A Wonderful Young Woman (Day 6)

Today was designed to be a wonderfully uneventful day–if you look at my calendar, that is. Of course, the universe often has plans of its own. Mind you, I’m not complaining. The universe’s plans eventually turn out to be much better than my own. 

Today I was visited by someone I haven’t seen in a while. This is someone I fiercely admire. By simply living her life, she has taught me so many lessons: on fighting for what you believe in, on admitting you’ve stumbled and looking for better ways, on accepting your limitations and learning to overcome them, on thriving in whichever environment you may find yourself in, on recognizing the importance of what you do, on letting go of the superficial, on the inner strength that resides in all of us. 

Today, I thank the universe for sending my way this wonderful reminder, this very timely push that I didn’t know I needed. More than that, I thank the universe for the privilege of having the most awesome woman I know as a friend.

Rethinking “Wonderful” (Day 5)

I am not an adventurous person. The rush and excitement are welcome breaks to the everyday life. But let’s be realistic about it. Who can really handle all those hormones and emotions, stress and sweat, highs and lows on an everyday basis? I’ll more often than not choose a quiet day over an eventful one spent jostling for some space in the train, navigating the traffic snarls, and negotiating one meeting to the next. 

Yesterday was about finding the wonderful in the ordinary. In my book, a simple day where the only issue I had to face was a minor one with the building administrator is a very good day. An uneventful day means no big problems, no urgent issues. A quiet day is a peaceful, wonderful one. 

Waking Up to a Wonderful Week (Day 4)

 

 

 

We set the alarm a little earlier. After a healthy breakfast, we hit the floor. The husband and I are trying to develop the practice of exercising. As we clock in the years, we realize we need to take better care of ourselves to take better care of each other. We try to eat healthier. We try to squeeze in a few minutes of exercise everyday (or at least as often as we can). We have to keep strong. We want to share a long, full life together. We see a life together that will always have fun and adventure. We have to start preparing for our retirement years now. We won’t just sit together on the porch, though we’ll do that to. We have mountains to climb and waves to ride. 

(Here’s Shaun T helping us do it with Focus T25.)

What better way to start a fresh week?

 

Two Wonderful Days (Days 2 and 3)

When Saturday brought us together, it was a bundle of energy and excitement. It knew just how much we were all looking forward to spending the day with old friends. Saturday was all about catching up with each other, sometimes laughing, sometimes serious, sometimes pondering, always underscored by genuine love, concern and mutual respect. Conversations punctuated with mmms and aaahhs as we kept on eating and eating – just a little more cake, some more of those chips, or one more buffalo wing – always more.   

Caught in an endless moment of friendship, we didn’t notice as Saturday quietly slipped into Sunday. It tiptoed its way; the faint sound of its light footsteps easily drowned by our stories and laughter. Before we knew it, the sun was peeking out and it was time to answer the last question, reminisce that last anecdote, and take that mandatory group picture for those who couldn’t make it.

Seeing our hearts filled, Sunday lovingly ushered us home. Our hearts were quiet, joyful, and content within the bonds of the strongest of friendships.  

One Wonderful Day

 Indeed. 

While the world was rearing its ugly face at me, I got a call from a very long-lost friend. It’s been more than a decade since I last saw her. The best part: I’m seeing her tomorrow!

My husband is on his way home from a business trip abroad! Can anything be more wonderful than that?

I’m reminded of a quote from Love Actually (photo below is screen grabbed from the movie’s opening scene):

 

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.

 

 

100 Wonderful Days

A few minutes ago, I decided to challenge myself to have 100 Wonderful Days. I was feeling good about myself, my life. The day wasn’t half done and I’ve crossed off two major tasks from my to-do list.

Just as I made that decision, then came text messages bringing me back to reality. As if some negative energy out there was taunting me: “Kiddo, life’s not rosy. Not at all. Here’s Problem #1. Deal with it NOW. Here’s Problem # 2. Should have been dealt with yesterday. Oh, by the way, you should have been finished with this and this and this as well. See? You won’t even make it to wonderful day number 10.”

 

(Image from http://www.oopsiedaisy.com)

But you know what, I’ll deal with whatever comes my way and still forage through the noise. I’ll always find the gems, you’ll see. I’ll re-focus myself to connect with the happy, the good, the awe-inspiring, the beautiful, the hope-filled, the exciting, the calming, the life. Even in the midst darkness, there’s always light.

