Made with Love ❤️

After mama died, I have been trying to get back on track and I'm thankful that someone has been helping me out for the past months.. Bit by bit I've been doing what I loved and this is one of them.. I made this small pouch for someone special. (I hope he'll like it) ☺️

How I did it: 

I crochet a small pouch using single stitches for the first row until the third to the last row. Then I did two rows of double crochet before I fastened it off. For the blue handle, I also did 30 single crochet for 3 rows then made 2 single stitches then chained 5 stitches for the button hole then made single crochet until the end of the row. I, then did 2 rows of single crochet before i fastened it off. I sewed all of them together (with the button). 

I hope that I'll be able to do all my favorite things to do. 🙏

Crochet proj: Bear

It has been almost 4 years since I started to knit and crochet. The first ever I knitted was a coin purse which I gave to my then boyfriend. As the years passed by, I was able to crochet different patterns. One of my best work is a 'Bear'. Which I also made as a birthday gift for my then boyfriend. I searched the internet for the easiest pattern. Luckily, I was able to find one and able to finish it in just a nick of time. But sadly, the link I got isn't working anymore so I'm just going to post an unfinished 'Teddy Bear' (because I forgot to take a picture when I was done making it, lazy me)

As you can see, my 'Teddy Bear' is undone, but I assure you I completed it (lol). Here are the materials that I used:

•  Yarn #3
•  three different colors of your choice. In here, I got a red for the body, green for the bow and black for the eyes. I brought it in our local crafts store. You will also need a thin thread with the same color of the yarn you'll use on the bears body.

•  Needle
• I used a Size 3/0-5/0 crochet needle and a small thread needle to sew the body together.

• Synthetic fiber
• You will need polyester staple fibers to fill the insides of the bear or you could just put excess yarns to fill the teddy bear.

•  Patience
• You will need lots of it. For a beginner like me, you need to study and watch clips from the internet of different patterns. You will encounter different steps that you're not familiar with. 

The first thing I did was crochet the head and body, I crocheted  two sides, both for the front and back and I crochet 8 small rectangles for the arms and legs. For the extremities, I sewed 2 rectangles and filled it with polyester staple fibers/excess yarns. For the ears, I remembered crocheting 4 half-circled shaped ears. I also remembered sewing the arms, legs and ears to one of the sides of the body(back). Remember, you need not to fill the ears with polyester staple fibers. After sewing the arms and legs, you can now sew the other side of the body(front), fill it with polyester staple fibers up until you've sewed and closed the head of the bear. For the bow, there are different techniques and patterns in crocheting a bow, I used the green yarn because it's the only available color in my stocks. For the eyes, I crocheted 2 small black circles.

I hope I gave you an idea on how to crochet a teddy bear. If you want to suggest DIY's feel free to leave a message on my Contact Me page or tweet me @cestmoiGelaRyes. :)


For other patterns please visit the site: Crochet Pattern Central.

Cook Oyakodon at home

 
I've been a huge fan of Japanese foods. My favorite Japanese food includes ramen, sushi and oyakudon. The first time I got to eat an Oyakodon was when my mama was admitted in the hospital. My brother introduced me to a Japanese resto, Maguro Sushi Bar and Restaurant. It is located in Matalino St, along East Avenue, Quezon city.

Kuya and I decided to make our very own version of oyakodon. We've searched the internet for the easiest recipe and where you could find the ingredients on your own home. Alas! we found this recipe from Visual Recipe: Oyakodon Recipe by Godsmullet. Here's the step by step and my inputs in  bold italics

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Chicken Thighs
• 4 to 5 Green Beans (optional)
• 1 small1 small Yellow Onion (sliced into thin strips)
• Ginger to taste (minced)
• Garlic to taste (finely chopped)
• 2 Eggs (beaten)
• 1/2 cup Dashi or Chicken Stock (I used the chicken stock)
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce (we used 4 Tbsp)
• 2 Tbsp Mirin (optional)
• 1 Tbsp Sugar (we used 5 Tbsp)
• Green Onion for garnish (optional)

Note:
 In our version of Oyakodon, we didn't put any green beans.  For the chicken stock, we used Knorr chicken cubes and dissolved 1 cube is 3 cups of boiling water. For the Mirin, since its not available. The taste will be just the same with or without it.

