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VIP Tickets for the Arabian Bubble Celebration in Dubai

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***Giveaway closed. Winner is Instagram account @dinesta ***

We are happy to be giving away 2 VIP tickets to one weekly winner to watch the Arabian Bubble Celebration. Beginning May 3 and every four days after, three question will be posted on our Instagram page.

Arabian Bubble CelebrationThe Arabian Bubble Celebration is coming to Dubai on May 19 to 21 with 12 shows at the Dubai World Trade Centre. A show that the entire family will surely enjoy.

The show will feature international artists MELODY YANG and DENI YANG, for the first time in Dubai with spectacular and mind blowing visual spectacles. One could certainly look forward to performances featuring laser and 3D effects in a 70 minute show guaranteed to leave every member of the audience in awe.

This competition is being run on Instagram so you will need to check us out here to our INSTAGRAM PAGE to enter.

Entrants must carry out all 4 steps below for a correct entry:

  1. Follow the Instagram accounts of @cuddlesncrumbs
  2. Follow the Instagram account of @ABCinDubai
  3. Answer the weekly question on the comments of the instagram competition post.
  4. Tag a friend who you think will enjoy the show.

Terms and Conditions:

  • Entrants must have a public profile to be able to avail this offer (you can change it back to private after the competition is closed if you wish)
  • Giveaway is only open to entrants residing in the United Arab Emirates
  • The competition opens at 8 am GST (UTC+4hrs) on May 3,2016 and closes 8pm GST on May 6,2016
  • The winner will be chosen at random from valid entries (that have completed all four actions) and announced on May 7,2016 on this blog post, as well as on Instagram @cuddlesNcrumbs
  • The winner will need to provide complete name as stated on a valid ID, email address and phone number to be passed on to Yardstick Marketing Management handling the marketing of Arabian Bubbles Celebration and will be responsible for the collection of their prize.
  • The following conditions will apply on the VIP tickets:
    • Ticket is not refundable for cash
    • Show timings and date are stated on the ticket and cannot be changed.
    • Each winner will get an assigned seat and this cannot be changed.
  • This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by or associated with, Instagram. You are providing your information to CuddlesAndCrumbs.com and not to Instagram. The information you provide will be used for this competition only.

 

Technology: Friend or Foe in Family Life?

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Families around the world at one point or another have felt the disconnect between parents and children, and even between the adults, which is why we all felt the joy from the Dolmio Pepper Grinder advertisement when it shut off all the electronics in the house, leaving family members with no choice but to converse at the dinner table. Despite technology’s ability to connect others living in different parts of the globe, ironically enough of our devices have this ability to handicap people in social situations, directing our attention to keeping the whole world in the loop instead of focusing on the people right in front of us.

But people often forget that there are two sides to every story. While mobile internet can distract us from family time, when used correctly our smartphones and tablets can benefit and even strengthen family bonds.

Image Credit: visionaries.viavisolutions.com

Before the age of smartphones, we had to rely on phone calls, texting and refrigerator calendars to keep up with our kids lives. But thanks to all the developments in mobile technology, free texting apps and online calendars such as Google Calendar are constantly keeping everyone in the loop, allowing parents to rearrange schedules or plan accordingly to attend recitals and tournaments. Another positive feature of technology is the ability to connect relatives from all over. A recent story of two sisters separated by birth who found each other through an online bingo portal and Facebook reminds us just how powerful the Internet is, and that social media platforms can be applied as a means to find and keep in touch with family from far and wide.

Of course, it’s always good to have a balance of tech use in the household. Banning gadgets during mealtimes but allowing them in the living room after dinner will allow everyone to be physically present in different situations, without being too strict on mobile internet usage at home. One father claimed that his iPad was the reason why he spent more time with his family, as it brought everyone in one room to play games, read, and watch videos all together rather than doing their own activities separately in different rooms.

What do you think of technology in the household?

***

This is a guest post from Selena Ning.

Selena is a mother of three girls who are all obsessed with their phones. This used to annoy her, but after getting to know the apps available in the market, she learned how to embrace technology and use it to improve family time.

Teriyaki Sauce Recipe and Bento box ideas

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Any dish with teriyaki sauce is a family favorite that’s why I always have a bottle of homemade sauce to perk up grilled or pan fried dish. I once taught that preparing this sauce would take a lot of effort, I was wrong. You need few ingredients and just simmer away.

