I have been a longtime fan of the seasonal holiday gingerbread that Starbucks pulls out every year during this time. It’s a ginger flavored quick bread topped with cream cheese frosting and candied orange peel. I get seduced by it every time I go to Starbucks, but this year I decided to try recreating its heavenly goodness at home, as ordering it at Starbucks every time a craving strikes can get pretty darn expensive! A quick search online turned up this recipe, which is the one I used to make this gingerbread.
Here is the result…
I didn't have candied orange peel, so I used candied ginger instead.
The loaf came out pretty good, although it was definitely more dry than the original Starbucks version that I was trying to replicate. I’m a lover of anything topped with cream cheese frosting, though, so I had no qualms with gobbling it up!
Yesterday was Mio’s first Thanksgiving, and also our first Thanksgiving as a family of three! We drove over to Dan’s parents’ house in San Lorenzo in the late morning, and helped out in cooking what would become a delicious feast.
We brought the Pack n’ Play with us so that Mio could play in it while we were busy cooking. Dan’s parents’ dog Choco was very curious and kept sticking his nose against the playpen. Mio was almost equally as curious about Choco, but she’d cringe and grimace every time he’d try to lick her on the face.
Mio and Choco, face-to-face.
Mio looking mildly uncomfortable and apprehensive of the arrangement.
"Moooooom!!! Get me out of here!" This picture cracks me up!
Dan and I helped cook the side dishes. This picture is totally cookbook cover-worthy. Watch out Paula Deen!
After everyone’s collaborative hard work, it was time to dig in… everything was amazing. I ate so much that at the meal’s end, I felt as stuffed as the turkey I ate.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Mio tried turkey and gravy baby food for the first time. Unfortunately, she was not a fan.
She did, however, love her sweet potato. No surprise there!
Here’s Mio, getting entertained by Grandma.
We were letting Mio play with a bottle of vitamins, and she started making funny sounds with it. She’s quite the musician!
Mio loves Grandma!
Spending some quality time with Grandpa, too!
After all the excitement, Mio was quite tired and fell asleep in Grandpa’s arms…
A sweet moment.
Our little sugarplum sleeps.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for family and friends both near and far, for good health, for the freedom and opportunities to do what I love, and for the ability to give, and enrich my life and those of others. I am especially thankful this year for our darling little Mio, whom I have grown to love more unconditionally, selflessly, and boundlessly than I ever have before.
We hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was also full of love, good cheer, delicious food, and lots to be thankful for.
For the Halloween party on Saturday, I made some Rocky Road cupcakes decorated to look like pumpkins! While the cupcake base ended up being a bit of a flop (somehow, the cake came out to be oddly dense), the frosted decorating turned out decent and was a lot of fun, so I wanted to share it here! We looked around at different baking blogs and sort of took techniques and tips from a bunch of them to decorate these:
Rocky Road cupcakes, out of the oven. (Please let me know if you have a Rocky Road cupcake recipe that is really good! The one I used was pretty disappointing...)
The mini marshmallows inside the cupcakes caused the surface to break. But no matter, since it gets covered with frosting!
For the frosting, I chose to color some cream cheese frosting orange… because I LOVE cream cheese frosting! But buttercream and most other light-colored frostings can be used and colored, too.
Orange-colored cream cheese frosting
To achieve the sparkly rough texture, you then roll the frosted cupcake in some orange sugar. You can buy the colored sugar, or color regular granulated sugar yourself with food coloring, as we did.
Rolling the cupcake in the colored sugar.
Cupcake frosting dipped in orange sugar.
The cupcakes, frosted and sugared.
Taking a toothpick or chopstick, press the edge against the top of the cupcake and repeat a few times around the cupcake to get the ridged look of the pumpkin. Then use some green colored frosting (we used the same cream cheese frosting and had set aside some before we colored it orange, and colored the remaining portion green) to pipe on vines, stems, and leaves. (Another baking blog showed how you could use green string licorice to create the vines, which I thought was really neat, but we had no idea where to get green string licorice and didn’t really have the time to go look for it, either. Cool idea, though!)
Piping vines onto the cupcakes
A video of the piping… (Please excuse my text message alert and Mio’s sigh towards the end. haha*)
The decorated cupcakes
The finished cupcake! Not too bad for our first try, although next time I want to pile on the frosting to make the "pumpkins" look rounder!
Halloween pumpkin cupcakes!
I loved this decorating idea, and hope that it can be an inspiration to others, too! I think it’s a great idea for not only Halloween, but for Thanksgiving and throughout the fall season. Trust me — if I can do it, you can do it! I’d like to thank my sous chef Dan as usual… it’s awesome having a hubby that doesn’t mind being an assistant to all my baking endeavors!
