What Will it Bee? - Hazel's Gender Reveal Party

I was so excited when my dear friend, Hazel, told me she wanted the bumble bee theme for her gender reveal party! Well, for two main reasons. First, I threw a bee theme party for Chlo's first birthday party, and second, I have tons of yellow and bee party supplies left that we can still use. So I volunteered to help out with setting up their place. We were both so thrilled! 

The brainstorming was actually fun and not so stressful at all. I've had this folder in Pinterest of all the bumblebee inspired pins and she's got some great ideas herself as well. So deciding on the look was quite a breeze! :)

We kept the whole look light and bright. We printed out the letters for the banner, and made spiral - textured yellow and white backdrop for the dessert table. (Don't worry, Jeff took care of all the decorating that requires standing up on a chair.) :) A banner saying "He or She" adorned the center of the wall with yellow, black, and white fans underneath it. Our friend, Denise, took care of the super adorable gender reveal box which we were all so eager to take a peek at! Yes, even the couple themselves had no clue about the baby's gender! Which makes it more exciting for everyone! 

It was a potluck party so we didn't have to worry that much about the food. Everything looked so good, you'd have a hard time deciding which ones to get! The lunch spread included pancit, baked ziti, fried chicken, pork lumpia, shrimp spring rolls, kare-kare, embotido, bicol express,and lechon pork belly. Yum! The dessert table was adorned with yema cupcake bites, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, chocolate marble cake, and a chocolate & candy buffet. Double yum! :)

Here are a few snapshots from the fun-filled "What will it Bee?" gender reveal party. Congratulations, Hazel and Jeff! :)

- C ♥

Banoffee Pie

One of my favorite Starbucks treat in Manila, aside from their enseymada, is their banoffee pie. Yum! I literally can finish it in minutes! I would always have it whenever we stop by for a frappuccino fix. So just imagine my disappointment when I found out that they don't have it here when I moved to the states! Anyway, it has been a while since I had one, so I searched online for a recipe and was surprised at how easy it  is to make! Aside from reducing the condensed milk to make the dulce de leche, this pie comes together in less than 30 minutes! :) 

So, let's start making some yummy pie! 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk, label removed
• 1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
• 6 tablespoons sugar, divided
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 large (or 3 medium) bananas, sliced
• 1 ½ cups chilled heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Chocolate syrup

Let's start with the toffee. Set the condensed milk can in a saucepan with water to come ¾ of the way up. Simmer over medium heat then reduce heat to low and continue to simmer, partially cover and add water as needed for about 3 hours. Remove can from pan; let cool until it is just warm. 

Mix  the graham crumbs and 3 tablespoons of the sugar in a medium bowl. Add butter and stir until well incorporated. Dump crumbs into a 9-inch glass pie plate and spread evenly over bottom. Use a flat-bottomed measuring cup to press crumbs evenly over pan bottom and up the sides. Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

 Pour the cooled toffee on the bottom of the pie then top with the sliced bananas.

Drizzle the sliced bananas with more toffee.

Whip cream to fairly stiff peaks with remaining sugar and vanilla extract. Once done, spread the whipped cream over the pie..

                                                                                               like this...

Then drizzle the top with more toffee. I happen to have some chocolate syrup in the fridge so I drizzled some of it on top for a more starbucks banofee look! Haha! 

Refrigerate for a few minutes..

and it is ready to be devoured! :)

Enjoy! :)

- C ♥

On Baking Hiatus

I've been cooking and baking up a storm the past few weeks in the kitchen, making scrumptious food and desserts to satisfy my preggo cravings. And since the husband gave me my beautiful mixer, the promise of eating good and decent portions of healthy meals, with just a little treat every now and then, never came true. I've been baking almost twice every week! Now, it has taken it's toll on me. Or on my weight, for that matter. I'm almost at the end of the second trimester and in the last two weeks, I feel like I've put on weight faster than I should. My weight gain is still within the normal range but  Im a little more conscious about it this time because when I was pregnant with Chloe, I gained a whooping 45-50 lbs! Ooops! 

So, I declared to my husband and myself, that I will be on a baking hiatus. No baking cupcakes, cheesecakes, pies, or any other goodies (*sigh) except for the 21st where I'll be baking yema cupcake bites for my friend's gender reveal party. :) That will be a lot help because it was the sweet treats that was the culprit to my huge weight gain with my first pregnancy. I'm so determined that I promised myself (and intend to really keep it this time) to stick to healthier meals and snack, and to just have the occasional little sweet treat once in a while as opposed to every week. I am pregnant after all and don't want to deprive myself all together. :)  So the recipes that I'll be posting here soon are from those blissful cooking/baking days of the weeks' past! Haha! 

