Happy New Year, Feliz Año Nuevo

I wish you all every single possible blessing the Lord has for you. This has been for me a wonderful year with both good and bad experiences, but in all of them HE has been with me, so it has been a good year. Next I know will be much more better.

Les deseo a todos y cada uno todas las bendiciones posibles que Dios tenga para ustedes. Este ha sido para mi un año maravilloso con experiencias buenas y malas pero en todas Dios ha estado conmigo asi que ha sido bueno. Sé que el siguiente será muchisimo mejor.

with love, Marcia

Tarjetas de Navidad

Como este es un blog también dedicado a las manualidades y la repostería debo poner de vez en cuando recetas, ideas y cosas que pueden hacer en casita.

Esta Navidad, no tuve mis muchos pedidos de siempre ya que me vine al extranjero con mi esposo y deje mi negocio en Monterrey, pero gracias a familiares y amigos que me han impulsado a darle un giro más internacional y capacitarme es que abri la cuenta de Mc Bakery  & Crafts. A través de esta página de facebook, he estado vendiendo un poco de lo mucho que puedo hacer como empanadas, pasteles, cupcakes, galletas, y especialmente para esta temporada: tarjetas.

Aunque ya pasó la Navidad, la idea la pueden transferir a cualquier "holiday" digase Año Nuevo, Dia de Reyes, cumpleaños, San Valentín, Dia del Niño, Madres, Padres, etc.

Lo que necesitan es:

- papel de colores (medidas 15 x 20 cm) puede ser mas chico o más grande pero esta medida me resulto perfecta para los diseños.

- silicon o pegamento en barra (yo me hayo mejor con el silicon porque el pegamento en barra mancha mucho)

- marcadores de todo grosor

- imaginación =)

Basicamente lo que yo hice fue diseñar en papel blanco las imagenes que queria poner, asi muy a grosso modo, no crean que super perfectas. Luego imagen por imagen iba seleccionando los colores y combinaciones que escogeria. A veces hacia el molde base en papel blanco y lo copiaba sobre el fondo del color que utilizaria, otras veces iba recortando sobre la marcha.

Al final unia todo para ver si me agradaba y de hacerlo asi, lo delineaba primero con negro luego con color. Esto le da un toque más bonito y brillante, alegre, hace que la imagen resalte más. Esta técnica la aprendi cuando estaba trabajando en un kindercito con unas compañeritas muy lindas que hacían cosas bellisimas.

Finalmente cuando todo estaba delineado y coloreado, lo pegaba y al final lo pegaba al carton de color. A veces hacia todo lo contrario iba pegando sobre la tarjeta las partes, todo depende de la imagen y lo que se facilite más. Por eso este trabajo es super creativo, no hay reglas ni nada que te indique como hacerlo mejor, porque lo mejor es lo que hay dentro de ti que plasmas en el papel.

Intentenlo y suban sus fotos en mi página. Espero sus comentarios,

with love, Marcia

En español...

Mi idioma madre es el español... me gusta escribir en inglés pero es mucho más sencillo hacerlo en español. Asi que este blog cambiará de idioma... será en español de ahora en delante, y si estoy de ganas y tiempo en ambos (inglés y español).

Como quiera google tiene tecnología super padre y ahora puedes traducir inmediatamente las páginas. En mi computadora con google chrome me da la opción inmediatamente, asi que ustedes pueden traducir al idioma que gusten esta página.

Otra razón es que recordé que hubo una vez que yo estaba buscando información sobre la vida en Bélgica, sobre todo desde la perspectiva latina y encontré una sola chica que escribio en su blog o algo parecido, que aqui solo se tomaba cerveza, vino y se comia pan y queso. Aunque tiene mucho de cierto también tiene mucho más de equivocado puesto que hay muchisimas cosas que comer, a donde ir y que tomar. Claro que se extraña la comida mexicana porque como nuestra cocina no hay dos, pero puedes comer bien aqui. Entonces espero que si alguna vez alguien busca información sobre la vida en Leuven (Lovaina) en Bélgica encuentre mi blog y se de cuenta que las experiencias aqui son maravillosas.

Tengo pendientes las siguientes publicaciones:
Ideas
Navidad
Brujas
Disney

Visiten mi página: www.facebook.com/mcbakeryncrafts

Espero me sigan leyendo.
with love, Marcia

Christmas Markets and Cologne

This past weeks before Christmas are being the most unreal weeks I've ever lived. In Mexico we celebrate Christmas of course, but as far as I can remember we don't have Christmas Markets, don't even say Christmas markets on the street (because security issues right now) but here it is so amazing!