STEP 1:


You can pretty much add to it what you please, like mushrooms, snow peas, green beans, etc. I have some green beans that are going to turn in a few days so I'm going to use that in here. Skin and chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces. You should be able to pull the skin off with relative ease, and then cut around the bone.

(as the author wrote, you could put any thing you want, but my brother and I decided to put less to preserve the taste.)

 

 STEP 2:

Saute the onion, garlic, beans, and shallot, and ginger in the dashi for about 5 minutes.

(Instead of dashi, we used chicken stock a.k.a Knorr chicken cubes.)








 STEP 3:


Add the chicken. About mid-way through cooking the chicken mix the Soy Sauce, mirin, and sugar, and slowly add 1/2 of it too the chicken. BTW, if you want a more yellowy-oyakodon, use a light soy sauce instead and water down the stock a tad (otherwise it'd be too salty). I'm using standard dark soy here.

(for the soy sauce, we used the Coconut brand fermented soy sauce)



 STEP 4:



Once the chicken is cooked, check the flavor and add more of the soy sauce mixture if it needs it. If you prefer a more thicker sauce, add about a Tbsp of flour or 1/2 Tbsp of corn starch and let it simmer for 5 minutes while stiring it constantly. Slowly drizzle the beaten eggs on top of the chicken. Let it cook until the eggs start to harden. Flip the Oyakodon onto a bowl of hot rice - follow the recipe for sticky rice on the first page, however, don't cool it off and don't add the vinegar-sugar mixture to it. The heat of the rice should finish cooking the eggs. Garnish and serve.

 If it's too salty, try adding more sugar. It is too sweet, add a little soy sauce. Adjust it on how it will suit your taste. :) Once you've tried it. Make sure to let me kow how it goes and leave a feedback! :D

 Photo and picture credits to: VisualRecipes.com


MAGURO
28 Matalino St., Teacher's Village
Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Phone Number
(+63 2) 922-0129
Operating Hours
Open from 11:30am to 11pm, Monday to Saturday;Open from 5pm to 11pm, Sunday

5-minute mug cake

Have you ever had a craving for a cake at midnight? But the problem is pastry shops are closed. Well, if you are lucky enough to have these ingredients at home, might as well make a 5-minute mug cake. :)

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

4 tbs flour
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs cocoa
3 tbs milk
3 tbs butter or oil
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 tbs choco chips (optional)
1 large mug

1. Add dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, choco chips) and egg. Mix well.
2. Pour milk and oil. Mix well. Then add vanilla.
3. Place on a microwave (high mode) and set time to 3-5 minutes.

Have you tried it? :)

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes has always been my comfort food but the only time I got a chance to eat them is whenever I'm eating at KFC. So, just out of the blue I wanted to make my own mashed potatoes. :)

MASHED POTATOES

For the mashed potatoes

• 350 grams potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• salt and pepper to taste

For the gravy

• 2 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoon flour
• 2 cups beef or chicken stock, warmed
• salt and pepper

For the mashed potatoes

1. Placed potatoes in medium saucepan and cover with water. Cover the lid and bring to a boil. Reduced to a simmer and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.
2. Combine milk and butter. Heat in the microwave until warmed.
3. Drain potatoes and return to the saucepan. Mash potatoes and the milk mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Let it cool, then refrigerate until ready to use.

For the gravy

1. Melt butter in pan. Add flour; combine. Cook for about 2 minutes.
2. Slowly pour in warm beef or chicken stock. 

 (Note: I used Knorr cubes for the stock. I boiled 6 cups of water for 1 knorr cube. So if you're going to use all the stock, you've got to triple the flour and butter. You can use chicken or beef.)

     3. Season it with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Message me for feedbacks. Thanks. :)

Pulvoron ala Goldilocks

I've been craving for polvoron so I decided to make my own. Here's the recipe..

SPECIAL PULVORON

Ingredients:

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 cups powdered milk
2 cups white sugar
1 cup butter (melted)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Toast flour in moderate heat for 15 minutes or until light brown, stirring constantly. 
2. Then add powdered milk, toss for another 5 minutes. Then let it cool.
3. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add sugar, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Mix well.
4.  Pack well in pulvoron molder and wrap in tissue or Japanese paper.

I must say.. They taste like Goldilocks! Message me for feedbacks :)