No Egg Peach Cake

Because our peach tree is abundantly giving us fruits this year, I cannot help but experiment with recipes; usually substituting peaches instead of using apples or nectarines or even currants and other berries.

This recipe is an almost flop, because the recipe needed eggs; which I forgot to add! It was only after I shoved the cake in the oven that I checked the recipe again, by then, it's too late!

Hoping that the cake without eggs would be a success with chocolates, I topped them with melted chocos (without even tasting it!). Well, it didn't end up in the bin! It was chewy and surprisingly delicious! The girls love it topped with fresh peaches and whipped cream!

No Egg Peach Cake with Choco Stripes

Ingredients for the No Egg Peach Cake:

Simple Peach and Apple Strudel

Simple Peach and Apple Studel

Simple Peach and Apple Strudel Ingredients:

2 pcs chopped apples
3 pcs chopped peaches
1/2 tsp cinnamon
some vanilla sugar
ready-to-bake pastry dough

Preparation:

Mix the apples, peaches, cinnamon and vanilla sugar in a bowl. Set aside. Spread the ready-to-bake pastry dough on a baking paper. In the middle of the dough, put the mixture; then fold the dough, making sure that you pinch the edges.

Bake on a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees (375 degrees) for 20-25 minutes.

Simply delicious peach and apple strudel

 It is best served hot with whipped cream and a scoop of ice cream. In our case,we added grapes, too.

Our peach tree

Our 11th Wedding Anniversary

Early morning of August 10. Our 10th wedding anniversary. There's something special going on. I can hear the chaos in the kitchen, my husband and the girls are busy.

And then I know, a breakfast surprise! The girls are shouting, 'Mama, you are not allowed to go into the kitchen!'

The breakfast surprise in celebration of our 11th wedding anniversary.

After almost an hour, I heard the call, 'Mama, come for breakfast!' The girls proudly presented their last minute drawings, their gifts to us. (Actually, MC cried last night when I announced to them that tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. She said that we always inform them too late when there's a special occasion. I promised her, right there and then, that I would give her a calendar with the special occasions highlighted immediately.)

The Strahlenburg, photo taken from the main street.

As usual, we always celebrate our wedding anniversary as a family. Traditionally, we drive to the hotel-restaurant where we celebrated our wedding. Not this time. My husband took over the activities, he said it's going to be a surprise. The girls dressed up, took time with their hair styles, too. They were a bit disappointed that my husband and I; were both wearing casual clothes (in short pants and sandals, too!).

Falling Stars

This photo was taken from our terrace last September 2011,
as we were watching the festival of hot air balloons.

How many falling stars did you see last night? 

As soon as he read the news, my husband announced that we could catch the falling stars late last night. Although to save the girls from disappointment, he told the girls that the best time to see them would be between 1-4 a.m.

Would that stop my girls? Of course not. Despite being tired from partying that night at the city's Kerwe (city festival); we all retired in the terrace, with our favorite drinks. My girls with their vanilla green tea, my husband's weizenbier, and my radler. 

It's nine o' clock but the sun is still shining, and the girls were restless and a bit sleepy. Good thing we could see a lot of activities from our perch. And then a surprise, fireworks!

We were enjoying the fireworks when we saw our first falling star of the night. The family saw the falling star all at the same time! And we shouted almost in chorus, 'make a wish!'

Help send donations to the Philippine flood victims

UPDATE dated November 11, 2013: Philippines needs help after super typhoon Haiyan devastation. Click here for information on how to donate.

NEWS UPDATE: Appeal to help two million flood victims

This is for the benefit of the flood victims in Malibay, Pasay City Philippines.

Flood image taken from Facebook

My daughters, aged 8 and 10, are knocking on our neighbors doors; asking for donations of clothings and toys to be send to the flood devastated communities in Malibay, Pasay City, Philippines. As of today, the rain is still pouring and the floor water has not abated. The flood victims need your help. Please donate here.

My girls have agreed to donate their savings of 80 Euro to pay for the courier of the first balikbayan box; but the girls' first few hours of hardwork have already filled the first box. Now, they would need at least two more balikbayan boxes to accommodate the other donations. That means another 200 Euro would be needed. I hope you could help, too.

 My family, together with my two girls, were victims of the September 2009 Ondoy storm, with a devastating damage of 1.09 billion dollars and 747 fatalities. I think my girls are doing this to shake up the trauma that they felt when they saw the water rising; when they saw that their Papa could not do anything to stop the water; when they realized that they were supposed to stay alone in the second floor of the house because the rest of the household were doing everything they can to save things in the house; when there were no food available for a time... I don't know what else they felt that time because they never did talk about it. All I know is that everytime there's a storm, they tend to cling.

Just this morning, when I showed them the photos of the flooding; they decided to help.

First by donating their savings, and then by collecting items to be donated. They chose Malibay, Pasay City because that is where their grandparents live. Please help them help the communities in Malibay. They only need 200 Euros.

Crowdfunding

Here's the link: Go Fund Me

Thank you very much. SPECIAL THANKS TO URBAN GYPSY'S CREED!

Fun at Odenwald Camping

It was a spontaneous decision: driving off to a camping holiday right after the girls' last day of school.

Well, the weather forecast pushed our plan. It's supposed to stay warm the next days. Finally, we would have our camping vacation realized!

The whole family immediately packed up our camping gears and stuffs. I stocked up on groceries. And made sure we have everything, well, almost everything that's needed for a camping holiday.

My husband took charge of loading everything up in our vehicle. There was a moment there that I was afraid it would not all fit in, good thing we have a luggage carrier roof box which provided extra space. And yes, I also lost my foot space on the passenger side because that's where my mama bag and our dog's backpack ended up.

At least the girls and the dog have enough space in the back, we want to make this 1.5 hour ride comfortable for them. Our destination? Odenwald Camping in Limbach-Krumbach.

Our tent at Odenwald Camping

It is our second time to camp out there. We have fond memories of our time there that we decided to go back. A good decision. After a few wrong turns, we found our camping area.

My husband specifically asked for a place near the playground, and we got our nice spot; sorrounded mostly by mobile homes :-)