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afunaOkay, so.
Remember in that one news post, where I admitted my craving for pad thai? On Saturday, I finally satisfied that craving at 8 Spices over in T. Morato -- and it was good. It was also expensive: quite easily the most I've ever spent on a single meal. To be fair, that was because the portions were for two to three people (I ate half of each serving, and packed up the rest to take home). The pad thai was not *quite* what I was looking for, but close enough. Close enough :)
Sunday, I hung out with family, and did the usual Sunday thing, which involves eating a huge lunch, gorging on ice cream for merienda, and grabbing some yummy dinner together. Love kare-kare (usually beef tail and tripe in peanut butter sauce with vegetables). Seriously love. Home-cooked is better than any store-bought I've ever had, but that dinner (from Bangus in MoA) was decent, considering it's from a restaurant.
Monday, I caught up with some of my friends from high school. We ended up at Tokyo Cafe, where we hung out and ate pasta and french toast. Then we ended up in Gloria jeans for some coffee/cake when the fourth member of our group arrived late.
Ended up doing some shopping, where I'm proud to say that I managed to avoid spending anything. Mostly we just talked; I miss them! It's been a while since we've had a chance to get together. :)
I do not otherwise miss my high school days, or my my old high school classmates, but these three girlfriends? I miss, and am glad whenever we can get together. I gave them each a beret I knitted for them, and I'm pleased that I successfully gauged which beret would go to whom (I let them choose because I wasn't quite sure enough of myself!).
Considered voting for the barangay elections but I know very little about the candidates, other than what is in their pamphlets which, ugh, whatever. I feel like I should become a better citizen at some point. Hmm.
Got completely lost on the drive home. I'm very good at getting lost -- last week, the five minute drive from the mall to my grandpa's place ended up taking me an hour and a half, because I ended up on an expressway to Cavite, and I had to call up my dad to guide me home.
Oh maaan last week I was completely freaked out. It was the first time I'd driven alone outside of my home area, so I was on edge already. Things that were good: having a cellphone and being able to call home for instructions on getting home. Things that were not so good: having to figure out a cellphone while in a car, at night, lost, trying not to panic, trying to remember how to turn on headlights, on a huge road with cars zooming fast (making it scary to think of pulling over), and feeling absolutely completely utterly incompetent and scared of causing an accident through my incompetence. The last thing I needed was rain -- two minutes after I thought that, it started raining. Oops.
I had both hands clutching the steering wheel. I was pretty sure I didn't have enough hands to be able to turn on the wiper too, but somehow I did.
Number of things that were new to me as a driver in the previous two paragraphs *counts* six. Seven, if you count the rain and wipers as separate things.
I should have figured out that it was not my night when I got lost while trying to drive out of the parking garage. Hey, at least I had gas, sufficient charge for my cellphone, and it wasn't raining hard enough to flood :-)
So anyway, that was last week. This week, I went over my route home with my dad. We decided on a straight line as the simplest route. Literally once I got out of the mall area, all I had to do was follow a straight line up the coast and turn just once. I still managed to get lost and almost in Cavite again. Ugh.
This time, my friend was in the car with me, and with the help of 3G internet and Google Maps (yay technology), we found our way home. IN FAIRNESS TO ME, there was no left turn from the road I wanted to take to join to the bigger road, and no indication on the map that this was the case, so I had to turn right and keep going until I found a U-turn. After that U-turn, which it's a good thing we found it because we were almost at the airport, okay?, we had no problems. But I don't think I'll ever lose my reputation of getting lost. At least not with my family :x
So yes, home safe. Just for the record I hate: big roads because they have fast moving cars. Small roads because they have people who walk in the middle of the road who I have sometimes accidentally hit with my side mirror when I misgauge distance (I am so sorry). People who walk in the middle of big roads because seriously whhhhhy it's such a huge risk especially in the dark with no road lights and just whyyyy? Trucks, buses, jeepneys, taxicabs because oh god. Yes I know your vehicles are big so you can afford to be really aggressive, but you all are just really scary when you swerve like that. Bicycles on the road at night with no lights/reflective gear IF I CAN'T SEE YOU I CAN'T AVOID YOU. Seriously, I'm such a crappy driver it's no joke. I am terrified that I'll either hurt someone or someone will hurt me, and I'm not sure which is worse.
