The above photo was taken last Saturday (morning).  Because we had nothing planned for the weekend, I thought it was about time I kept my promise to my daughter, one that I made almost a month ago.  And that is, to let her decorate cupcakes at home.

The cake mix that I jazzed up that morning yielded 24 cupcakes.  I reserved 11 for the Li’l Munchkin to decorate.  It would have been 12, had we not needed a cupcake for taste testing. :D  For the frosting, we used the canned Pillsbury frosting.  Not the most ideal for cake decorating, but given it will only be used for “play”, it was the most logical choice.

I only helped with the first two cupcakes…

The rest, my eager student did on her own.  She also got to use a spatula to spread frosting on the cupcakes.

For the finishing touch, she added candy sprinkles on them…

Isn’t it pretty?  Here’s another one…

I say these are the prettiest cupcakes…EVER! :)  They’re the yummiest, too.  Not even the threat of the possibility of needing to gulp down the best diet pills due to sugar overload could stop hubby and me from enjoying these treats.

Here’s the slideshow that I made to document that special day.

Today, cupcakes.  Tomorrow, cakes! :D  Lighten up.  That was just a figure of speech.  Hee. :P

Have a great week, y’all!

*This is entry #48 for .*

I got the recipe from RecipeZaar, one of my favorite recipe sources.  It doesn’t look anywhere near the Goldilocks or Red Ribbon mamon, nor was it as fluffy, but it was enough to float my mamon boat.  :D  I like that the recipe was just the right sweetness and that it was easy to make.

Here’s the recipe, just in case you’re anything like me…a homesick tightwad.  Haha! :P

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cake flour
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
6 eggs, seperated
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

DIRECTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.  Sift flour and baking powder in bowl; set aside.
3.  In a another large bowl, beat egg white and cream of tartar until meringue-like but not stiff.
4.  Gradually add sugar while beating. Then, add vanilla and vegetable oil.
5.  Add egg yolks one at a time and continue beating.
6.  Add cake flour and baking powder and continue mixing.
7.  Line muffin pans with paper cups and pour mixture about 2/3 full.
8.  Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Finished when toothpick comes out clean. (Note:  My mamon took a while to brown…about 20  minutes.  Do watch out though, because the bottom of the mamons will be in danger of overbaking, that is, overly brown and almost burnt!)

Shortly after I made these, I searched again for other mamon recipes.  I found another one which I would have tried right away if only I had more eggs  in the fridge.  The other recipe I found looks more promising.

If you want a buttery mamon, I suggest you brush the tops with melted butter and then dip the top of the mamons in sugar. ;)  That should give your otherwise ordinary (yet good!) mamon an added umph.

This takes care of tomorrow’s breakfast. ;)  My little girl easily ate two pieces in one sitting.  I won’t even dare tell you how much Hubby and I ate! :P

P.S. By the way, it might interest you to know that some people have started selling mamon at their bakeshops/bakery using this recipe.  That much I picked up from the comments that were left on RecipeZaar.  So if you’re the least bit businessminded and want to earn extra on the side, you might want to start or “practice” with mamon.  ;)  Family and friends may just be all too willing to put their sales job search on hold to help you out. ;)

*This is entry #47 for .*

oOo

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!

Click HERE for an updated mamon entry.

This was a hit with both Hubby and my daughter, which didn’t come as a surprise.  We just happen to love rice and nori and practically whatever filling they might come with…tuna or salmon, avocado, mango, cucumber, imitation crab,  tamago, unagi, etc.

I’m happy to be able to roll my own maki.  That translates to huge savings!  A tray of skinny makis costs upwards of $5.00 at the supermarket. It’s more costly at a restaurant!  If we had lunch at a maki joint, we could have easily spent $30.00!  I’m definitely happy. :D

My daughter’s school lunch that Friday was tuna sandwich.  I was left with a good amount of tuna spread in the fridge.   That’s what I used to make the maki.  I just paired it with cream cheese, which I have lots of!  I was able to make 20 fat pieces of maki.  That amount is not enough for us maki lovers, so I made an extra 10 pcs with just cream cheese. :D

I’ve now ran out of nori wrappers.  I.have.to.buy.more!

