Mio can’t contain her excitement about Thanksgiving turkey this year! She’s been making turkey crafts and paintings all month long at preschool, and she always shows me when I pick her up by exclaiming “gobble gobble!”
She got to see the turkey yesterday while I was preparing to brine the turkey, and she got so excited! Watch below for an adorable video full of “Turkey! Gobble gobble!” (She called the brine “soup.”)
She was also in for a treat with preparing pumpkin pies with Daddy later that night!
Pouring the condensed milk in.
Mixing the egg into the batter.
Mio was very interested in every step.
She loved participating!
Mio loved being a part of Thanksgiving preparation!
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends! We’re so grateful to be blessed with such a sweet, beautiful, and healthy little girl, and of course another one on the way. 🙂 We’re also thankful for all of our loved ones, near and far!
Something I’ve always wanted to do with my children is bake with them. Ever since I was a little girl, I always loved baking cakes, cookies, and all kinds of treats for the family. (My mom was much more the cooking type so I did all the baking in the house from an early age.) I always imagined that baking together would be a fun way for mothers and daughters to bond and have fun in the kitchen together, and now that I’m a mom of girls, I am excited about fully indulging myself in such fantasies, whether my girls will like it or not! Mio’s at an age where she can understand and follow most directions, is curious and interested in doing grownup things, and usually eager to help. It was rainy earlier today, and I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to stay indoors and try some mommy & me baking for the first time together! The project? To make red bean buns shaped like Mio’s favorite characters! I’d never actually attempted this particular recipe before, so in hindsight it was probably a little too ambitious and involved for our first collaboration together… but I really wanted to produce something that Mio would love!
Mio helping pour the yeast into the batter.
Pouring the milk and eggs in. Such a good helper!
Some of the red bean buns out of the oven: Hello Kitty, Shimajiro, and Anpanman
Mio couldn’t stop staring at our creations.
“Enough pictures! I want to get to the best part – eating!”
Mio seemed really pleased with our completed creations!
Though I of course ended up doing most of the work, Mio had a lot of fun being involved and helping with some of the steps here and there, and of course she excelled in the role she loves most — eating the finished treat! I’d say our first baking experience together was a success. I’m looking forward to many more countless baking adventures together with my sweet daughter(s)!
Last Saturday, my high school girlfriends and I threw our dear friend Mimi a bridal shower! After getting engaged with a very romantic proposal last October, Mimi and Sujay just tied the knot earlier this month in San Diego with a spur-of-the-moment, intimate marriage/elopement(!) ceremony. While some of our friends were able to attend the beautiful ceremony, half of us couldn’t make it because of scheduling conflicts, and we all wanted to gather to celebrate this wonderful occasion with Mimi! Our friend Juli rallied all of us together and assigned us different tasks to create a lovely and memorable post-wedding bridal shower for the bride.
My best friend Debbie and I were put in charge of cooking and baking all the food for the shower, and we had a great time planning the menu together and cooking together the day of. Thank you Angel for letting us use your kitchen and stepping in to help us with the cooking — we couldn’t have done it without you!
I baked and decorated these sugar cookies for the shower in the days before. Mimi had had a henna night prior to her wedding ceremony, so I piped some henna-inspired decorations on the purple cookies. The amount of detail was challenging, but I’m happy with the result!
The bestest hard at work making matcha frosting. She was the true star chef of the day!
Me piping Debbie’s olive oil cupcakes, filled with blood orange jam.
A delicious banh mi bar.
Debbie’s amazing gluten-free chocolate cake with matcha frosting. SO GOOD!
Another look at my sugar cookies.
I assembled these easy strawberry feta skewers with mint leaves.
A simple favorite: mini baked potatoes topped with sour cream, chives, and bacon bits.
The glowing bride arrives!
Mimi telling us about her wedding day, followed by bridal shower games!
Mimi is all smiles! 🙂
Time to open presents.
Everyone watching Mimi open her gifts.
Some of the ladies at the bridal shower! (Missing Xiaolu and Stephanie and some other girls who had to leave early…)
Hugs!
Thank you Juli for organizing everything and making sure it all went off without a hitch!
Special thanks to Angel for hosting, and to Michelle and Xiaolu who handled the decorations and favors!
Chefs for the day Debbie and I with the bride. We love you Mimi!
A picture of us high school girlfriends together! I love these ladies. 🙂
I’m so happy we could come together to shower Mimi with love and wishing her the best! She looked so happy with a newlywed glow to her, and just seeing her and Sujay makes us so happy. They are such a great couple and are just so adorable together when you watch them because you can see how in love they are. With that, I’ll end with this breathtaking picture from their wedding that shows just that!
Happily ever after ♥ Congratulations Mimi & Sujay!
Continuing from Day 1 in Los Angeles, we stayed in and relaxed for most of the day on Day 2. March 3 also happened to be Hinamatsuri, or Girls’ Day in Japan, and Megumi went all out to celebrate this special day!
Hinamatsuri cookies made by Megumi!
Beautiful Hinamatsuri gift basket Megumi put together for Mio for Girls’ Day! So sweet and generous of her. â¤
We woke up to an amazing breakfast prepared by Megumi.
Possibly the best breakfast potatoes I have ever had! It was surprisingly light but really satisfying.
Homemade scones… I love Megumi’s baked creations!
Refreshing fruit salad 🙂
My kind of breakfast! With a tiny hand sneaking in to grab a bite…
Megumi also got Mio this sweet toy cookie set from Melissa & Doug! Mio immediately fell in love with it. It goes perfectly with her cupcake set back home!
Estella stopped by to say goodbye!
It was great hanging out with Estella and Brent, even for a short time!
For lunch, Megumi was preparing a Hinamatsuri feast and invited a bunch of her Japanese American girlfriends, as Hinamatsuri is a celebration of girls everywhere! We were all floored by how much food she prepared, all according to the traditional dishes that are served for Hinamatsuri. Of course, she put a few of us to work to help with the food prep. 😉 I love helping Megumi cook/bake — it’s part of the fun, I learn new tips and techniques, and all the effort is rewarded with good eats!
Making ichigo daifuku with Emily and Stephanie. It was a sticky process!
The finished result! Ichigo daifuku – mochi with strawberries and red bean filling on the inside. 🙂
Chirashizushi
Pretty sakuramochi
My favorite type of mochi! Does anyone know if there’s a place you can buy sakuramochi in the DC area?
Matcha (green tea) cupcakes
Hinamatsuri desserts, including hishimochi (diamond-shaped colored rice cakes)
Nigiri, futomaki, and inarizushi
Ushiojiru, which is soup with clams. Clam shells in food are deemed the symbol of a united and peaceful couple, because a pair of clam shells fits perfectly, and no pair but the original pair can do so.
Shots of shirozake
The ladies at Hinamatsuri lunch. What a feast! Mio was napping for most of it, but there was still plenty of food for her when she woke up.
Cutiepies Mio (23 months old) and Hiroki (16 months old).
Mio dressed in her jinbei for Hinamatsuri. Here she is upon discovering a cat (behind her) by Megumi’s apartment.
We had such a wonderful time in LA! Thank you to Megumi and Daniel for being such amazing hosts and making our stay so memorable and fun.
Our time in Southern California was short but so sweet! The LA portion of our trip was over, but we still had lots of fun times ahead of us up in Northern California. Stay tuned!
