Cake Tasting at Honey Glaze Cakes

Alright folks, let me just make it clear here....we're not planning another wedding -- instead, we are prepping for a joint birthday celebration for our kids!!! That's right, plural na mga tsong - KIDS!!! Gaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!! Hahahaha...

Little E will soon be celebrating his first birthday and I can't seem to wrap my mind around this milestone. Like the say, ang bilis talaga ng panahon! :) Of course, Little Miss Z is joining on in the celebration for they share the same birth month.

The reason I had to clarify is because our cake baker, Honey Glaze Cakes, is actually quite a known wedding cake supplier. In fact, I have really wanted to book them way back in 2012 for our very own wedding. But we were so short on time and had just 90 days to prepare, and of course we wanted to maximize our budget then, so we stuck with the "free" cake from our caterer...which was after all, A CAKE we were able to cut, but not something that was enjoyable nor delectable..hahaha..sorry na! :D

Since I only had a couple of months to prepare for this party, I tried to stick it out with our trusted suppliers but at the same time, I also wanted to explore other suppliers. I have contacted 2 other suppliers for this project but the other 2 did not reply anymore after seeing the cake inspo. I thought they were just too busy with Christmas orders so I inquired na rin with Honey Glaze. I really wasn't expecting it but they replied immediately! Di ba??? That's why ekis na the other 2 suppliers hehehe..

Since I 've heard nothing but GOOD feedback about Honey Glaze Cakes then we proceeded with our inquiry and booked a meeting and cake tasting with them immediately the day after Christmas. It was after all a spur of the moment inquiry and I told them it's okay if we will not have the cake tasting but what do you know, they immediately served the Belgian Chocolate Cake and Carrot Walnut Cake. No disrespect to the carrot cake (which was also very delectable) BUT BUT BUT the Belgian Chocolate Cake is indeed love love love!!!!! :D Aaaaahhhhh...You can see from the picture that they served two slices of each flavor and I mean it when I say I would've lapped it up immediately while Daddy A was busy fixing the car's parking hahahaha...*ssssshhhh!!* Okay, I didn't do that because #1 Dyahe, they have CCTV hahahaha and #2 somewhere deep in my conscience, I really wouldn't do that to Daddy A -- but I almost did! Huhuhu ...am I that bad? Hahaha..

It really is a clear winner and I probably stop sharing about the party cake details but YOU, should really try their Belgian Chocolate Cake when you have your next celebration. 

Ay, nakakakilig....even if it's not for a wedding *wink, wink!*

PS Thank you so much Ms. Marge for our impromptu meeting and cake tasting and you don't know how much happiness your pa take-out na cake slices gave me...Of course, I shared it with Miss Z at home! hehehehe :D

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Bringing out our Christmas Spirit!

Officially kicking off the holiday festivities with a family reunion and Miss Z's ballet party 💖 

What better essential oil blends to diffuse than Joy & Christmas Spirit, right? 🎄 These gets us in the mood for celebrating with family & friends (despite the hectic last 2 days 😅), provides feelings of warmth and an over-all nice scent to have in the car for another journey ahead 🚗

📍 Christmas Spirit
[blend of: Orange, Cinnamon Bark, Black Spruce]

Aside from enhancing the feeling and memories of beautiful Christmases past, these are also powerful oils that help protect us against airborne viruses & bacteria 👊🏼

📍Joy
[blend of Bergamot, Lemon, Palmarosa, Ylang-Ylang, Rose, Geranium, Jasmine, Roman Chamomile, Coriander, Tangerine]

At first it smells quite feminine but it helps bring back feelings of love, being loved and held...maybe that's why I remember my mom & grandmas when I first took a whiff

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Yes, yes, yes!! I'm officially an #OilyMama 🙌🏻 

Oh I have lots of stories how our oils have helped us immensely in the past 3 months and so hope I do get the time to blog about how we started (or what finally convinced me to be a Young Living member and get my Premium Starter Kit at a wholesale discount) as I know it would be helpful for most families too! 

For the meantime, let me leave my Young Living link below if you're interested to sign-up.

https://www.youngliving.com/vo/#/signup/start?isoCountryCode=PH&sponsorid=12869606&enrollerid=12869606&type=member&isoLanguageCode=EN

But please, please...may I request for you to message me here if you have any questions at all, especially for moms here in the Philippines. I wouldn't want you to go signing up without receiving the amazing support I've received. That's the kind of support that enabled me to confidently proceed in our oily journey and use it for the benefit of my family. Thank you! :)

 👩🏻

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Special Essential Oil Blend for Hubby

Hubby's lambing for the day is for me to prepare his on-the-go Young Living Orb Diffuser with essential oil blends of his choice 💖 Since he also worked til late last night, I made him Clarity & En-R-Gee for this long-drive day with tons of site visits & meetings in between 🚗 Hoping our chinito arkitekto will have a happy, safe & productive day with calm alertness 🙇🏻

📍Clarity: May help with memory retention & mental alertness. May even oxygenate the brain.

