Drive

Finally done with my ten hour/two day driving course. What a relief really because five hours a day seemed like ten gruelling hours since I had to squish all information (mental and hands on) in just five hours. Yeah, call it crazy but that's what rush courses are all about.

I seriously forgot everything that I knew about driving the moment I placed my hands on the steering wheel, clueless like I never studied driving in the past at all. I stepped on the accelerator and brake like I'm lost in cyberspace or something even if there was like a couple of hour briefing about the engine, use of gauge, tires etc. I spaced out because I was kind of excited since it's my first time using an automatic car, it felt like driving a bump car. My only concern was, my mind was fixed that I will be driving a small car which was supposedly a Hyundai Accent, all of a sudden it turned out to be a big body pick up car, a Toyota Hilux. For someone who hasn't driven a car for ages it wasn't as easy because it is not 'chicken' to maneuver a humongous car for someone like me with a miniscule frame. I was technically a beginner all over.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed those couple of days because it was a brand new experience for me again and like I always tell myself "learning never stops until your last bugle calls for taps." I like learning new things, it excites me. I think I need more practice, tons of it actually because when you're new to something there's room for so many errors which will hone you to be better.

B.L.O.W.F.A.T.C.H, I think I have to keep this in mind for the rest of my driving life before I hit the road.

B - battery, brake, belt
L - lights, leaks, license
O - oil
W - water, wash, wiper
F - fuse, fuel, filter, fluids
A - accessories
T - tires, tools
C - cleanliness, car registration
H - horns, hose

On the side, I made this egg-less red almond cupcake today with blue frosting (amalgamation of butter and confectioner's sugar ). We actually ran out of eggs at home that's why.

So, in lieu of eggs I used the following:

**1 egg equivalent**

1 and 1/2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1 and 1/2 Tbsp. Water
1 Tsp. Baking Powder

posted from Bloggeroid

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Do Whatever

I have been nursing a cold for five days now and yes I am self-medicating. I know it's wrong but I hate going to hospitals and wait in vain. So, what I do, I keep my old prescriptions and bear in mind which medicine works for me all the time.

During the first two days, my throat was itchy like hell. An itchy throat for days indicates an infection, and, this happens to me every time I indulge on sweets or anything cold like ice cream, etc. which I did when I went to back home to Manila the week before. Let me also mention that I get sick once exposed to the rain without any proper rain gear and the recent typhoon compelled me to get out of the house to attend to our dogs despite the heavy rains.

Going back, my sissy suggested that I drink ginger ale as it's a natural anti-biotic which I of course agreed. The ginger was such a good home remedy that my itchy throat subsided eventually although not as fast as anti-biotics in pill form which normally lead to not so good effects on me after taking them for days.

my homemade chocolate and peanut
butter cake :)

I prescribed Sinupret for myself which is vegan so it's safe as per majority of internists (I have consulted in the past) for my running nose and Sinecod for my cough, they're all over the counter drugs by the way. I'm on my way to getting better day by day with a little help from my twinnings tea and lime friends! I even got back to baking and consumed all my baking supplies. Let me also share that as soon as I'm a whole lot better I am considering to go back to driving (yay!) because I can no longer endure commuting in Manila quite frankly (sic). The population density brought forth shortage in public transportation and aggravated traffic jams. So my solution is to go back driving (which I haven't been in twenty years! (say huwaat??) yes it's been that long. Driving is a necessity of course in case of emergency and I'm planning to do everything that I can do while I still have the time because once I'm back working again TIME would be my major constraint for sure.

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Good for the Heart

new baking supplies...

 I bought some more baking stuff yesterday. Like what I mentioned on my previous blog entry, I frenzy over shopping for baking products and materials every time I go to the Supermarket's baking section. Here up north, there's this Supermarket located at the heart of the city where you could find cheap baking products and utensils. They have baking pans for less than a hundred, non fat cocoa which only cost Php10.00 and miniature individual rice cake trays for the same price. Haven right? I love cheap finds. They make my world happy despite my limited budget for baking supplies.

My sister might have been inspired of me baking so she also scoured YouTube for no bake desserts! She told me she also want to make her very own non bake cake and picked this simple oreo cheese cake which only required condensed milk, oreo cookies and cream cheese. I said sure why not for a change since I want her to have her own little hobby as well whilst were both on hiatus and also, to sort of, let our creative minds work.

