Homemade Play Dough

Last year I bought Play-Doh Cars 2 Mold N Go for my son, the box includes four free play-doh and of course it didn’t last long. I know that I can easily buy play-doh but I find it expensive so yesterday, I’ve made homemade playdough. Too bad, I only have one food color.  I got my recipe here "Musings from a stay at home mom".

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 cup water

2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/3 cup salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

food coloring

Instructions

Mix together all the ingredients, except the food coloring, in a 2-quart saucepan. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring. Once it begins to thicken, add the food coloring. Continue stirring until the mixture is much thicker and begins to gather around the spoon. Remove the dough onto wax paper or a plate to cool.

Read: DIY Homemade Play Dough

It supposed to be strawberry red but I don’t know why it looks pink or light purple but still, my son was happy with his play dough. Lighting McQueen is back!

Lunch at Greenwich

I mentioned before that I’m not fond of Greenwich pizza but I love their lasagna. My husband adores their pizza so when I won P1,042 worth of Gift Certificate last May, he was ecstatic to avail the free meals so whenever we are in the mall and hungry, he always asks if I still have GC. We had free lunch, dinner and merienda because of my GC. We just add drinks and frozen choco cup for my son.

We availed 6 Spaghetti Garlic Stix, 

1 Greenwich Barkada Special Overload

 and 1 Greenwich Barkada Ultimate Hawaiian Overload.

July 12, 2011

We had a quick snack at Greenwich while waiting for my hubby’s pants to be altered. I am not really a fan of John Lloyd’s pizza, I mean Greenwich pizza but I really like their lasagna. I always order this whenever we eat here so I still haven’t tried their overload pizza.  We ordered lasagna, chicken and softdrinks combo for P159 and pizza, spaghetti and softdrinks combo for P59.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I can’t remember the last time I’ve made a cookie, I guess it’s been 4 or 5 years ago when I first tried to make a chocolate crinkle and I can’t even remember the taste. hehe! So yesterday, I’ve pushed myself to bake a cookie, I saw the recipe in Pinterest and one pinner said it is award winning recipe so I pinned and tried it. I checked the ingredients just to make sure I have everything in my pantry and I checked the procedures and it looks so easy.

In less than 30 minutes I have lemon crinkle cookies. I haven’t tasted any lemon crinkle cookies and this was my first time to taste it and I liked it. It is soft, not overly sweet, and I can really taste the lemon. I accepted the fact that my son and husband will not like it because they didn’t like my calamansi cupcake but I was wrong, they love my lemon crinkle cookies.

I’ve got the recipe in LDS Living

Lemon Crinkle Cookies Recipe

Makes 2-3 dozen

Ingredients:

½ cups butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 whole egg

1 teaspoon lemon zest

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

¼ teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoons baking powder

⅛ teaspoons baking soda

1-½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

No-Bake Blueberry Cheesecake

We’re having an outdoor home improvement for the last several days that is why I have no time to blog but I hope they will finish it tomorrow. Since hubby wasn’t home to supervise it, my son is the one who supervise everything. I don’t know why he is so interested monitoring them, maybe he wants to be an architect or civil engineer. But kids will always be kids, so he played with the sand and gravel.a

And because he loves to supervise, I have no choice but to stay with him. He usually watches them at the front door or window so for the last several days, I’ve made banana cupcake, steamed puto with cheese and no-bake blueberry cheesecake to keep myself busy. I’ve been meaning to make my own blueberry cheesecake ever since I’ve tasted Calea Blueberry Cheesecake and I was so delighted with the result and my husband like it too. I swear, this is so easy to make.

I got the recipe from My Mom Friday site. 

NO-BAKE BLUEBERRY CHEESECAKE

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 cup (approx. 100g) softened butter

1 teaspoon lemon juice and grated rind (optional)

Cheesecake filling:

1 cup (1 brick) cream cheese

1 cup (1 brick) all purpose cream

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons liquid milk

1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin (1 sachet of Knox)

1 teaspoon lemon juice (optional)

Topping:

1 can Comstock Blueberry pie filling

To prepare crust:

Mix all dry ingredients and add butter to bind. Mash well.