📍 En-R-Gee: may help improve one's energy in a natural way without over stimulating. May also help with mental alertness

[Source: Ref Guide for EO]

#yleo #oilymama #essentialoils #clarity #enrgee #orbdiffuser #naturalliving #cardiffuser 

Thank you doc P for recommending this blend 👍🏻

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Yes, yes, yes!! I'm officially an #OilyMama 🙌🏻 

Oh I have lots of stories how our oils have helped us immensely in the past 3 months and so hope I do get the time to blog about how we started (or what finally convinced me to be a Young Living member and get my Premium Starter Kit at a wholesale discount) as I know it would be helpful for most families too! 

For the meantime, let me leave my Young Living link below if you're interested to sign-up.

https://www.youngliving.com/vo/#/signup/start?isoCountryCode=PH&sponsorid=12869606&enrollerid=12869606&type=member&isoLanguageCode=EN

But please, please...may I request for you to message me here if you have any questions at all, especially for moms here in the Philippines. I wouldn't want you to go signing up without receiving the amazing support I've received. That's the kind of support that enabled me to confidently proceed in our oily journey and use it for the benefit of my family. Thank you! :)

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Game of TRONES for a narrow hallway

This is Trones y'all....well, the IKEA kind hehehe... :)

For 5 years we've been looking for a shoe cabinet that will go well with our narrow entry way / hall way and looks like we've finally found it! Yahoooo!! *happy dance!*

Our old shoe cabinet was kinda okay, I mean, pwede na rin naman talaga (it would do). But if there's something better, then we're all for it! The main reasons we wanted to change our old cabinet were:

1. Did I already say we have a narrow entry way? 

OLD: The old shoe cabinet had a depth almost equal to the length of a shoe. In our case, it was equal to a shoebox' length. That takes up a lot of space for a hall way size like ours.

NEW: The IKEA Trones, on the other hand, has a very slim profile. The shoes have to be stored upright to maximize the space and this really works perfectly for us. 

2. The shoes are exposed

OLD: Mine are actually kept inside the shoe boxes but my hubby's pairs are always out. It somehow feels uncomfortable seeing used shoes while sitting at the dining table, right? Plus this set-up just ups the dust accumulation - whether on the boxes or on the shoes themselves. Not good!

NEW: The Trones looks like an upright, upside down flat/compact shoe box. It is enclosed with the hard plastic material but it is so easy to just pull down and get access to your shoe collection. Easy peasy!

3. Mice!

OLD: This is a very big factor for me for wanting to revamp the entire place! Seeing a mouse traipse through shoes...oh, once is enough really to make a big change. I hate seeing mouse droppings on shoe boxes, much more step on their sh!t or the actual mickey (yep, I almost did...and I almost died! and the hubby just kept on laughing) *shudders!!*

NEW: Oh I think the mice would have a hard time getting into this. For one, the boxes are all screwed on the wall and the box closure would hardly permit a mouse. Hmm.. maybe a small lizard, perhaps?

4. Design Factor

The architect hubs loves the form factor of the Ikea Trones, of course, I do too! It's very slim, light and still feels sturdy even if it's made of plastic. We chose to get 2 sets of white Trones (each set has 3 boxes). 

The old shoe cabinet? We use it now as a plant holder and a sort of mud shoe tray for hubs' safety joggers and other work shoes that get dirty quickly. 

Oh I don't know what I'm still rambling about. In short, we love it! Super love it that we smile each time we see it. Hahahaha...Hubby loves that it doubles as a 'patungan' for his knick-knacks, the little Miss Z is happy she has her own shoe box.

P.S. It was quick to install too! Just get your own screws because there's none included (due to different make of walls it will be used on)

P.P.S. We got it from Mobler Makati (around PHP 3,200 for a set of 3 boxes), a few hundred pesos cheaper than the Lazada price (PHP 3,900) listed as of September 2017.