People gather together in these little stores to drink Glühwijn (hot wine) and talk, there's music, obviously Christmas music all over the town, specially downtown and you see all these carrousels working and people taking pictures, walking holding hands, shopping, at night there are local artists, or choirs that perform and people enjoy it and you can feel the joyful atmosphere all over the place.

But last weekend we went to Cologne to experience this to its maximum level (and of course visit the Cathedral, which was also an AWSOME experience thanks to our host Christian, who organized this trip for us and some other nice friends). People there really work so they can create the image of small village shops, everything is perfectly decorated, food is amazing, there are Christmas carols playing and of course there's a lot of shopping. (I was a victim here, of course)

I bought some stuff thinking on the house we will build up together. I imagined myself maybe five years from now with my little kids getting all excited about this season (just as me) setting up the tableclothes I bought, telling them stories about where we got them, setting the small Christmas villages I started collecting in Cologne and well decorating the whole house to prepare the atmosphere for the most perfect Christmas. And the best thing is that this will be done all over again the next year, and the next, and the next...

with love, Marcia

Kerstmistmarkt countdown

I have you really abandoned but it is for several reasons...

1st. I don't want to be posting my personal life everyday because it is not the purpose of this blog, so if there is nothing REALLYYYY interesting on my day I won't post it. And I do many things on most of my days, but I don't think you'll be interested in reading them.

2nd. I have no new pictures to upload and besides internet at home (Leuven) is a little bit different from the one we had on Monterrey, and I finished my uploading "cash" two days ago, so I'm waiting it to be refilled in 3 or 4 more days jajaja...

3rd. I haven't traveled or cooked or baked anything AMAZING so I have no new stories to tell... I went to do laundry and grocery shopping but that's no interesting jajaj...

4th. My next post will be about something WONDERFUL!!!: Christmas Markets in Leuven.

I will go everyday to the Christmas Market in Leuven and on the 14th and 15th we are going to Cologne, Germany and also will go to the Christmas Markets there... and I would love to go to the ones in Antwerp and Brussels and mayyyyybe Brugge... but don't know yet... So I will keep you informed of my Christmas adventures this month... (I use the word CHRISTMAS too much, but I LOVE IT!)

JESUS my SAVIOR and LOVE of my LIFE is CELEBRATED this month because we remember his birth and the reason of him coming to the WORLD... to save us from our sins and their consequences. So if that's not enough reason for you to celebrate, I don't know which one would be better than this.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

with love, Marcia

25/26 days for Christmas

Depending on when you celebrate it there are missing 25 or 26 days for Christmas. In Belgium they celebrate in the 25th, in Mexico the 24th.

This Christmas will be kind of sad because we will be away from our family and friends. Usually by these time we would be organizing posadas among friends and I could get very busy. Right now I don't have too much to plan or do because things are different here.

I have my Christmas wish list, not for Santa but for God who is the one who supplies everything we have. I hope my biggest wish and the other little ones too can be granted. And I hope your Christmas wishes come true too.

This month will be hard, but I don't want you to think everything here is color pink, because life is not like that. If someone paints his/her life as sweet and all pink and great they are missing something and are projecting something wrong. Life is sometimes red, blue, black, white, green, gray or pink. This month will be hard because we don't have family member here, but with God's help who is always with us, will be easier (I hope it to be easier than what I expect)

with love, Marcia.

Saturday Market

On Saturdays (and Fridays too) a little market sets on the Brusselstraat downtown in Leuven at the Grote Markt. It is just lovely.

Some call it the farmer's market because many of the products that are sold here come from little farms inside Belgium.

It doesn't matter how's the weather this little place downtown looks full and jolly every saturday. You can find lots of different products like flowers, olives (many kinds of them), different kinds of cheese, bread, pattiseries, waffles, even clothes and shoes. Today I saw toys and games for Christmas gifts.

I don't go there every weekend, but when I do. I feel like I'm inside a story. It seems so unreal and transports you to another period of time. I like it a lot, makes my imagination fly away and then come back to reality.

Have a nice weekend, with love Marcia.

PS. Don't forget to visit my page and LIKE it. (I will be uploading very soon some Christmas ideas and recipes)

Friends in Leuven

When you're abroad, having friends is very important because they become your family. Honestly I can tell you I'm very happy of being here because the friendships that are starting to develop around our lives here are amazing. They are honest, caring, loving people.