I would love to be able to move somewhere more transit-friendly / walking-friendly / bike-friendly, then I won't have to drive.
In news that are less stressful, today got to use our oven for the very first time! We finished renovating the kitchen a couple of months ago, but because of some *mumble* we weren't allowed to use the stove/oven until the kitchen had been suitably blessed, and we had to wait for a good day (fortuitous day? lucky day?) for the blessing to be done. So I've been waiting for a long time now to be able to use the new kitchen, and that day came last week.
Spent a very excited day shopping for flour and baking pans and baking powder and other stuff. I couldn't get everything: the baking store didn't have cookie sheets or muffin cups, but they did have baking pans, so I decided to do brownies. Other bonus for brownies: you do not absolutely need an electric mixer, though it would probably be nice.
My sister got the flour and baking powder and what she told me was vanilla but turned out to be strawberry flavor oops so I didn't put any vanilla in there. I got cocoa and whole wheat flour and walnuts and white sugar (I am guessing that when they say sugar, they mean white sugar not whatever sugar you have available which in our case is brown). I couldn't find any buttermilk, but thought that butter would do (I have since found out that what I needed was milk and vinegar :-D but the butter didn't seem to harm the taste)
I find the mixing soothing, but could do without the actual cooking part. Oh, but the mixing, I really love that part. So I mixed and I poured and I fussed over the fact that holes started to appear once it started to bake (later on I realized that it was probably the walnuts that were causing the weird depressions). And then thirty minutes later I could smell it, and it was done!
The recipe said to cool it on a wire rack, and the oven had a wire rack, so I tried to let the brownies cool in the oven. My brother kindly let me know that this was wrong. I... I guess I thought it would work somehow because of a commutative power of wire rackedness. It made sense in my mind!
The brownies tasted okay even without the vanilla. In fact, with the powdered sugar on top, it made me think more of crinkles than of brownies *G* They weren't too sweet, and they were pretty thin (I think my pan was too big -- I didn't realize that actually made a difference! In hindsight, of course it does because volume == length x width x height, so if it's too wide, the brownie becomes flat). However, I think it worked out in the end because with the brownie being overcooked, I'm kinda glad that it was thinner so I could pretend it was a chewy cookie rather than a moist brownie. Again, it makes sense in my mind!
One odd thing, I think I enjoy baking more than I enjoyed eating what I'd baked. I mean, I'm happy eating what I just did, but I'm happier just giving it away (after I've had the first piece of course ;-)). Maybe if I'd started baking earlier, back when I had more of a sweet tooth, I'd have been happier eating more? These days, I love sweet stuff, but only in small quantities. Thirty-six servings of brownies is definitely not a small quantity *G*
(I WISH I HAD MORE LOCAL PEOPLE. THEN I COULD FEED YOU BROWNIES which are forgiving of mistakes AND THEN MAYBE EVENTUALLY COOKIES with the help of my cousin because I think cookies aren't as forgiving as mistakes AND MAYBE ALSO BREAD which I suspect is also not very forgiving of mistakes. AND MUFFINS. AND TINY CUPCAKES. I dunno. I WOULD COOK FOR YOU IF ONLY YOU ALL WERE NOT SO FAR AWAY).