I bought myself this muffin tray, cocoa, some more flour, chocolate morsels and my favorite blue food coloring because I am thinking of baking blue cup cakes! I only bought one color for the time being since I'm just gonna test it for now and if it turn out good then I'll buy other colors. New things excite me, it's like finding a shiny new toy lol.

my sister's no bake oreo cheese cake

As soon as my sister and I reached home yesterday we started working on her masterpiece, her oreo cheesecake then I alone worked on my blue mini cup cakes. I was too excited that I forgot to put butter on my muffin tray (geez) so the bottom of my miniature cakes were a li'l half done. I just did a little work around last night since everything's fine except for that. How did it go? My sissy's oreo cheesecake was ok although there's something missing and we thought it might've been nutella. The cream cheese is not yet too solid so we thought of freezing it overnight. We tried the second tub today and it was a hit, it tasted better than yesterday probably it's 'cuz the cream cheese tasted so much better if frozen overnight. My blue cup cakes were saved by the chocolate morsels I stuffed them haha! It was good actually except that I shouldn't have place them in the freezer, just the chiller part instead my mistake lol. What did I learned from this experience? Practice makes prefect and go easy on food coloring, yeah I dazzled my batter too much of it that's why it turned out quite dark whilst I was just aiming for light shade of blue :D

my blue mini cup cakes with cream cheese
frosting and rainbow sprinkles.

The good thing was, the left over cream cheese (which I turned into cream cheese frosting fused with butter, condensed milk and granulated sugar mixed by hand since I don't have a mixer) sort of elevated my mini cup cake's taste. All went well e? I hate measuring, I just toss them in, taste the batter and it should be all set. Oh let me just say that my steam baked cookies n' cream was a hit with my niece and other sissy. I packed a handful for them during their trip back down to the south early this week. If they're happy with it then I am too. My niece said I should sell my cake/muffin babies but I said they're not ready yet, I need to perfect them first and besides this is just a hobby for now, something to make me happy. Kinda like my omega 3, good for the heart.

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Baking Nostalgia

My temporary little blog space at home--the attic, whilst my cat 

is busy watching the cars passing by the highway.

July is almost over, like it just flew by when you're busy with a lot of things. What kept me busy lately? Cooking and baking.

The advent of YouTube has made everyone's life so much easier. I learned the proper way of face contouring through YouTube, how to blend in those eye shadows, the art of applying under eye concealer, how to make no bake cakes and lately mug cakes. Yes, cakes directly mixed in one of those little coffee cups then baked using a microwave oven.

Cookies n Cream mug cake

Chicken Pesto Pasta served with chilledRed wine
(wine from Bugnay Berries). I cook and bake
alternately.

Baking is such a tedious process and this is what I learned when I was in Junior high, I had baking class and you can't just pop in all the ingredients without properly measuring them. With cooking, you can still alter the taste during the process since you can always grab a spoon to balance the mixture of each and every ingredients. Unlike baking, once the product is done, if you poured in too much salt whilst making the batter you're done, it won't be edible trust me and you have to start over.

Some dessert I made--
sliced apple and dragon fruit
with condensed milk.

My sister and I at one point enjoyed baking during our teens. Our parents even bought us this huge oven to further our passion for baking but we just gave it up as time went on because of the cost of ingredients and the time spent waiting for a finish product. Our oven turned rusty and old until we can no longer use it.

Chocolate mug cakes topped with
Oreo cookies and rainbow sprinkles

As I got older I still had my penchance for cooking but I never thought that I would reconcile my love for baking until recently. I started out with my home made pancakes since the ingredients were simple: eggs, all purpose flour, milk, butter, sugar and you're good to go even without baking powder then top it up with some strawberry jam! My sisters said it was phenomenal so I was encouraged to make other products out of flour such as Japanese cakes, waffle etc.

My steam baked chocolate cake with
rainbow sprinkles.

steam baked cookies n
cream chiffon cake

I got bored and scoured YouTube to try something else until I stumbled upon these mug cakes you can make just by using a microwave oven. I bought some more ingredients such as vanilla extract, baking powder, low fat cocoa and some rainbow sprinkles to begin with then I tried a couple of mug cake flavors: Chocolate and cookies n' cream. I wasn't happy with them although my sissy said it was fine. I found the cake's texture kind of rubbery because I did not follow the instruction which is to cook the cakes in just two minutes since our microwave oven doesn't heat up fast anymore so I extended the cooking time to almost four minutes. I quit making mug cakes and turned to cooking the batter by steaming them. The baking process took kind of long (about 20 minutes or so although you can check it from time to time) but the outcome was better. The chocolate cake I made was moist and no longer rubbery, very fudge cake. I topped it up with rainbow sprinkles afterwards and I was happy.

I found recently that shopping for baking products is my new happiness. It may sound funny but I frenzied over baking supplies and ingredients whilst at the supermarket. I don't know, I guess I'm just nostalgic sometimes.

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