DIY pretend food: eggs

i suspect that i might be enjoying playing with my son's "pretend food" more than he does. oh, don't get me wrong he loves to pile, sort, and toss everything that the room resembles what it really looks like during his actual meal time! 

i know he gets the idea that these are things that you play with and just make believe because he pretends to eat and does a lot of "air chewing"

however, he also teases me by pretending to bite off the "bacon" from his pretend sandwich! :)    

anyway, this project makes use of a bit of paper mache (will make a tutorial on this soon) and the usual cut out styrofoam placemats to make the broken "egg". 

      

step 1: crack egg open

step 2: fry egg in pan

step 3: serve with buttered toast and ham!

fun with a magnifying glass

i just had to post about this. i was rummaging through a file of old photos a couple of days ago and found a folder containing these pictures. i remember it was a bright and breezy sunday, just the perfect weather to just lounge around. our then 7 year old niece (she's 10 now!), however, was bored and tired of playing with her dolls. she then asked hubby to help her think of something else to do. hubby took out a magnifying glass and showed the little girl a couple of tricks!

together they observed an ant trail.

truly, a magnifying glass is the easiest way to observe little things and it gives us a different perspective of the things around us. it took them a good half hour before switching to another activity.

  he also taught her that you can burn things and make fire with it (gasp)! obviously, this should only be taught  to children who are old enough the know how to use this trick responsively. 

 and lastly, they made funny faces with it!

pastel de pollo

if you ask me to name 3 dishes that i could have everyday for the rest of my life, chicken pastel will definitely be one of them. i just love it! for special occasions we make it with the crust although as a regular, everyday meal the crust is ommited. it was just one of those "regular" days last sunday but i felt like going the distance a bit and made a crust. i even made a miniature one for my little boy! 

ingredients:
chicken breast fillet, cut into chunks
chorizo de bilbao
1/2 cup butter
onion, chopped
garlic, crushed
carrot, cubed
potato, cubed
mushrooms, chopped
sausage, cubed
olives
1 cup evaporated milk
chicken or beef broth
cheese, grated
salt and pepper

procedure:
brown garlic in butter
add onions chicken and chorizo, cook for about 2-3 minutes
add carrots and potatoes. let them brown a little
add some broth, cover and simmer
add mushrooms, sausage and olives
stir in milk, remaining broth and cheese
when chicken and vegetables are cooked transfer onto baking dish
cover with crust*

*crust
ingredients:
2 cups flour, sifted
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
water

procedure:
add salt and sugar to flour
cut in shortening using 2 knives
gradually add water
mix with hand but do not knead
roll on a well floured board
fit to top of prepared pastel
brush with beaten egg or milk
bake at 350 degrees F until golden

toilet paper craft: pretend canned food

this craft idea is a result of my current obsesion. if you have been following me these past few days you probably know that i have been obsessed lately with toddler sized miniature food for my little guy's kitchen pantry (maqui, this is partly your fault! hahaha!). that reminds me, i'll be posting some of my miniature food finds soon. in the mean time, here's a really fun project that you could do with toilet paper rolls. ENJOY!       

materials needed:

toilet paper roll

canned food label

cardboard (or an empty soap box, etc..)

scissors

glue

duct tape

marker

note: this project works best when using the labels from smaller cans (you can use earth's best baby food labels!). the larger ones won't look good unless you use rolls with a larger diameter.  however, you can also just cut out pictures of canned food from grocery cataloges or magazines OR you can download and print your labels this site (and this too!).  

step 1: cut toilet paper to length that matches height of food label

step 2: make 2 tracings of the ends of the toilet paper tube

step 3: use tracing as a guide and cut a circle about 1 cm larger

step 4: make several vertcal cuts perpendicular to the circle and fold inward

step 5: glue folded part onto the inner ends of the toiler paper tube

step 6: repeat steps 1-5 on the other end of the tube

step 7: cover tops and bottom ends of the "can" with duct tape

  

step 8: wrap food label around

step 9: with a marker draw "pull-open tab" and concentric rings on top  

this craft project would have kept me up all night had i not ran out of canned food to peel the labels from. hubby would now have to guess the contents of our label-less cans!  

God loves Alonzo

now here's something that my mom (mima to my little boy)

made for alonzo.

this hangs over the bed where alonzo sleeps in my parents' house.

she made this by re-using excess ribbon, crochet thread, scraps of fabric and lace, tissue wrapper, an empty bag of potato chips and    

take note of the letter "E", which is made out of alonzo's used diaper waistbands!

sosing tuyo

i found this recipe from hubby's adobo cookbook. it's been quite some time since i last made this and i have been looking for hubby's cookbook which has strangely and sadly disappeared. i made this based on memory...which seems to fail me sometimes. anyway, i might not have followed the exact procedure but i know it tastes just as good. this time though, i mashed the tuyo almost to a paste instead of just shredding it into little segments. 200 grams of tuyo may yield about a cup. it may not seem like a lot but, trust me, a little goes a long way. this would really go well over crusty bread, basil leaves and kesong puti; mixed in with pasta and mushrooms; topped over a plain cheese pizza and or just simply poured over a mound of streamed garlic rice! yum!!!    

ingredients:

tuyo

olive oil

minced garlic

vinegar

sili (add as much as you can tolerate!)

procedure:

cook tuyo the usual way in olive oil, set aside to cool

once cool enough to handle, remove heads, tails, spine and scales (this can get really messy!)

pour more olive oil (be generous) onto heated pan, add garlic, sili and tuyo

pour vinegar

let boil and allow vinegar to evaporate 

DIY pretend food: waffles

i still had a few wooden coasters left from the pretend sandwiches that i made a couple of days ago and thought that i could make waffles out of them. the procedure and materials needed are pretty much the same.

step 1: use a marker pen to draw grid marks

step 2: cut foam placemats into shapes that resemble whatever fruit you like

   

step 3: put it all together and you're all done!