We have other Mexican friends with whom I enjoy going out because they represent Mexico out of our country and we share so many common things. We support each other.

We have also friends from other nationalities for example people from Belgium, Holland, Estonia, Italy, China, USA, Canada, Taiwan, Pakistan, Iran, Ecuador, England, India, South Africa, Germany, Romania, Congo, Nepal, Greece, and many other places from the world, I would never finish the list.

I was telling my husband yesterday that you don't realize how important it is to get to know people from other places until you have the opportunity. They enrich your life with just talking to you. They help you grow. And then, when you realize about it, you learn that this is what matter in life, to help relationships grow and grow with them.

I love being here and I thank God for all the experiences he is allowing us to live here. Blessed be the name of the Lord, we are so thankful with our Heavenly Father. There's no way we could be here without Him.

PS. Remember to visit and LIKE my page.

with love, Marcia

Romantic Weekend

Last week I had a very busy week...

It was my first week at language school learning DUTCH...

I had to prepare stuff for my husband's cultural event at his university...

I had some orders of empanadas for the weekend...

And I had to get everything ready to spend the weekend in Paris...

Yes, we had the most romantic weekend ever in the most romantic city. Paris. Paris is beautiful in many ways, it has a lot of history to share and amazing monuments. I enjoyed it a lot. We visited of course the Triumph Arch, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Sacred Heart Basilic, Moulin Rouge, Eiffel Tower and Versailles.

We took a cruise by the Seine River on saturday afternoon and it was very romantic.

Thanks to my husband for the lovely anniversary weekend, it was the best anniversary celebration I could ever dream of, and it was only the second one. I know the next hundred years of married will be even better because I'm with you.

My Mexico

I didn't post anything yesterday because I had a really bad headache. But I'm feeling better today.

Yesterday was my first day of school. I'm not studying an MBA or any other degree, but I'm studying Dutch. That's the language most of the people speaks here or French (but I don't like it too much) and of course English.

It was a nice experience to be at school again, and to have classmates and a teacher, a book, notebooks, everything. It's fun! I'm sure I will be learning a lot.

Anyways, tomorrow we have a multicultural event at my husband's school so I will help him to represent Mexico. I hope I can show you pictures on Thursday. So to get ready I went to my favorite store in Leuven (or at least one of my twenty favorite ones because I like a lot of stores here jajaja) but this one is special because they sell some Mexican food brands and I can get there tortillas (not corn but flour tortillas) and chilli and salsas and many other stuff that can make our meals more Mexican.

The picture is the only shelf I think in the whole city that have all these Mexican products together. So this little place is "My Mexico"

Pear Empanadas

Yesterday I made some pear empanadas so I could post the recipe in my facebook page: MC BAKERY & CRAFTS so my followers could have a new easy recipe to do.

The recipe originally was supposed to be "pineapple empanadas" but I don't have pineapple here, so I change it a little bit and made it with pears. It was soooooo delicious! We ate them all (my husband and me) and I'm giving some to a dear friend as a thank you gift because she brought me the nicest knitting book from London. And other special batch will be for another dearest friend with whom I spend some of my afternoons here talking and having fun with her babies.

... Well you can find the recipe for the pineapple empanadas here.

... The step by step here.

... And if you live in Belgium and will like to have some CAJETA EMPANADAS.... you can send me an email (to marciacantu@gmail.com) and gladly I can make them for you. (THESE ARE FOR SALE, so no recipe on these ones)

Remember to visit the ETSY SHOP, because I will upload new products this week, for a sneak peek, look here.

with love, Marcia

Friends

These are my best friends ever!

I was just writing some of them personal emails and I realize friends like them you can hardly find. They are loyal, true, honest, crazy, lovely people.

We studied together our bachelor degree in Education, at UdeM in Monterrey. We started on August 2002, and ended career on December 2006. This year will be our 5th anniversary of graduating university. But we have been friends since 2003 if I remember correctly.

We started being close friends because we got together for the class representation when we were in 3rd semester. We won the elections and were the education students' board for a year. After that we did our thesis together, celebrated each other birthday, gone for coffee and spend hour talking to each other, organized bachelorette parties, gone to each other wedding, being there when someone has a new job or a new car, and also we have been together through difficult times to, maybe a breakup or a funeral, but are those experiences that makes us closer to each other.

