Whovian Week: 50th Doctor Who Party

In honor of The 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who this Saturday, I'll be posting all things Whovian this week!

After months of waiting, the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who is only 6 days away. EEP!
While some of us will be watching the 3D simulcast of the episode in select theaters, a majority of us will be watching it in the comfort of our homes.

So what better way to watch is than to gather some of your favorite fellow Whovians and have a party. 

Here are some ideas for the most fantastic Doctor Who party.

Food

No party is complete without food and here are some fun suggestions.

Doctor Who Party Food by aquietnerdything on Polyvore

Click below for the recipes: 

Fish Fingers and Custard

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Chocolate Covered Banana Pops

Fish and Chips

Buy Jelly Babies and Jammie Dodgers (not shown) Here

Drinks

Sometimes we need a drink (or two) before we start dancing like a drunken Giraffe. 

Source

Sonic Screwdriver Drink Recipe from Dash and a Pinch

Games

For adult parties, there's always the DW Drinking Game. But there are some really good fun family games too.

Guess the Character

All you need is some index cards or paper. Write the name of a DW character and pin it to the back of your guests as they arrive. During the party, everyone will try to guess who they are but only by characteristics/personalities. 

Costume Contest 

You can't have a DW party without everyone coming in costume. Have different categories, such as Most Creative, Best Doctor and Companion, and Best Villain. 

For more creative games, you should check out the Doodle Craft blog. So many fun ideas! Pin the Face on Cassandra is my favorite. 

Decor 

If you're looking for some cute Doctor Who fabric for a tablecloth or photo booth backdrop, you should definitely check out Spoonflower and the plethora of artist made fabric. If that's out of your budget, there's also some awesome fabric choices too. 

I might have to go to my local JoAnn's and get this fabric for myself.

With stores stocked with holiday decorations, there's bound to be enough silver star garland to use with your hearts content. 

Oh and don't forget your Standee!

Who wouldn't want a Ten standee at their party... or room. Ehehe.

Do you plan on having a Doctor Who viewing party?

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

On Saturday, I had the itch to bake. I found some yellow cake mix in the cabinet, but didn't feel like making your basic cupcakes. I saw this recipe for peanut butter and chocolate chip cupcakes and wanted to adapt it by using the cake mix instead. So did a little Google search and found the perfect recipe. I also had some leftover dark chocolate candy in the house and incorporated it in the mix. And I have to say they came out pretty good. 

Peanut Butter Cupcakes 

Ingredients:

• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter (I used creamy peanut butter)
• Chocolate chips (I added this to the recipe)

For the chocolate I used what was left of the Godiva chocolate gems (there was about 14 pieces) and rough chopped them. This probably yielded about a 1/2 cup. Of course if you use chocolate chips you might want to use 1 cup to get maximum chocolate goodness. 

For the frosting, I used this chocolate buttercream recipe and added 2 tablespoons of peanut butter. Ever since I started making my own frosting, I can't go back to canned frosting. It's way too sweet and with making it yourself, it's easier to control the sweetness factor. 

I want to get more baking done before the weather makes turning on an oven insufferable. Hopefully my next recipe will come from the Milk Bar cook book I got for Christmas. 

Peanut Butter Chews

The holiday season is when everyone's baking guns come out. At work potlucks, everyone brings a dessert and I'm no different. While I like trying to bake new things, such as attempting to bake a pie this season, for the most part I like to stick to my tried and true recipes. Peanut Butter Chews is one of them. I wish take credit for this peanut butter goodness, but it came from a recipe book that one of my relatives gave to my family twenty years ago. I remember baking this the first time and bringing them to work and they were an instant hit that I would bake them all the time and eventually gave my co-workers the recipe. Now you can try the recipe yourself. 

Peanut Butter Chews

 

Recipe by Stacie H. from the Sony San Diego Family Cookbook

Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2/3 cups margarine (I use butter when I make it)
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 cups coconut (or 1 cup oatmeal)
• 1 cup of milk chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

 Combine sugars, peanut butter, margarine (or butter), vanilla, and eggs in large mixing bowl and cream.

 Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and coconut together. For my twist in the recipe, I also add 1 cup of milk chocolate chips. 

Add 1/2 to creamed mixture and mix thoroughly. Add the rest and mix. 

