Pasta Sunday

I love cooking but I am not a great one. I FAIL most of the time :P I have accepted that fact about me but I'm not giving up :) So today I cooked 2 pastas ... 

         ... spaghetti for the boys

        ... aglio olio for me and hubby

So we all ate and then this happens ... this seldom happens when I'm the one who cooks lol!

 I'm a happy mommah! Thanks to my friend Anna for her  Aglio Olio recipe and the pine seeds that came with it.  I did it =)

May isa nga indi ma kuntento sa isa ka pasta :D 

Yogurt Sponge Cake

I have to stop thinking about iphone 6 plus.  My iphone still works perfectly. In fact I took all these photos with my iphone and I am blogging now, in my iphone. Yeah. I'm convincing myself I don't need it. 

Anyway, I baked this delicious cupcake yesterday and a lot of you are asking for the recipe. 

So here it is. Forgive me for I have no strength to type it here so thanks to my iphone... here's the recipe from my baking book:

I swear it's yummy. My husband loved me more after he ate it. Lol! 

I still want an iphone 6 plus. Heard that Dear Husband? hahaha! 

Bebang's Chocolate Cake

After about 10 tries, I have finally perfected my chocolate cake recipe! This is a combination of this recipe from Food.com and my friend Yryne's.  I just added the Hershey's chocolate chips and made it so simple you don't even need a mixer.  Try it, it's really delicious and super moist! :)

Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup Hersheys chocolate chips (optional) 

1. Mix dry items ingredients in a bowl using a fork.
2. Combine wet ingredients in a separate bowl/container.
3. Combine dry and wet ingredients in a bowl mixing together with a fork.
4. Transfer mixture to greased cake pan or cupcake tins.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes. (Bake for approximately 15 minutes if making cupcakes).
6. Set aside to cool before frosting.

Choco icing

1 alpine tall

3 tbsp butter

½ cup cocoa unsifted powder

1 can condensed milk

2 tsp vanilla

Mix then cook in slow fire until thick and sticky

Butter Filling

½ cup white sugar

3 tbsp all purpose flour

3 eggyolks

½ cup butter

1 cup evap milk

Enjoy! :) 

Chocolate Crinkles

I almost forgot about this photos of my cookie monsters. Saw it when I was looking for photos to scrap for one of my current assignments :)  Thanks hubby dear for capturing their precious expressions eating with such heavenly satisfaction! 

This cookie is one of the first I learned to bake as inspired by my friend and Kumare Jing :) Her recipe is in my recipe book. Handwritten. And because I'm lazy to type everything word for word, I just copied a recipe from somewhere out there.. It's similar anyway :) 

Chocolate Crinkles Recipe 

Ingredients:
1/2cup vegetable oil
4oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted, cooled
2cups granulated sugar
2teaspoons vanilla
4eggs
2cups all-purpose flour
2teaspoons baking powder
1/2teaspoon salt
1/2cup powdered sugar

Precedure: 

1. In large bowl, mix oil, chocolate, granulated sugar and vanilla. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover; refrigerate at least 3 hours.

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray.

1. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls into powdered sugar; roll around to coat and shape into balls. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.

1. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until almost no imprint remains when touched lightly in center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Makes 6 dozen cookies. |SOURCE| 

Hope you get to try it! :)  

Alphabet Cookies + Robin's Nest DT + true love exists

I'm trying to make it a habit to cook or bake something special on weekends (and by weekend, I mean Friday, Saturday, Sunday!) So for this weekend it's alphabet cookies, using this recipe. 

I was surprised it was that easy but then I was also shocked to realize how sinful could 1 piece of letter M get. The amount of sugar and butter we need to make it! Aaaaak! But then again, when I took it out of the oven, and smelled its deliciousness, my knees weakened. Add to that the joy felt when I saw the boys excitement! 

I ate two. Okay three. 

Now these are what I call just-had-cookies kinda smiles! BURP! :)

So that's how my weekend started and it's not even halfway yet, but I've got another great news: I am STILL a designer chick for Robin's Nest! Yehey! Thank you for the trust! I am excited to be designing with new team and some of the returning DTs as well. Full reveal of the New Design Team line up is HERE. 

Here are some of my favourite creations for Robin's Nest.... 

I'm not done yet! Because exactly a year ago, my youngest sister got married and that made me cry. I cried because I was too happy! Their wedding proved that true love exists! Happy anniversary Che2 and Victor. I love you both to bits! 

Okay. That's all and thanks for reading my long post with lots of exclamation points!!!!

Father's Day Special

Where did one month go? It's a little more than a month since I posted about  mother's day surprise. Now it's the hubby's turn and did he like it? Let's ask the daddy of the house... 

Benjo: (taking over my laptop) This is one of the most meaningful to date. :) Spent most the time doing the things that is what we are celebrating today.  So touched with the surprise the boys had for me after we got home from church.  Wifey cooked my most favorite cinnamon. :)  I feel so loved. :) Mother Mary's farewell from our home which made us make new friends also made it momentous as well. 