Teriyaki flavor is different each time you prepare it depending on what ingredients you use. For instance when I make it for salmon more garlic on the sauce then more ginger if chicken.

Teriyaki Sauce Three Ways

All three lunchboxes below use teriyaki sauce in different ways.

Chicken Breast Teriyaki Sauce with Panda Rice Bento Box

Grilled Chicken Breast with Teriyaki Sauce on the side

Panda rice bento box is a chicken breast marinated with teriyaki sauce then pan fried, sauce packed on the side.

Slow cooked Chicken Drumstick Teriyaki Lunchbox

Slow cooked Chicken Teriyaki

This week I dumped chicken drumstick with teriyaki sauce in a pan and slow cooked it for 30 minutes.

Oven baked meatballs drizzled with thick teriyaki sauce

Oh I also use sauce as salad dressing, you should try it. Yummy!

One chef on a cooking show said for an authentic teriyaki sauce all you need is to mix equal parts of soy sauce, sake and mirin and then add sugar to your liking.  I tried this but sake taste was to strong for us.

We always have a bottle of mirin in the pantry but in case you don’t have any, you can use sugar or honey as substitute.

Teriyaki Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce *add 3 tbsp of water if you have a dark soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup mirin
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp sake
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp water

Procedure:

  1. Combine soy, mirin, sake and sugar in a small sauce pan and bring to boil.
  2. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl.
  3. Pour cornstarch mixture in the sauce and whisk till evenly distributed.
  4. Cook till you reach desired thickness.

 

Use recipe below if you don’t have mirin and sake

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce *add 3 tbsp of water if you have a dark soy sauce
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 3 tbsp sugar or honey
  • 2 tsp cornstarch
  • 2 tbsp water

Procedure:

  1. Combine soy, lemon and sugar in a small sauce pan and bring to boil.
  2. Mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl.
  3. Pour cornstarch mixture in the sauce and whisk till evenly distributed.
  4. Cook till you reach desired thickness.

 

Note: I add a tablespoon of either ginger or garlic by the time I add sauce to meat.

A trip to Space at the Griffith Observatory

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A visit to the Griffith Observatory was not in our Los Angeles iterinary, we are sure glad we got to visit this amazing place.

Griffith Observatory is a free admission and operated by the government of Los Angeles. It opened in 1935 and has been one of the best informal education facility in the US and the most visited public observatory in the world.

Griffith Observatory On Top

The Observatory is the best place to see the famous Hollywood sign. LittleOnes were excited to see the sign that we just see in movies.

HollywoodSign

Place was packed with visitors and news media when we visited last July 14, 2015, we did not have any idea till we went inside and spoke to one friendly staff. We are about to see Pluto up close for the first time!  A historic and fascinating planetary event after 25 years because NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is about to pass by Pluto and give us humans live images of Pluto. It was in 1989 when NASA showed images of Neptune. They revealed a beautiful image of pluto with a big heart.

We arrived just around 10:30 am, park down the hill and walked for 20 minutes to reach the observatory. Plan an early trip specially if you have kids and bring lots of water. A stroller will help but once you get inside the facility it can be challenging with all the visitors.

GriffithThePendulum

The Foucault Pendulum welcomes each visitor as you enter, it’s swaying is relaxing. I think we spent more than 20 minutes just staring at the pendulum and waiting for it to hit one of the pegs.

LearningatGriffithObservatory

You will learn a lot inside the observatory – why eclipse happen, astronomical history, the galaxy, planets and see a Tesla Coil. People working in the observatory were more than happy to answer questions, Kuya V had a lot.

Meteor

We also got to see and touch a real Meteorite! This got Vierte so excited that led him to ask if there’s a place we can visit to dig one up. He’s still into being a paleantologist when he grows up.

WeightonMercury

Make sure you visit the lower ground floor you will see an exhibit of the solar system and even find out how much you would weigh on each planet.

GoofingEinstein

Vierte also met Einstein!

GriffithObservatoryTelescope

Daddy and Kuya V got to watch ‘Centered in the Universe’ while LittleMiss and I explored to find the telescope. Sadly though, the telescope room was close that day because everyone was busy with Pluto. A good excuse and a reason for us to go back.

