Weekend Love - Milestone At The Kitchen Front

What's the activity that you are most scared of doing?

For me, it's probably baking. It comes a close second to my top fear/hate which are job interviews and speaking in front of a lot of strangers (both tied in first place).

Both of the things I mentioned earlier, I've already attempted to overcome several times. Well, I came out alive on all attempts but I couldn't really say I've totally overcome them.

But I am perfectly okay with the idea that at several points in my lifetime, I've tried once, twice and even thrice to win myself over those two.

BAKING on the otherhand is something that I haven't really tried my hand at. Well, I don't count that first attempt I did during high school because that probably was the reason I'm so scared to try baking come adulthood.

I love watching THE FOOD NETWORK though and yes, I will not deny the fact that I've always been in love at Ina Garten and Nigella Lawson's creations.I did dream to make them myself at some point. But I guess, I dreamt freely because I knew there's really no way I will ever challenge myself to try making one of those mouthwatering homemade baked desserts.

THAT however changes this year. Because my husband, who is just as masochistic as me, agreed to buy a gas oven for our household. We've had the oven for about 2 months now but I've never really gotten around to trying to whip out even just a simple muffin or a cookie recipe. Not till last week. It's the husband's birthday and I thought, it's just the perfect day for me to take the plunge into the world of baking. But that impulsive plunge turned out to be just as I feared -- my first break into the baking world was A TOTAL FAILURE.

I was on a break at work because Ate Inday is not back yet. I planned for a perfect day for me and Maia after she comes home from school. We wanted to do something special for the husband's birthday. I suggested baking calamansi muffin (which was actually something that he's been requesting for us to make) and boy was she delighted with the idea of me and her baking a goody for Daddy? Of course, she was! She's been asking for it since we had that baking playdate with Aki.

But guess what I did? I burned half of the muffins. I was extremely heartbroken. But unlike the other two fears that I mentioned, I had this strong feeling that I can make a strong comeback. If only I can find out the reason behind my burning the muffins when I've followed the recipe to the letter.

Well, turned out there's something that I didn't follow. And that was to read the OVEN MANUAL. It said there to use either the top or 2nd rack to bake cakes and cuppies and muffins. Guess which tray I used? THE BOTTOM! No wonder 15 minutes I charred half of them.

So yesterday, I prepared my ingredients and got myself ready to comeback with a vengeance.

How was it? IT TURNED OUT REALLY GREAT!!! Yay! I felt like I won the lotto when the muffins came out of the oven perfectly baked and sporting a nice yellowish color. It didn't look anywhere close to the Calamansi Muffins that Real Coffee makes in Boracay but hey, to my taste testers (aka Tibs and Maia) it tasted exactly the same.

And as an added bonus, I also tried making a double chocolate chip loaf cake with the remaining ingredients that I have on hand and that turned out pretty well too. My co-workers liked it so much. I'm just so, so happy!

So I guess, it pays to challenge your fear and push yourself to overcome it.

This might seem petty, shallow, trivial to some but my baking success last Sunday was like a triple dose of happy pills for me. Now, I'm more excited than ever to try other baking recipes.

Recipe: Maia and Ghab's Choco-Banana Pancakes

Pancakes were supposed to be in yesterday's breakfast menu. But I was rushing to be in the office early so I had to beg the kids for a one-day extension. This morning they didn't let me get away with it. Maia forcefully dragged me out of bed the minute she woke up. 

"Pancakes, Mommy!"

"Okay sige, I'll call you when I've prepared the ingredients already. You can still go back to sleep"

"Pero gising na ako eh! Hindi na ako inaantok. At gusto kong mag-mix! Ako ang magmi-mix!"

Okay, I rest my case. So we were up and about by 6am getting everything we needed out on the table. Then she called her Ate Ghabby to help us prepare the pancakes. "Crack the egg Mom and I will mix" My little commander just took over my kitchen kingdom. She actually feels like the expert pancake maker in our home ever since she learned to make one herself so I usually give her the free reign during pancake days. Her dad had to hurry up with his breakfast so we can have the entire dining table to ourselves.

Here's what we needed to make the pancakes:

1 pack 250g pancake mix (I used Maya, my pancakes usually turn out a lot fluffier when I use this brand)

1 tsp chocolate power (I used Goya here since that's what I have on stock)

a pinch of cinnamon

1 large egg, beaten till fluffy

1 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup water

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 pieces ripe bananas, sliced thinly

chocolate chips/shavings

How we did it:

1. Beat the eggs till they fluffy. 

2. Add in the remaining wet ingredients (oil, milk, water) and mix well.

3. Mix in the dry ingredients (cinnamon, pancake mix and chocolate powder)

4. Whisk till there are no more lumps. 

5. Add in the chocolate chips/shavings and mix.

6. Heat a non-stick pan (over low fire) and scoop out about half a cup of the batter unto the heated pan. 

7. Top with bananas and  flip over when the mixture start to bubble.

8. Serve hot (you may slather with butter or maple syrup, whatever you prefer to garnish it with. The kids had fun with the butter and the syrup this morning. They finished their pancakes with great gusto).