Have a great week ahead, y’all!  Cheers!

*This is entry #46 for .*

The sun has already set by the time I finished decorating the cake.  I had to take photos in the living room, of all places.

I used chocolate buttercream icing for the brown stars.  I’ll post the recipe on my next entry.

Both hubby and my little girl liked how the cake turned out.  But I shouldn’t do this star technique too often or else, I might end up with carpal tunnel syndrome! :)

Here’s Abby, who is turning out to be a big sports fan like her dad.  She always  begs hubby to carry her upside down, much to my disapproval!  It doesn’t seem too long ago when we were looking for baby beddings for her! *sigh*

I’ve now recovered from the Cardinals’ loss…I think.  *another big sigh*

I have another Weekend Snapshot:  Superbowl Sunday

Have a great week ahead, y’all!  Cheers!

Chinese New Year is on January 26th, just a couple of hours away on our part of the world.  Back in the Philippines, we make it a point to join the Chinese New Year festivities even if we are not Chinese.  Once or twice, we even paid good money so we could take part in the “prosperity banquet” and other activities meant to attract good fortune at the Mandarin Oriental.   Two years ago, we even feng shui-fied our home!

This year, we thought we should celebrate by having Chinese food for lunch.  I was actually looking for a place that had a Chinese New Year banquet special of sorts but wasn’t very successful.  I probably just didn’t look hard enough.  And since feng shui is all about signs and symbols, I thought one of the better signs of plenty is, what else but  a Chinese buffet! :)  We had a couple friend of ours and their two kids join us for lunch.  It’s best to pig out in the company of good friends, you know!

We chose Fujian Grand China Buffet for our Chinese New Year lunch rendezvous.  Why?  Because I am a very gullible person. TV commercials for this buffet place has gotten me curious big time.  Hubby and I know very well that Chinese food is best enjoyed at little places that are run by a family, where there isn’t too much tinkering with the dishes to suit the American taste.  That’s why we don’t eat at so-called fusion restaurants very often.  But we are suckered (please excuse the term) into eating at buffet places every now and then.  Go figure!

For my first plate, I headed to the sushi counter.  That’s always my first stop.

The sushi was edible, that much I can tell you. Buffets don’t have the best sushi but I still get my fill if only to satisfy my sushi cravings.

My second plate…

I had Stir Fried Shrimps, Barbecue Spareribs, Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce, Siomai, Seafood with Vegetables and Mongolian Beef. I had but a few bites of the spareribs.  Hubby liked the siomai but I thought I made better siomai.  Haha! :)  The rest were, buffet-ok.

My third plate which I had next to my second plate because I couldn’t find a bowl to put my rice in…

That’s chicken terriyaki on a stick, fried chicken wings, and ground meat with crab stick wrapped in eggroll wrapper (I don’t know the exact name).  Nothing special really.

Should I even tell you about my dessert?  I know I should eat fruits but I didn’t. :)  I had mini cakes and pastries…

The best tasting from this lot are the cake rolls.  They’re not moist but they taste better than the other three that I got.  I just ate the whipped cream from the cream puff.

Here’s Hubby’s first plate…

He had a Mongolian bowl, too…noodles for long life. :)

At $10.99 per adult on weekends, you get a huge variety of dishes.  This is the 4th Chinese buffet place we’ve tried so far and this, by far, is the biggest!  There were about 10 buffet counters, if I’m not mistaken.  They had 3 kinds of soup, noodles, fried rice, beef, chicken and seafood dishes cooked in a variety of ways (yet tasting quite similar to each other!), salads, fruits, mini cakes and pastries, sushi, a Mongolian counter.  There’s even pizza and pasta…don’t even ask me why.

You’ll have to fall in line twice.  First, to pay and second to get seated.  There are plenty of seats so the wait isn’t that long.  The place was packed earlier.  Dishes at the buffet counters were replenished right away.  The servers were efficient and quick to clear the table.