Climbing beyond the clouds; On trusting someone else with your pack

Before we left for our trip to Kalinga in the Cordilleras, I told my husband that I will be completely dependent on him. He answered, “No worries. It feels good to have you dependent on me for at least once in our life.”

True to his word,  my husband did everything. He just asked me to pick out this number of pants and shirts. That’s all I did. He bought our bus tickets. He packed our bags. He pre-cooked the food we brought to the community. He arranged for our guide.

This is something that I’ve never done before. I am used to being self-sufficient. But for this particular trip, I didn’t know what to pack, I didn’t know what to expect. I had to work right up to the last minute before we left to catch the bus. I had no idea how we’re getting there, what exactly is going to happen. This is not me. Or at least, not the me I was before. I would have researched the trip to death, pre-arranged everything that can be arranged from miles away and tried to iron everything out so that the trip would go smoothly from one point to the next.

This time is different. I have someone I can completely trust. I know that my husband will do everything he can to make the trip as comfortable and enjoyable for me as possible. He will go out of his way. He will put me first before anyone and everything else – including himself.

Now, I have a really bad back. I visit my chiropractor at least once a month to keep the pain at bay and try to ensure that it wouldn’t get worse. That being said, I couldn’t have possibly reached the community atop the mountain if I had a pack to carry. Worse, I can just imagine how much my back would be screaming at me if I lugged stuff as we traced the sides of mountains and trekked up steep inclines. Here’s me without a pack, negotiating the narrow path.

Looking back, I now realize that the trip wasn’t just about me relying on my husband.  It was about us trusting the good in others. The trip wouldn’t have been as wonderful if it weren’t for the nameless people who, one after the other went out of their way to make the trip a little better for us.

It was about talking to random strangers, sitting on the floor and shelling dried beans while passing the time, taking a glimpse into their lives for just a little while. It was about sitting on a log beside a mother, listening to her stories about her children – all scholars, she proudly tells me. I learned how two were teachers but had to look for better paying jobs and are now working at the BJMP in Valenzuela. It was about trusting a young guide who would unobtrusively keep an eye on us, making sure we don’t fall. Knowing just when we’re about to run out of breath and suggest a quick stop.

The pack that I’ve been carrying, the one filled with worries and work-related concerns, got lighter with every story we shared, with every smile I received and returned.  I felt these just leave my pack, one by one, ride the wind, go back to Manila and wait for me there. That wonder is not something that I could have done by myself. Without knowing it, I needed these strangers, random people, who didn’t feel strangers nor random at all, to help lighten my pack.

Bakefest: 48 Cupcakes, 4 Flavors

Bake away

This is by far the most challenging baking project I’ve thrown at myself. I volunteered to handle the dessert for our family (read: extended) get together in celebration of 4 birthdays this month.

So why challenging? It’s just family, no guests. Should be a breeze, right?

Well, the thing is, we are a family in love with food. Boy, do we love to eat. We prepare food like there’s no tomorrow and inhale our meal as if it were our last. To add pressure, we are picky and very opinionated eaters. Lola Ma is the best home cook in the world. She has such a discerning and discriminating palate, even some of the dishes my Titas prepare fail to meet her standards. For my Titas, there’s Tita Leng who makes the meanest ribs and can prepare several otherwise time consuming viands in a matter of a couple of hours. And the portions are never just enough. They’re more than enough to feed an army. Then there’s Tita Vi whose palate is bested only by Lola Ma. She can turn a simple pork steak to a real gastronomic experience. I even have a cousin whose specialties are mashed potatoes and sisig. Another cooks great grilled salmon belly. As for the rest of the family, let’s just say they won’t think twice of voicing out their opinions about food. And we’ve all sampled huge quantities of food to know how pastel de lengua or biringhe or even leche flan should taste like.

That being said, there we were, with the huge challenge of baking dessert for a family of foodies. Of course, it’s “we” and not “I”. I can always count on the husband to volunteer.

His first suggestion was to bake a gigantic sheet cake, layered, with frosting and the works. Huge enough for the four birthday celebrators to blow their candles at the same time. On the upside, only one kind of batter and frosting. On the downside, we have a teeny tiny oven. This meant we had to bake it in batches. Also, one batter meant one epic fail if the batter turned out awry. Plus, we wanted a little more variation.

