Odd = Bad? I Don't Think So.

Every person is unique.  Many may have similarities, but it's impossible for two people to be exactly alike. Heck, even identical twins have differences, and that is God's design. :)  All of us are aware of that, aren't we? However, why do we tend to dislike someone who is totally different from the way we are?  "Dislike" may not even be the right word for some, it could go as far as "hate."  And this is sad.  Very sad.

I myself am guilty of this sometimes. I may not be among the ones who hate, but there are moments when I feel aversion and disapproval towards something someone does.  I am very sure that I do not detest the person, but I am not a fan of his/her odd ways either.  To a certain degree, I could understand why others have a strong dislike towards him/her.  Sigh.  Most times, I am caught in the middle.  Who do I choose? The people who are similar to me or the person who's alone and peculiar?  Tough.

During my personal quiet moments like right now, I stop and think and imagine what Jesus would do.  I am not trying to sound righteous here, okay?  What I am making an attempt at is in eliminating all my biases and judgment.  The person I am talking about is different from most of us, that's a fact.  But it's also true that s/he is a good person deep inside, and I myself can attest to this.  S/he does things without malice, without the desire to hurt.  People may not understand his/her manners, but that's the the way s/he is, that's they way s/he was brought up, that's the way God wired him/her to be.  Perhaps I should always put this in my head whenever I'd start feeling all negative. And I think it's about time to stop thinking that s/he's different in a bad way.  S/he's different, period. Like I said, every person is unique anyway.  I myself am different, and it ends there. Perhaps we can start throwing the person a positive light from now on?  Stop anticipating all the displeasing antics.  Let's expect him/her to do good, and for sure, s/he will. :)

Cheers,

#HubbyAt31

“My husband is one of my greatest blessings from God. His love is a gift that I open every day.” 

– Anonymous

I've said this time and again and I will never get tired of repeating it over and over: I am extremely blessed to have found a husband as amazing as mine. And this month, he just celebrated his 31st, his very last year on the calendar, woohoo! =D It’s the first time we’re celebrating it together as husband and wife, and like we agreed, he took charge and planned the things he wanted us to do.

Stop #1: Ringside Boxing Club

Rolly may not be a huge guy with monster biceps and a shredded six-pack, but he is a fitness buff.  There’s never a day that he doesn't exercise. He runs and does marathons, and his most recent ‘thing’ is boxing. I even gave him a new pair of Twins gloves and hand wraps as a birthday present! :) I didn't expect he’d include his boxing gym in our day’s itinerary because he knows I hate any activity that'd make my fats cry, but he did, much to my dismay surprise. Haha. Oh well, it’s his birthday. What the birthday boy wants, the birthday boy gets. And so he got me to join him. Hmp.

Hubby doing his thing while I was 'busy' taking pictures. =P

Stop #2: John and Yoko

The birthday boy knew I wasn't very happy with the boxing thing (hehe), so the next stop in his IT was something he was sure would please me. FOOOOOD! Both of us wanted to eat tempura and ramen, so our next stop was John and Yoko in Alabang Town Center. We stuffed our faces full with maki salad, shrimp and enoki pizza, California roll, ebi tempura, and tonkotsu tempura ramen. I think the food was good for about 4 people, but we gorged everything down!  See? That’s what exercising does to people! At least that was what it did to me; the energy I spent from all the jabbing (and picture taking =P) turned me into a hungry, grizzly bear. Hehe. =D

Barioishii! (Japanese for "very delicious")

Stop #3: Vanilla Cupcake Bakery

Cupcaaaaaaakes! It’s obvious that it was me who wanted this stop. How can you not crave for these super lovely sugary creations, right? Add to that the fact that Vanilla Cupcake Bakery is full of all things pretty! The couches, the saucers and forks with beautiful floral designs, the walls, the lamps, the cute teacups, and everything else are to die for! Aaaaah, I couldn’t get enough of this place!!! Thank heavens we were fortunate to find vacant seats outside the café unlike all those other times when it was full of people. Birthday luck, perhaps? :) Of all the exquisite cuppies on display, Rolly picked the Strawberry Shortcake while I had Cotton Candy. Sugar rush! :)

I belong here! :)

Stop #4: The Spa

Because the birthday boy is a sucker for spa and massage treatments, it was not a surprise that he chose this final stop. As usual, we had it done together in a couple’s room. I had Swedish while he had Deep Tissue (which I will never want for myself because it’s painful!). But more than the massage, what I enjoyed was their signature ginger tea.  In fact, every time Rolly sets an appointment for us at The Spa, it's the tea I get excited about! :)

Heaven on Earth! :)

And that's the roundup of hubby's 31st! :) Nothing grand, just pure quality time, just the way we always like things to be.  Cheers to another amazing year, Mahal! :)

A happy wifey,

My Brazo de Mercedes Challenge

Back when I still lived with my mom and she was out, she'd always ask me what I wanted her to take home.  4 out of 5 of the time, I would tell her to bring me something saccharine for my sweet tooth.  And 3 out of that 4, it would be an image of a cake in my mind's eye.  Not just any cake, mind you. It was always specific. Nooo, it's not chocolate cake.  It's Brazo de Mercedes, my super duper ultimate favorite!