What I'm loving about this plan is that my kitchen, the baking corner in particular, stays nice and neat longer,  and there's no need for me to clean the kitchen everyday like I used to whenever I cook or bake. So yay for me! :) I've also been cooking easy and fast dinners so cleaning's a breeze and I get to spend more time relaxing and just playing with my Chlo. :)

In other news, we're still camping in at home with our little airbed, a bunch of throw pillows, and a couple of warm blankets. And speaking of warm  blankets, I don't think we will be needing them in the next few days because Spring has made it's debut appearance this week! I can't believe I can actually feel warmth when I stand by the window! And Im so thrilled that I won't be needing to wear my winter jacket and my bulky ugg boots when I go to Church or when we need to do the groceries. :) Mark and Chlo are thrilled that they can finally go out and play in the playground just behind our place. And oh, am I so relieved to see those inches and inches of snow melt day after day! I'm starting to have trouble zipping up my winter jacket! Haha! Now, I think I can go out with just a light jacket and flat shoes (that I hope still fits!) 

Anyway, earlier today, I brought Chlo out for a walk outside and went to the playground. She was so thrilled and happy to be outside after months of staying in most of the time. And  last weekend, we brought her to an indoor playground called Yu Kids Island in Vernon Hills. She had so much fun my heart is filled with joy seeing her so happy like that. :) Here are a few photos from her adventures this week.  

- C ♥

Beef Bulgogi Rice Bowl

Forgive me for this post lacks the step-by-step photos for the procedure. I never planned to put this on the blog as it was just another simple Korean dish craving that we used to have in our favorite Korean place back in San Diego. But a lot of my friends from Facebook were asking for the recipe when I posted a picture that night we had this for dinner. So here I am, sharing the recipe for one and all :) 

This is really quite a simple and easy recipe. But so good nonetheless. This recipe will yield 2-3 servings, and you will need:

1 lb beef, thinly sliced

1 tsp oil

1tsp miced garlic

1 tsp minced ginger

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tsp sesame oil

1 small carrot, juliened

a bunch of spinach

2 stalks of green onions, sliced

Start by heating the oil in a pan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, followed by minced ginger, and cook until fragrant. 

Add in the beef and stir well. Mix the soy sauce, brown sugar and water then add the mixture with the beef. Cook for 7 minutes or so then add the sesame oil one it is done then set aside. 

In the same pan, sauté the carrots and spinach with a just a drizzle of sesame oil. Season with a little salt and pepper and cook until done.

To assemble the bowl, place cooked rice in the bottom of the bowl and top it with the beef on one side and the veggies with the other. I also added atsara on my bowl for I was craving for that pickled taste and that was what I had on hand. Garnish with the chopped green onions and you can now enjoy your beef bulgogi rice bowl! :)

- C ♥

Back to Camping at Home

I love this couch. It is very comfy and very stylish. It was perfect, or would've been perfect. Because it was huge. Soooo huge that it makes our whole place so small. So huge that the only position we can place it in the living room makes of an odd floor plan. And so huge that Chlo would try to run around it, trying not to hit it, but will eventually run into our dining table or chair. And that's when I decided this couch has to go.

We got this couch from Ashley Furniture on sale when we moved here last October. We've been looking for a couch for weeks that time and I just wanted to get it over with (that was the time I was in my first trimester, and the time I'm very hormonal and very impatient, hehe). So I thought let's just get this one, not realizing how huge it actually was. Because I swear, in the showroom, it didn't seem that big. It was looking so pretty, and comfy, and looking perfectly normal-size for our living room. Until it was delivered at home. We were a little dumbfounded to see how big it actually was!

So weeks ago, I placed a few ads in Craigslist and a couple of Military sales & swaps pages on Facebook, hoping to sell the couch really soon, for my OC self is really itching to get a new one that will work with the size and floor plan of our living room. And a month after, we still got no takers :( That's when I told myself that maybe I have to live with this huge couch forever. Then, I thought I am not doing this right. So I reposted the ad, marketing it better and just a few minutes of posting, I have 6 offers for it already :) I am beyond pleased when I closed the deal and the couch was paid for and picked up the very next day! :)

And on that very same day, after they picked up the old couch, we headed out to go furniture shopping. (Yes, that's how excited I was! Haha!) :) And lucky us, we found a sofa and love seat that's so pretty and comfy, and just the right size (we brought a tape measure with us this time to be sure! Haha) The best thing about it? It was on sale. :) The not so best part, it'll take a few weeks before it can be delivered to our home. But it was fine, as Chlo is so thrilled with our furniture-less living room, making it her very own huge indoor playground. :) So the single airbed is out from the closet again and is serving as our lounge area.

I just can't wait for my new couch and start arranging and decorating the house again! I promise to post photos as soon as they arrive. :) For now, here's a few photos of Chlo, camping in our not-so-empty-afterall living room. 

- C ♥