Oreo surprise vanilla cupcakes with oreo icing

Hi friends! 

I want to share my freshly baked cupcakes. I love to bake as much as I love cooking! These cupcakes are actually just vanilla cupcakes, I just added OREO as a kick of flavour since its for children´s party. I put a whole Oreo cookie at the bottom of each cupcake, so its called Oreo Surprise :p and I just used regular vanilla frosting and added some crushed Oreo on it. Sounds Oreo-ish? hihi 

These are the final look of the cupcakes, I wasn't able to take pictures step by step cause I was in a hurry to finish them since Im also looking after my baby. Here comes the super mom! :p

Enjoy the photos and let me know what you think! If you want this recipe, just leave a comment below :)

- J ♥ 

Beef with cream of mushroom

Blogging about one of my fave dishes! Finally sharing with you some of my skills in cooking. LOL


Ingredients:

5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 kg. of beef, sliced into inch strips
1 can Cream of mushroom
Sliced/whole mushrooms in can (optional)
Soy sauce
Pepper
Salt
Cooking oil
Water



1. Marinate beef with minced garlic, 3tbsp soy sauce and dash of pepper and salt for at least an hour two. You can marinate the beef overnight.

2. Heat up a pan/wok, put 2 tbsp of cooking oil. Wait until the oil is hot enough, then put the marinated beef. Saute, until the juice comes out. Let it simmer for at least 5-10mins.

3. Add 1 cup of water and 1 tbsp of soy sauce.  Stir and let the beef simmer until its tender.
 
4. Add the cream of mushroom, in this step you need to taste the saltiness or the flavor. If it's too much, gradually add water/salt little by little until you reach the desired taste. Add dash of pepper if desired.

5. Add sliced/whole mushrooms. This is optional, and because I LOVE mushrooms I always put mushrooms in almost every dish I cook :p

6. Garnish with parsley on top. In my case I put onion chives. Serve with hot rice.
Try this recipe at home and let me know what you think :) Happy eating! Nomnomnom

- J ♥



Click here to join my giveaway!

Lepidor French Macarons

Ahhhhh. It's awesome because I know how to make french macs, but it's different when it's bought in a legit store. Like this Lepidor French macarons all the way from France :) Hubby's cousin just got back from France, and I made "lambing" if she could buy us some vanilla french macs. And poof!! Straight from France, how delicious! Now I'm dreaming of going there, Paris to be exact. To taste the best of the best Macs. I don't know but I just suddenly got addicted to these heavenly sent little sandwiches. They're just uhmm, superb! Anyone here also a macaronholic??? :P Well you can't blame me, cause really it is heaven even with a single bite. Yummmm!!!

look at those heavenly sandwiches

cute leopard box 

- J ♥

Click here to join my giveaway!

Hamburg - Berlin vacay + haul

We had our 6-days getaway at Hamburg, Germany. I was with my hubby and baby Julia. Also my in-laws. Hubby's cousins + hubby's 2 pamangkins. So that makes us 5 adults and 3 kids :p 
 
So Hamburg isn't the main place to go for a vacation in Germany, but it's actually a big city to go shopping and to roam around (compare to Oslo). I remember when my hubby told me, once you live in Norway and you travel in another country, you'll find everything CHEAPER. And YES! It's true! Hahaha Well not "cheap" cheap, just much  LESS of the price compare in Norway. For days, we roam around the city, eat the most famous "german-ish" foods, shopped at stores like Karstadt, Rossman, Real etc. But I found myself so in love with Douglas shop. There, they have all the cosmetics and beauty products you need, name the brand! MAC, Clinique, L.a colors, benefit, Dior, Chanel, Lancome etc. But the counter I fell in love at first sight with was the NYX counter. Why? Cause it was actually the first NYX counter I saw and able to see and try all of their products. Yay to that! 

On our 4th day, we were able to rent a car, so we went to Berlin the following day (Sunday) but too bad, malls and shopping centers were closed cause obviously its Sunday. But we didn't left Berlin  yet cause we were able to roam around, and guess what? There were so many tourists that time so we still enjoyed our day trip there. We saw the famous Berlin Wall, we got to see also the "shopping" streets in Berlin were you can see high-end brands, Hermes, LV, Bally, name it! 

So with this blog I'm going to show you some pictures of the foods, places and things we experienced in Hamburg and Berlin, and also the things I/we bought back there hihih :) 



Enjoy the photos!

Autumn shot

Pappa J and baby J

shopping streets in Hauptbanhof

shoes shoes

I own this shop hahahah

Biggest Apple Store I've ever seen

Baby shop

trying out the best fish and chips in town, and maaaaan it was so gooooooood! a must try!

mad hatter!

yes, KFC!!!