This afternoon, I challenged myself to bake one, but not in its usual rolled form.  Since I'm into cupcakes, why not make a cupcake version of this dessert of soft meringue with custard filling? You'd think it would be easy since I already had a recipe to follow (thanks to Rolly's officemate, Mira, who gave me the link to the recipe).  To me, however, it was a relatively tall task since I know that I am no good at anything involving egg whites. But what the heck.  There's no harm in trying (except for the ingredients which would go to waste, just in case). Hehe.  Oh well, I'm glad I did it because otherwise, I wouldn't have created these drop-dead dainty cuppies! :)

Here's the recipe I got from bakehappy.net, just in case you want to bake Brazo de Mercedes, too.

Ingredients:

FOR THE FILLING:
8 egg yolks, lightly beaten

1/4 cup cornstarch
300ml condensed milk
300ml water

FOR THE MERINGUE:
8 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

FOR THE FILLING/TOPPING:
1. Pour condensed milk in a pan.
2. In a bowl, mix water and cornstarch.  Add the mixture to the condensed milk and start heating up the pan.
3. Whisk in the egg yolks gradually while the pan is still not too hot. 
4. Whisk continuously until very thick.  The texture should be of piping consistency before you turn the burner off.
5. Set aside to cool down.

FOR THE MERINGUE:
1. Beat the egg whites until foamy, then add the vanilla and cream of tartar.
2. Gradually add the sugar while beating the egg whites.  Mix until stiff peaks form.
3. Pipe to prepared baking cups.  Leave a hole at the center of each cup for the custard filling/topping (but don't pipe in the custard yet!).
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 7 minutes, or until the top of the meringue turns slightly brown.  After baking, set aside for a few minutes to let it cool.
5. Finally, pipe the custard into the center and on top of each meringue cuppy.  You may dust the cupcakes with powdered sugar if you want to. :)

And there you have it - your Brazo cuppies! :)  If you're not as bad as I am with egg whites, I bet this recipe will be easier for you. ;)  Good luck!

Cheers,

Blueberry Frenzy

To our close friends, Rolly and I are probably the epitome of cheesiness. *GRIN*  But he's the cheesier one.  And he likes blue.  And strawberries.  That's why I baked blue-berry-cheese cakes! 

Huh? (?!$#@?>%&!!)

Hehe.  I'm pretty sure I didn't make any sense in that intro paragraph.  But really, all I wanted to say is... 

I baked blueberry cheesecake cuppies and they were a hit! Yipppeeee! :)

It was Sunday last week.  Rolly had been asking me to learn how to bake a blueberry cheesecake, so being the good wife that he thinks I am (haha), I researched for a newbie-friendly recipe that I could follow.  I found one from talentadongchef.wordpress.com but adjusted it a little bit.  And the result?

Ta daaaaah!

They looked pretty, but I wasn't very sure how they would taste.  It's the first time I baked cupcakes without flour; everything just depended on the 'glory' of cream cheese (and a bit of crushed graham).  I even thought, sayang naman if these would fail, ang mahal kaya ng cream cheese!  But you know what my family and friends said?  "MASARAAAAP!"  Yaaaaaay!  The comments made me soooo kilig! :)   

The blueberry frenzy didn't end here. 

After my boss tried my cheesecake come Monday, she asked me to bake some for her daughter (who's very kagigil adorable by the way) who's celebrating her birthday the same week.  I felt extremely giddy because that only meant my cheesecakes were really good diba.  Hehe.  (Sorry I really had to say that =P). So I said yes without batting an eyelash!  And then she said she needed 48 pieces.  Waaah!  Haha.  That's too many and I felt scared and pressured, but there was no turning back.  And it was for baby Anika anyway who's very close to my heart.  Eventually, I willingly and happily took on the challenge.

I realized the task was not at all easy as pie, especially since this was the first time I would be selling my cupcakes. Meaning, the "consumers" weren't my friends and family.  In fact, these would be people who do not know me at all (baby Anika's party guests).  There was pressure, yes, for the cupcakes to really taste good! Ang dami daming pumapasok sa isip ko as I was baking. =|  But in the end, everything paid off. :)  I even got a text from my boss after the party saying that no less than her daughter's school directress loved the cupcakes!  She said they were tastefully done, literally and figuratively.  Wooooow!  I flew to seventh heaven!  

Grabbed from my boss' instagram. :)
It was her who packaged the cuppies like this.  Lovely! :)

This was a first.  And it was a superb first.  Saying that I was overjoyed is an understatement. :)  

Cheers,