.
• For my class project, I picked the painting below to copy. This was published in an art magazine that our art teacher asked us to pick from. It's pretty ambitious, if you ask me. There's quite a lot of details in it. But what is that they say?  "Go big or go home." <**insert rolling eyes icon here**>

original painting by George Hallmark

Learning yet again...

So this is what I'm up to the past weeks.

acrylic painting

It is never too late to learn anything new. I'm a big believer on that. So here I am, after several attempts, I've finally enrolled in an art class. First session was last Tuesday, after office. I'm probably the only one in class with no experience in painting. It's a mixed class, most have taken art classes before. But I'm an eager learner and like MDH always says, "we're too old to be embarrassed", so try and learn I will.

MDH has been very supportive, like usual. On my first day in class, he even drove me to the venue, kept me company in the lobby while waiting for the teacher, and picked me up after hahaha. And last night, he was online shopping for an easel. He's doing this knowing that he'll never be able to recoup his investments :).

The first day in class, I learned about colours, how to mix them, and the effects of combining primary and/or complimentary colours. I also learned how to prep my canvas and which art materials to invest in. Very basic stuff but are very helpful tips especially for a trying-hard newbie like me.

As soon as we got home, I took out my art case and started my first project. Well not exactly my first because I made lame attempts before I took the class. But they don't count because they look like a kindergarten did them. No disrespect to kindergartens.

Here's my first project. Far from perfect but I do intend to get better at this.

click to view pic on a black background

And in case anyone reading this post is inclined to critique, please feel free to do so. I'm a big girl, I can handle it, and I'll be very grateful 'cause I do want to learn.

Wanna do the tango?

Today is a bit of a scorcher. And glad I have these treats waiting in the freezer. They're really good, I kid you not!

And if you wanna taste them, come on over to my place and let's do the tango :). You can also make them yourself. Here's the recipe -

Boil 1cup of water and 1 cup of sugar until sugar is completely dissolved. Cool the syrup to room temperature.Mix the syrup with 1 cup table cream in the blender. Add mangoes. (I used 3 medium sized mangoes for this batch.) Blend all the ingredients. Pour them on the molds. Freeze for at least 4 hours. Enjoy and don't forget to share. They taste better when they're devoured with friends.

My love affair with white

I'm not exactly sure when I became smitten with white. I just know that my love for it grows everyday hahaha. I don't know about you, but there's just something calming in whites. I jokingly told a friend of mine that it's like a very supportive friend who doesn't mind just staying in the background and does everything it can to make the others look good. Weird analogy, I know.

Today, after brunch, I lingered on the breakfast nook and just stared at this. It's been quite a "roller-coaster" lately. Thankfully, this sight was quite cathartic for me. I'm weird that way.

Do you notice that small canvass (with splotches of orange) by the green vases btw? I painted that. I finally mustered the courage to bring out my art set and hold the paint brushes and just made a go of it. I'm loving it. But I need to enroll in an art class. I need to learn the techniques. I can't even draw a decent branch. Nevertheless, I am still loving it.

Baking is another cathartic activity for me. So when I'm not holding my paint brush and all the immediate chores are done, I bring out my mixer.

Lately, Chantilly cream is a staple in our fridge. Another white favourite hahaha. I regularly use it in most of my cakes the past months. It's quite versatile.

I made black forest for MDH's and MDK's birthdays this year. I used our all-time fave choco cake as the base. I used maraschino cherries, whipped up some Chantilly cream, put them altogether and voila -

I also use the cream for my cream rolls. I vary the fruit. I've used strawberry, a combo of pineapple and unsweetened coconut ( I call it pinacolada cream roll), and lately mangoes. They're all yumm. My friends can attest to that.

Oh Canada!

"I am young and old, rich and poor, free and enslaved, fleeing and seeking. I came from every part of the world, with family and alone, with nothing and everything. Two stories complete me – the story I came from and the story I started when I landed in Canada. These merge in the next generation into gratitude to a country which has made it possible for my children to have only one story – the Canadian story."

Eighteen years and 11 days ago was when I arrived in this beautiful country.

Between June 21st of 1994 and up to this day, so much has happened.

Sometime along those times, I have realized that Canada is now home to me.

The first month that I was here, I went to see places in Canada - the prairies, the rockies.... Banff and Lake Louise made a lasting impression on me. Majestic was what came to mind when I saw for the first time Canada's beauty.

