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THE Pasta Experience.

I'm scared of lasagna - the making of it. Of all the pasta dishes, it is what intimidates me the most.  Maybe it's the work involve or the baking involve - I mean why can it not be like a spaghetti - boil then toss the sauce?

After researching about lasagna and different variations of its recipe, I decided to try this one because it predominantly uses mozzarella - my favorite cheese.  Forgive my humble assessment but I really feel the turnout was a success. Why do I think so? Because I ate the meat sauce separately and could not stop eating it for days.  I'm not a cook, so I'm not going to detail what I did and recipe linked above should do the trick . I'll show you though the experience of cooking/baking a lasagna for the first time. 

Photo#1: I'm  standing here boiling the meat with the sauce, in near panic as I'm trying to think if I need to transfer it to a bigger caldero as it is almost overflowing and beside it, I'm boiling the lasagna pasta - what the crap is this stuff, so huge and wide -- and I'm juggling texting back to my teammate Venkat (who believes I'm trying to burn down the house) and my friend Tin (who will soon be a professional baker) warning them of where I am with my cooking. By the way, fresh parsleys are heaven and are good for presentation too!

Photo#2: I'm a little bit relaxed at this time, spreading the ricotta cheese mixture with my layers.  I go all out with parsley. I put them EVERYWHERE, I don't care.  I actually cannot decide now if I undercooked my pasta or overcooked it.  True mark of a happy-go luck cook (read: idiot) in the kitchen.

Photo#3: My sauce is ready and I'm ecstatic! Ecstatic because I just layered my mozzarella slices! My perfectionist me wished that for next time, I'll try those raw mozzarella cheese, not the sliced one. I think those kind is a wee bit expensive, I think around 500 pesos. 

Photo#4: The recipe never mentioned cheese bubbles. Take a  look at that picture. I was worn out with 2 hours of cooking at this stage, I think I was in dementia when I remembered my mom telling me that the secret to a good leche flan is that when you whip the egg mixture, it has to be so fine as to not cause any bubbles. So I started swatting the bubbles while this was in the oven. Yeah, I know, totally non sequitur. I apply pieces of advice on wrong scenarios.

Photo#5 :). I know :). It was good. And note the garnish: ever ubiquitous parsley  ;-).

Living More With Intention.

I'm writing this in candle light.  I decided to no longer use electrical lights past midnight. Yep, no TV, no lamp, nothing within the vicinity of where I am.  It's beginning to help me write more or recall memories and my God, the ambiance!  Of course this decision is not really thought out.  This candle better not emit a lot of smoke, else I will get booted out of this dig. 

Three discoveries:

• Journalism will never go away.  The medium of journalism may change - whether that's found on paper or on the web  but we need credible source of information, verified, fact-checked, and written well.  That totally eliminates practically all bloggers. So this means I'm not yet sold on full-on citizen journalism. Watch Page One: Inside the New York Times documentary. Really good movie, it made me think. 
• Based on reading travel blogs, those people who love to travel are foodies at heart. Or is it the other way around?  I love both and while I continue to write about my travels,  I decided to share a little bit of my attention to making food.  Here's my must-dos to make for 2012:
  • Learn how to make an ice cream from scratch (from scratch my foot, I need to buy an ice cream maker, eye-ing this). 
  • Make a mean lasagna.  [Done this, just this weekend! Will post about it soon!]
  • Bake a cake I can call my specialty.  I need a mixer machine! The last time I baked muffins using a manual whipper, I could not lift my arm for days. 
  • Bake a loaf of bread from scratch.
  • Make a salad with grains on it.  I'm not particularly fond of salad but I want to make one but it has to incorporate a little bit of my rice or grain-loving self. 
  • Learn to cook brussel sprouts.  Brussel sprouts are amazing and typically it's steamed and being relegated to a side dish.  I, however believe that they deserve a spot in the main dish kingdom!
• Raw leather bracelets are awesome, especially if they come customized.

Discovery comes in many forms, be it from the world around you or from within yourself. 

Keeping Up With A Dash of Kale.

I'm so currently obsessed with kale chips - thank you Gwyneth for introducing me to a healthier snacking choice.  The recipe is for dummies like me: buy fresh kale, wash, pat dry using your paper towel, remove the leaves from the stems, mix with some olive oil (not too much, just sprinkle), some salt (i prefer my chips salty, so I add lots of salt), bake in 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.  And tada, kale chips!  

