One Thing Leads to Another

I bought a couple of apples from Aldi the other weekend.  I was extremely disappointed when at least two of the apples I tried were bad.  

This morning, I was all set to return the rest of the apples if the one I tried was also bad.  

I sliced one apple.  

Lo and behold, the apple was perfect!

I don't know what came over me.  

Instead of eating the apple, I decided to make aebelskivers!

I ran out of apples and still had some batter left.  

I decided to put some blueberry jam inside the last three pieces.  

Oh my goodness!  What an awesome discovery!  

I had placed the blueberry-filled aebelskivers on the plate along with the regular aebelskivers.  When RD popped a blueberry one in his mouth this evening, he was over the moon and wished I had made more.

AEBELSKIVER RECIPE;

2 eggs, separated
2 cups buttermilk (or 2 c regular milk + 2 T vinegar)
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Beat egg whites until stiff; set aside.
Beat egg yolks and buttermilk together.
Sift dry ingredients together and add to liquid mixture.
Add the melted butter and mix together until smooth.
Fold in beaten egg whites.
Heat pan.  Brush oil on each cavity.Fill pan cups with batter.
Add piece of apple or 1/4 teaspoon of jam, jelly, or applesauce to the middle.
Turn (using a fork, knitting needle, or toothpick) and continue turning until evenly browned and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Add some batter if there is not enough to complete the sphere.

Dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

Koalaty Sleep

MacGyver has been having issues with his back and had been waking up with some pain. We decided it was time to get a new mattress for our bed.  GI had purchased a Koala mattress for himself when he moved out of the house and he highly recommended it. At first, we considered getting a mattress similar to what we currently had but after checking around a bit, we decided to go for the Koala instead. 

MacGyver ordered it online on Friday.

It arrived within a few hours.

(It was in a surprisingly small box for a queen sized mattress,)

We set it up on Saturday morning.

So far, so good.  MacGyver is happy with his sleep.

Just as a footnote, because I googled KOALA once or twice while we were looking for mattresses.  I now get Koala ads in my Facebook feed.  This one was particularly interesting.  It was about the Koala advertisements and how they piggy-backed on the Ikea billboard ads. Check it out.

My Three Caballeros

27 and Counting

I look forward to these rare occasions when the five of us are all together.

The Mathematics of Love

Happy Anniversary, MacGyver!

I haven't tested the formulas myself but am sure you get the drift.

Always Something There to Remind Me

We found a  Pie Face stall at NAIA when we were about to fly home.

We'll see you soon, MyGirl!

Photographs and Memories

Look what I found!

GI at Work

GI sent us this photo.  The caption says it all :

When 6pm hits the sanity goes out the window

Off to Makati

We headed to Makati early so that we could visit some relatives before we went our separate ways for lunch.  I was meeting my former boss, MacGyver was meeting one of his KC brothers, and the boys were off on their own adventure (GI wanted to introduce RD to the fish tacos at El Chupacabra).

We went to Aries first but my uncle had been rushed to the hospital the night before so my aunt was not her usual picture ready self.  It was quick hello and goodbye.

We headed over to Libra to say hello to my cousins and my aunt. No picture with my dentist cousin because he was with a patient when we passed by.

  

Then we went to the next village to see my other aunt at Saturn. We could tell she was extremely happy to have visitors.  If we did not have lunch commitments, am sure she would have wanted us to stay longer.

When we finished our rounds, GI commented that he now appreciated the effort we had made by visiting the grandparents every weekend while they were young. (We would make the weekly trip to Quezon City from Makati when we still in the Philippines.)  I think GI could see what a wonderful opportunity these visits were to reconnect, and perhaps he really got to feel the sense of joy our dropping by had brought to our relatives. 

It's Gami Time

To celebrate MacGyver's upcoming birthday, we went out for dinner.

We went to Gami for Korean fried chicken at the local mall.

I Do! I Do!

Yes, you do!  You do look good all dressed up.

I wanted to make sure to get a picture of the kids 

after attending a wedding shower at Stonecutters Ridge Golf Club tonight.

The Very Golden Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar was first published in 1969.

VHC is still very hungry and going strong after 50 years.