Ummmm. So anyway, I think I like baking even with the mistakes. Maybe especially with the mistakes? ;-)
Remember in that one news post, where I admitted my craving for pad thai? On Saturday, I finally satisfied that craving at 8 Spices over in T. Morato -- and it was good. It was also expensive: quite easily the most I've ever spent on a single meal. To be fair, that was because the portions were for two to three people (I ate half of each serving, and packed up the rest to take home). The pad thai was not *quite* what I was looking for, but close enough. Close enough :)
Sunday, I hung out with family, and did the usual Sunday thing, which involves eating a huge lunch, gorging on ice cream for merienda, and grabbing some yummy dinner together. Love kare-kare (usually beef tail and tripe in peanut butter sauce with vegetables). Seriously love. Home-cooked is better than any store-bought I've ever had, but that dinner (from Bangus in MoA) was decent, considering it's from a restaurant.
Monday, I caught up with some of my friends from high school. We ended up at Tokyo Cafe, where we hung out and ate pasta and french toast. Then we ended up in Gloria jeans for some coffee/cake when the fourth member of our group arrived late.
Ended up doing some shopping, where I'm proud to say that I managed to avoid spending anything. Mostly we just talked; I miss them! It's been a while since we've had a chance to get together. :)
I do not otherwise miss my high school days, or my my old high school classmates, but these three girlfriends? I miss, and am glad whenever we can get together. I gave them each a beret I knitted for them, and I'm pleased that I successfully gauged which beret would go to whom (I let them choose because I wasn't quite sure enough of myself!).
Considered voting for the barangay elections but I know very little about the candidates, other than what is in their pamphlets which, ugh, whatever. I feel like I should become a better citizen at some point. Hmm.
Got completely lost on the drive home. I'm very good at getting lost -- last week, the five minute drive from the mall to my grandpa's place ended up taking me an hour and a half, because I ended up on an expressway to Cavite, and I had to call up my dad to guide me home.
Oh maaan last week I was completely freaked out. It was the first time I'd driven alone outside of my home area, so I was on edge already. Things that were good: having a cellphone and being able to call home for instructions on getting home. Things that were not so good: having to figure out a cellphone while in a car, at night, lost, trying not to panic, trying to remember how to turn on headlights, on a huge road with cars zooming fast (making it scary to think of pulling over), and feeling absolutely completely utterly incompetent and scared of causing an accident through my incompetence. The last thing I needed was rain -- two minutes after I thought that, it started raining. Oops.
I had both hands clutching the steering wheel. I was pretty sure I didn't have enough hands to be able to turn on the wiper too, but somehow I did.
Number of things that were new to me as a driver in the previous two paragraphs *counts* six. Seven, if you count the rain and wipers as separate things.
I should have figured out that it was not my night when I got lost while trying to drive out of the parking garage. Hey, at least I had gas, sufficient charge for my cellphone, and it wasn't raining hard enough to flood :-)
So anyway, that was last week. This week, I went over my route home with my dad. We decided on a straight line as the simplest route. Literally once I got out of the mall area, all I had to do was follow a straight line up the coast and turn just once. I still managed to get lost and almost in Cavite again. Ugh.
This time, my friend was in the car with me, and with the help of 3G internet and Google Maps (yay technology), we found our way home. IN FAIRNESS TO ME, there was no left turn from the road I wanted to take to join to the bigger road, and no indication on the map that this was the case, so I had to turn right and keep going until I found a U-turn. After that U-turn, which it's a good thing we found it because we were almost at the airport, okay?, we had no problems. But I don't think I'll ever lose my reputation of getting lost. At least not with my family :x
So yes, home safe. Just for the record I hate: big roads because they have fast moving cars. Small roads because they have people who walk in the middle of the road who I have sometimes accidentally hit with my side mirror when I misgauge distance (I am so sorry). People who walk in the middle of big roads because seriously whhhhhy it's such a huge risk especially in the dark with no road lights and just whyyyy? Trucks, buses, jeepneys, taxicabs because oh god. Yes I know your vehicles are big so you can afford to be really aggressive, but you all are just really scary when you swerve like that. Bicycles on the road at night with no lights/reflective gear IF I CAN'T SEE YOU I CAN'T AVOID YOU. Seriously, I'm such a crappy driver it's no joke. I am terrified that I'll either hurt someone or someone will hurt me, and I'm not sure which is worse.