Each of them is different but are those differences which make our group unique and beautiful.

I love you friends. Today, I dedicate this entry to you, because you are important to me no matter how separated by distance we are, I care for you and you will always have an important place in my heart and life. =)

with love, Marcia

Homemade Pear Jam

Since my husband arrived on August, we have been buying some seasonal fruits because most of them are very expensive or at least they are expensive for us because as I have told you coming from Mexico where you find strawberries for $30 mexican pesos, and then you find them here

for almost 4 Euros is a big change. So we try to buy fruits we like but that are cheap... pears are one... a box with 8 or more pears is less that 1 Euro.

Anyways, yesterday I saw that we had some pears that weren't going to last more time on the fridge so to use them instead of throwing them away I made pear jam. I think that when the fruit is in its last period of lifetime its good to use them maybe in jam, or other desserts. So, that's what I did...

The photo can show you the consistency it will take. Let me explain the procedure of making jam.

You will need:

1/2 cup of water

1 cup of granulated sugar

2 small pears or 1 big one.

First warm the water and add the sugar in a small bowl. Use a medium to high flame on the stove. Let the sugar kind of dissolve. While it is, chop the pears (you can peel them or leave them like that) in little squares. (NOT TINY, so when you smash them, you can still have some little pear chunks on the jam)

Then when the sugar is starting to dissolve put the pears into the bowl. Let the water, sugar and pears boil for about 5 minutes (maybe more), keep an eye on them, mixing every once in a while. You will see that bubbles are starting to form and to come up inside the bowl. It is normal...

When you see that bubbles are starting to disappear, remove the bowl from fire. Check consistency, you will find that the mixture is thicker. Smash two or three times the pears against the bowl to make some pear puree. You can put on the fire for two more minutes and mix. Then remove from stove and let it cool.

Now, here is what happened to me yesterday... this is the second time I did this and the first time I had no problems, but yesterday I left the jam cooling and when I wanted to go for it and put in a jar I found out it was caramelized, so I freak out and after a while, realized that if I warm it up and put a little bit more water it would be fine. So, PAY ATTENTION... don't let your mixture dry completely or have a puree consistency inside the bowl, it should be dripping when its hot, later when it is cool it will have the right consistency.

I hope I explained myself, I promise next time I do jam I will take pictures step by step, if I didn't it was because I am too excited to use them in something I will do right now... maybe you will find them on my Etsy Shop for Christmas. ;) I'll show it to you later on facebook...

Sweets

I like baking and cooking so much that when I knew we were moving to Belgium I was really excited. Belgium is well known for two things (or at list two things that caught my attention): chocolate and desserts.

Have you heard about waffles? Do you like waffles? Well, let me tell you I didn't. But I was expecting to come and try one of those famous Belgian waffles. There are sooooo different from the american frozen waffles (the ones I didn't like) or the ones you have tried on a restaurant or any other place in the WORLD.

Here is a picture of my first waffle. It looks completely different from the yellow unflavored american waffles. This is extremely sweet, soft, warm, delicious... (I'm craving for one as I write this)

We also tried some pralines, let me tell you first that I'm not so much of a chocolate fan, I just enjoy preparing chocolate stuff and so, but the chocolate here is so good that I became kind of a chocolate fan jajaja... oh, yes, the pralines, they were mouth watering... soft, creamy, sweet, crunchy all in one.

Last weekend we were in Brussels, and we tried other waffles, and saw more presentations of chocolate pralines and candies. Let me tell you chocolate pralines or truffles are treated here as if they were jewels. Let the pictures tell you.

Waffles with fruit, chocolate, nutella or cream.

Look at my face of guilty pleasure as I eat my waffle with strawberries and chocolate.

And let me just show other chocolate and dessert photos... I'm so sorry if I make you break your diet with these photos... it's not intentional n_n

As I was telling you, everything here is surrounded by sweets, in fact, right now my kitchen is full of a sweet aroma because I'm making some pear jam... I'll show you tomorrow, I have a little surprise for you my readers. I hope as soon as I learn some dutch I can also enroll my self into some chocolatier or baking lessons. Let's see what happens.

With love, Marcia

Nuevas Recetas

Una de las actividades más comunes que realizo aqui es cocinar, como muchas esposas y amas de casa lo hacen. Sin embargo cocinar de este lado del mundo ha sido un reto. Vengo de un país donde puedes encontrar casi cualquier ingrediente que imagines y estoy acostumbrada a cocinar cierto tipo de verduras, carnes y cereales que aqui o no encuentro o son muy caras. Además el lenguaje ha sido uno de los más grandes retos pues aunque creas que estas comprando algo por lo que ves, puede ser que no lo sea y como no entiendes lo que dice pues hay que tomar una decisión.