Happy 50th!

Carrot Cake with Carrots

Despite having a huge collection of cookbooks, I still enjoy browsing through recipes and noting down the ones I would like to try.  Sometimes I write the recipes down in a notebook.  Other times I send them out as a message or email to myself or my family.  One of those recipes I copied down in a notebook was for carrot cake because I know that GI loves carrot cake.

On my first attempt at the particular carrot cake recipe, I decided to try 1/3 of the recipe.  It seemed like a reasonable way to test the recipe because it called for 3 cups of carrots and 3 eggs.  I figured I could do the test run in the air fryer using a small baking tin.  If it tasted good, I would do the full blown 3-tiered recipe with icing and all.  

The original recipe had the carrots as the first ingredient so I grated the carrots and set it aside.  I went though the rest of the cake recipe, ending with folding in the crushed pineapples. Well, I thought I had gone through the rest of the recipe up until I started to clear up the counter. Right after I turned the airfryer on to start baking the cake, I found the grated carrots sitting on the kitchen counter!

Oops!  

I quickly flipped off the airfryer and stirred the carrots into the batter.  I then proceeded to start baking the carrot cake.  

We had the cake the next day and it got everyone's seal of approval.  So this weekend,  we made the whole recipe, complete with icing and walnuts (and carrots, of course).

Carrot Cake (by Tasty)

2 1/2 c    flour
2 t           cinnamon
1/4 t        all spice
1 t           salt
1 t           baking powder
1/2 t        baking soda
1 c          brown sugar
1/2 c       white sugar
3             eggs
1 c          vegetable oil
1 c          raisins mixed with 1 T flour
3 c          carrots, grated
1 c          crushed pineapples


Icing 

1 c butter, at room temperature
12 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 c powdered sugar
2 c crushed walnuts

1. Sift flour, cinnamon, all spice, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl.
2. In a second bowl, mix together the brown sugar, white sugar and eggs then add oil slowly until just combined.
3. Add flour 1/3 at a time into the 2nd bowl until it reaches peanut butter consistency.  (Do not overmix!) 
4. Add the floured raisins then fold in the grated carrots and crushed pineapples.
5. Pour onto 3 x 8" round cake pans.  Smooth out the tops.
6. Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for 20 minutes. (If using 2 x 9" pans, bake for 25 to 30 minutes.)
7. For the icing, 
• mix together the butter, cream cheese and vanilla
• add sugar 1/2 c at a time
8. Once the cake has cooled, 
• place one of the cakes on the serving dish then spread 1/4 of the icing on top
• place 2nd cake on top and spread another 1/4 of the icing
• place the 3rd cake on top then place icing on the top and sides of the cake 
• Sprinkle crushed walnuts on the sides (or on top) of the cake
9. Chill the cake for an hour before serving.

Pandamonium

Gotta love Ikea!

Kookaburra, Live!

I would not recognise a Kookaburra if it was staring me in the face.

It's a good thing the kids were able to identify this iconic bird when it came to visit our backyard this morning.

I only know the kookaburra as part of a song.

In all honesty, I don't know even know what a kookaburra sounds like or why the song says, "Laugh, kookaburra laugh..."

Apparently, this is what a laughing kookaburra sounds like.

Kookaburra Sits In The Old Gum Tree

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree,

Merry merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,

Gay your life must be!

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree

Eating all the gumdrops he can see

Stop, Kookaburra, Stop, Kookaburra

Leave some there for me.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

Counting all the monkeys he can see

Stop, Kookaburra, Stop, Kookaburra,

That's no monkey, that's me.

Love You I Do

GI knows me so well. 

He sent me the cutest Mother's Day greeting.

Back In The Day

MacGyver and I are one of four sets of couples from our batch that ended up marrying each other.

In this photo from high school, MacGyver is behind me in a red shirt.

One of the other couples that ended up together are right beside me.

Peppa’s Year

MyGirl mentioned that she’d gone to the city and saw the tree in the middle of QVB.

I didn’t quite understand what was so special about the tree until she zoomed in on the “flowers.”

It’s the Year of the Pig!

Happy Chinese New Year!