 

We rented our first apartment in Ottawa. The first few years were not easy but we came to love this city and never left.

MDH went to grad school for his first masteral degree.

I gave birth. In between changing nappies and trying to be a supportive wife - I retrained myself, found a job with a major consulting firm, learned to cook, made new friends....

Late 90's was when I pledged allegiance to the queen :). I remember my French Canadian boss was teasing me about it. When I arrived from my oath-taking ceremony, I found a lovely card on my office desk, signed by my boss and the rest of my colleagues. I teared up when I read the card. But the one thing that stood out was what my boss said - Canada is fortunate to have me. In my heart, I feel very fortunate to have been given the chance to live and settle here. It's been a great country.

Thank you, Canada!

Happy birthday, Young Man!

MDK calls this choco cupcake "heaven-on-earth"

I made the birthday cupcake. This was MDK's special request for his birthday. And from his Popz, eggs benedict for breakfast. Very simple requests from this young man who means the world to us, really.

So yeah, MDK turns a year older today. And hopefully wiser as well ;). Afterall, he has, according to him (MDK), the best role model.

He has been a very good kid. And a constant source of joy for MDH and me. He's growing up to be like his Popz - loving, caring, considerate, and insightful. I couldn't ask for more, really, and I continue to pray that he'll grow up to be the man God wants him to be.

Lord, I pray that You would pour out Your Spirit upon our son this day and all the days of his life. May he never stray from what You have called him to be and do, or try something he is not. Deliver him from any plan to rob him of life, to steal away his uniqueness and giftedness.

May he not compromise the path You have prepared for him to walk, or destroy the person You created him to be. May he not be a follower of anyone but you, but may he be a leader of people into Your kingdom. Help him to grow in his understanding of his authority in You, while retaining a humble and submissive spirit. May the fruit of the Spirit which is love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control grow in him everyday.

May he find his identity in You and view himself as Your instrument. Give him a vision for his life and a sense of purpose of what You've called him to do. Amen.

Meet Molly

I really thought I was over her. I waited another month just to be sure that she's the one for this year. (She's been in my mind the past 3 years, believe it or not.)

And because I didn't want her to be "the one that got away," I decided not to wait for another year.

After a thousand and one visits to this  site and this site, I took the plunge.

She's mine now. I know it's going to be a long purse love-affair for Molly and me.

A Mum's Love

When the rain is blowin' in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love.

When the evening shadows and the stars appear
And there is no one there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love.
...
I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue
I'd go crawlin' down the avenue
No, there's nothin' that I wouldn't do
To make you feel my love.

~  Bob Dylan, 'Make You Feel My Love'

Picture taken inside the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC

If I had Bob Dylan's genius, this would have been the same song I will compose for this young man (MDK). Well, I'd probably change a line or two but not the message in each and every line. But a genius I am not so here I am, sharing a playlist (To Make You Feel My Love* ) of the song instead, sung by different singers (Jeremy Irons' cover included). Bob Dylan's rendition of his song is my favourite in the list of course. I am biased, I know.

* A new window will be opened when the link is clicked.


I have slowly become a Bob Dylan fan when MDK started listening to his songs. (MDK is a huge Bob Dylan fan btw.) As I discover his many compositions, I've grown to admire his poetry. I had very limited exposure to his songs until I slowly noticed that MDK started playing songs that have very eloquent messages. They happen to be mostly Bob Dylan's. I still haven't listened to most of his songs so my exposure to his songs is still very limited. However, my Bob Dylan playlist in Grooveshark is growing.

Some nights, MDK and MDH play music together, and among their favourites are Bob Dylan's (Queen Jane, A Hard Rains A Gonna Fall are some of them). It's always a delight, as mom and wife, to listen and watch them play together. A mini-performance of this song by "my boys" (MDK and MDH) would have been my special request for Mother's day but we will be out of town. There will be no breakfast in bed for me as well as we will be away from home so I'll just settle for the all-time best gift: a-hug-and-a-kiss.


This was intended to be an advanced Mother's day greeting to all the Moms who visit this site and not just a rah-rah post for Bob Dylan hahaha. So let me end my post with a prayer on behalf of all the  mothers (and fathers) out there and an ardent wish that you'll have a very meaningful celebration on this special day.

Lord, we submit ourselves to You. Help us to walk in righteousness and integrity before You. Teach us Your ways and enable us do what is pleasing in Your sight. May the beauty of Your Spirit be so evident in us that we will be godly role models. Give us the communication, teaching and nurturing skills that we must have. Make us the parents You want us to be. Amen.