Happy Halloween! This year marks our first Halloween together as a family of three! Halloween is one of my favorite festivities of the year, and I love thinking of creative costumes every time. I especially like costumes that go together in some sort of a theme and last Halloween, I was just at the beginning of my second trimester so I was pregnant Quinn and Dan was Finn from the TV show Glee. This year, Dan was Mario from Super Mario Brothers, I was Princess Peach, and Mio was… ::drumroll please:: Toad (the toadstool mushroom)! Dan and I had actually thought of the idea of being Mario and Peach for Halloween and had prepared our costumes two years ago, but I got deathly sick that Halloween and so we hadn’t been able to use them! But I suppose it was for the better, because our costume idea was made exponentially better with the addition of Toad Mio!
We had a busy Halloween weekend — on Saturday, Dan and his coworker friend co-hosted a baby-friendly Halloween party in the neighborhood, and on Sunday we drove into the city for an evening of Halloween bowling in the Presidio with our friends from Nakayoshi! Check out all the photos of the Halloween fun from this past weekend…
Mio and I as Toad and Princess Peach.
Cedar was an alligator, and Cristina was the alligator tamer.
Mio looking up to Cedar.
Toad Mio with Mario Daddy.
Standing with some help from Daddy.
She was a little overwhelmed by all the people...
Jasmine and Emme, the older girls at the party.
Pocahontas Sofia pointing... adorable!
Going after Mario's fireball.
Kayo and Jinwoo.
S & S!
Gorgeous view of the skyline and San Francisco city lights, taken from the balcony.
A family picture at the end of the night.
Bowling at the Presidio Bowling Center with Nakayoshi. (I believe this is the first time we’ve taken Mio into the city!)
The Toad mushroom hat we had originally bought for Mio.
The hat was ginormous and way too big on her, so we opted for a different one that was a little more manageable...
...much better!
Jamie lives in San Francisco now! She's my dear friend from Virginia Tech. I'm so thrilled that she's in the area now!
Mio got lots of lovin' from her Nakayoshi aunties and uncles.
Mio's first time meeting Graig... and she loves him already!
Wow, look at that chin. Fat angle much? hahaha*
My happy mushroom, aglow under the black lights.
Graig was so good with her!
The masked men: army man, wolf, and storm trooper.
Basketball star Graig and Little Red Riding Hood Aileen (with mushroom hat)
My new friend Hisae-san! Loved her hat!
With lovely Sam... so glad we got to see her!
With Haruka and Aileen! Mio has known them since she was one month old! 😀
Standing around.
"There's a smile!"
She looks like she's about to break into a dance.
Mio's first encounter with a bowling ball.
Jason took this cool picture of Mio in front of the bowling lanes!
She's loving it! She is as round as a bowling ball.
There she goes, scrunching her face again in an all-out smile...
Mio loves Auntie Jamie!
Couldn't resist putting the giant mushroom hat on her one last time...
Hope everyone has a fun Halloween! Perhaps next year Mio can go trick-or-treating!!! I’m already thinking of more family costume ideas….
Last Sunday, we took Mio to Moore’s Pumpkin Patch in Castro Valley — it was of course Mio’s first time at a pumpkin patch, and the grandparents (Dan’s parents) came along for the occasion. (This was the primary reason I had dressed Mio up as a pumpkin — so she could match the pumpkins there!) Mio was a bit cranky because she’d just awoken from a nap and was already tired from being out since early that day, but we got some cute pictures out of it!
Pooh Mio and Piglet Mama... Mio was not too happy about this.
Mio and Daddy with the pumpkins.
The pumpkin was bigger than Mio!
Family picture!
Our little family's first time at a pumpkin patch! ♥
Hugs for the Mio... she looks indifferent.
Mio grabbing Grandma's nose!
Mio with her loving grandparents!
Three generations of Allens.
Mio as Minnie Mouse.
The grandparents bought Mio mini pumpkins!
Mio and I went on a train ride together, and she seemed to have enjoyed it!
Leaning out of the train...
"What? Over already?"
Farm animals! It amused me that they were all thrown together in the same pen. Chickens, pig, rabbits, ducks, geese...
At the end of it all, Mio was tired and ready to go home!
The pumpkin patch was more fun that I’d expected, and I’m looking forward to going back in future years. Maybe Mio will be able to go on more rides next year! 🙂 Excited about all the memories we’ll make together in the years to come… ♥
