Cupcake Sprinkles & WBFC 27

Posted by gmirage1 on Oct 30, 2011 in Cupcakes | 23 comments

Long overdue post. The kids and I made cupcakes and our favorite cream cheese frosting one Sunday morning. To engage them doing it with me I made design their cupcakes with candy sprinkles (above is done by youngest). I still use my basic cupcake recipe which you can find here.

We’ve adjusted for daylight savings today but I still feel lazy to do stuff for that extra hour added. So for now, I’m joining Weekend Blog Follower Caravan # 27 – Facebook page liking. If you haven’t done yet, please do like Mahlzeit’s page.

Hubby arrived yesterday from his 3-week vacation so we’ve been cooking a lot since. Today though, we’d be lazying a bit. Enjoy your Sunday!

Oh! Join WBFC by clicking badge below….this week’s sponsors are Work at Home Wife and Mother and Stay at Home Wife and Mother.

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Better Berries

Posted by gmirage1 on Oct 26, 2011 in Fruits | 4 comments

Summers are supposed to be fun…for the kids particularly. I can’t say I enjoy it as much as they do but I try. I’ve often said how my body changed when I moved here. Summers tend to be really hot for me even at the 25°-28° range when I grew up having them at 30° up.

I totally lost the will to go out and walk around the city like I used to…and so the kids and I would end up baking, going around the neighborhood buying fruits…Fruits are a few of what I enjoy about the summers. There’s this Piña colada yogurt drink that I always buy from the grocery and it’s sold only until the end of September. There’s papaya too which are brought in from Brazil, different sized berried, nectarines, plums, cherries, satsumas, clementines and watermelons too – all loved by the kids.

Among the fruits, strawberry reigns as the most loved. They’d eat them as is, for that’s how strawberries are best eaten. They’s have strawberries as shakes, as cake addition, as ice cream and yogurt topper or fondue…I think strawberries are totally versatile.

 So for today, I’m sharing this simple vanilla cream recipe that goes well with strawberries.

Vanilla cream:
220 grams mascarpone  at room temperature
120 grams whipped cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup granulated sugar

How to:

Combine mascarpone and vanilla extract in a bowl and mix on low until soft and peaks form. You can dip your berries or chop them up and combine with the cream mixture.

To store: cover mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to use (just beat again).

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They’ll have strawberries anytime alright, but dawty loves them as a smoothie!

Chinese Cabbage Omelette

Posted by gmirage1 on Oct 22, 2011 in Leftovers, Omelettes | 8 comments

One of the frequent dish I cook and a home favorite is Nilagang baka (beef stew with vegetables such as potato, cabbage, mais). I can seldom get the traditional cabbage we use for Nilaga (repolyo) so I content the dish with a type of Chinakohl (Napa cabbage). Most of the time I only use half so I’d end up with a bit more soft leaves and those hardy parts by the base.

What I would do is chop them up real thin and saute them in olive oil. When they are really soggy I put in chopped tomatoes, pepper, salt and beaten eggs. Since our basil have been growing really healthy this season I chopped up some leaves for flavor. Good morning, breakfast’s ready!

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for:

Food Friday, Yummy Sunday

Seared Trout on Quinoa + Dried Tomatoes

Posted by gmirage1 on Oct 7, 2011 in Fish | 13 comments

Sometimes in my head I have too much to do, ideas bursting from here and there but I never got the time to actually bring them to fruition. Recipes for one are all listed down but remains there…sadly. So whenever I am alone to myself , which happens in the mornings – when I wake up or when the kids are all out, I’d get my me-time. That me-time is to contemplate on the day past, the plans for the day and of course what food to cook. I used to have a list of dishes that we enjoy – complete for the whole month and it did help me save time and money as I would buy ingredients per what is to be cooked. The 3oth and the 31st are always for special menus and what we all look forward to.

Growing up with rice as a staple food and eating it almost everyday made me curious about quinoa since I first chanced upon it in a store near our place. That was years before—I never got the courage since to buy and actually try it until I had to pair it with the fish bought two weeks ago (related entry below).