The food is mediocre, edible at best.  Will I come back?  Yes, specially if we’ll be in good company again and because that’s just how I am…crazy.

Fujian Grand China Buffet
8709 North Interstate 35
Austin, TX 78753
(512) 977-8822

My other Weekend Snapshot entry: Tantalizing Tulips

Have a great week ahead, y’all!

Friday night, we had dinner at my bosom buddy’s house.  We just couldn’t say no to barbecue!  Saturday, we attended two birthday parties, one in the afternoon and another one in the evening.  The evening party was a double birthday celebration so technically, it was two parties.  The birthday celebrants, Nathan (who turned 5) and Naomi (who turned 3) – they are not related, by the way – had fantastic fondant birthday cakes, made no less than by Nathan’s mom, V.

For Nathan, V made a Transformers inspired “Bumblebee” cake as requested by the birthday boy.

I was teasing V about how it would be way cool if the car had a “vroom vroom” sound effect, too!  Hee hee.  Or would it be cooler if it somehow transformed to a robot?  Silly me! :D

Check out the personalized plate!

For Naomi, who is a huge fan of Tinkerbell, V made a Tinkerbell cake.  It was green and gorgeous!

The details on the side of the cake were painstakingly handpainted.

Tink was definitely honored to have been part of such a beautiful cake. ;)

Not very many moms can boast of having made a birthday cake for their kids, and I mean beautifully decorated ones like these worthy of  spots at a bakeshop display window.  Come August, I’m hoping to make one for my little girl, too.  I’d settle for buttercream just to get me started.  But fondant will definitely be a lofty goal. I’m crossing my fingers on that.  :)

I again used the same recipe except for one little substitution.  Instead of pineapple chunks, I used canned mandarin oranges.  Being huge fans of sweet and sour dishes, lunch was a big hit for Hubby and my little princess.

I used catfish fillets, which I cut into quarters.  Frying was tedious as usual, but they came out nicely…

So you won’t have to hop to my previous entries for the recipe, I’m sharing it with you yet again. :)  That ought to save you some time .  Hee hee.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

2 carrots, thinly sliced diagonally
1/2 c water
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1/3 c vinegar
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp soy sauce
about 13 1/2 oz mandarin oranges (1 can is 11 oz.)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped

Fish Batter
3/4 c water
2/3 c flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

*Don’t forget the fish fillets!  I used about 1 to 1.5 lbs.

Directions

* Heat carrots and water to boiling.  Cover and cook until crisp tender (about 8-10 minutes).

* In a saucepan, mix brown sugar, vinegar, cornstarch and soy sauce.

* Stir in carrots (with liquid), pineapple (with liquid), and the green and red bell peppers.

* Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir for 1 minute then keep warm.

* Dip fish fillets into batter with tongs then fry a few pieces at a time until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.

* Arrange the fillets on a platter.

* Pour the sauce over the fish.  Serve with hot rice.

Tomorrow is the start of yet a new day for me.  My running shoes are ready.  Let’s see where they take me.  Much as I want to avoid the kitchen though, that’s just next to impossible.  I just won’t eat what I cook…not too much, at least?  Haha!  One thing’s for sure, no weight loss or Spawn supplements for me. :P

I have another Weekend Snapshot entry:  Pretty in Pink at the Park

Have a great week ahead, y’all!

Sorry, I couldn’t help singing the theme song of one of our favorite Disney Channel shows, Little Einsteins.  We watched the Playhouse Disney Live last Friday night at the Frank Erwin Center and we’re so glad they made a one night only stop in Austin.

As expected, souvenirs were all over the place.  My little girl wanted the Handy Manny hardhat but only because it came with a bag of cotton candy.  I said no at first because cotton candy is so darned sticky.

Abby relented to a rocket ship mug which was  filled  with snowcone .

Abby chose the pink colored stuff, cherry, I think.  It tasted like cough syrup.  Hee hee.

Abby had a little fun watching the juice come up in the twirly straw.