My Time-out Corner

This is another corner in the house I can call my own.

If you've visited this site before, you'd probably noticed that I have quite a few corners in this house and each has a name. I have my FB corner, happy wall, etc etc. This one, I call it my time-out corner. And it's also my last-stop corner before I go to bed.

And because I'm a big fan of whites and greys, it has go to be a white dressing table of course. I've embellished the top by using some left-over drapery fabric from our previous home.

It turned out to be just the right fabric colour as it goes well with the furniture pieces and the wall paint we have in the room.


 It didn't take very long to put them all together. It was the search for the "perfect" mirror that took  forever. I scoured the whole of Ottawa and took a hundred trips to HomeSense before I found the one hahaha.

The room, overall, is still not fully done but it's getting there.

Re-arranging

Little did I know, we'd spend the next years together re-arranging things like priorities, expectations, etc, etc. It's never ending but I'm loving every moment of it. I have the most patient, persistent, kind, hard-working buddy.

*************

Above is our latest project. It's not fully done, but I'm happy the way it's turning out.

Paint is Stonington Grey by Benjamin Moore. Art works on the wall are mine. They're pics of our orchids in the bathroom. I told MDH, I'm getting a lot of mileage from these flowers. The blooms started showing up early October and they're still blooming up to now. They've gone through 3 seasons.

It took us 2 days to prep and paint the room. And some Advil of course.

Thanks, MDH!

Budget 2012

So Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty bought a pair of shoes worth $110 today (eve of the federal budget announcement). What sayeth thou of this? Modest spending? Modest cutbacks? I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Hopefully, there will be no other shoe to drop, no pun intended.

It's a long-time tradition for the Minister of Finance to go to a shoe store on the eve of the announcement. Last year, he didn't buy a new pair, instead he had an old pair resoled. Leaner times.

Well, if I were to start a tradition, I'd pick purse. What's yours?

Childhood, Heartaches, Do-overs

Warning: this is an incoherent post. I don't know how to elaborate on the title 'cause really, I just want to post some pics.

This week, I whipped up my most favourite tortes in the whole wide world. They're called "Torta Cebuano". I had scoured the internet for the recipe and was fortunate enough to have found it from this site. Thank you, Manang. (Manang means older sister in Filipino btw, in case you're wondering.)

Every bite of these tortes evoked some childhood memories, mostly happy ones. So it was such a delight to have finally found the one recipe that produces yummy tortes and taste almost the same as the ones I've grown to like.

And while I baked this week's batch, MDH played Adele's album ("21"). And you know how in almost every album, there's this one song that stands out. For this album, it was "Someone Like You." And if you knew me, you'd have guessed that I had it on repeat that night until I finished baking. Which made MDK wonder if the song means something to me hahaha. I told him, I am one of the lucky ones to have never experienced a major heartache and that's the whole truth and nothing but the truth :). I just like the song, is all.

So, the next day, I scoured the internet for the music sheet. Lo and behold, I found one. Love the world wide web, I tellya. That same night, MDK played it on the piano and we had our mini karaoke session.

This morning during brunch, while Adele's "21" was playing, MDK asked MDH, "so Papa, in a scale of 1 to Adele, how bad was your first heartache?" I love this kid's humour. Like father, like son.

After brunch, MDK asked another question. This time, it was a "what-if-kind" of question. And so I told him, "remember, almost always, there are no do-overs in life so I can't answer your hypothetical question. I guess we'll just have to do our best in a given situation and enjoy the ride." Which also reminds me of a quote that a dear friend posted on her FB wall: "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

Why oh why

... is there always a friggin' bitter pill to swallow? I wanna spit it out.

Why can' t I just pick my favourite happy, jelly beans.

Scheming

... for yet another project.



Now that we have the furniture pieces for the family room in place and the old sofa and loveseat have been moved and set-up in the loft, I am now ready to put some colours in the three rooms - kitchen, family room, and loft. I know, I know I've been playing "safe" with our colours in the home. And I am not to do any different in these 3 rooms as the colours will be mostly on the fabrics for the cushions and drapes and accent wall. The big pieces are still neutral a.k.a. beige-brown-white-grey-blah. But I think once these pops of colours will be used, it will not be as blah anymore. Let's see.

