2013: This is Your Time!

I leave the year 2012 with this picture I took at a local Marshall's. Word.

Goodbye amazing 2012. Hello exciting 2013!

- Rima

Secret Gift Exchange

As I type this and listen to my Putumayo playlist on my old iPod *bobbin my head*, I look back at these pictures and LOL. Too epic.

Btw this is the song that I'm listening to.

This little Arabic inside of me dances.

These are my Youth/Young Adults group from my church. Every Holiday season, I plan our annual Secret Gift Exchange (we don't believe in Santa, so no Santa in the name of the partay). This year the theme was Costume Party. I was delighted to see how my friends dressed up as. Too funny. Even though we don't believe Santa Claus, what's a Xmas Party without Santa? Comes my brother, Otin, dressing up as a Dirty Santa. Uh, thanks Bro.

Of course, I dressed up as Ellie the Elephant. Rob dressed up as a Chubby Iron Man. Spiderman is the host of the party, my cousin, TYJ.

Be prepare for some pictures.

Dirty Santa aka my Brother, Otin

Psycho Masseuse, my cousin Akira, who's actually a certified Masseuse. He brought his massaging chair

Spidey aka my cousin, TYJ

uh odd Iron Man. Yes, this is the Pillow

Future Brother In Laws, bonding, in a weird way, I guess.

Brother and Sister

Some weird BatMan

Waldo

Yes, Batman & Spidey can be friends

Ellie pretending to hide Waldo. And Spidey is photobombing. Creepy.

Dirty Santa

Even Batman Photobombs.

We got our own Psy and a creepy version of Edward

Even Romney visited.

Even our own "Pastor" visited and shook Santa's hand (he's our pastor's Son)

Half Devil/Half Angel, Black Swan and a Bumble Bee

Venus the Goddess

Animal Kingdom

Super Heroes and a villain. And Creepy Santa

Soldier wannabe

Saucy Minnie Mouse

Even Batman found his love

Can you link what Ellie's sign is to?

Ho Ho Ho

I got an Apron from Anthropologie! Yes, TEAL!!!

My Secret Giver was a Bank Robber

All participants.

Rob is missing because he went to another party right after.

I was so glad with the turn out and even the youth had a blast. I can't wait to plan for next years one. 

Any of you had Christmas parties?

moonbeams,

Rima

Food Time: Chocolate Cookie Butter Cake in a Mug

Aw yea. So Merry Christmas again. I was craving SWEETS after eating tons of Chinese Food for lunch, part of my family tradition for eating out on a holiday. After getting called in to work while I was trying to enjoy my Green Tea Ice Cream, I came home wanting something sweet.

But after baking for 3 hours yesterday, I didn't feel like whipping this or mixing that, so I wanted to make just a cake in a mug.

Then, comes Kirby Cravings. This recipe is an adaptation of her Biscoff Mug Cake, so woo. I don't have Biscoff Spread but I do have Cookie Butter. Nom.

Chocolate Cookie Butter Cake in a Mug

What you need:

• A oversize mug
• 3 tbsp of Melted Butter (or Veg Oil, if you prefer)
• 3 tbsp of Milk
• 3 tbsp of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (or All Purpose)
• 1 tbsp of Ghirardelli Powdered Cocoa (if you don't want Chocolate, just add another 1 tbsp of Flour)
• 3 tbsp of Brown Sugar (or Granulated White Sugar, if you prefer)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg

After the butter is cooled down from melting, in the mug, whisk together with egg. Once smooth, add the rest of the ingredients, whisk well with a fork until smooth. Microwave for 1:30 - 2 minutes. More than that, the cake gets rubbery. The cake will rise as the time goes, and beware, you'll get excited.

Warning: this recipe calls for 1 egg. Yes, it gets cooked in a microwave, but maybe not long enough to fully cook the egg. The longer you cook the cake, the drier it gets. So make them at your own risk. Make sure you know the source of your eggs to prevent any salmonella exposure. Other than that, try it. 

Top with Whipped Cream if you want. The texture reminds me of sponge steam cake... Soft and steamy. Yum.

This is a good "quicky" fix after a long day at work. 

Moonbeams,

Rima

Selamat Hari Natal

via

Merry Christmas!
Hope all of you have a great Christmas day, celebrating family, friends and loved ones!

I'll be chowing some Chinese food at Panda Inn with my family for lunch, and then food coma at home, probably watching Homeland. I can't drink because I'm on call, but that's okay.

Have a great one!

bunny kisses,
Rima

Happy Holidays!

hope you all have a great holiday season!

Elephant Water Rain,
Rima

Winter Gift Exchange!

Well well well... It's time to post about my Winter Gift Exchange that was held by A Day in a Joyful Life & Insert Sarcastic Remark Here!

I received my package from Kristina! I love love love love the cupcake liners! My collection is growing :) Super dig the penguin socks! The cupcake book I'm gonna leave it at my boyfriend's house, so I have a quick cookbook when I'm there and craving, haha. Love all the things I got!! Thanks, Kristina :)

For this gift exchange, not only you send a gift to someone (which I gave to the lovely Jen!) and receive from someone, a pre-requisite (college, anyone?) for it is that we have to do something good for someone, ie charity.