P.P.P.S. Quick tip: have your vacuum on stand by for when you drill holes so that there will be little to no dust after your installation :)

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Homecooking: 'Japanese' Baked Dory

I can't wait for dinner time so I can have me some of this dory goodness! :)

Been queued for months in my to-cook list and finally, today's the day the dory is baked. Let me make it clear, I'm not sure if there's really a Japanese dish like this but since there's a whole lot of Japanese Mayo (I used Kewpie) that went on to make this, then I guess we can call this "Japanese" 

＼(^o^)／

Of course, partly the reason I'm able to do more kitchen stuff -- the littlest boy can now be "back carried" Yay!! ☺️ #lilleletsme cook again, and I love the feeling :)

I know you want to try this out so here's how it's done (credit to: The Eating Room blog). I followed majority of the instructions, and just tweaked a little :)

Ingredients

2 Cream Dory fillets

2 Lemons (sliced thinly & de-seeded) 

3/4 cups Japanese Mayo

5 cloves Garlic (minced)

1 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp dried Rosemary

3 Tbsp Breadcrumbs 

3/4 cups Cheddar cheese

salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350c. Season fish with salt and pepper. Freshly cracked peppercorn imparts better flavor, try it :) Set aside.

2. In a baking ware, bed  lemon slices vertically. Lay dory fillets on them.

NOTE: I bought my lemons from Rustan's supermarket, was surprised they have no seeds at all! :)

3. In a bowl, mix mayo (I used Kewpie), honey, rosemary and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. 

NOTE: Adjust rosemary quantity if using fresh herbs.

Don't panic! That's the manufacturing date :)

4. Top fish with mayo mixture. Sprinkle cheese and breadcrumbs on top. I used Panko brand for my breadcrumbs and Emborg cheddar toppings for the cheese. Guess you really can't go wrong with Panko, I've been looking for a long time and luckily found it in Lander's Otis :) The original recipe calls for Parmesan cheese, but the kids (and big kids haha) don't like it too much so I substituted with cheddar cheese.

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese become bubbly hot. Serve warm.

NOTE: Adjust baking time / temperature if using a convection oven. 

VERDICT:

In my book, this is simply a winner! Quick, easy and sooo tasty! The only thing I should have done is to make 2 batches or 3! Hahahahaha...that's how yummy it really is. Serve with brown or black rice para hindi masyado nakaka-guilty if you end up going unli-rice with it :D

Mmmmmm....just blogging about it makes me want to do it all over again...aaaahhh!!!

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Mommy "albularyo" time

Yes you read that right! I've been feeling out of sorts for the most part of the week. Very mild cough and colds but it's really irritating..like fever that's about to come on, but is hesitating. I don't know what this is, slight fever, malaise, mild flu? Waaah..with two kids and a busy hubby, all I know is I have to get rid of this pronto! 

I've taken my daily dose of vitamins and even added paracetamol to the mix, to no avail. I even went back to my online research (aka online shopping haha) on which gadget would benefit our family the most.

Essential oils & ultrasonic diffuser seems really promising but I can't fully commit right now because we have a baby. From what I gathered, there are some limitations on using it for kids below 2 years old. Not sure if that includes diffusing or only for topical application, but when in doubt...well I have to research more and also ask our pedias advise.

Humidifier...I've been asking hubby if we should be getting one, especially since Miss Z has allergies. I also read that it helps relieve congestion for people with colds & cough. What's stopping me from investing in this are the diverse opinions online. Some would say that t isn't really helpful for allergies, better to get a vacuum cleaner (and clean up!) and an air purifier (which we already have). Also based on reviews, it looks cumbersome to clean and with two kiddos, I don't exactly have much time to baby another machine. They also warn that if the humidifier is not cleaned properly, it could potentially have molds and bacteria build-up as part of the mist it produces...yikes!

Last on my gadget list would be the vaporizer. They say there's less chance of it having bacteria in the vapor since there's a warming element. However, hubby thinks this is just similar to a nebulizer. So, no dice.

Maybe it's because I'm sick that I'm also indecisive about these machines. Or, maybe when we're sick, our brain's research and shopping mode are automatically shut off too! Hahahaha..well, you'll definitely know in a few week's time.

 So what to do? Lucky I guess that I stumbled upon a "cure" that can be concocted with things that are already in the pantry! Yeah, the shopping mode is really turned off now. Lol :D

What's in that, you say? Look closely and you'll see everyday kitchen ingredients that have medicinal properties. 

How to make Honey Onion Syrup

[I got this from https://www.bulkherbstore.com/blog/calm-that-cough-with-a-honey-onion-syrup/ and modified to my liking]

1. Slice one red onion into half rings

Onions are said to act like an expectorant when ingested. It helps to thin out the mucus inside the airways of the lungs.

2. Add few cloves of crushed garlic

Garlic has anti-bacterial property

3. Add peeled & sliced ginger

Ginger has always been my go-to whenever I have sore throat, so it's a no-brainier here hehe

4. Add lemon or calamansi juice (I used 5 calamansi)

Makes for better flavor and also adds Vitamin C to the mix

5. Add honey, just enough to cover the other ingredients

Honey coats the throat, therefore giving relief when sore

6. Let it simmer on low fire for 30 minutes.

7. Let it cool for a bit before transferring to a jar or container.

There you have it! I take a tablespoon of this every mealtime and also gave my hubby and eldest daughter so they have extra protection and not get the nasties from me. Our littlest love is exempted of course, because honey is not yet allowed for babies under 1 year old.