We settled with cupcakes. Four flavors, one for each celebrator. Twenty one people were eating. At least two cupcakes per person. The quantity wasn’t a problem. We’re baking in batches of 12 anyway. The next question was, what flavors? After much research and recalling of my earlier cupcake projects, we settled with the easier ones. Lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting, peanut butter and jelly cupcakes (the recipe considered them muffins, actually) with dark chocolate butter cream frosting, moist chocolate cupcakes with mint butter cream frosting, and red velvet cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese frosting.

Baking the cupcakes themselves went much faster than we expected. We whipped up four batches in about an hour and 10 minutes. Of course, there was two of us and two cupcake pans, meaning two batters prepared almost simultaneously and batches going into the oven one after the other. The frosting took much longer because I only had one set of equipment and let’s face it, beautifying stuff is not really up my alley. Here are the results:

I used up all my red food coloring and couldn’t find any so we came up with blue velvet cupcakes. Unfortunately, I added too much food coloring. The cupcakes left blue stains on teeth and lips. Fortunately, they tasted really velvety so my family ate them all nonetheless. All the flavors of a red velvet cupcake were there. The texture was nailed. The cream cheese frosting complemented the cupcake perfectly. Taste-wise, these turned out great. I used the same recipe for the red velvet cupcakes I brought to our Christmas party last year and they turned out perfect. This recipe is definitely a keeper. I strongly recommend it if you’re looking for a reliable and simple red velvet cupcake recipe. Let’s just tone down the food coloring next time, ayt?

The boo boos seemed to have been centered on the peanut butter and jelly cupcakes. First, the peanut butter had weird solid formations and we didn’t trust it in terms of food safety. After searching the fridge, we found some almond butter and went with it. Second, almond butter is a lot less sweet than peanut butter and I wasn’t sure how it would work with raspberry jelly. To add oomph to the cupcake, we put Speculoos surprises in the middle rather than fruit jelly. I figured this would make the cupcakes nuttier while keeping the surprise in the bite. Third, as I said, we were multitasking and were probably tired and sleepy by the time we were baking this last batch. (Yes, we started at 12 midnight. And it was almost 1 am by then.) I only realized belatedly that the egg was added to the dry ingredients without mixing the dry and the wet ingredients first. So we had some crumbly dough first before we added the other wet ingredients. I’m not sure if this was the reason why the cupcakes turned out very soft and crumbly. See the crumbly cupcake in the picture? That’s the one. On hindsight, maybe we should have thrown everything together nonetheless and mixed them up all at the same time. Lastly, the dark chocolate butter cream frosting turned out well but I’m still on the lookout for the best chocolate frosting. All things considered, they were the first ones to go. The cupcakes were nuttier than I expected. The Speculoos was a pleasant surprise. And the almond butter seemed to be providential. It added a complexity to the cupcake as it was a nut butter we aren’t used to having here in the Philippines. Tita Vi even exclaimed, “Masarap!” and that makes this batch a winner.

The chocolate cupcake recipe is definitely spot on. I think I finally found the perfect chocolate cake base! This batch out turned out very moist but not crumbly. The cupcakes had a very pronounced chocolate flavor thanks to the cup of coffee added to the batter. The cupcakes paired well with the mint flavored frosting. The husband thought of jazzing them up with choco mint and spearmint which was a really great idea. The choco mint leaves dried much faster than the spearmint. They were all shriveled by mid afternoon while the spearmint leaves were still fresh. Note to self, study on ways to keep decorative flowers and leaves fresh longer. This didn’t deter my family though. I had several cousins come up to me telling me this was their favorite.

Now for the star of the show. Yellow angels. Citrusy sweet. Tangy but smooth. Sunshine in a cup(cake). These cupcakes were serious about being lemon cupcakes. There’s no mistaking the lemon flavor. The sugar perfectly took the sharpness away from the lemon but not overpowered it. The lemon butter cream frosting added another layer of the flavors. The balance resulted in a rounded taste that was lemony, sweet, creamy and just perfect. And the best part, the highlight of my day – Lola said these were masarap! She liked them best! Even better than the chocolate cupcakes! Hearing Lola declare something we baked as masarap took me straight to lemon heaven lounging on cream cheese clouds.

Credits:
Averie Cooks for the red velvet cupcakes and vanilla cream cheese frosting, lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting, and the original peanut butter and jelly muffins recipe. Believe me, guys, she can be trusted. All her recipes turned out great for me.
Foodess and Add a Pinch for the chocolate cupcake recipe.
Sally’s Baking Addiction for the dark chocolate frosting and my go-to vanilla frosting.

