Ten.

Ten. Ten months. Ten months of Tobi :) It sounds like such a looong time but really time has been flying. It seems like just last week he couldn't turn on his own to lay on his stomach and now it's really odd to see him sitting down. He likes to be standing, still supporting himself on something, like the couch or coffee table, but he has completely mastered getting up on his tiny little feet.

He babbles all the time, and it sounds like he has little conversations :)

His personality is shinning through and he smiles ALL THE TIME. He could be playing on his own and then look at you, make eye contact and give you a cheeky little smile :)

Easter cookies~ | Vanilla Cookies Recipe~

Hello~!

This are not really Easter Cookies as there's nothing Eastering in the recipe, but you can do a lot with the decoration. This is actually the same recipe I use for Christmas cookies. 

Ingredients:

300grs butter

200grs granulated sugar

2 eggs

500grs all purpose flour

1tsp vanilla extract

First, take butter at room temperature to a stand mixer and mix using the paddle. Mis until it looks creamy and add the sugar. 

Then, add the eggs, one at a time and mix on low speed. Add the vanilla extract too.

Add half the flour to the mixer and then incorporate the rest using your hands (It's better if they're not overly warm).

Cover dough with plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat oven at 350ºF and grease up a cookie sheet. 

Roll out dough being careful to use flour to help it not stick to the table or rolling pin. Roll out until the desired thickness (they don't really rise up so keep that in mind), I like them at half a centimeter.

Then cut them using cookie cutters or desing your own and cut them using a knife. I didn't have a bunny shape cutter so I drew my own :P

Place on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the thinkness you choose.

Decorate with frosting with any desing you like~ :) I like going really simple with decorations because I hate the overly sweet taste of frosting, so I just bagged fllufy bunny tails and made the bunnies back intead of the front, which would've required a lot more details.

Hope you enjoy~

Nine Months of pure love~

Tobi is nine months now... how time flies~! he looks and acts less and less like a baby and more and more like a child. He plays by himself for great amounts of time, he interacts with his toys in a different way now. 

He laughs out loud when something (mainly Hubby doing something funny) amuses him, an actual laugh. 

(Recipe here)

He can play in his playpen happily but also understand now that there is actual space out side of it where he can crawl and play too. He can crawl out of his playpen AND closes the door~ He crawls around the house now and stands up whereever he can find a place to pull himself up~ :)

Also, he has teeth! TEETH~! Prural~! He has four now, and counting~ 

I'm trying to introduce finger foods, but it's not going so well :/ He really likes cheerios though and baby puffs~ :)

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie~

Soft chocolate chip cookie~

I love this recipe, the cookies come out very soft and deliciuos~

Ingredients;

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup of chocolate chip (I used half milk chocolate and half white chocolate)

1- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
2- On a stand mixer using the paddle, combine butter and sugars until creamy. Then add the egg and vanilla extract, beat slowly until just combined.
3- Change the paddle for the hook, and add flour, baking soda and salt. When it looks like crumbs or dough take the bowl and press the crumbs together with your hands.
4- Add the chips, this is the part where I divide the dough in two, so I can make milk chocolate chip cookies and white chocolate chips cookies, you can make just one kind or mix the chips together, whatever you like~ :), Incorporate slowly and softly with a spatula.

5- Grab a bit and roll into balls (About 12, or 9 if you want to make huge cookies). place them on a baking sheet, leave space for them to spread. Bake fo 10 minutes, until they look puffy and dry and slightly, SLIGHTLY, underbake. Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minutes and take them out and let them cool off completely.

Enjoy~!!!

Vanilla Cupcakes~

I was supposed to post this back in December... that's why it looks kinda christmasy :P This are really easy to make and very yummy~ You can use any other frosting you like, but here is a very basic cream cheese frosting recipe too :)

Enjoy~! 

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients;

315 grs All purpose flour

2 tsps baking powder

200 grs sugar

2 eggs

240 ml milk

120 ml vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 oz cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

1- Preheat oven to 350ºF and put baking cups in a cupcake baking pan.

2- Beat eggs with and electric mixer for a couple of minutes until they look foamy, then add sugar.

3- While still mixing slowly add milk, vegetable oil and vanila extract.

4- Now with a spatula, gently incorporate swifted flour and baking powder. 

5- Fill baking cups 3/4 of the way. Bake for 20-25 minutes or untill golden on top and a toothpick comes out clean~ 

Frosting;

1- Put the cream cheese on a mixing bowl and mix with the paddle of an electric mixer until soft.
2- Add a dash of vanilla extract if you'd like and slowly incorporate powdered sugar. You'll know it's ready when you touch it with your finger tip and it won't stick.
3- Put in a decorating bag and decorate your cupcakes~ :)

Eight? Eight months!!

Tobi is eight months old. Really. He was born eight months ago. Eight. EIGHT! Oh my god. I can't actually believe it yet. Every day he acts less and less like a baby :(

He learnt how to stand up on his crib. So we had to lower it. Which is a pain for me cause I could barely reach him as it was (Short people problems). It's a lot harder to put him down but not so bad to get him out of it, mainly cause he stands by himself :)

We put away his baby gym and his play mat and change ir for a play pen, where he learned how to stand up on in .6 seconds. Really.

His meals are looking so grown up too, he has breakfast, lunch and dinner now and he looks so cute sitting in his seat~

He also loves the swings :)

Seven months old~! (Last month anyway~)

This month was a very interesting one :) We were back in Chile for the holidays which meant he met the entire family. THE. ENTIRE. FAMILY. And friends, about 100 people total. And he smiled and cooed to every single one of them :). He's a flirt.