Spread in greased oblong pan and about 1/2 inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 20 to 30 minutes. Cut into squares while still warm. Spread with thin powdered sugar frosting or leave plain. 

There you have it, Peanut Butter Chews. They are great hot from the oven but taste even better the next day. Make sure you put it in a sealed contained so it doesn't get stale. The chews pair well with a cold glass of milk. 

What are your go to baking recipes?

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes

One thing that immediately reminds me of fall is pumpkins. I love it pie, latte, and even in ice cream. So when I came across this pumpkin cupcake recipe on Pinterest, I immediately had to try it. The cool thing about this recipe is that it doesn't use any oil or eggs. It's just cake mix and pumpkin puree.

Recipe adapted from Big Red Kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of yellow cake mix
• 1lb can pumpkin puree
• 1 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 2 tsp of cinnamon
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract

 Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F if you are using a non-stick/dark baking pan. Pre-heat to 350 degrees F for a glass/shiny baking pan.
•  Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix. 
• Bake for 30 minutes.

Once the cupcakes are cooled you can either sprinkle powederd sugar over them or frost them with some cream cheese frosting. I used this frosting recipe from Paula Deen, but I cut the powdered sugar to 2 cups because it made it less sweet. 

There you have it, some wonderful pumpkin cupcakes that you can make during the fall season. 

Friend Friday: Summer Recipe - Halo Halo

Today for Friend Friday, we're heading in the kitchen as bloggers will be sharing their favorite summer recipes. 

I love to bake, but during the summer months I'll usually give the oven a rest because who really needs the extra heat from the oven when it's already 100+ degrees outside. So I kept racking my brain on what I wanted to post when the light bulb came on. I have already posted one of my favorite Filipino recipes, so why not post my favorite Filipino cool treat Halo-halo.

Source

When it comes to desserts/sweets involving ice, you usually think of snow cones, Icees, and shaved ice. But in the Philippines we have our own icy treat called Halo-halo. Halo comes from the Tagalog word mix and its basic components are shaved ice and evaporated milk. From there you can add sweetened preserved fruits and beans like jack-fruit, macapuno (shaved coconut), garbanzos, kidney beans, palm fruit and gulaman (gelatin). To top if off you can add cut up flan, ube (purple yam) ice cream and pingping (crushed young rice). All these ingredients you can find at your local Asian market of in the Asian aisle at the grocery store, although the former will have a larger selection and be a little bit less expensive.

Source

This is a great alternative to ice cream and it's also an interactive treat since everyone can choose what goes in their Halo-halo. If you don't have a shaved ice machine, you can use a heavy duty blender.

Source

If you do decide to make your own halo-halo, I would love to see your pictures of this yummy creation. Just send me an e-mail and I will post it on the blog.
To check out more summer recipes from fellow bloggers click here.

Lumpi-what?

When it comes to Filipino dishes, Lumpia is my favorite. Lumpia is basically the Philippines version of an egg roll, but is thinner in size and usually has pork and veggies. It's also the most time consuming prep wise, but is it oh so delicious. Much like Lay's potato chips, you can't eat just one. 

So if you want to be the hit of your next party or office potluck try this recipe out. Your taste-buds yearning for some international fare will thank you.

Ingredients

2 lbs of ground pork (thawed)

1 bunch of green onions

1 cup of frozen peas

3-4 carrots 

1 8 oz can of water chestnuts

1 package of Mama Sita's Lumpiang Shanghai Mix 

1-2 packages of spring roll wrappers 

Salt and pepper for taste

Directions

• Wash and peel carrots. Finely grate the carrots into a large mixing bowl. Finely chop green onions. Remove cilantro leaves from the stem, finely chop them. Add the green onions and cilantro to the bowl.
• Open the can of water chestnuts, drain and roughly chop them. Add to the bowl along with 1 cup of frozen peas.
• Add the pork, lumpia seasoning, salt and pepper to the bowl. 
• Separate one egg, adding the yolk to the bowl. Set aside the egg white which will be used later.
• Mix all the ingredients thoroughly with your hands.   