GriffithLACityView

The observatory is located on top of Mount Hollywood, Los Angeles. From the top you will see the whole of Downtown LA, we were trying to find the building were we stayed.

PlutoNewHorizonEncounter

YeyGriffith

GriffithUpClose

We got to see the Endeavor Space Shuttle and our day trip to Griffith Park fuelled more questions about the universe. Next on our bucket list is a visit to NASA.

Griffith Observatory is open six days a week. For more information about the timings and events, visit their website at www.griffithobservatory.org.

Baby Penguins at Ski Dubai

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Last February 2, 2015 we were fortunate enough to witness a King Penguins incubating eggs at Ski Dubai. News came a few weeks after our visit that the egg has hatched, since then we have been looking forward to go back and see the baby.

We went back to Ski Dubai for a VIP Penguin Encounter to meet all 4 new babies hatched inside the facility. Kuya V and LittleMiss were over the moon with happiness when I told them we are meeting the baby penguins.

SkiDXB_VIPPenguinEncounterSimilar to our encounter before we were ushered to a room where the penguins stay to rest. Paul, a king penguin who is the father of one of the baby penguin greeted us. Three of the babies – Limit, Apple and Pecan hatched last January, when they hatched they looked like a fur ball that would fit at the palm of your hand. In just mere two months the babies have increased their weight from 280 grams to 2800 grams.

SkiDubaiBabyPenguinThe penguin on the left with the yellow band is Cuddly and she is a surrogate Mama of baby penguin “Hug”, she is not yet married but has been doing a good job taking good care of the baby. What happened was the parents (I forgot their names) gave the egg to Cuddly, well the trainers tried to give it back to them but they just rolled it back to Cuddly and she gladly accepted the task. Hug is one lucky baby! The babies stay in this room for the next 3-4 months till they are done molting.

Molting is the process where penguins lose their soft fluffy feathers and change to a sleek, waterproof adult feathers. This process also happens to adult penguins once every year. During this time they spend most of their days sleeping because the change of feathers take so much of their energy.

Playing bubbles with baby penguins

Penguins like anything shiny so when Sarah (the trainer) turned on the bubble machine, both Apple & Pecan got to a playful mood. We took turns rolling the yellow ball to them and they would roll it back to us. We had so much fun playing with them. They are beyond words adorable!BabyPenguinEncounter

Ski Dubai imports a fish called Capelin from Norway and Herring from Canada for the penguins to eat. Mama penguins need to eat a lot because they are eating for two, what they do is chew the fish and give it to the babies. The trainers are also helping them feed the babies to give the Mama’s some rest.

Some more interesting facts:

  • Male penguins propose marriage by offering the smoothest pebble to the female, the proposal is accepted when she takes the pebble with her beak. They are married forever.
  • A DNA test is required to identify whether a penguin is a girl or boy.
  • “I love you” in penguin language is bowing their head in front of their partner. We witnessed this happened at the pool area.

I know this is not the ideal environment for them but from what we saw they are given the best care a penguin in a facility could get. The best proof that they are indeed doing well inside Ski Dubai is all these babies hatched in the facility. Penguins only breed when they are happy. So YES the Gentoo & King penguins in Ski Dubai are HAPPY.

It is not everyday that you get to see, touch and interact with these majestic birds. We definitely recommend that you take advantage and meet the penguins, it will be a memorable one.

Visit http://skidubaipenguins.com/ for more information on penguin encounter experience.

Fish Spring Rolls (Fish Lumpia)

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Fried spring rolls or commonly known as lumpia shanghai in the Philippines is a favorite dish to serve on special occasions along side pancit. Besides fried rice this is one dish that my kids eat with much gusto that has hidden vegetables and it’s easy to prepare.

FishSpringRollsLumpia is a versatile dish that you can prepare vegetarian or with any meat you like. For this recipe I made use of left over fried fish and broiled fish fillet. I packed this for the kid’s bento lunch box and they once again requested it for lunch.