That actually meant we had a break. There were so many extra arm that were happy to take care of him that we actually had a lot of days to sleep in and go out at night by ourselves. It was really nice :)

I fell in love with seeing Tobi in the arm of so many people that were so happy to meet him and play with him. He spent the entire month from one set of arms to the next, so it's kind of a miracle that he learned how to kinda-crawl :O He became an expert of spinning like a clock when on his tummy and then he learned how to move foward but not on crawling position yet.

He has really fast hands~ he grabbed the cookies before I could stop him~

He grews oooo much during our trip~! 

The aftermath

(Get the recipe here)

He also started eating solids~! :O The first few time was a dissaster though, he got better with time. by the time he was seven months old, he was eating like a champ :)

We took this pictures a few days after he turned seven months because Hubby had to get back to school right after New Years and Tobi and I stayed behind for a couple more weeks :) 

Six months old~!

I was totally planning on posting this back in december, when Tobi actually was six months old, as of this moment he is eight months old (already?!) and I'm catching up on all this posts that are behind, I'm so sorry for the unorganized mess, I hope you enjoy this post anyway :)

Wait. What?
How did we get here? Tobi is 6 months old~! He has mastered the art of turning over, so staying on his back is no longer an option for him, I can still put him on his gym but won't stay lying down for long, he'll play on his tummy most of the time. He likes to sit with the help on the boppy pillow but he can't stay up right for long :)

He's not crawling but he is moving foward a few inches, courtesy of our slippery linoleum floor~ 

He still sleeps through the night but nap time during the day is still an on and off option for him, depending on the day, some days he just won't take a nap at all~! and some he will sleep all day.

(You can get the recipe for this here)

We are very excited 'cause we're going home for Christmas~!

We actually took this pictures a few days before he actually was 6 months old because by then we are going to be in Chile~!

Back from break~!

Helloooooo~!

I took an unintentinal break from blogging >.<! We went home for christmas and most of January and I had planned to blog through it, but there just wasn't enough time! We had a blast though :)

I have lots and lots of posts planned for the future, but for now enjoy a picture of Tobi's feet on the beach for the first time~ :)

See you soon~!

Merry Christmas~!

May you have a wonderful day~! ~*o*~

Lemon Pie~! | Recipe

Hi~
So here's a recipe with lots and lots of steps but worth it. My Grandma gave me this recipe when I was 5 and I've been doing it by myself since I was 9 :) I can do it, you can do it~! :)!

Couldn't find a picture of the whole pie that didn't have Tobi next to it~ :)

Here's the very long list of ingredients;

For the pastry;
50 grs powdered sugar
100 grs butter (cut in pieces)
150 grs all purpose flour
1 egg

For the lemon custard;
1 can of condensed milk
1 can of water
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp cornstarch
3-4 lemons

For the italian meringue;
3 egg whites
270 grs sugar
water

Let's start with the pastry (because the longer it stays in the refrigerator, the better)
1- In a bowl or a clean table form a volcano with swifted flour and sugar. Put butter on the hole of the volcano.
2- Make sure your hand are cold and mix with your fingertips and rubbing your palms together until you get crumbs. Add the egg and blend everything together but don't knead for too long
3- Make a ball with the dough and cover with plastic wrap. Put in the refrigirator.

Follow with the lemon custard
1- Open a can of condensed milk and put the content in a pot. Fill the same can with water and put half of it in the pot too. Mix together and put in medium-low heat.
2- To the rest of the water in the can add the egg yolk and cornstarch and stir with a spoon so everything disolves in the water.
3- When the condensed milk in the pot starts to heat up, add the mixture in the can.

4- Here's the part when you want to be really careful. Don't walk away from the stove, that's when it'll burn :O! Constantly stir the mixture, bieng careful of always moving what's on the bottom of the pot. It'll start to thicken slowly, and when it stars to make bubbles it's done! Take out from the heat and put it in a bowl. Let it cool down.

Let's finish the pastry!
1- Take dough from the refrigerator and roll out, the cooler it is the easier is to cover the pan. Use whatever technique you prefer to cover it, cut the excess and stab it with a fork.
2- Bake at 350ºF for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

The lemon part of the lemon custard;
1- Once the custard has cooled down, add the juice of 3 or 4 lemons (depends how lemony you like it :)~) Be careful to add a bit and mix, then a bit more and mix, ect.
2- Fill the pastry with the custard and let it set for a bit

Meringue, meringue, meringue;
1- Put the sugar on a pot and add enough water to soak it, but not too much, and put on medium heat.
2- Watch for the point where if you deep a spoon in the sugar syrup and lift it up you can see a hair fly away from the spoon. I know, confusing~ It gets easier with practice. If you have a candy thermometer, cook until 240ºF (116ºC).

Can you see the sugar hair flying away?

3- This part is easy in a way and hard on the other~ Beat the egg whites until soft peaks (easy, see?) but you have to get to that point at the same time the sugar syrup reaches the point described in point 2. One can't wait for the other. (I know, hard. It also gets easier with practice).
4- Then keep beating the egg whites on high speed while you drizzle the syrup in a continous and steady flow.

5- Keep the mixer going until the meringue cools down.

The Last Step~!
1- Put the meringue on top of the custard filled pastry.
2- Put in the oven on broil until the meringue gets golden. If you have a torch, use it. It's easier ;)

Done~!!

Baby meets Christmas Tree~

Tobi met our Christmas tree~! :D 

So, here's a little story... our first christmas after we got married we got this teeny tiny tree (mainly for money issues but also because it was cute~) we never changed it, there was no real reason to. Now, I want a bigger tree so Tobi can enjoy it but whie I decide which one I want, I decorated the tiny tree one last time. Tobi really enjoyed it, it's so tiny it's not that much taller than him sitting down. He couldn't stop touching it and he actually knock it down a few times~ ahahha