Updates on some of our latest renos:

• Shelves in our walk-in closet have been installed and I am loving it. I told MDH it feels like I'm shopping for clothes whenever I choose what to wear in the morning :). There are still a few items that we need to finish up like putting the baseboards back, putting up the mirror and wall hooks for my blings, and adding 2 shelves and racks. But overall it's close to being a finished labour-of-love reno ;).

• I found the perfect fireplace for our bedroom and will order it soon. In 2 weeks, we'll re-paint our bedroom with BM Stonington Grey (same paint colour that we used in our walk-in). 

• We've managed to amp-up a bit the coziness in the loft.  Just a tad bit. We removed the work table and the desktop computer as they aren't used since MDH, MDK, and I have each our own workspaces. The study for MDH, the guest-room-slash-mini-recording-studio for MDK, and the chef's desk for moi. The sofa and loveseat that used to be in the family room are now in the loft. MDH says it's a perfect spot for napping so we now call it "the napping station." He's even thinking of replacing the sofa with a sofa-bed. I said "NO" so that's the end of that discussion hahaha.

So how about you my darlings? Any new schemes?

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Today's a fab day...

I had a lovely day today. Firstly, I took a day off from work as we were expecting 2 deliveries, one's a furniture set which I ordered online and the other's a bunch of closet stuff for our walk-in. Secondly, MDK was at home and did a kind deed to the delivery guys.

The furniture pieces are now in our family room and everyone loves it. Even MDK, as usual I must say, was pleasantly surprised that they look quite nice and work well with the rest of our decor. I told him he should learn not to doubt my choices ;).

The next project that we have to tackle will be the walk-in closet. The closet shelves are all dark (similar colour to our ensuite cabs) and the paint, we'll paint it with BM's Stonington Grey. Walk-in reno is now first in MDH's honey-do list. Finally! I will post pics once reno is done, I guess.

For now, I'll share a pic of my lunch.

Lunch was celery sticks (with ranch dressing), grapes, crackers, wensleydale cheese with cranberries, and a glass of milk. To 'balance' it out, I had some leftover macs and would have loved to pair them with Moscato wine but there was none left so MDK and I had them with tea instead.


The macs above are from the last batch I did 2 weeks ago. I set aside a few pieces. MDH had requested that I made a batch for the retirement party of his former boss and mentor (and a very good friend I must add). The serving plates came back empty so I guess that was a good thing. Someone in the party had asked for the recipe. And because today is a fab day, I'm sharing the recipe.

French Macaron Recipe:

120g almond meal
200g powdered sugar
100g egg whites
30-35g granulated sugar
food colouring gel

1. Line rectangular baking sheets with silicone liners (silpat) or parchment paper. For this amount of ingredients, I use 3 baking sheets.

2. Prepare a piping bag with a round tip attached to it. I use #12.

3. Weigh the almond meal and powdered sugar and sift together to remove clumps.

4. Weigh the rest of the ingredients.

5. Beat the egg whites until the mixture becomes foamy. Begin adding the sugar and beat the meringue until it turns to stiff, glossy peaks.

6. Add the food colouring.

7. Then gradually add and fold the almond/sugar mixture.

8. Pour the batter into the piping bag and pipe rows of batter onto the baking sheets. Make sure to leave some space in between to allow the macs to spread.

9. Allow the macs to rest for approximately 30 minutes.

10. Preheat your oven between 275 to 310 degrees F. The 295 F setting in a convection oven works for me. You may have to do a bit of experimenting on this.

11. Bake the cookies for 16-20 minutes.

There is a caveat to the recipe above. The settings that work for me may or may not work for you. Just like most recipes, you may have to tweak this. But I've made this several times now and I've considered my first attempt and the next ones relatively successful. If you are used to baking goods that require meringue, you'll be fine. And just like anything you're set to learn, if and when the first attempt fails, try again until you succeed.

Here's to the New Year

May this year bring me more joy and success and less grief and regret. And if I stumble and fail, may I have the grace and courage to get up, pick up the pieces, and move on.

May I never stop believing in my dreams for myself and for my loved ones. May I take the actions that will make them a reality. May I be able to readily give up any dream that I have that is not my loved one's and make his dream mine as well and support him unconditionally, no matter what.

May I learn to encourage more and criticize less, give more and need less.

May I be kinder to people around me and to myself.

May I always be able to let my loved ones and friends know how much of a blessing they are in my life. And may my presence in their lives be a blessing to them too.


Here's to another beginning. A blessed New Year to one and all!