Cupcakes for David's Party

This is what we contributed for David's Pre-School Christmas party. I just bought a Bite-size Strawberry mini cupcakes mix, easy and quick to make . I cant think of anything else to make so I went off to the shop for a rescue. I baked it myself. And as a finishing touch, I decorated it with pink icing and bright sprinkles to make it more appealing and alive. Everything came together in the pack mix as well as the mini cupcake cases. Though, we were only required to bring just few but I had decided to make enough for us and for the Pre-School so I ended up making 2 dozens. David and Dorothy always love cupcakes of any sort for snack and I love it with coffee.

Hubby's Work Christmas Dinner

It was once again hubby's work Christmas dinner held in one of the local club in the Southwest of Sydney and as usual we were again invited to join with them. The venue is different this year which is also quite good just for a change rather than to have it in the same place with the same food every year. Although not everyone was present but I guessed most of us had a great time. The food was fresh with a huge range to choose from where everyone will be happy. Each table had different menus from feast of roasts, Asian favourite menus, salads and soups and to the sumptuous desserts. I couldnt even decide which one should I eat first. But with the fresh sea food in sight, no need to muck around which one, I straight away tucked into prawns, crabs, fresh oysters and plump mussels. It was a buffet style so you can eat how much you want and as many times as you like. The kids had hot chips, nuggets , fried chicken and meatballs with ice cream as dessert. What a great dinner and I can't even believe how much food I consumed ..hahahaha.....

When I weighed myself in the morning, goshhh.. can't believe how much weight i put on since last night...lolzz.. I have to increase my walking time especially for this holiday season.Hmmm saon nalang ni!

Slow cooker

Slow cooker is perfect and ideal for busy mums like me or to anyone with busy lifestyle . A good and convenient way to prepare hearty meals for the whole family without spending too much time preparing it. The slow cooker is designed to produce the same results like cooking in pots and allowed to simmer for hours, full of flavors, moist and tender. However, with the preparation of the meat and vegetables to throw into it requires enough time but the thing that you don't spend most of your time in the kitchen until the whole process of cooking finish is something rewarding. You can even cook while you're at work or even leaves you the time to do other things around the house.No stirring involve. It is almost impossible to overcook in the slow cooker . Slow cooking recipes will give specific instructions indicating the appropriate settings and suggested cooking times which will vary accordingly. Most slow cookers these days come with many recipes which are interesting to try.When I bought mine, it came with few recipes for slow cooking, pot roasting and even few recipes of various desserts. There are Slow cooker recipes you can also check out in the internet. Here is one recipe that I like and perhaps you might be interested, CHICKEN IN A POT ( Serves 10-12). However, i did a little twist in the recipe for I added a can of crushed tomatoes for I love the flavour.

4 carrots, sliced
4 onions, peeled & sliced
4 stalks celery
2 kg chicken pieces
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 cup chicken stock or white wine
1 1/2 tsp dried basil or oregano

Place half of the carrots, onion and celery in the bottom of the Slow Cooker. Add the chicken pieces. Add salt, pepper, liquid and remaining vegetables. Sprinkle with herbs. Cover and cook on Low for 6-8 hrs or HIGH for 4 hrs.

Enjoy!

Our dinner

It was nearly time for dinner and I cannot exactly decide what to have for our hungry tummy. I just wanted something that didn’t require long preparation, something that it’s quick and easy to prepare ..hmmm and something yummy too.. After doing some grocery shopping , it’s nearly 4pm when I’d finished sorting out everything . I felt a little bit tired after doing it by myself and can’t think of anything else what to have for our dinner. An idea popped into my mind, a beef sausage dinner with vegetable salad, my daughter and little boy’s favourite. So, without wasting too much time, I busied myself in the kitchen, I grabbed the frozen pack from the freezer, defrosted and grilled it . While the sausages were cooking, I started to prepare my salad. I grabbed few lettuce leaves, tomatoes, red capsicum, Lebanese cucumbers and carrots from our refrigertor vegetable vin , washed them thoroughly and coarsely sliced them except the carrots for I prefer to shred it and tossed everything into a salad bowl.And to add a little flavour, I simply drizzled it lightly with an extra light olive oil. We love pure or extra olive oil as salad dressing rather than using those flavoury salad dressings from the shops. We dont even add salt or pepper on our vegetable salads.We are used to it without any seasoning. And dinner was just on time.

Family Picture

Just sharing you our latest family picture taken last November 23, 2008.

Shot on the spot

This is fun and cool. Thanks to my friend, Adin and Claire for always remembering me. We just arrived from our weekend trip and haven't even finished sorting out the things from our trip. I took a short break to relax my back before finishing everything and I decided to sit down in front of my computer to check out what I had missed while I was away and the tag was my first encounter. I was caught up right away . hahaha... Glad I tied up my hair. I had not brushed it since we left from our camping spot this morning . I used my webcam for my digicam was still in our traveling bag.