You know you did it right if it's crunchy when you chew it. I saw Gywneth Paltrow demonstrating this at the Ellen show and I'm so hooked.  I love it because it's so easy to do! 

Hitting A Jackpot out of A Thousand Misses....

"In my life, I have learned to be more curious than afraid."  Sums up how I feel about cooking.  I'm a complete beginner and my knowledge is limited to: I don't know when soy sauce is used to flavor, all I know is that when I put black pepper on anything, it tastes like heaven has arrived.

Of all the failures in my humble Atlanta kitchen (god knows there were a lot), this one stood out as my favorite success - my chicken and dumplings of which I customized for Filipino taste :). It's creamy and the broth is sufficiently thick, perfect for cold weather. Also, I made the dumpling from scratch!  Original recipe here. 

The Making of a Chef (that's You!)

Accomplishment # x: Just gotten back to cooking! First experiment just to put me back again in the game, I chose to do an omelette - filled with tomatoes, red bell pepper and onions, with edges burnt to make it crisp (unintentionally, but my gosh it tastes good, like twister fries!). And of course, 50% of the ingredients is black pepper. My salt of the earth is black pepper, I don't think I could cook without it.  I think it's genetics, my dad feels the same, we almost got kicked out in the kitchen once when mom was making her usual awesome fruit salad and we insisted there should be sprinkle of black pepper. (Our sprinkle means 10 swoosh of pepper).

My omelette is served with those red veggies, scattered all over the place, shabby chic plating (also unintentionally, jeez...It's challenging to flip an omelette, my (non) skills are so rusty).  

In all honesty, it tastes so good, I wonder how can a failure be this successful! I'm so encouraged, let's copy Julie/Julia, I resolve to try 5 new recipes this February. I might even narrow the scope, how about 5 different, ridiculous kinds of omelette?

But I'm not really the type to narrow scope, I dream big dreams, I will bake a frigging cake! Scary! Let's do this together! Share your recipes and I'll try it! Bring on the fire hydrant!

Spring Break.

@Cafe Juanita, Pasig. I'm loving that period, of ball gowns and over the top lace, corsets and fancy umbrellas.

One of my favorite times of the year is cleaning out my closet -- not that I have many stuff, I have a moderate-size cabinet and I can fit all of my clothes there (although close to bursting) -- it's just that when everything is just plain magulo, you kind of have this illusion (delusion?) that you have lots of everything. 

I love this times when I'm seeping through heaps of clothes, trying them on if it still fits and whether if it does fit or not, it does not make it easier what to give away. The next phase ultimately is convincing myself that it has to be let go. I'm liking it especially now since I'm participating with friends in the upcoming Garage Sale.  I don't know but I feel so gung-ho rummaging through my clothes knowing that someone is going to use it and hopefully love it (because it's a barter more than a donation -- they will pay for it even for just a small change in their pockets).  But it's so hard to give away something you still do like and you have memories attached to it. All this sentimental shit -- it's fearfully becoming like a cultish ceremony -- so I guess I will end up cleaning stuff less than my target and more than the expected time it takes to clean it.   I'm no surprise, I'm the same as most half a billion suckers in this world, I'm fond of anything anik anik that you drape in your body - clothes, shoes, boho jewelries, wigs (yes I have two, not used for anything), and bags (I used to have a birdcage for a bag - gone is the kapalmuks to pull this off) and to most of my friends I share this passion with -- may karamay.

Mixed feelings actually. While I'm hyped up going through my stuff, I'm still attached to them -- because I know that I can still use it no matter how old they get, as I don't really subscribe to uso (I remember one time, Pogs, always my fashion adviser but whose consumer advise I rarely follow because he has lavish, lemme say this, uneconomical taste, told me, "um, disco colors, ano to 80s?") not to be elitest or something - I mean how dare I, it's simply because I love mixing things even if it's out of season - whatever timeline it subscribes to. 

Eventually, I know I want to be not attached to things. For now, let me sigh and again be sentimental and shit, as I neatly fold my fave shirt I used when traveling in Sagada, setting it aside hoping that whoever will own it next, will have fun adventures with it.

FreeCycle is interesting, by the way. 

My Un-Wayward Philosophy

1. Engage taxi drivers in a conversation like you would engage a friend. Especially at night, it automatically removes that fear lurking within ("Kuya, balita ko may bagyo daw bukas...") and as long as you keep the topic friendly and cheerful, you never know you might have the most engaging or interesting conversation you will have in your life.  I did, so many times.
   