Wow. I never thought he'd actually type hehehe :)  

Here's the cinnamon bread he was talking about. My first time to try it using this recipe. I think it's a bit  over-baked. But he said it's good. I choose to believe him haha!

 

And here's our photo during the Block Rosary farewell for Mother Mary's image. We woke the boys up. Thus the hairdos :D

[Happy Father's Day Papang!]
God did not just give me a father. He also gave me a PROPHET, a DEFENDER, a FRIEND. Happy Father's Day Papang {Jimmy Abellanosa Badilla} i love you and thank you for fulfilling your mission to pass on your faith to us, your 5 children. Congratulations! hehehehe 

[Happy Father's Day Benjo!]
happy father's day to my son's Daddy Benjo Rulona :) this day at Sentosa is just one of those many days I told myself how blessed our two sons for having you as their Dad. I always see how much you do little and big things for them with happiness, like being with them at the park for biking and outdoor play, taking them out to Mcdo without me, reading with them before bedtime, and yes, giving them a shower on weekends (I have the widest grin everytime I hear you three in the shower with all those shouts and laughters!) even helping them wash when they make no. 2 LOL! I know these are just the little things ... i cant possibly say everything... but the best of all is your being a faithful son to our One True Father, that's the best thing you could ever give to your sons: FAITH. Because between a wealthy, cool and almost-perfect dad and an ordinary, poor and humble but with genuine and deep faith in God kind of Dad, our sons, i believe, would choose the latter. I pray that God will continue to give you the wisdom to carry on the mission he gave you :) Happy father's day not just today but everyday! :)

Homemade Granola Bars

Actually, the title should say "Very Chewy Fruits & Nuts & Grains & Seeds Granola Bar" but it sounds like a list of ingredients already haha! 

Inspired by a few recipes I saved in my Pinterest boards (go check it out and follow me!) I made my own version of granola bars because store-bought granola bars are expensive and to be honest, not so yummy. 

Very Chewy Fruits & Nuts & Grains & Seeds Granola Bar 

1 cup sugar (brown is better I think but I didn't have it yesterday so I used white)

3 tablespoons honey

4 spoons salted butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup water

3 cups of  walnuts, almonds, cranberry, grains, seeds, oats (or anything granola-ish you could find in your pantry. I just happen to have a husband who likes nuts and cranberries and raisins a lot. Yesterday I used all his leftovers and added it to my already existing multi grains). 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. 

Mix nuts, fruits, grains and seeds, oats in a rectangle baking pan. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes to 300 degrees F or until fragrant. Set aside. 

In a saucepan mix the sugar, honey,  butter, vanilla, water. Bring to a boil and stir until it becomes a nice thick syrup. Pour it over and the pan of fruits and nuts.  Mix. Flatten it with spatula. 

Let it cool completely before cutting into rectangles. Serve with love! Store in an air-tight container and take one slice when you need a healthy, energy booster :) 

recipe time!

Bonded with friends from church over these cupcakes (and the yummies they also brought) last night :) It's one of my successful batches so I'm sharing the recipe with you! Disclaimer: recipe's not mine. I also just copied it from a recipe book and saved it in my almost-10-year-old recipe notebook :P

Banana Nut Cupcakes

1 1/4 all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 bananas
1/2 cup nuts (as of now, kids won't eat anything with nuts)
5 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 375°F Thoroughly grease muffin pans or use paper liners.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into small bowl. Set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, cream the butter or margarine and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat until fluffy.  Mix in the bananas. Add nuts.
4. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour mixture alternately with milk. Spoon into pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
5.  Leave to cool in the pans for 10 minutes.

Try it! :)

yummy + happy

I love eating bread. I eat bread when I'm happy.  I eat bread when I'm sad. Which explains my hips (ugh!). One day, I figured, If I love eating it, I might as well love baking it. So I headed to Phoon Huat  right after dropping Miguel to school and shopped for ingredients. That night I baked my very first multi-grain wholemeal bread using this recipe from The Rowdy Baker. I recall saying my prayer  while baking, because I know, no one does it 100% perfect the first time!

But I guess sometimes one can get lucky *wink* because this turned out beautiful! Husband ate two slices even after he had dinner. Yay! And since it was mother's day the next day, I packed some few slices and shared it with my neighbors =)

I still can't get enough of this app. You may see me using it more in the coming days.. It's so easy and fun and because of it I have not been using my DSLR for posting blogs hehe... *lazy* 

Today is my sister Odessa's birthday! I pray for God's will to be always fulfilled in her life. Because that will give her ultimate happiness. This funny pic was taken last Christmas when we shopped for a Christmas tree with friends. I couldn't carry heavy things and she often teases me of having osteoporosis so she insists on carrying this uber heavy box hahaha! But more than that, she has always been there when I'm at my lowest. When I had miscarriage..  when I had to bring my son to a developmental pediatrician for evaluation (torture days!). And just like all my siblings, she's always ready to lend a helping ears when I needed to vent. Love her to bits. Happy birthday manghud!!!