Monotony

After around a month of doing something everyday, things start to get pretty boring so It pays to have some form of hobby on the side just to let your mind wander off someplace else. Every now and then you get to see something unusual at work like this Brandy which is older than my grandparents ...or seeing a dark shadow of a person when you're all alone in the office...

My hobby was baking but if  I kept baking cheesecakes every week, I would probably become fat again, or make my sisters fat (MWAHAHAHA) so I have to change that hobby...

Quilled Fairy

So I discovered a new hobby. I needed some kind of outlet for my creative-artistic side and so I found about paper quilling. Basically, it's just curling strips of paper and forming them into figures. Sounds easy? Not really... For my first attempt I used all the paper snips from my paperwork. Here's what I produced:

15 lbs!

At home I had to continue exercising but going to the gym costs a lot. I needed some form of weight for my resistance training. Then I realized my old readings weighed a ton when I brought them to class. Why not use them? It turns out 3 of them together weighed 15 pounds! Bigatin talagang mag-isip mga prof ng UP! So with a little help from the net and some tweaking, I'm happily back on track with my exercise program :) Now I can continue baking every week :))

King of the Weight Divisions

Ever since I began exercising regularly, and doing some strenth training, I've been hearing two comments: "Tumaba ka!" or "Parang lumiit ang ulo mo..." The first comment makes me furiously annoyed and the second one is probably still acceptable for me. Yeah, I gained wait but it's because I gained muscle mass, but that does not make me fat... does it?


Since high school, I really hated being told that I got fatter. the word "fat" was something which was taboo for me. I didn't know why I despised the word so much. Pondering about it, I just realized recently why I hated the term 'fat'. It might have something to do with me actually being really fat when I was really young.

Throughout my life, I've been through the different sections of the BMI for Filipinos; from the underweight to the almost obese section. Yep, I've been there and in this case, been that too :P How fat was I then? let's just say that my weight when my height was 4'4" was just ten pounds lighter when I was 5'3", I wore Medium or Large-sized shirts (adult size) in grade school, and I wear Small or Medium shirts now. I looked like I was a snowman then... all circles and no neck!

Jar Jar Binks

After being fat, my weight went to normal in the BMI for 6 months and after that, I went to being underweight by eleven pounds. It was around this time that my sisters and some of my friends called me Jar Jar Binks from star wars... Apparently, we both had long bony necks.


I might say that I hate the term fat because during the period when I was fat, I felt weak, tired, and I didn't feel good about myself. It was probably something that I didn't want to become again and being called fat makes me feel like I'm going back to that stage in my life. But just because I don't want to be fat does not mean I hate food. On the contrary, I love food and preparing desserts is something which I love doing.


I recently made a Mango-Peach-Strawberry Cheesecake. :) yum yum... Eating right is a must but rewarding yourself for achievements is something which you need to do too... In this case, the reward is a slice of cheesecake <3

Peach-Mango Cheesecake

P.S. Making that rose from mango slices was fun! LOL

First Salt

Apparently, salary came from the word salarium which had its root from "sal" or salt. Basically, people were so uhm... dumb... then that they didn't even think of letting some sea water evaporate to produce salt, which is why part of the pay for the workers then was made in the form of salt.

So I received my first salary (kinda) since I'm just a trainee, its well below minimum but it's still enough to be able to treat my family. I can't treat my friends since I'm in Angeles and they are 60 km away from me. So I had this brilliant idea to just cook a very nice, restaurant-ish kind of dinner which would only cost me around 1000 pesos.

King oyster mushrooms

While shopping for ingredients, I saw some weird mushrooms in the veggie corner, so I just grabbed everything I could *probably* afford... Shiitake, King Oyster, Honshimeji, Lion's Mane, Straw, Golden, Baby Portobello, and some Banana Mushrooms. I also grabbed some baby potatoes, 2 whole chickens, some cream cheese, and some berries... oh and cheese

When I got home, I ended up cooking some buttered mushrooms (King oyster mushrrooms really taste seafood-ish and scallop-ish and the Portobellos taste beefy); baby potatoes and cheese; Orange-Rosemary Roast Chicken; a berry-white Muscat punch for our beverage, and for dessert, I made a berry cheesecake which had a very smooth texture... WOOOHOO! Finally made a cheesecake with the right texture and flavor...

A slice of cheesecake outside would probably cost 95 pesos... I made a cheesecake good for 10 slices for 600 pesos :) the crust was made from some old amaretto biscuits and graham crackers. The proportions for the cheese mixture were 2 Cups Cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 1 T lemon juice, 1 T flour, 2 whole eggs. I used strawberries, green and golden kiwis, and some blackberries :)

 

I miss my friends... I miss their pleasing personalities, the geeky stuff we talk about, the sensible fights, the silent laughs, the BDD monologues, the funny faces, and the ear-piercing shrieks... >:D< I think I owe you guys a cheesecake or a drink :P

Holy Week Cooking

So we all know that Catholics don't eat a meat on Good Friday so for our lunch, I made some stuffed cabbage flowers :) They were all tender and gooey inside because of the cheese. If you want to make them, I'll write down the recipe here :)

Ingredients:
2 bunches of Squash leaves and flowers (you can't buy an all flower bunch in the market)
2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 C of cubed cheddar or any salty cheese
1/2 C of cubed mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup of chopped olives and/or capers
2 cloves of garlic, diced
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
1/4 C olive oil
and some hot chicken stock or broth

1. Rinse the squash leaves and flowers. Carefully separate the flower heads from their stems and put them in a bowl of water. Refrigerate them for 30 minutes so they'll fully open and "bloom." Once the flowers have "bloomed" enough to be handled, remove the pistils/stamens carefully without damaging the flower petals.

Choose the larger squash leaves and leave around 3 inches of the stem. Discard the smaller leaves. (or cook them ginataan)

2. In a pot, heat the chicken stock or broth and boil the squash leaves only until they are malleable enough to   maintain their shapes when folded.

3. In a bowl, mix the remaining ingredients except for the olive oil. Carefully stuff the flowers with the mixture and close the petals on top to secure the stuffing. For the leaves, put a teaspoon or tablespoon (depending on the size of the leaf) in the middle and fol the leaves as if you are making a small envelope... that's left flap first, then right, top, then bottom. Use the remaining stem to "tie" the envelope so it wouldn't open when the leaves are being cooked.

4. Arrange the stuffed leaves and flowers in a pan and cover them with olive oil. Place them in an oven for 30 minutes until the flowers have become tender but not burnt.

This makes around 40 pieces.