P.S. All photos taken with a standard Samsung Note camera. Should have my DSLR fixed soon.

Climbing Beyond the Clouds

(That’s me and our guide. Photo taken by Mars with a Blackberry cellphone camera.)

Mars has always subscribed to the flow of the universe; it is never wrong even when everything looks bad from our perspective. There are bigger things beyond whatever plans that I try to painstakingly lay down but go awry anyway. Sometimes I need to be reminded of this. Sometimes I need to reconnect.

Our trip to Kalinga holds meaning to me at different levels. It marks our celebration for Mars’ birthday. It is one of the trips that we enter as a couple, just the two of us, and we leave stronger – as a couple. It has always been our goal to travel across the Philippines together. To discover things together and in the process discover who we are as a couple, who we are individually. It was a break from the daily grind where a million things vie for our attention all at once. It allowed us to focus on ourselves and on each other.

It was the time for me to leave everything behind and soak in the universe. Sure, I often travel for work but these journeys are always too short, too hurried (and harried) and too packed for me to connect with the pocket of the universe I am visiting. This trip to Kalinga was different. It was for us. It was for me.

It was a loose end finally tied. I’ve long decided to have a tattoo. I’ve long decided that I will only get a tattoo from Apo Fang Od. But for the longest time, I couldn’t decide on a design that I will not outgrow nor regret having. Now, I know. I found what would endure forever. I have decided more than a year ago. This is just the physical manifestation. Things all came together perfectly during this trip – with a satisfying tak tak tak tak. Here now is the fulfilment of that decision.

I will try to write about our trip to Kalinga in several parts, as I digest everything that this trip meant and means to me now. I will take it slowly to let the experience brew to the dark, strong, exquisite cup of Kalinga coffee that Apo Fang Od’s daughter in law welcomed us with. But I will also treat this as urgently as I can. Just like my tattoo, I want to capture the trip while it is still fresh, inflamed in my mind, before it melds and fades into the skin of my everyday life.

I-Need-Chocolate-Cake-Right-Now Recipe

I have a confession. I just had chocolate cake for lunch. And no, I didn’t have some chocolate cake wasting away in the fridge that needed to be rescued. I was in the middle of digesting the Theory of Change and trying to see how it could fit an anthology of stories of hope into the picture. Then suddenly the craving hit me. I knew I just needed chocolate cake right away or I wouldn’t be able to do anything else.

I just had to make one. But I didn’t have the time (okay, patience, actually) to whip up a chocolate cake and store bought cakes just don’t feel right. I went to my reliable go-to recipe that I discovered via, (surprise! surprise!) Lantern Hollow Press. I recommend going over there and reading the original recipe. I recommend following the advice to get lost as a cure to writer’s block. Just don’t get too lost, alright? I digress.

This is actually a microwave mug cake. It may not have the texture or look of a chocolate cake. Looks more like a pudding and you won’t have any crumbs for sure. BUT it tastes just like chocolate cake and hits the spot right on. And the best part? It comes together five minutes tops. No kidding. 

Now here’s the recipe. Go make one. 

Oh by the way, be sure to use an average sized mug, not the dainty tea cups or you’ll be wiping chocolate off your microwave.

Ingredients
4 tbsp all purpose flour
2 tbsp muscovado sugar or light brown sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
half of beaten egg
3 tbsp milk
2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
splash of vanilla extract
some chocolate chunks or chocolate chips, whichever you have available, or just chop up the chocolate I know you have in the fridge

Instructions
1. In an average sized mug, put together all your dry ingredients. Make sure you mix them well.
2. Add you wet ingredients.
3. Mix until just incorporated, try not to over-mix or your cake will be tough.
4. Sprinkle the chocolate chunks or chips on top.
5. Pop in your microwave and cook for 2 mins 30 secs on high.
(6. Wait for your house to smell of chocolate or spy on your cake and watch it rise to the top or even over your mug. Don’t worry. It’ll settle back down eventually.)
7. Enjoy! 

p.s. I know I have to work on incorporating pictures into these recipes. I used to do photography before but I my skills are very rusty and my camera has been lonely for quite some time. I’ll see what I can do. Maybe later than sooner though. Let’s see.