2. Don't be afraid to be laughed at.  It's the most freeing thing that could happen to you.
3. Overcome fears, for whatever motivations, just overcome them! (be it speaking in public, talking to your neighbor, failing, or raising your hand and asking questions during large gatherings, embarassing yourself). My friend Nikki reminded me to do this everyday.
4. Root for people but do it secretly to a point that they don't know you are rooting for them.
   
5. A healthy self-image is an indulgence. When you have it, you don't need massages, or an expensive haircut, or super-pricey beautiful clothes to make you feel good because you already feel good! And you are. We are!
   
6. Every week listen to new music. Listen to something new, you may like it or not, it doesn't really matter! New music expands your horizon. Revisit those you previously did not like and listen with new ears.
7. Share. You never know how celestial all people's craving to be connected. Share your earphones, share your stories, your food, your sandwich, your passion, your favorite poems, do carpool, share your life!
8. Call your parents regularly. God, they love it, and sometimes they just don't show it :). And don't just call, communicate.
9. Swap books with your friends. Or even strangers -- although I haven't tried this yet but I will in my travels. Put some personal notes on the pages that made an impact to you.  I secretly like reading dedication of authors and even of owners at the first few pages of the book. It makes me smile.
10. Be conscious. Be aware. Go within. Reflect. I used to back away when I feel uncomfortable, but now I am learning to reflect first, to ask why, to look for the cause of discomfort and resolve it or conquer it and move towards an empowering choice. I do my best to be conscious with my choices everyday, I do. If I ever I don't, I try not to beat myself up (try being the operative word, still a work in progress) and resolve to make choices that reflect the me that I want to be, next time.
11. Discover.  Master the thin line between asking for directions so you can be confident in going anywhere and enjoying that moment of being lost and open to exciting possibilities.

Listening To:  The Shins' Kissing The Lipless (one of those personal right-on lyrics --  it has too much to do with me, and secretly I want to bury in the yard, the grey remains of a friendship scarred), New Slang,  So Says I - among the awesome many.

Better to Light Than To Stumble In The Dark

One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell the ocean; a spark of fire help to give light to the world. None are too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service.  Think of this and act. - Hannah More (1745 - 1833) English writer

Mother Earth, I'm doing the best I can. It's pretty cold and it's getting colder every night and it's March.  The weather is really weird and although it's not for me to say that it could be related to climate change, I can't help but conclude. What else could be, it's not just happening here, it's around the world and magnified a hundred fold: Just last week and this week, unexpected snow strom in China which left 1.65 million people frostbitten, winter temperature in Finland hits record high, Emma storm sweeps Europe killing people from Germany, Poland and Austria.  Locally, Albay is experiencing severe landslides.

But I always remind myself that it is important not to be hopeless. There will be change, we can be so powerful all of us that we could turn this around and build Rome in a day. Feeling ko talaga it starts small, starts individually and then it will become like a prayer rally, na everyone of us would stop just being environmentally aware but become environmentally conscious. When you stop being passive and when you start acting on something -- that's when real change happens.   

I know the proverbial seed has been planted within me when I started choosing non-plastics, when I would spend hours at the grocery looking at the back panel of food snacks and check for organic  ingredients, when I would shell out 119 pesos for a biodegradable pack of garbage bags (and then scrimp on food), when I choose to commute when I have errands to run within the city, when my friend Fe and I would instinctively plan out whose turn to bring a car to save on gas when we have meetups, when you're sharing environmental tips with your friends and you're excited that you're doing it together.  It's happening and I pretty much love the fact that I have been known at Waltermart as the girl who confuses the supermarket baggers for her pertinent requests to decline plastic bags and pack bought goods in this weird sack which doesn't even look like a bag.  See, one day I know I will impact a grocery shopper to change her lifestyle too. I know it.

I live alone and I have few appliances and I used to have an average electric bill of more than 1k++.  But since that conscious choice three months ago, I was surprised when one day I saw my bill dropped to a little bit over 500 pesos. I was stunned and amused to see results on my actions that did not take that much effort and did not even seem like sacrifices.  So I came up with a new goal for a motivation, I decided I will make sure I will not go over a thousand pesos every month on my electric bills. Here's the power of my choice, in graph, thanks to Google Charts API (graph below is dynamically created -- huzzah Google Labs!).

I'm saving the earth and I'm saving money in the process. It's a win-win folks. Please join me, please.  Small things done together creates a super huge change.  Yes we can talaga. Yes we can.

Listening to: Perfect World - Indigo Girls

This Shit Is A Year Older!

