Yogurt Scones

Having a child at home really gave me an opportunity to explore and try a lot of bake goodies. I was looking  for something that I can put yogurt, until i finally stumble on the recipe tips from ikea. I tried the recipe but I find the texture so soft, more like of a pancake than scones, so I made a little bit of revision. I decided to put egg in the recipe and increase the amount of flour a bit. A success on my part for  my little boy enjoyed it.

Here's the recipe:

300 g flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 pc egg

50 g butter

200 ml plain yogurt

pinch of salt

cheese for toppings

Preheat the oven to 220 degree celsius. Combine all the dry ingredients, flour and baking powder until thoroughly mixed. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mixed everything aside from the cheese, reserve it for toppings. I used the electric mixer for mixing. Pour it in greased muffin form and topped it with cheese slices. You can top it with anything you like, it maybe bacon, ham or marmalade. You can also add a little sugar if you like. Bake it for 15 minutes. That's it. Really easy and tasty. 

Oh!ranges of different things:)

Life is full of colors indeed. It's my first time to join this "meme". Colors can be so interesting. It made me realize that each color actually says something and it's only then I realize how much orange invaded my home. I like this happy color anyway. I can never think of orange in a gloomy way. Even the falling of the leaves that turned orange still a sprightly sight for me.

an orange vase for the herb in the kitchen

 Kumquat, it is not very often that we have this at home. I like it so much, it satisfies my longing for our traditional calamondin or lemonsito in the Philippines.

 Oh! I so love Persimmon

  candle center piece

 dish cloth

orange chair cushion and place mat

Winter can be so cold and gloomy. Having warm colors at home can at least defy the effects of nature. This meme made me think how we often forget  simple gifts in life. Can you imagine the world without colors? Definitely, colors are something we should thank God for. May you have a colorful day!

Banana bread

It's my little ones favorite. BANANA. It may be the fruit itself, make it a bread or even a yogurt. To please him with something to eat,you can never go wrong with banana flavor. The all time favorite:) It's actually difficult for me to have stocks of ripe bananas. At home, these are consumed right away. You can now imagine how we love bananas. What i usually do, is freeze the ripe banana until I could accumulate 4 pieces of it. As soon as I have four, I can bake banana bread right away. This recipe calls for 1 teaspoon baking soda, unfortunately I don't have any so I substituted it with 3 teaspoon of baking powder. And it still turned out great. Here's the recipe.

1 cup ripe bananas (usually 4 pcs medium size)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 pcs eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees celsius. Mix all the dry ingredients, flour, sugar,salt,and baking powder. If everything is thoroughly mixed, then combine the rest of the ingredients, the bananas,vegetable oil and vanilla. Mix everything together, I used electric mixer until batter is formed. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake for an hour. Let it cool and grab a slice. Enjoy!

Glad to be back!

I was out of the blogging world for while. We were in Ireland for almost 3 weeks. Ireland is our favorite destination during holidays because this is the nearest place where I can find people closest to the heart...my sister and her family. Me, with the unending exchange of thoughts with my sister while the little one enjoying the company of his cousins, and my hubby of course enjoying his holiday with the family and being off from work. It's always been a delightful experience to be in the company of people you care and love. This is just a small-scale experience, I can only imagine how joyous it would be if it would be my entire family, all together in one place. Every time I think of it, it always painted a smile on my face. Happiness really comes from simple joys. I think i posted a lot of times already about Ireland, but every time we are there, there's always something to tell.I'd like to share some photos we had.

 watching happy feet

(my sister with the kids)

 a ride for tourist

 balbriggan harbour

 my sister and I

dublin city at night

My Parent's Visit

Looking back how young and vigorous they were before,and seeing them now, with wrinkles on their faces, the back pains and even having arthritis, gave you the strong desire to do something that would paint a smile on their faces. Being together, and sharing memories together are the priceless gifts one can give to their love ones. It is of course, with God's providence and grace that my parent's visit made possible.And the combination of efforts from all of us. All the siblings did the share to process everything until it became a reality. Filipino citizens are required a visa to enter Germany and The Republic of Ireland, so their efforts started of course from applying visa to the embassies of the countries mentioned above. Germany-- so they can visit me and my family and Ireland-- to visit my sister and her family.

It was a fulfilling and reflective moments for me, for I was given the chance to take care of them, do some cooking, cleaning, and some other mundane stuffs that one could have done, if you live in the same place. One instance was I was able to color mama's hair, had their nails trimmed, and prepared a nice warm bath for them to enjoy. It was indeed a lovely time together. To be away from your home is both a challenge and opportunity. There are always trade off for the choices we made. And a visit like this was definitely rewarding.

Here are some photos we had:

this was taken at Nymphenburg Castle in Munich

at the BMW Museum

Allianz Arena

Brandenburg Gate in Berlin

Munich Center

Freising

These are significant events in our lives, and I think every minute spent with someone we deeply care are always moments to remember. It reminds me of the saying that "It's not the sugar that makes the coffee/tea sweet, it's the STIRRING". We may all have what we need to be sweet and happy, yet if we forget to stir it, then it will be nothing.