I'm a Goodwill nerd. I buy Goodwill, I donate Goodwill.

I kinda cleaned up my closet and ended up donating 3 boxes of home stuff. Also, I donated 2 boxes of shoes (I didn't take a picture of the receipt).

I'm also a monthly donator for Compassion International for a child in Indonesia and Hope for Paws, a animal rescue team based in Los Angeles, CA. 

I've been doing Compassion International for almost 2 years and it has been great. Every time I receive a letter from my Sponsored Child, it makes me really happy.

As for Hope for Paws, I just started in October. This video made won my heart.

Check it out. 

Thanks to Melissa & Allie for the opportunity to share this!

moonbeams,

Rima

Random

I love my Disney Princesses.

And so do these men.

via

via

hahahahaha

- rima

Food Time: Shortbread Cookies

Oh yes. Food. Gotta love food.

Oh yes. Cookies. Gotta love cookies.

Oh yes. Shortbread Cookies. Buttery cookies. Gotta love Shortbread Cookies.

I made these last week because I got some cookie cutters that I just wanted to use. I know, they're just the plain ol' round and square ones. But I've never took the interest to make sugar cookies. I'm a huge shortbread cookies fan. Mmm... buttery cookies melting in my mouth. Nom.

So on my fabulous day off after a rough call night, I stood there in the kitchen for 7 hours! 7 hours for making these cookies?!?! YES! I tried a recipe that I found online and that was a COMPLETE DISASTER! It was SALTY to the point I felt my blood pressure rising! I was sooo bummed after wasting good butter on this failed batch, I dumped the whole dough and made cookies down the trash. I was all happy on how it came out (appearance-wise) but sadly to waste great ingredients.

Being the hard worker me (tee hee), I didn't want to give up (plus I promised my doctor at werk that I was gonna bake something) so I immediately made another batch... Now, with the recipe of one my favorite baker from New York, Sarabeth. I remember going to her bakery at Chelsea Market on my first NYC trip, and purchased a jar of her shortbread cookies. It was BOMBIZZLE. Once I hit Cali, the cookies were gone and sadness appeared. Then thanks to google, I found her recipe online on her website. Score.

Seriously, the ingredients are soooo simple.

Sorry the images aren't the greatest. These were taking at 11 PM, after my back gave up on me.

Shortbread Cookies
makes about 20 - 30 cookies. Depends on your cutter size. Adapted from Sarabeth.

Awesome ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter, chilled, cut in to small cubes
• 1/2 cup of superfine/baker/confectioner sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 cup of Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
• optional: White Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Chips, melted

What to do... What to do...

• Beat the butter, sugar, & vanilla in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed until color is light/pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• Switch to stir/super low speed, slowly add the flour, mix until dough is just combined. Don't overmix. With your hand (flour them if you may), shape the dough in to a ball.
• On a lightly floured surface, place the dough on the surface and sprinkle some awesome flour on the top. With a roller pin, roll the dough in to a rectangular or disk, 1/2 inch thick. Wrap with a saran wrap, placed on baking sheet, and refrigerate for about 30 min - 1 hour, until chill and firm, but not hard. Meanwhile, heat the oven at 350F.
• Sprinkle some flour on top your surface and remove the dough from the fridge. Sprinkle the top with flour. Grap your roller pin, and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thick.
• Memo: if the dough cracks, it's too cold. Let it sit in room temp for 5 to 10 minutes. This happened to me!)
• Now grab your fun cookie cutters, dip them in flour and cut your dough! When you're out of room, reshape the scrapes in to a ball and roll out again and cut!
• Transfer cookies on to a cookie sheet, make sure you create some space in between cookies. 
• Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes, until cookies are lightly brown. 
• Remove from oven, let cool completely on cookie sheet on top of a cooling rack. 
• If you're gonna dip your cookies in chocolate, like I did, make sure the cookies are completely cooled down. Dip them in the chocolate, placed on baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 - 15 minutes, until chocolate becomes firm.
• Now go make some Earl Grey Tea (or this one!), light the fire, grab a novel and eat away.

You can use regular All Purpose Flour if you want. At the time, I just want to use up my Whole Wheat Pastry flour because I didn't have a container for it. Haha. But it actually made the cookies tastier. I loved the texture of the cookies. Feel free to cover the cookies in Royal Icing. I'm pretty sure it'll be good as well.

I still want to master the art of rolling the dough. I want to get a ceramic rolling pin. Hm. get me one please? Like this,

Source: countryliving.com via Sana on Pinterest

Now I'm hungry. Great.

moonbeamers,

Rima

Reminiscing Wednesday

On a cold lazy day, I love to listen to these kind of songs. A little jazz, a little bossa nova, a little samba.



Too bad this is a "mirror" version of the original video. It's from a Godard movie. I believe it's taken down due to copyright. Whatever.

I remember listening to this song back in College, driving down my ugly Camry car on a rainy day.

Time flies to fast.

moonbeams,
Rima