Knowing the health benefits of quinoa convinced me too…especially when I saw a recipe that includes sundried tomatoes. Another something wonderful I missed out on as a child. Totally makes me think, I come from a tropical country where fish is dried, mangoes, pineapples and other fruits are dried yet I’ve never had sundried tomatoes before…what was I eating?

I got them from the store sealed in a vacuum-tight plastic container and not from a jar with oil. It’s easier to use! teehee! For this particular dish, just take about 5 pieces and chop them up to pieces and set aside.

I should have listen to mom-in-law when she told hubby to watch dad-in-law debone the trout we caught last time we went fishing. (oooppss, still haven’t blogged about that.) He’s been doing it for years so he definitely knows how. This endeavor was not my first time to debone a fish but I haven’t really been successful with the previous ones too. I anyway tried my best to cut fillets, I set aside the bones with flesh still intact and made soup.

Seared Trout Fillet on Quinoa

So for the fillet, you sprinkle them with salt and a pinch of white pepper. Sear on olive oil for around 5-8 minutes turning once.

For the quinoa, rinse a half a cup of them on cold running water to remove the bitter coverings (or whatever they’re called). Put them in a saucepan with boiling water and add some salt. Bring this to boil again and let simmer just as how rice is cooked, this should be about 8-10 minutes.

Serve quinoa on a plate and top with trout fillet and chopped tomatoes. There, a healthy meal served and this is usually on the end of the month if I follow my dish list.

Breakfasts at Victoria Hotels

Posted by gmirage1 on Sep 25, 2011 in breakfast | 2 comments

(photo from http://www.slrobertson.com)

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My kids love to eat and have a good time. However, we all love traveling too. Imagine what hubby would search for each time we travel. Hotel with  ample amenities to keep the kids entertained, a pool for them to enjoy when it’s too hot, a park or playground just near the hotel for them to unwind and of course, yummy food. They enjoy breakfast buffets just like during our Paris trip.

Thankfully the chain of Victoria hotels offers various restaurants with a serving of tea & coffee, pastries, hot chocolate, fruits & fruit juices,  yoghurt, cereals, pancakes, breads,  grilled tomatoes, baked beans,  sausages and of course: bacon and eggs. If we find ourselves visiting my new nephew in Canada, we’re sure to check out one of their chains.

Trout, Butter, Dill and Lemons

Posted by gmirage1 on Sep 21, 2011 in Featured, Fish | 13 comments

Sometime ago when the trees where sprouting leaves I bought a Groupon deal for fresh fish market. I went to the market one lovely Wednesday afternoon only to learn that they are open only on Thursdays.  I went back again in Summer but they are closed and I was told that they’ll be open again in September. I really looked forward to September then it hit me: that the deal will expire on the 9th, the last Thursday that I could go would be the 8th. So that Thursday I called and said that I’d be dropping by to use my deal. The kids and I went hurriedly but even though I’ve been there twice we got lost and we had to walk about 20 minutes. When we came, all the fish were caught, I mean bought already. We were told to come back next week since a lot of buyers weren’t able to use theirs.

So next week came and I saw to it that we would arrive earlier than we did the last time. Thank goodness there were still a lot of them fish when we arrived. I got us brook trouts and a red-spotted trout, much bigger than what we caught from the rivers of Fürth (story to follow). Sorry, I know fish aren’t the most photogenic subjects but I just have to show this, you could see the pinkish flesh of both.

They’re surely bigger than a ruler size, head and tail not included…What I did for this dish was to stuff the fish belly with dill, sprinkle with salt and pepper, squeeze fresh lemon juice and put lemon slices on top. I put in whole, washed potatoes too and buttered everything generously. Got the ensemble baked and here’s what we got:

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for:

Food Friday,Yummy Sunday

Candy Sprinkles

Posted by gmirage1 on Sep 20, 2011 in Baking, Desserts | 2 comments

One of the best way to bond with kids is baking, it’s an enjoyable activity for my kids, at least. They love to put tins,  crack eggs, measure the ingredients, mix the batter, watch them in the oven as they “grow.” But I think the most they’d like to do is to frost and put those sprinkles.

I’ve bought some edible pearls and colorful sprinkles. We’d be baking again today.