Sugar & Spice & Everything Nice...

... because Madi is the apple of Mommy and Daddy's eyes!

I've been to countless baby showers, baptisms, children's birthday parties... And to this day, I still could not believe that I finally get to have my turn.  I (with dearest hubby) am being celebrated for the coming of our first baby, Madison.  Sigh... we are just so happy!

Baby showers are typically planned by friends and family.  Two of my best friends had offered to organize this event and I love them to the moon and back for doing this for me!  BUT, I can't help it.  As I am a frustrated events stylist (which all started in our wedding three years ago), I had to inject some of my ideas - color motif, theme, and of course, the invite.  For the past two weeks, I've been browsing, researching, shopping, prototyping baby shower stuff... definitely a great means to relieve stress.  I'll never get tired of this (if only... we'll see about that).

So here's a sneak peak of what I'm up to - I volunteered to create the invite, decorate, and prepare the beverages and souvenirs.  I'll post more as I progress - and include more photos and the links where I got the DIY ideas.

The kind of chaos where I'm in my element.

Mason jars for the beverage - the top part of the lid is covered in 

paper, so guests can write their names. And of course, there's 

always coffee, so here's a paper cup adorned with a customized 

sleeve and sticker with satin ribbon.

Spice Jars - obviously the "spice" part of the theme.

Baby bottles for the kids as the mason jars are too

heavy for them to carry around.

What are about to be the table centerpieces.  These are 

mason jar mugs filled with sweets.  I haven't completed 

these yet as I'm still thinking about what to put as the 

topper.

More to come...

Thank you God, looking forward to 2013!

Couldn't pass on the opportunity to do a reflection of the year that was... I've been seeing a lot of those on Facebook from my family and friends, so... in keeping with my "Dianne Creates" theme, I made mine a collage.  As in the past years, not everything turned out the way I hoped it would be.  But the flaws were all overturned by the most wonderful events that God generously blessed us with... and this new year, I know will even be better.  Especially with the best gift of all coming our way (in about 10 weeks :-).

Happy New Year!!!

Adobo Flakes Hash Recipe, at last!

I started making this dish earlier this year to give the staple adobo a twist.  It has become one of hubby's favorite dishes and I got so many recipe requests from friends - yup, I'm one of those people who post photos of my cooking (and other people's cooking), in Facebook, ha!  I never really measure my ingredients for adobo, but today I did, so I can finally post the recipe in this blog.  So here goes...

Ingredients

3 skinless boneless chicken thighs

4 cloves of garlic minced

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 &1/2 cups water

1 medium potato diced

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt & pepper

Steps

1. Boil the chicken, garlic, bay leaves, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, pepper, and water in a sauce pan.

2. Simmer until the liquid dries out and the chicken is cooked.

3. Flake the chicken.

4. In another pan, fry the potatoes.  Add some salt and pepper.

5. When the potatoes are cooked, add the chicken adobo flakes.

6. Fry the potatoes and chicken until crispy (will probably take another 15-20 mins).

Serve with fried eggs and tomatoes and garlic rice.  This recipe can serve 3-4 people.  This is sure to be a hit - breakfast, lunch, or dinner. :-)

Meatless Craving: "Breadsagna"

Sunday at 6AM, deployment completed.  Check!  (deep inside, ecstatic)  Time for Sunday morning TV and Rachael Ray's on Food Network - perfect.  Lasagna made of stale bread?  Genius!  So I'm not really taking credit for this fine recipe, rather - I'm promoting it as an alternative to the usual lasagna pasta dish.  It took me 30 minutes to make it, and I only had to buy the spinach, but every other ingredient is available in our pantry.  Also, it's vegetarian, so just about anybody would love it.  I did - I contained myself from finishing the whole dish, and shared with dearest hubby.  I was sooo happy it turned out the way it did - just see the pictures below!

Ingredients for One Serving of Mushroom & Spinach Breadsagna

2 slices of stale (or old frozen) french bread cut 5" long, 1/2" thick

1 egg

1/3 cup of half-and-half

1/4 tsp nutmeg

6 pcs of baby bella mushrooms, sliced

A handful of baby spinach

1/4 cup moscato (or any white wine)

1/3 cup chicken stock

Olive oil

1 tbsp butter

A pinch of dried oregano, thyme, and rosemary

Salt & pepper

Triple cheddar cheese

Mozzarella cheese

Directions

Preheat oven at 350F.

Soak the bread in beaten egg, half-and-half, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

Saute the onions, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil until tender.  Deglaze with wine and chicken stock.  Add all your herbs and salt and pepper.  Add the spinach and cook only until the leaves are wilted.

Grease your baking dish (I used a single-serve 5" x 5" stoneware) with butter.  Line with the bread first, then mushroom and spinach mixture, then cheese.  Add your second layer of bread, then top with cheese and butter.

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 mins or until the cheese is melted and slightly crusty.

I must say, I was nervous making this dish - stale bread for lasagna?!  But the result definitely made me an even bigger fan of Rachael Ray.  Next time I'll try it with sausage (but this one's perfect as it is), just so hubby can get his meat fix. :-)

Accessory Making Revived

It's been such a long time since I've made costume jewelry, but it has always been a fantasy of mine (along with other friends) to make it big in this business.  It really all started about eight years ago when we called ourselves KLAD (Kristine, Love, Anna, Dianne) and sold accessories to our officemates and friends.  Yes, those accessories were made by our "untrained" but very passionate bare hands... and we selected and bought all materials ourselves - from beads to strings to chains and charms, all the way from Divisoria.   We just had an initial outlay of 1,000 pesos each and ran the business for about two months, around Christmas time.  It was a success, but we're all so busy with our day jobs, so we had to stop after the holidays.  