Enjoying the fruit of their labor. :)

This recipe yielded about three mickey pancakes and four 5-in circular pancakes. It might have tasted better if I dropped some vanilla syrup unto my pancake batter too but I ran out so I replaced it with cinnamon instead. It didn't came out cinnamon-y though because the chocolate probably was more overpowering. I plan to make colorful pancakes next and maybe make some traffic light pancakes just like what my friend Erlaine did with her cutie daughter (and Maia's friend) Kelsea. Pancakes are indeed fun to make with kids! Next time I hope to make my pancakes from scratch (and maybe experiment with other ingredients too). 

Time For Ice Candy!

Summer has landed. It's a good thing we've been out most weekends because our electric bill would probably have skyrocketed by now had we been at home during the past weekends. Our airconditioner usually starts its day during siesta time in the afternoons once summer makes its presence felt.

Yesterday we purposely took a break from all the 'gala' and resolved to stay indoors to rest. I wasn't feeling well Saturday night so I was very agreeable to the invitation of rest. I didn't plan for any activities for Maia and me as well because I thought I'd just go with the flow for a change. So Sunday, while I slept in for an extra hour, Tibs took the liberty of preparing our breakfast (he only cooked eggs but well, at least he stepped up). He fixed Maia a sandwich and called me when breakfast was ready.

While we were eating, Maia (in her usual chatty self) retold how her past week went and was sort of briefing us of how the stay-out helper was doing (and yes, the little girl did confirm that Ate has been sleeping while she plays with her toys. sigh. kids don't lie, di ba?). She mentioned too that one time her Tito JR (my baby cousin who is her current bestfriend) ate ice candy one time and Ate did not let her take her share because she was coughing (okay, i give you 1 pogi point for this ate). Poor little girl. I took pity and asked her if she still wants ice candy. I decided I might as well introduce her to ice candy making. I asked her if she's interested to make some and of course, the answer was a loud YES! Her face always lights up every time she gets excited and that is really refreshing to see.

So off we went to the nearby market to buy some fresh mangoes, milk and ice candy wrapper. Even if she hates how the wet market smells and abhors the sound of fish/meat being butchered into pieces (i really think she has the potential to become a vegetarian), she still enjoys going to the market with me because she loves riding jeepneys.

When we got back, we immediately went to work. After an hour, we were able to make 21 pieces of 4-inch long ice candy sticks and 2 popsicle sticks. Plus about 2 glasses (I guess ) of the mixture which went straight to the little miss's tummy (ang sarap, Mommy! ang sarap ng mango milk!).

Let me just share with you our very simple ice candy recipe.

You will need:

a pack of 1x10 ice candy plastic wrapper
1 small can of condensed milk
1 big can of evaporated milk
2 cups water
2 pieces ripe mangoes, flesh scrapped and diced into small pieces to fit into the ice candy wrapper(we bought the big kind. 1 kilo = 3 pcs)

you will also need a small funnel.

How we did it:

Basically, we just dumped and mixed everything into a bowl and funneled it to the plastic wrappers. I just made sure that the milk was mixed well so that the sweetness is distributed evenly. The little girl had so much fun stirring the mixture so I let her stir to her heart's content before we started packing the ice candy individually.

After we were done packing, I let her count how many pieces we made. She still couldn't count correctly after 12 (she'd usually skip to 14, 17 then 11, 20) but I helped her count till we were able to count 21 pieces. "21! Yey, 21 sila!"

she would scoop into the mix and taste it every 10 mins or so.
masarap talaga ang mango milk, mommy!

"Daddy, papatigas muna natin to sa ref ha? Mamaya mo na tikman. Masarap talaga sya daddy. Masarap ang project namin ni Mommy!"

We set aside about a cup of the mixture because I also wanted to make some popsicles. I let her help me put the sticks into the freezer as well. After we've placed everything into the freezer, we cleaned up (surprisingly it wasn't as messy as I'd expected it to be) and before we knew it was already the little girl's nap time. The morning seemed to have zipped by in a flash.

Maia would jump out of bed every 10 mins to check if her ice candy was already frozen and ready but she eventually stopped when I told her the sticks won't freeze if she keeps on checking on them. She finally yielded to sleep but I think she still dreamed about her ice candy because I caught her smiling in her sleep a couple of times.