I would love to be able to move somewhere more transit-friendly / walking-friendly / bike-friendly, then I won't have to drive.
In news that are less stressful, today got to use our oven for the very first time! We finished renovating the kitchen a couple of months ago, but because of some *mumble* we weren't allowed to use the stove/oven until the kitchen had been suitably blessed, and we had to wait for a good day (fortuitous day? lucky day?) for the blessing to be done. So I've been waiting for a long time now to be able to use the new kitchen, and that day came last week.
Spent a very excited day shopping for flour and baking pans and baking powder and other stuff. I couldn't get everything: the baking store didn't have cookie sheets or muffin cups, but they did have baking pans, so I decided to do brownies. Other bonus for brownies: you do not absolutely need an electric mixer, though it would probably be nice.
My sister got the flour and baking powder and what she told me was vanilla but turned out to be strawberry flavor oops so I didn't put any vanilla in there. I got cocoa and whole wheat flour and walnuts and white sugar (I am guessing that when they say sugar, they mean white sugar not whatever sugar you have available which in our case is brown). I couldn't find any buttermilk, but thought that butter would do (I have since found out that what I needed was milk and vinegar :-D but the butter didn't seem to harm the taste)
I find the mixing soothing, but could do without the actual cooking part. Oh, but the mixing, I really love that part. So I mixed and I poured and I fussed over the fact that holes started to appear once it started to bake (later on I realized that it was probably the walnuts that were causing the weird depressions). And then thirty minutes later I could smell it, and it was done!
The recipe said to cool it on a wire rack, and the oven had a wire rack, so I tried to let the brownies cool in the oven. My brother kindly let me know that this was wrong. I... I guess I thought it would work somehow because of a commutative power of wire rackedness. It made sense in my mind!
The brownies tasted okay even without the vanilla. In fact, with the powdered sugar on top, it made me think more of crinkles than of brownies *G* They weren't too sweet, and they were pretty thin (I think my pan was too big -- I didn't realize that actually made a difference! In hindsight, of course it does because volume == length x width x height, so if it's too wide, the brownie becomes flat). However, I think it worked out in the end because with the brownie being overcooked, I'm kinda glad that it was thinner so I could pretend it was a chewy cookie rather than a moist brownie. Again, it makes sense in my mind!
One odd thing, I think I enjoy baking more than I enjoyed eating what I'd baked. I mean, I'm happy eating what I just did, but I'm happier just giving it away (after I've had the first piece of course ;-)). Maybe if I'd started baking earlier, back when I had more of a sweet tooth, I'd have been happier eating more? These days, I love sweet stuff, but only in small quantities. Thirty-six servings of brownies is definitely not a small quantity *G*
(I WISH I HAD MORE LOCAL PEOPLE. THEN I COULD FEED YOU BROWNIES which are forgiving of mistakes AND THEN MAYBE EVENTUALLY COOKIES with the help of my cousin because I think cookies aren't as forgiving as mistakes AND MAYBE ALSO BREAD which I suspect is also not very forgiving of mistakes. AND MUFFINS. AND TINY CUPCAKES. I dunno. I WOULD COOK FOR YOU IF ONLY YOU ALL WERE NOT SO FAR AWAY).
Ummmm. So anyway, I think I like baking even with the mistakes. Maybe especially with the mistakes? ;-)
no subject
Date: 2010-10-27 06:20 am (UTC)Oh and also I meant to say that here if you hit anyone with your side view mirror, you'd have a law suit on your hands. :p
no subject
Date: 2010-10-30 12:59 pm (UTC)(I would never hit anyone on purpose but have misjudged several times, rather embarrassingly :/)