This is the rule and hope you will have fun!

1) Take a picture of yourself right NOW!

2) DON'T change your clothes, DON'T fix your hair... Just take a picture.

3) Post that picture with NO editing.

4) Post these instruction with your picture.

So now, I am tagging all my friends in my bloggers list. Your turn to grab your camera and take a photo of yourself. It's fun!

Away for the weekend

We've been planning a weekend away for quite sometime but didn't get the chance to squeeze it into our busy weekend schedule. Yet, as the year is getting close to an end, seems our weekends slowly get to normal except for this coming long Christmas weekend and glad we are able to make it happen this coming weekend. It is not just a short relaxation in the wilderness that we are looking forward to but mainly to have a try out camping with our newly purchased second hand camping trailer. We bought it from a friend we met in the pre-school where David is. They were selling it for few thousands bucks to upgrade to something more suitable for their needs. We didn't give a second thought when we went out to see and inspect it. It was exactly something what we were looking for and still in good condition. Perhaps, it will last for a while until we are ready to get a brand new one.
Probably, this is our last camping trip before the end of the year yet we are still looking for more camping trips next year hopefully. Our destination this time is a camp site about 11 acres of quiet bushland, just off the southern exit of the city of Goulburn , a provincial cathedral city in the Southern Tablelands of NSW. It is located 190 km south-west of Sydney on the Hume Highway and 690 meters above sea levelWe will start hitting the road today right after the kid's school. It is about 2 hrs drive from where we live and should be around late in the afternoon when we will be arriving provided there will be no traffic along the way as it is the end of the week and traffics are anticipated anywhere around during this time. I hope we will be able to set up our camp before darkness engulfs the day even though we hired a powered camp site but it would be more easier for us to sort out things under broad daylight. Kids are getting excited now for this time for they always enjoy being close to nature and in the wilderness.

Catch you when I come back. Happy weekend!

Seedlings from kitchen scraps

They just started being seeds from my kitchen scraps thrown into the bare spot in our vegetables garden, completely abandoned and ignored after wards. With the help of Mother Nature after few days or so being thrown, a new beginning came out from the ground to start a new life. They are just everywhere that I even lost count, for there are so many of them. Some are just threatening to come out, some just opened up their new little leaves and some are just completely turned into seedlings that seem ready for planting.So taking advantage of it, I grow some of the seedlings that I definitely wanted in my garden. They look healthy and thriving with my constant watering every now and then to get them settled and established well in the ground. It saves our pocket from buying seedlings from the nearby garden nursery which I think the seedlings per container ranges from 3.99 to 5.99 depending on the types. I have heaps of tomato, pumpkin watermelon and capsicum seedlings that I cannot think anymore where to accommodate them as our vegetables garden can accommodate only just enough for us. I don't want it to be crowded to avoid competition which causes to slow down the growth and will not look healthy at all.
The unwanted seedlings will be definitely uprooted and thrown away very soon. There is no point of growing them for I have enough in my garden. Besides I have to get ready the empty space in my garden for the pumpkin seedling ready to spread its life anytime soon.

Fish for lunch....

I went out to the shop this morning and bought some fresh (meaning, "fresh from the container" ..lolzz..) "yellow tail" fish, a fish similar to "galunggong". I am not exactly sure what it is called in our dialect but it is something quite familiar...Although, it wasn't my main purpose to get any fish on my early trip to the shop after dropping off the kids to school but when I saw this small "yellow tail", it just popped out into my mind the idea of having a fish for lunch instead of tuna sandwinch. There are times that I crave some of our native foods, like those yummy "sinugba", "kinilaw", "tinula" and "inun- unan/paksiw (in Tagalog)", even though, I cook them from time to time here. Not to mention my craving of the taste of cooked fresh fish back in our island. That is the main thing that I really miss so much, a fish that still smells pleasantly from the sea but how we can find it in here, unless we catch our own fish..hehehe. Most of the fishes here are stocked up for a day or so with lots of ice before taken to their different destinations, the shops. We haven't done much fishing nowadays because we are all tied up with other activities that need to be prioritized.

Anyways, here are some of the things that I used to check out before buying fish, the gills (if it is red), the eyes (bright and shiny) and by touching it, if it resilient to the touch, then it is fresh. However, it is quite dearer though, but you get what is your money worth.


I bought more than a kilo of yellow tail and thought to make kinilaw and grilled some (sinugba).. And look what I had for lunch..

Lemonade Award

Yipey, I got another award from my very good friends, Wenna and Adin. Thanks a bunch for this Lovely Lemonade Award. This sure does quench my thirst right now...hehehe.. It is so refreshing to have cold lemonade on hot summer days. Our weather is getting warmer nowadays as we are officially in our Summer season. Just on time..hehehe


The rules of this award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and / or Gratitude.
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5.Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Now, I am passing this refreshing Lemonade Award to all my bloggers friends out there.