Praying for everybody's wellness! :)

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Baon for hubby: Pork Tonkatsu, Rice with Furikake, Ginataang Kalabasa

This is probably the first time in how many years of married life that I'm doing this...and here we are! Officially preparing food or baon for the traveling hubby :)

Last week, Daddy A was knocked out by a terrible stomach flu :( He had some snacks at a popular convenience store and he suspects the nasty came from the water of his instant coffee. Somehow, I feel guilty because with two kids (toddler and a baby), he ends up last on my list of the people I tend to. I realize this is something that I should correct and besides, hubbies do feel cherished when they are babied too, right?

So the solution is to make baon for him, for when he has an out of town site visit. It's not the easiest thing because (1) babies and (2) he can't plot on a calendar the days he'll be away. Yikes! 

What do I do now? Basically the resolution is (1) cook make-ahead meals we can reheat (2) prepare ready to cook meals (3) cook when the schedule permits (4) always factor in his baon when we shop for groceries. Another important thing would be packing for him both hot (for his coffee) and lukewarm water.

Honestly, I don't know how well we can keep up with this (hahahaha) but I really hope we can have more healthy home-cooked meals for him. If all else fails, I can probably reheat and spruce up clean left-overs from the previous night hahaha.. :D

Homework for me: Research more about bento meals, find a good stainless food jar

Meal for today: Pork Tonkatsu (breaded pork chop), Rice with Furikake (rice toppings), Ginataang Kalabasa (dinner left-over)

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Back at the Kitchen!

Late post *peace!* We're 7 months pp now and have made/experimented more in the kitchen :)

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Hurraaay for me! Hahaha..6 months post-partum and I finally found the extra time and energy to work my butt off in the kitchen. How I missed this special place where, for me, the "magic" happens hahaha.. :)

No meal "meal" for now, just reheating things (LOL), tinkering with the Zojirushi rice cooker and baking.

Here's a 'shabby' looking lactation brownies that I made -- specially infused with galactagogues. I added Flaxseed and Brewer's Yeast to help me in my breastfeeding journey. Oh I hope it works! Otherwise, I still love it because it's healthy and tasty ☺️ You can find the recipe here: (https://community.babycenter.com/post/a24430091/here_it_is_lactation_brownie_recipie)

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Baby's First Solid Food

You know what this means....E is now 6 months old! Yipee!!! :D I'm honestly feeling blah today, maybe because of the weather. Somehow that also affected how I felt towards E's start with solid food. Huhuhu...sorry baby! :(

We started the day with Miss Z's ballet class and I thought I could just steam E's food using the Pigeon Steamer/Food Warmer. Easy peasy, right? Well it was a bust! Hahaha...I've been steaming it for 2 hours at 80 deg C but the squash was still hard as a rock, way past lunch time! Decided we'd have a nap for the kiddos first then just try again in the afternoon.

So knowing what we know now, we just boiled the squash and mashed it with (surprise!) ordinary spoon and fork hahaha...Goes to show how we become more "practical" as second-time parents. Sorry E!!! I'm still excited to see him eat his first solids but what I've learned from the first child, we try to apply now...and so, practical matters win today.

Truth be told, it felt like a normal weaning day. Not so much fanfare for us (except for this video and blog), heck I even forgot his bib! Somehow I trust that this kid won't have difficulties transitioning from boobie milk to solid food. 

See for yourself! :)

 

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E's Baptism Day at Hearts of Jesus & Mary Parish

Eeeeep....I know, I know, this is almost 4 months late..gaaahh!! With 2 kids, I just don't know where the time goes..really! 

Here are a few shots from Mr. E's baptism at the Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish, more popularly known as Twin Hearts. Thank you so much to E's godparents, as well as our friends and relatives who dedicated their time for this special event.

Oh, and if you read through the end, you'll see the Youtube video I made of all the other pictures :)

AND if I find the time (I really hope I would), I'd love to share with you the DIY baptism candles I made for E :)

Church: Hearts of Jesus & Mary Parish, Quezon City

Reception: RACKS Timog Ave.

Photos by: Henry Liao

Collage by: Mommy Meowmeow, of course!

Baby's White Garment: Trajecito de Bebe of SM Baby Company

Mommy & daughter's Dress: SURCO by Vien Resurreccion

Daddy's Top: UNIQLO

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