Haha! Wooohoo! It's dahon.typepad.com's 4-year anniversary!  Happy Anniversary to this blog thing! I guess I will never stop being grateful to the internet for providing this huge space for me to share.  I love to share, I mean who doesn't?  While I love to blog, by choice I filter the sharing, I don't share everything -- just bits of me, bits of what I see, of what I've experienced, seldom of what I'm going through, most of what I'm passionate about, some I don't like, a few that made my heart twitter, some I chalk it up to experience, mostly lots of things I like and love,   ... I guess to share everything would mean I won't have time to actually live my life in a way that I can share something.  Does that sound crazy? Yes, I know.  If you care to know me, I'm really a crazy person. Happy crazy :). Also, beautiful mess. Old world idealist. Melancholic clown. 

I used to think that making a difference in someone's life is what makes me keep this site. That in some way, if this is the venue that I could touch someone, or impact a person, a friend, a stranger, this will not be in vain, that the money, the hours, the sweat, the sleepless toiling when changing the theme of this site, is worth every penny.  That this will then be worth it. 

But then I realized, if I don't make a difference in someone's life, in any way, do I stop writing? What if now, everybody who's reading my blog tells me I'm not getting through to them? That I'm not impacting them in some way?  Do I stop writing? Do I stop sharing?

 

I guess not :).  I share because I share.  One of my managers, in our offsite meeting last week asked us, why do you love someone? Do you love them because they're sweet and they make you laugh, and they make you feel good? What if on certain days they don't make you laugh? Do you stop loving them? Or on days they don't make you feel good? Do you stop loving them? We love because it is our choice to love. To choose something not because of circumstances but simply to choose.  A rewarding realization.

I've found one of my passions in life, and it is to share -- through words and pictures and if you  meet me in person, through stories and chit-chats over food and coffee and trips and adventures!  Thanks for reading this site and for sharing all of this with me, through all these years.  May you also find your passion in life and may you embrace it, embrace it like it's air for you, may you go for it like you would die at that instant if you don't have it, and never balked, never shy away, may you grab it fast and close because don't you know, you already deserve it! It was waiting for you the whole time.

God, I felt like that with this site, all the damn time.   Thank you for reading this through the years, I hold you all dear.

Autobotting and Shopping

Yesterday, I accompanied Jo shopping for a dress for a very important event late July.  She told me she has spent hours looking for one in Alabang Town Center and couldn't find any.  Well, who would've guessed, 15 minutes after we stepped inside Glorietta, we found the two perfect dresses for Jo!  It's the second shop we visited and there they were, both striking blue, one - a demure graphic printed dress and the other - an in-the-now stylish baby blue dress. I don't want to provide too specific description because it's a surprise :). I would even delay linking the name of the shop here :).  I asked Jo how she liked that dress, and she said,

"Tsong, it speaks to me! Parang yung sinasabi ni Pogs, if a pair of shoes speaks to you, bilhin mo na!"

I laughed! "True! May natutunan ka rin pala duon..."

Jo's not really the dressy type, parang lalaki itong batang to, she would only wear a dress if there's a wedding to attend and if she's part of the entourage.

"Tsong, ayaw ko ng heels kasi baka sasakit paa ko. Siguro konti lang."
"Okay..hanap tayo."
"Ayan, gusto ko yang parang heels na abot sa dulo.."
"Tsong, wedge tawag dyan."
"Ah, hehehe! Wedge pala.."

Thanks Jo for trusting my taste hahaha! :)  I love shopping with you!  With that Saturday trip, I knew I've found my life-long passion!

---- oOo ----
I asked my guy officemate how good the movie Transformers is because everybody seems to be raving about that damn movie.  I asked him to compare.

"Better ba yan kesa sa Casino Royale? I enjoyed that movie!"
"Um, let's just say that Transformers is my favorite movie ever!"
Stunned, I can only mutter:  "Really?"
"My brother went to see it twice in one day!"

With high expectations, I went out to see it on Friday (with Anto - welcome back(!), Pogs and Jayvee) and let's just say, I cringed more than laughed and basically it was, I don't know, blase? I found the jokes corny, maybe I don't have that testosterony love for robots, maybe I've expected Lord of the Rings imagination and caliber, maybe it's Megatron's face that ruined it for me (hello Predator, is that you?), whatever it is, it was just blah for me and I'm petrified to admit it.

Have I lost a child's sense of wonder in me? [Yes, Transformers is the measure].  Please anyone, did you all like Transformers?