My baby J has her own drink! hahah

Chinese buffet when we visited Tita Celia at Itzehoe

at Berlin Wall

Vietnamese cuisine, i dont know the name of this soup. Tastes like Wanton soup

salad

and some barbeque

Don't forget Bratwurst and sausages of Hamburg. But Käse-griller hotdog, cheese dog sooo delicious with their buns

while waiting for the train

Hauptbahnhof passage

and of course, hubby shopped for these. Cause it's way cheaper in Germany

Yummy Giotto, Ferrero like. but I like this more, bought some so I can bring to Philippines hahahha Mom will def like this

Yes, bought tons of this. Baby wipes hahah

some chocolates, Werther's (mom's fave)

addition to our collection. I decided to buy mugs instead of tumblers this time

cute boxers hahaha

for my Baby J

oh yes, more and more! should make a review about these products. watcha think?

h&m pants, got them on sale for only 5Euro

To sum it up, it was really a wonderful experience in Hamburg, even if it's also cold back there. If ill be given a chance ill definitely go back there, or maybe in another city in Germany. Or maybe in US, cause I think shopping experience in USA will be superb!! Hahaha :) It's so nice to travel, maybe I can share and write blogs about my previous travels like in Bohol, Cebu, Boracay, Hong Kong and Singapore! 


Hope you enjoy this blog!! I hope to see you in my next, which is my mini giveaway! Watch out for that :) 


- J ♥

Homemade French Macaroons

Here it is! My friends on my personal Facebook account have been asking what is the recipe for these cute little yummy sweets; French Macaroons! For those who are curious about these cute little sweets, it's an almond flavored meringue-like. The outer part is so smooth and kinda crunchy but so chewy on the inside. Sounds heaven? The flavor of the filling depends on how you want it. I haven't tried different flavors, cause  I'm still on the process of making it perfect! So I just always use my Vanilla butter cream filling. 

Okay so I've read a lot of forums as well as different articles about troubleshooting with macaroons. Since there are a lot of problems and negative results that can occur in making french macs. I tried making them 4 times and i FAILED. It always turned out like cookies. Yes, it turned out into cookies hahaha! I don't complain about the taste cause it's still the same, I'm just bothered with the presentation. If you want to try making them, make sure the weather is not humid. Again, I've read in a forum that when you try making them with a humid weather you will have bad macaroons since it the humidity can affect the egg whites. So try to make them on a dry, cool day.
Just for the record, I am no expert when it comes to French Macaroons. Well it's obvious I've failed many times but try and try! :p Thanks to a good friend of mine, Jasmine for sharing me her recipe. Hahaha special mention:)


Things you need:
· Food processor
· Sieve
· Hand mixer / Electric stand mixer
· Weighing scale
· Rubber spatula
· Mixing bowl
· Piping bag
· Parchment paper
· Baking tray


Ingredients for macaron shells:
- 60 grams of Fine sugar. (Just grind regular sugar on a food processor)
- 2 medium egg whites. Room temp
- 60 grams of almond meal
- 90 grams of powdered sugar


* Measurements need to be exact
* I tend to separate the egg whites the night before I make the macaroons. Place it in room temperature.
* Grind the measured almond meal and powdered sugar on a food processor for about 20 seconds.


>>>

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C / 300 degrees F. Place egg whites in a bowl and mix with electric mixer on medium speed first then gradually add the fine sugar and then mix on HIGH speed 7-8 minutes or until the mixture looks stiff and dry. Sift the almond meal and powdered sugar, discarding any almond lumps that are too big to pass through the sieve. 
Fold the almond and powdered sugar mixture into the egg white using spatula (and add your desired color). The mixture should be smooth and viscous liquid, NOT runny. Over-mix and your macaroons will be flat and have no foot, under mix and they will not be smooth on top. Complicated? :p

Pipe onto trays lined with baking paper or if you have silicone mat but i prefer parchment paper more cause I think macaroons are delicate and they tend to stick on silicone mat (based on my experience). Tap trays on the bench firmly (this prevents cracking). Bake for 12 minutes, but check it first if one comes off the tray cleanly, if not bake for few more minutes. It should have smooth texture on top and should form foot/feet. Remove from oven and let it cool.
 

LOOKING GOOD

For my Vanilla butter cream filling, I don't have exact measurements for this. I make them without recipe. But here's a link for a basic Vanilla butter cream. If this recipe is too much, don't worry just store it in the fridge and you can use it again, for your next batch of macaroons or cupcakes and cakes too! Just pipe the vanilla butter cream on the macaroons. Macaroons are better when put in the fridge for hours before eating them. And it can lasts 3-4 days. But i doubt that it will last that long, cause it's heavenly delicioso! :p

So for now, all I can share is Vanilla french macs recipe but there are endless possibilities when it comes to adding flavors.

Enjoy baking! :)

- J ♥