The Ice-Cream world tour: Lisbon

We recently went on a weekend trip to Lisbon. It was the boy's birthday too. Just as we were walking one of Lisbon's steep streets, after we played at a small park we found the perfect place to celebrate: Gelato Mú.

Its decoration is simple, clean and pretty in white, light green and natural wood. It is long enough to fit our stroller (several actually, as another family came after us) and you can peek at their small kitchen / factory to see how they actually make the ice-cream. They only use fruits that are in season. They use a  process of ice-cream making in which the ice-cream sits a whole night to make the flavours just more intense and guarantee the perfect texture.

 I had a strawberry milkshake, we also tested chocolate (we are classic, I guess) and we had to have the tiramisu as well.

I wish we could have stayed to try all their flavours. You will find them at Campo Martires da Patria 50 in Lisbon very close to Jardim do Campo Santana. 

Highly recommended! 

Building our Christmas traditions

This year the tree was in place early, before the husband's request to only set it until after his birthday because the toddler was insisting. There is something magic about lighting candles, taking out meaningful ornaments, looking forward to the light.

I have slowly started to build our little family's traditions. On the 24 I always, always make my mom's Spinach-Ricotta lasagne. The 25 in the morning we go to mass at the English speaking church. It is a very festive, joyful celebration, full of children and families of many nationalities. This year on the 26 we are also going to see a children's ballet perform "The Swan lake". Earlier in the season we already went to see "The nutcracker".

Photo from the Academy on Classical Russian Ballet of The Hague

 I am learning so much from being the mother of our little Yu. She is crazy about ballet so that makes me research and learn with her. I knew the music from the nutcracker (mostly from Fantasia) but I did not know the story. We got her this book (must be the book of the season because the English version is sold out everywhere) that explains the story and has little buttons to play the music and it is well... magic to see her dance and recognize the parts of the story that go with each piece.

We also organize a yearly posada, that is a Mexican celebration that represents the time when the Holy Family arrived in Bethlehem for the Roman census to ask for shelter. It is complete with a piñata and kids holding candles outside while they sing a special song.

Yulia has been very interested in the story of baby Jesus and so we have started a small collection of books on the subject. I particularly love Mischa Damjan's "The little seahorse and the christmas pearl" an allegory which narrates the journey of the little seahorse on his way to deliver a special present to the "christmas child" who was born at a stable in the name of all the sea creatures. I have also started collecting different handcrafted nativity sets or crèches. Whenever we visit a church we look for the "nacimientos".

Apparently they all went conga dancing.

 We also set the chrismas stockings my mom made  by the window, for lack of a chimney. It is hard not to succumb to the consumerism of the season, I am guilty of wanting everything I see, from that lovely scarf, to those earrings, to another costume for the toddler (dressup play is so fun), another couple of books and on and on and on. There are also 3 magical entities that show up with presents between the 5 of December and the 6 of January (Sinterklaas, Baby Jesus/the angels and the 3 kings), closely followed by Y's birthday in January.

However we have tried to follow the famous formula Want-Wear-Need-Read and we try to make sure that the girls get only 1 present per occasion. That means they will both get fancy matching dresses on the 24th, plus some Duplo for the toddler and a little thermos for the baby (how is she already on solid food!);  on the 25th the angels/baby Jesus will bring them a book, and the 3 kings will bring a toy to learn electricity for the toddler and some little boats to play during bath time for the baby. I tried to keep it simple and somehow it still feels like a lot.

Lastly, we really enjoy looking at the lights, christmas trees and decorations in the city. Last Friday we took a stroll around The Hague just to marvel at the lights.

What Christmas traditions do you and your family have? I wish you all the happiest holidays, all the light and love and peace.

The Pope is thinking what am I even doing here?

Magic fairy lights in one of Lisbon's main shopping streets .

Try-day Friday

Don't mind the mess in the back. I am really bad at selfies. Also, the skirt needs ironing.

 A few days ago I received an email from Ashby from Dia&Co challenging me to find confidence through fashion and inviting me to join their series Try-day Friday, the idea being to step out of the box to try new styles; new outfits, things that you own and never wear.

Lately I have been in a bit of a rut, fashion wise. I am such a cliché. I literally wake up have my coffee, shower and run, run, run. By the time the girls are asleep I am so ready to crash as well (and I often do). I have never been someone to spend hours and hours in front of the mirror, but now I do it even less.  Between the cold weather and the time it takes to actually take clothes out of the closet  I am always wearing jeans, a warm fleece sweatshirt and tennis shoes or boots. All the time. So I thought this would be a fun thing to do.

We recently took a long-weekend trip to Lisbon and I was happy to find tights in bright crazy colors (pink, yellow, green!) as opposed to the gray, brown, black, and if you are lucky, red, that you can find here in The Netherlands. My Bolivan best friend, the historian who now lives in Barcelona inherited me this brown tulip skirt with pockets that is not something I would have chosen myself. Out of ignorance, I guess. It is high-waisted. I think my fashion soul stayed in the 90's because I always tend to pick clothes that fit at the hips. I decided to wear it with my new tights, a colorful silicone teething necklace I got from my dear and bright friend Hayley and some colorful sneakers I once found at an airport. Then, inspired by the lovely Kirsty I painted my nails bright pink and added glitter to make it festive. What have you been wearing lately?

Our Bapao recipe

It's been so long since I posted a recipe, but this one I had to share. They are one of the husband's favorite foods and I don't want to forget the recipe (given to me by my mother in law).

Bapaos (Bakpau or Bah-Pau) are small, round steamed breads filled with meat or chicken. Their origin is Chinese, through Indonesian cuisine they became popular also in The Netherlands. They are often eaten with sweet chilli sauce or ketchup, though this is not common practice in China. The name probably comes from the Chinese pao (包) that means bread.

Ingredients

1 kg. flour
14 gr (2x 7gr. packages) dried yeast
lukewarm water
1 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt

400 gr. minced meat
1 onion
spices (seasoned salt, pepper, herbs)
Oyster sauce

Wax paper

What to do
Mix the flour with the yeast and sugar. Add lukewarm water to form the dough (first about 500 ml) then keep adding until you reach the correct consistency: meaning it does not stick to your hands and you can form balls. 

 Let the dough rise, about 1 hour, depending on room temperature.

In the meantime, cook the filling. Here you can get creative as you can use pretty much any filling you want, from what I read some people even do sweet bapaos. We sautéed the onion until it became transparent, added the meat and seasoned it with salt, pepper, herbs and oyster sauce.

Once the dough has risen make little flat disks, fill them with a small amount of meat and close them to form balls. Then attach a small piece of wax paper to make sure they do not open while being steamed.

Arrange the bapaos in a steamer pan and let them cook. It took about 15 minutes for us.
And voilà you are ready to enjoy! These warm little buns are a success with old and young, if my 3 year old will eat them you can be sure they are delicious.