FishLumpiaBento

LittleMissSpringRollLunchbox

Lumpiang

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups flaked cooked fish (either fried or broiled)
  • 1/2 cup grated carrots, squeeze juice out
  • 1/4 cup minced onion
  • 1/4 cup minced garlic
  • a handful of chopped coriander
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp five spice powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 10-15 spring roll wrapper
  • To seal: 1 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tbsp water or 1 beaten egg

Procedure:

  1. Mix everything in a bowl. Since we are using pre-cooked fish here we don’t need to saute mixture but if you prefer to use fresh meat, better to cook all ingredients on a pan. Set aside.
  2. Prepare a water and cornstarch mix to seal wrapper.
  3. Spoon two tablespoon of meat filling on the wrapper. * See photo below on how to wrap spring rolls. You can store in freezer until you are ready to fry.
  4. Heat two cups of oil on a deep pan. Fry lumpia for 2-5 minutes until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.
  5. If you are packing lumpia for your bento cut diagonally to let the steam off. Pack when completely cooled down.

HowToFoldSpringRolls

 

 

 

Star Wars Jedi Training Academy

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As soon as Kuya V saw the Star Wars Jedi Training Academy, he made his Daddy promise to bring him there.

JediStageWe split up to cover more Disneyland activities that both kids requested. LittleMiss C wanted to see Tinkerbell so we headed that way while Kuya V took his Jedi lessons.

Star Wars Jedi TrainingAfter taking lesson’s they were put to test.

 

Birthday Lunch at Ariel’s Grotto

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Lunch at Ariel's Cove

One of the highlight’s of our Disneyland trip was LittleMiss C’s birthday lunch at Ariel’s Cove. The trip’s main goal was to fulfill our birthday girl’s wish to meet all the Disney Princess and have them sign her book.

You enter the main door and then descend at a spiral staircase into the grotto restaurant. Before you get seated, your party will have a chance to meet Princess Ariel and have a photo taken with her.

Family photo with Princess Ariel

The restaurant is beautiful adorned with jellyfish like chandeliers and ocean mural walls. Windows face the water area of the park which provides a natural light that is great for taking photos.

Ariels Grotto

 

As soon as we got seated, bread and vegetable sticks with dips arrived shortly. LittleOnes got themselves busy with coloring books, paper crowns and spending quality time with their Ninang Athens who flew from NY to LA to spend time with us.

Ariel's Grotto Lunch Menu

Guest’s can choose from 6 mains from their lunch special, each dish is served with either a salad or soup and dessert. (L-R): Grilled Lobster Tail Salad, Red Oak-Smoked Honey-Whiskey Barbecue Tri-Tip, Whozits and Whatzits Fries & Nuggets, Fresh Catch of the Day. You can check restaurant’s menu here.

We have read mix reviews on the food with some even saying it’s utterly a waste of money and that dining their was a total rip-off. I totally DISAGREE, everything that we ordered from the lunch menu was delicious. Portions was just right and seasoned well. Michael our server that afternoon even went out of his way to give kids some more fries when he noticed that LittleMiss really liked them. He also asked us to stay a little longer after dessert for a surprise.

Shortly after our food was served, a royal trumpeter announced the arrival of some special guests. Each of the Princesses were announced separately and did their rounds visiting guests table. Royal guests change day to day, that afternoon we met…

Rapunzel: LittleMiss absolutely love her hair and pointed out that she has flowers on her crown as well.

Rapunzel

 

Mulan: Kuya V was delighted to meet Mulan, his class sang “Reflections” from her movie for school concert. Athens and I decided to have our photo taken with her as well.

Mulan

 

Tiana: She was so tall that I had to carry LittleMiss.

Tiana

 

Cinderella: The Princess that introduced her to the world of fairytales and have a special spot in our hearts.

Cinderella

 

LittleMiss was definitely over the moon with the experience, she kept looking at her autograph book with a big smile. “So many Princess came to my birthday!”

Just as she taught the surprise was over, a treat was delivered to our table.

LittleMissWish“I wish to see all the other Princesses and have my birthday in Disneyland again.”

If you have a little girl who has the same wish I recommend reserving a table at the restaurant, doing so gives you an assurance of meeting 5 Disney Princesses. Dining here would definitely be considered a splurge but if you are not a frequent visitor this is an experience that we recommend you do.

Our experience at Ariel’s Grotto is a special moment we will always treasure.