*Crust mixture should be close to texture of moist sand; add a bit more butter if too dry.

Transfer and press evenly on bottom of ungreased springform pan (or any pie dish you prefer).

Place in the freezer to harden crust while you make the filling.

To prepare filling:

Using a mixer, whip chilled cream with 2 tablespoon sugar until stiff. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, gradually mix remaining sugar into softened cream cheese. Beat until fluffy and set aside.

In a small sauce pan, combine milk and gelatine powder. Heat until completely dissolved (don't boil, use a wire whisk while heating to remove lumps). Remove from heat, pour and beat into cream cheese mixture.

Fold in cheese mixture to the whipped cream and beat on medium to high.

Add lemon juice if you want some zest in your cream filling.

To assemble:

Bring out pan from freezer and pour in the cheesecake filling. Spread evenly with spatula and tap pan lightly to set and release some air bubbles.

Cover pan and chill for a few hours.

Top with blueberry pie filling or fruit compote before serving.

Flowers

I always say that I’m not fond of flowers maybe because I know that flowers are not cheap so I rather receive food or other stuff than flowers. Don’t get me wrong! I do appreciate flowers but I’m not the type of girl who loves to receive flowers on every special occasion. My son loves to give me flowers from our mini garden. I do appreciate the thoughtfulness but I always tell him, do not pick our flowers.

Although flowers are expensive, there are occasions that I bought some flowers and one example is our wedding day. I’m so clueless when it comes to flower arrangement, pricing and flower shop so I ask for some referrals. Most of the people I know referred us to Dangwa and I did not have any regret because I loved my bouquet. They just ask me for my motif, flowers that I like, how many bouquets do I need and when and where the delivery date is. You can save more if you know how to arrange flowers but since I have no idea about flower arrangement and I don’t want to stress myself on that stuff, we just get a package.

In the Philippines we have Dangwa but if you live in Colorado, there is Amore Fiori Florist Denver who provides flowers on any occasion and event. You can read their about/ flowers in Denver page to know more about this shop. 

My First Run?

I admit that I don’t really have a healthy lifestyle because I’m a meat eater and I’m too lazy to workout. I mentioned before that my diet is called “bukas na” diet but God knows that I’m trying my best to have a healthy lifestyle. Little by little I’m improving my eating habits and I hope I could lessen my meat and sugar intake.

Yesterday, my husband dragged me to join his weekend run. I told him “if my son will wake up, I will join him” and I was shocked because my son woke up so I have no choice but to join them. We left at 5:30AM and went to the nearest cemetery. #creepy.

Finally, after 5 years I was able to use this rubber shoes. It was a gift that was sitting in our shoe rack for five years.

It was my first run ever but not really because most of the time I just walk while my son was biking. More than 3km of walkathon and no sweat at all. I was happy because it is a good start of my healthy living.

After our morning run, we went to the market.  

Stylish and Comfortable Vacation to Italy

One of the most famous destinations for your vacation with your family members or friends is the stylish, rich country of Europe, Italy. The irresistible experience of food, culture and natural structure actually makes Italy a preferred destination for the most unforgettable vacations with your dear ones staying in the comfortable villas.

The country enjoys the geological borders with the most attractive and historically known nations like Slovenia, France, Austria and wonderful Switzerland. Italy is like a peninsula located in the middle of the Mediterranean bordered by the Ionian Sea with the Tyrrhenian, Sardinian and the Ligurian Sea on the west and encircled by the Adriatic Sea on the East.

The natural scenery of Italy offers you a varied choice of enjoying the green mountains which include the Alps and Apennines range along with the energizing experience of the fabulous islands, such as Sardinia and Sicily on the western and southern coast, the two most remarkable islands that are actually part of this country.

Italy's climate offers you the chance to take pleasure of the tan on the sandy beaches under the dazzling sun in warm summers. Travelers prefer the magnificence of the villas and a good stylish vacation to Italy by visiting famous fashion shows, museums, resorts, pubs, and nightclubs. Sardinia is the most famous destinations for travelers, pertaining to its revelation of the magnificent crystal clear sea, where tourists can explore fabulous apartments and impressive cottages for rent.

