vintage 12 pcs. cups and sandwich plate

very nice vintage federal glass server. Love to serve coffee, tea, cookies or crumpets? this lovely set are just perfect for entertaining. 6 cups and 6 plates, all in good vintage condition. no chips or cracks. buy it here

back to the 80's

very cool indigo jumsuit buy it HERE



TIRAMISU CUPCAKE

Tiramisu, which means "pick me up". Oh! yes, you will surely pick up this very moist cupcake. Soaked in coffee-marsala syrup. Freshly brewed coffee or espresso would be a great accompaniment for this delicious cupcake, frosted with mascarpone cheese and dusted with cocoa powder.....yum!

recipe source:  Martha Stewart's Cupcake

makes 18 cupcakes

ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup cake flour (not self rising), sifted
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped and reserved
• 4 Tablespoon(1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
• 3 large whole eggs plus 3 yolks, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar

coffee-marsala syrup(recipe follows)

mascarpone frosting(recipe follows)

unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium just until bubbles appear around edge. Remove from heat. whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl and discard vanilla-bean pod. (sometimes its hard to find vanilla-bean pod at our local grocery, i just use the regular vanilla instead, about 2 teaspoon)
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk together whole eggs, yolks and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow, and thick enough to hold a ribbon on the surface for several seconds when whisk is lifted.
3. Gently but throughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches; stir 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken, then fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.
5. To, finish, brush tops of cupcakes evenly with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat intil all syrup has been used. Allow cupcakes to absorb liquid 30 minutes. Dollop frosting onto cupcakes;refrigerate up to overnight in airtight containers. Dust generously with cocoa powder just before serving.

COFFEE_MARSALA SYRUP

enough for 18 cupcakes

• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee(or espresso)
• 1 ounce marsala
• 1/4 cup sugar

Stir together coffee, marsala, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Let cool

MASCARPONE FROSTING

makes about 2 cups

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounce mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form(be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). in another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioner's sugar until smooth. gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. use immediately.

4th of JULY

well hello there, im back from hibernating :). i've been thingking of writing this blog since last week, but i just got busy around the house. anyway, last week the 4th of July, we went down to Anaheim, CA to visit my sister-in-law for the holiday and at the same time it was her husbands birthday the following day. We just had a good time spending the holiday with them. They took us to Dana Point, we were suppose to have a nice afternoon picnic by the shore, but geez! the marina was packed with people. Just about every corner you look, everybody's having a barbecue party :). we were lucky to find a parking space, but not so lucky on the picnic spot, they are all occupied. So, we then decided to stroll around take some pictures, watch the bird, kayakers and few people fishing. The weather was just perfect. before the sun sets, we head back to Anaheim hoping to find a park where we can barbecue. Oh we have lots and lots of food. At first we went to this park where they would usually take us everytime we visit, but again, it was packed with people, after all it was a holiday. So, we turn around and decided to go to a smaller park nearby. Ahhhhh....finally, what a relief! everybody is hungry, its getting dark and we wanted to go the restroom hahahah....As soon as we park, we then get busy with the food preparation. The food was DELICIOUS!!!!!MMMMnnnnnnnnn, good old home cooked flavor! we stayed late, till about 10 p.m. we played guitar, sing song, tell stories. It was absolutely a lovely night. I went thrifting the following day with my sis-in-law and her mother-in-law, we always and love to thrift whenever theres a chance, meanwhile the husbands are out too, jamming with their friends, just around the neighboorhood. Good Times.....we felt sad when we left, we missed their company already. Just spending time with family is PRICELESS.

Aurora rhinestone earrings...

new ietm at the vintage village.....buy it HERE

fancy costume jewelry, oval amber with aurora rhinestone. clip on.

camping #4

laughing at themselves



at the summit, trying to hard to make a wish, they saw one shooting star!





at the campsite again




next morning




preparing breakfast





chow time!



Finally, the moment they have been waiting for. We were at the summit, the kids were so anxious, its getting dark, and one by one the stars start appearing in the sky. The astronomers were getting busy, mapping n charting and recording everything. They were really busy working. There was this really nice couple next to us, they were heading back to their campsite, but was so kind enough to introduce us to one of the astronomers, they got acquainted with earlier that day. He was so humble to allow us to peak through the telescpoe. And boy, we were so glad. We saw Constellation, the milky way, the galaxy as far as 25 million light years away. And the best part of it all was, seeing the planet SATURN, ring and all.......I ca not forget that wonderful experience. we even see satellites, it look just like stars except they move and fade slowly when they are hovering around the earth to get some signals.

Anyway, the next morning, it's time to get ready to go home. I wish we could stay for one more day. The girls was still sleeping, perhaps too tired from last night. we prepared our breakfast, scrambled egg, pork tocino, rice and some fruits. While were having breakfast, we couldn't stop talking about all of our adventures, the star gazing for the most part :)......we finish our meal, we took our last group pic and we all head home a happy camper!!!!!

MT. PINOS is located in Frazier Mountain Park, CA

fee is $ 16.00 per vehicle

primitive camping, no shower, no water. there is however restroom within the campsite(no flush)

exploring the forest needs a wilderness pass for $5.00 per vehicle (one day)available at DONS LIQUOR or at the ranger station

camping #3

getting ready for dinner



beef barbecue



left over chicken from lunch





got to have the rice

So finally, it was close to dinner,  we then dicided to get started. we had Thai beef barbecue that night. After dinner, it was still too early to go back up the summit, we then sit by the fire and tell stories to pass the time. aftern an hour or so, it was getting chilly and starting to get dark.  Evrybody agreed to have a cup of capuccino and tiramisu cup cake before we leave . The  was so excited to go star gazing coz they haven't seen a clear view of a shooting star yet. Well, of course when you leave in the city, you can't even see the star clearly because of the electric lights at night. How often do we stop and look up in the sky at night, and just admire the beauty of the twinkling star? Not much i suppose.