Five years after, we decided to revive the business, but the "K" left for Singapore so we obviously had to change our name as LAD didn't exactly sound fab haha!  We called ourselves "IF", short for Insanely Fab, because it speaks for our designs.  Definitely insane, but still fabulous!  Those were really (insanely) happy times as we were practically doing a countdown to 5 o'clock (at work) so we can rush home and create our "day-dreamed" designs.  And "coffee tayo" means let's discuss our business strategy.  Here are some cherished photos with my business partners...

Our style had definitely evolved in 2009 as we had started making "bibs" which wasn't popular back then (we'd like to think we're one of the firsts hehehe) and did more sewing than the usual stringing or wiring.  We used more fabric (some recycled), lace, appliques, and ribbons.  And our trademark?  Look below and you'll notice.  We love floral touches.  They're also our best sellers.  And, we not only did direct selling but joined bazaars - from Ayala Alabang to World Trade Center - we soared!

We had a goal, and in less than 3 months, we exceeded it.   But starting in January the following year, our day jobs got the best of us and we weren't able to spend any more time continuing the business (sigh).  To this day we still receive some inquiries and requests, but our hands are tied.  Ahhh... IF only... 

A week ago, I was feeling so creative that I started planning for home made gifts - after all, they are inexpensive, unique, and honestly, therapeutic.  Being in the US obviously did not give me many options for buying materials for my accessories - I definitely miss Quiapo, Divisoria, and Carolina's!  But I do have a special happy place here - Michael's.  Never mind the $$$ conversion, so I bought a few materials and recycled some of my old necklaces so I could come up with pretty stuff such as the one in the photo below.  I realized, I still have the "IF" in me with the bib-like design and of course, the flower!  I made this for a friend for her birthday.  This is made in the USA, baby!  Haha! :-)

I still have a few more projects in progress, but I could not post them yet as they are all gifts - I'll upload them after Christmas.  I'm getting more and more excited each day.  Let's see how it goes.

Decors Up, Gifts Wrapped, More to go...

On the last two days of our long Thanksgiving holiday, I was so inspired to "Christmasify" our tiny apartment... While on it, I tried making my red velvet cupcakes which I haven't done in a year or so... I wanted to make sure it's still good enough for gifting.  Here are a few pictures...

Our theme... Snowflakes and earthy elements.  I love twigs and branches.

We went for a slim Christmas Tree - I thought it looked more elegant (and practical for a smaller space).

And of course, an angel on top for our little angel.

Pink and Gold color motif, including the wreath.  The bow on the wreath was supposedly for our tree but it was too big for our "sexy" tree, so I put it on our door wreath instead.

If you choose wise, you don't have to spend a fortune for Christmas decors, especially here in the US.  A pack of two of this sparkly snowflake is $1.99 at Target.

Ribbons and tissues and gift boxes from Michael's, my happy place.

I plan to give out red velvet cupcakes for some of my office mates, so I practiced half a batch.  I gave it a little twist by stuffing it with butter cream cheese frosting and topping with cream cheese whipped cream and a small candy cane. :-)

They looked pretty nice in this cupcake box.  So cute.

These gift boxes from Michael's are so convenient.  Great for sweaters and shirts.  We have a few all-wrapped up and under the tree.

Thankful Feast!

It's been more than a month since I posted anything on my blog so I apologize to my regular readers (as if haha)!  Anyway, I can't miss this opportunity to share our Thanksgiving get together last night as we had a fun potluck dinner and of course, our usual Settlers of Catan session.  We're able to recruit a couple who had fun playing (and winning) the game - boohoo, beginners luck hehehe! :-)

It was my first time to make Thanksgiving staples - no turkey this time around, but we had stuffed cornish hens instead.  I used the no-fail lemon-butter-garlic-rosemary recipe and put some stuffing I learned from the Food Network show, Pioneer Woman.  I'm not really a fan of stuffing, but this recipe caught my eye because it had Italian Sausage and mushrooms - yummy.  For dessert, I took the risk of making Sweet Potato Cheesecake, and added my own spin at the topping - cream cheese whipped cream.  It's not the type of cake that everyone will love, but I think it was pretty good, considering it has  "kamote" haha.  So of course, I had a backup dessert - again a no-fail recipe - Ice Box Cake.

My Sweet Potato Cheesecake and Stuffed Cornish Hens

Apols' Baby Back Ribs and Haidee & John's Bacon-wrapped Asparagus

Ela's Puttanesca Sauce and Haidee's Mashed Potatoes with Dill & Cream Cheese

Tin & Jeff's Chicken Wings and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our Thanksgiving Spread and Dessert Table

Last year, we had a fall-themed housewarming party so I had some paraphernalia to use... It was a great investment in a way, well, at least until this year.  I realized I had so much potpourri and empty vases... so, voila - see photos below!  And the house smelled so good too - cinnamon and spice and everything nice (with a hint of roasting cornish hen ;-)).

My attempt at a fall-ish Thanksgiving theme...

Friends and of course, Game Night!

Hosting parties are really fun, but also exhausting.  I only cooked three dishes, but I think with my growing belly at six months, getting tired so quickly is no surprise.  BUT, I am thankful that I get tired.  Because I get to invite friends over, have a great time, get to make lambing to my hubby so he does things for me (and I feel his love so much more), and knowing the fact that a new life is forming inside of me.