Europe is recognized for its diversified beauty, and Italy is particularly known to have the most stunning lakes. If you are an outdoor enthusiast then it can be the ideal location for your vacation at self-catering apartments, enjoying the fabulous open-air water sports or investigative days discovering the local area. One of such destinations is Umbria, recognized for its mountainous landscape, best for hiking, chosen by many families for their holiday destination. Umbria is also considered as a place for a stylish vacation to Italy by many tourists.

Silence is Deadly

If you’re a mom you know what I mean when I say “Silence is Deadly”. Even though I only have one child, our house is full of noise and mess. My son always watches DVD’s if I need to do something like chores so it means I can’t see him. And if I don’t hear any noise I’m really nervous because I know something is going on that will really make me mad.

Just this week, hubby and I were eating dinner while my son was busy watching DVD because he doesn’t want to eat. Yes, he has his own time and mood when to eat and it’s been a long time dilemma for me.

I can’t hear any noise so I told my husband to check my son.

Me: Check mo nga si Ethan at baka kung ano na ginagawa nun.

Hubby: Nanonood lang yun.

After dinner, my husband went up and shouted: “Hon, look at your son”, so I immediately went up and I found this.

Surprise!

He put baby powder all over his cabinet, floor, body, our toiletries kit and my kikay kit. My husband was laughing but I’m not happy because I have to clean up all the mess. Like what I’ve said silence is deadly so if you don’t hear any noise, check your child. 

This was not my first-time experience and I posted several posts like this.

1.  When my son torn his sofa bed into pieces.

2.  When he used our wall as his canvass.

3.  When he used his legs as his canvass

4.  He played with my post it, scotch tape and packaging tape.

5.  He ate one pack of chocolate.

He cut our bed sheet.

He colored his nails using pentel pens.

He put lotion all over his body, our floor and bed sheet.

And many more… If you experience this stuff, welcome to the club! "Silence is golden... unless you have a toddler. In that case, silence is very suspicious."

Baked Shrimp

One of my favorite seafood is shrimp and it is always in my menu if my husband would be out for a business trip for obvious reason, it so easy to cook. My favorite recipe is buttered garlic shrimp but for a change, I tried baked shrimp last week. My husband liked this better than buttered garlic shrimp.

I got the recipe in Pinterest.

1.     Melt a stick of butter in the pan.

2.     Slice one lemon and layer it on top of the butter.

3.     Put down fresh shrimp and then sprinkle one pack of dried Italian seasoning.

4.     Put in the oven and bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.

Next time I’ll add salt and dash of cayenne pepper.

The Mom You’re Meant to Be

I’m re-reading “The Mom You’re Meant to Be” book by Cheri Fuller while waiting for my son in school. I’m glad that I read this book again because it gives me more understanding and realization of motherhood. Like I said before, I wish there was motherhood 101 in school so I could prepare myself for being a mom. But we all know that there is no motherhood 101, no formula or even secret recipe in parenting.

We can read books, parenting magazines, and online articles to help us understand the needs of our kids as they grow but we know that some works and some are not applicable to our children because each child is different and unique.

Honestly, there are times that I really don’t understand my son and there are times that I don’t know why he is behaving like this and that. Since I was pregnant I was reading a book, magazines, and online articles but I still can’t find the answer. So I give up everything to God and ask Him to give me wisdom and strength to be the best mom for my child.

Being a mom is a gift from God but it also entails obligations, biggest responsibility and challenges along the way and I know that I can not do it on my own strength and knowledge. I guess motherhood jobs never stops, we just go through different seasons and each year and stage is very different from one another.

When my son was few months old, how I wish he can speak already so he can tell me his needs and wants but now that he can talk, I’m looking forward to quiet moments. No more demands, no more requests and no more whining.  hehe! But that is life, every day, week, month and year is a new challenge and new adjustment.  It’s been three weeks since my son started school and I’m still adjusting on our schedule and our new phase. I have new challenges that I have to face and I feel so stressed already.

I know I still have a long way to go and I pray that God will give me more wisdom, strength and grace to be the mom I’m meant to be.