Before the show started, I found myself back at one of the many souvenir stands buying cotton candy.  I kinda liked the hard hat, more than Abby did.  Must be the architect hidden soooo deep within me. ;)

More photos from the show in  my other WS entry: Playhouse Disney Live

It’s just a few more days to Christmas.  It’s panic time for people who haven’t finished shopping yet…like me! :)

Have a great week ahead, y’all!

Here are some more…

I’ve had these goodies since Monday last week but it was only last Friday that I finished attaching ribbons to them so I can hang them.  They are all hanging around the Christmas tree now.  I’ll post the pics some time this week. :)

My daughter’s been eyeing the Christmas tree and I can’t blame her.  But she knows she can’t eat them just yet.  I’m thinking she can enjoy them on New Year’s Day. :D

I used to believe that chocolates cause acne. But I read recently that it’s only a myth. I’m so relieved. You and I can enjoy munching on these goodies without worrying that they’ll interfere with acne treatment. Ho ho ho for that! :D

My daughter fondly calls my mom, Mimi, which led her to think that Mimi’s cafe is owned by my mom.  We wish!  Haha!  Because it was hubby’s birthday, we wanted so much for the food to be good.  So you can say we had very high hopes.

When we stepped into the restaurant, the more hopeful we became.  It was love at first sight.  I particularly liked one section, which looked like a scene right out of Europe.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the area where we were seated.  Oh well.

For starters, hubby had Caesar Salad.  The greens were crispy and fresh.

I, on the other hand, chose to have soup instead of salad…

The Cream of Chicken was creamy as creamy can be!  I could have had another cup!  Abby gave it a taste too and said with a nod, “It’s yummy.”

Abby picked the Mini Corn Dogs from the Kids Menu and had a side of mashed potatoes…

The corn dogs must have been really good because Abby ate every single one of them.  It’s very rarely that Abby finishes all her food.

Hubby and I each had two kinds of bread, which came with our order.

The roll was hard. I am almost sure you’ll get a bump on your head if it somehow landed on you.  But I do understand some people like hard rolls.  I’m not one of those people.  The carrot raisin bread, on the other hand, I liked very much!  I was tempted to barter with the birthday boy, you know, my hard roll in exchange for his carrot raisin bread.  Hee hee.

Hubby’s main course was a petite portion of the Oven Fresh Pot Roast and Gravy…

It’s a slowly braised chuck roast, served with a side of mashed potatoes ans and fresh vegetables.  It was tender home-cooked goodness, earning the approval of my carnivore of a husband.  It was a petite portion but it was, nevertheless, filling.  Hubby was sure he wouldn’t have been able to finish a full portion.  Although I doubt that. *wink*

I had Seafood Fettuccine…

Listen to Read this, it is fettuccine tossed with crab meat, mushrooms, spinach and asiago cream sauce and topped with jumbo seared scallops, a garlic shrimp skewer and diced tomatoes.  Oohlala!  I love love white sauce with my pasta.  This was pasta heaven for me!  It was so good I almost didn’t want to share it with my two dining companions.  Hee hee.

Abby’s meal came with a dessert, a cup of dirt (crushed Oreo cookies) with two gummi worms buried in it…

Well, my daughter enjoyed this dessert.  Good thing I had wet wipes with me!

As a birthday present from Mimi’s Cafe, Hubby had a free slice of chocolate mousse.

We didn’t know he was going to be gifted with one.  It arrived together with the dessert we ordered, Mimi’s Mousse Ensemble…

It is petite portions of chocolate, lemon and raspberry mousse, each with a special topping: blueberries and strawberry puree for the lemon mousse, fresh strawberries and strawberry puree for the chocolate mousse, and good ‘ol dependable whipped cream for the raspberry mousse.  The raspberry mousse was my instant favorite, followed by the chocolate mousse.  The lemon mousse was too sour for us, but Hubby and I wiped the cup clean just the same.  All three were melt-in-your-mouth goodness!  Goodness! :)

I have to say, Mimi’s Cafe was an instant favorite.  I can’t wait to go back one of these days. :D

Mimi’s Cafe
10515 N. Mopac Expy., NB Building O
Austin, TX 78759
Tel: (512) 241-0309

* This is entry #38 for *