Al principio teniamos que cargar con el diccionario a todos lados, pero conforme pasa el tiempo he decidido ser más aventurera y simplemente probar las cosas.

Cuando nos ibamos a cambiar aqui, a Bélgica, buscamos otras opiniones sobre la vida en este lugar, y solo encontre un blog de una chica que decia que solo comian pan y vinos. Vaya que estaba equivocada. Tienes que probar, si llegas a un pais con una actitud de que en el tuyo estabas mejor y que aqui no hay nada de lo que estabas acostumbrada, lamentablemente te perderás de muchas oportunidades de conocer. A pesar de que en México tenemos más variedad de alimentos frescos, aqui se pueden encontrar muchas cosas. Sé que poco a poco iré conociendo más tiendas e ingredientes que utilizar en mis comidas.

Una de las cosas que si son importantes para nosotros aqui es el presupuesto. Hemos asignado una cierta cantidad de dinero por semana a la comida ya que ninguno de los dos estamos trabajando, nos estamos manteniendo con ahorros y una beca y por lo tanto debemos ser cuidadosos. Eso implica comprar fruta y verdura de temporada y comer como estudiantes. Ya veremos como nos resulta eso. 

Este fue mi primer super.

Ahora que tengo la despensa llena, lo importante es crear recetas con lo que tengamos a la mano. Aqui no puedo chiflarme y decir "ah, me falta esto, dejame voy al HEB aqui a 5 minutos en mi carro y gastar $100 pesos extras"... no... si no hay, no se le pone. Eso me ha hecho ser más creativa con mis recetas. 

Ejemplos: Linguini cremoso con champiñones y pollo.

Salmon con patatas al vapor y arroz.

Pollo rostizado con mostaza y arroz.

Linguini con carne y salsa roja.

Conforme vaya avanzando el tiempo irán encontrando las recetas de mis nuevos platillos. Sobre todo a aquellos que me lean recien llegados a Bélgica, espero puedan ver que hay muchas cosas además de pan y vino que comer.

con cariño, Marcia

With love, Marcia

Donde empezar?

Me decidí después de mucho tiempo a abrir mi blog. Tuve otro blog porque yo soy un maestra (en un año sabático en estos momentos) pero que tenía que abrirla para mis alumnos y sus papás, asi que se que hay que ser dedicados en esto pero puede ser también muy divertido escribir y contar historias. Cuando venía a Lovaina, muchos seres queridos me dijo que abriera un blog y compartiera mis experiencias, ahora que estoy viviendo en el extranjero con mi marido, pero no estaba segura de ello, no porque no quisiera escribir sino porque no tenia idea de que compartir.

Que me hizo cambiar de idea? 

Muchas cosas la verdad. Una de ellas el simple hecho de contarle a alguien lo que vivo aqui. Ha sido una experiencia única y simplemente quiero contar mi historia. Sin embargo, hay una razón más fuerte, que es la de ayudar a las mexicanas que vienen con sus parejas a vivir ya sea a Bélgica o cualquier parte del mundo. Saber que hay alguien que como tu tuvo que dejar todo, puede ser de gran ayuda. Además que como yo estuve buscando blogs que me ayudaran a saber que hay por acá y no los encontré quiero que cuando alguien busque ayuda se encuentre con mi blog. 

Porque el nombre?

Porque es como una carta. Por mucho tiempo tuve diarios donde escribia todo lo que me pasaba y nunca pensé en guardarlos y cerrarlos como cartas. Quiza pudieran haber hecho un buen libro para adolescentes pero fue que inspirada en mis diarios pensé en escribir de nuevo cartas a mis lectores.

Que encontrarás aqui?

De todo un poco. De mi vida en Leuven, Belgica, reflexiones, situaciones con amigos o gente en el extranjero, ideas para celebraciones, fiestas, tips, recetas, muchas recetas, mis hobbies, etc. 

Bienvenidos a este blog, esta de la foto soy yo, en mi primer dia en Europa. Me sentia en un sueño, hecho realidad, por eso les digo que los sueños si se hacen realidad. Espero me sigan y dejen su comentario.
Con cariño, Marcia