• Open the spring roll wrappers and separate them. They usually come frozen from your local Asian market, so let them thaw out for a couple of hours. You want them to be thawed out just enough so you can easily peel them off. It also helps to have a slightly damp paper towel covering the wrappers once they are out of the package. It will prevent the wrappers from drying out. 
• Get a large freeze proof Ziploc bag and cut one of the corners about 1/4 from the end. Add the filling and squeeze about 3 inches of the filling into the middle of the wrapper. In the picture I'm using an old icing gun. It was only a couple of years ago that my mom discovered from a friend that using a device like this speeds up the lumpia making process. Before we would form the filling by hand which was not only time consuming, but also really messy. You can also use a pastry bag for this step. 

• Then you are going to wrap the lumpia mix. Fold the bottom corner over the mix. Then take the right and left corners and fold them in. Keep rolling the lumpia wrapper, making sure it's wrapped tightly. Seal the corner with the egg white (that has been whisked).

• Get a medium size pot and fill it with about 3 cups of vegetable oil or enough to cover the lumpia and put on high heat. Once the oil is heated up, (I use the scientific method of putting a small drop of water to the oil to hear the crackling sound) fry the lumpia. Fry 4-5 at a time so they fry evenly. 

•  Fry them for about 10-15 minutes or until they are golden brown. You want to keep an eye on it because they will burn easily. Place on a paper towel to drain the oil. 

• Serve with the sweet and sour sauce of your choice and enjoy! Each wrapper package usually yields about 40-50 pieces but you can easily double that if you cut them in half after frying.  If you happen to tear any of the wrappers while separating them, don't throw it away. Fry them up and they make great wrapper chips.

Black Friday

30 for 30 Items:

Old Navy Striped Shirt and Black Jeans

Payless Black Mini-wedges

The Icing:

Forever 21 Necklace

Another 2 outfit post only because I've been working during one of the busiest weekends of the retail season. I'm just so glad it's only one month out of the year. If this was every month, I'd be even more exhausted than I am now.

 I knew that I'd be running around a lot on black Friday so I kept my outfit fairly simple. Jeans and t-shirt. Plus I had to wear this work issued lime green hoodie. Maybe I'll post it, maybe not. :P

By the end of the night, my jeans were covered in lint, I got Creme Brulee Latte on my shirt and I was tired and delusional. Then I had to do it all again 8 hours later, (got off at 2am and had to be back at 10am) while waking up to a very stiff and sore body.

30 for 30 Items:

Old Navy Grey Sweater and Polka Dot Top

Reflections Brown Boots

The Icing:

Forever 21 Necklaces

Old Navy Tights

Yes, I did wear the lime green hoodie with this outfit and I did not get any funny looks from it. Plus these are some of my items that are currently not in the laundry pile. But I do like the pairing of the different blues. Although I should have worn comfy socks under my boots. Combined being already tired and constantly running around, my feet were definitely barking. Just being able to sit down during my break is nothing to be taken for granted.

Also for Black Friday, my work had a potluck and of course I made cupcakes. I made my standard red velvet cupcakes, but I also tried my hand at French Toast and Bacon Cupcakes. I got the recipe from Life With Cake and I have to say, it was a hit with my co-workers.

I think I made the buttercream a little too sweet which I'll take down a notch the next time I make it. Plus I think I'll add more bacon to the batter, which I added to the recipe.

Oh and I shopped...

for myself.

Yeah...

More about that later...

Babies, blondies, and Puppies...Oh my!

After a hectic week at work, I was glad to have the weekend off. I spent Saturday doing chores around the house and just hanging out.

But on Sunday I went to my friend Rachel's baby shower, which was really fun. Instead of the usual baby shower food fare of tiny sandwiches and salads, they had carne asada tacos which were really good. You can't tell in the picture, but she's 7 months along and due in December. I could feel her baby kicking when we took the picture.

Before I went to the baby shower, I decided to bake some Reece's Peanut Butter Cup blondies. I saw the recipe on Yumsugar a few days ago and knew I had to make it. Never making blondies before, I wasn't sure how it was going to come out or even taste.

Before It Went Into The Oven
Finished Product

But I have to say, they were really good. Especially with a cold glass of milk. :-) I put the whole batch in a plastic container before I left, and when I came home only three pieces were left. Definitely going to keep this recipe.

Also last week we got a new pup. Her name is Carrie and she's an Australian Shepherd. She's too cute and she likes to run around and play a lot.

How can you not resist that cute face!?