Wife's Limerick

you could have packed your bags and never looked back

Take that train, take your heart, why bother ask?

Who cares about what ifs?

Ohh but we did

In a few days, two years I'm your wife

- i bet you wouldn't have it any other way

‪#‎march29‬

‪#‎AABBA‬

‪#‎mydryhumour‬

😂

For Every Woman

image is not mine (ctto)

whether single or married

Who is a partner, who chose to be alone

Who broke her heart, who is engaged

Who loved most and loved bravely and who loved in hiding

Who miscarried, who is a mother

Whose joy is abrupt or loss is recurrent

Who endured labour, who went to C-section

Who has regular PMS or those which all days are the same

Who is dependent, who is both the parents

Who are mothers to nephews, nieces and those who surrogate, adopt and foster

Who is a breadwinner, who is a homemaker 

Who is the Lady Boss, who is competitive, who chose to submit 

Who has obvious pains, whose scars are hidden

Who breaks the roof when she laughs, who covers her mouth when she giggles

Who is a daughter, the youngest or the eldest

Middle or the only girl

To one who is a sister, a friend, a carer by choice, by profession or by volunteerism

For one who is almost one and all

And judged for not being

You are WORTH IT and WORTH EVERYTHING

‪#‎onlybadattitudemakesapersonless‬

Yema Cake Recipe

baking should be accurate. But measurement conversions also vary online and even the oven temperature depending on the brand. This recipe is based on my conversions during the time of baking and in my oven experience . If it helps, I bake using Bompani model 664.40GGFS gas cooker - on the lowest rack. You can bake  as you please depending on how familiar you are with your oven.  

This is one recipe I just copied online and made some adjustments which got thumbs up from those who tasted it.

Ingredients:

§  For the cake:

Part 1

• 50 g butter stick (or nearly ¼ c butter as ¼ cup butter converts from 55  to 60ml, see what I mean about conversion?)
• 250 g Philadelphia cream cheese spread
• 1 110 ml or 1/3 c + 2 tbsp can evaporated milk 
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp + 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Part 2

• 6 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• ¾ c + 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

§  For the icing

• 1 can condensed milk (I used Alaska)
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbsp butter
• grated cheese
• slivered almonds

Cooking Instructions:

1.       Part 1: Over simmering water, melt together cream cheese, butter and milk. Once melted, let cool to room temperature. Using a mixer, add in flour, cornstarch, salt to the cream cheese mixture. Then add in egg yolks and lastly the lemon juice. Set aside.

2.      Part 2: In a separate bowl, mix egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add in vanilla then gradually add sugar and mix until stiff peaks form. Fold in to the cream cheese mixture. Make sure everything is well combined.

3.      Pour batter into a 10.5-inch round cake pan covered with parchment paper. Bake the cake in a water bath for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until done at 180° C. (This is based on my available pan and oven temperature. Most recipes call for 8-inch round pan and baking on 375° F, I wonder how tall it is when it rises.)

4.      For the icing:  Combine 1 can of condensed milk and egg yolks and cook in low heat. Add in vanilla and almond extract. Cook until it thickens enough to spread. Add in butter.

5.      Let the cake cool and pour over the icing.  Top with grated cheese and slivered almonds.

Note: I used large cheese grater but the finer one is suggested so it will have smoother finish.

Happy baking!!! 

                                                      

An Adoptee’s Life

     

    don’t get me wrong, this is not a hate campaign or a social media attention seeking post. So long gone are my angst-ridden, multiple ear piercing, wanting to express college days (and looking back at it, the multiple earrings fashion is just too tacky now, ewww!!).

         I am also not a product of a love affair with a wealthy congressman or aristocratic family that existence had to be kept, so it is not worthy of a tell-all biography. However, while the story of my adoption doesn’t belong to those requiring combing histories and rummaging from long buried registration books, being adopted does not exactly fall to the society's norm. While not socially condemned, the movie and TV series plots have already made a general impression of adoption synonymous to unwanted. With this, to an adoptee, the joy of an ordinary day out in pigtails and sipping Zest-o is robbed off by the children’s teasing and the innocence is crushed by the adult’s harsh repetitive reminder of not belonging to the normal.

Top 8 things, situations and questions adoptees deal with

1)      The questions like: Who are my biological parents? How do they look like? Why did they give me away? Lucky me, I know them from the beginning so I don’t have to ask these questions and the follow ups. But to those with untold stories of conception and birth registration, everything else begins with these questions they are dying to find answers.

2)     The gossipers. Coming from a small town and from family of teachers, my adoptee’s story was as simple as growing up with hushed adult conversation at school, market, PTA meetings, funeral or any gathering about my adoption. It was an on-going competition who can ask in front of my face if I know whose tummy I came out from and an endless confirmation I am the one. I had to deal with it until they were too old to remember or died.

3)     The endless teasing growing up and the branding. Adopted becomes your family name.

4)     Listing your biological parents in the spaces provided. I am not being ungrateful, but my adoptive parents have long been gone so I put my biological parents name in my wedding invitation. My reason was simple: it feels crazy being invited by deceased people (at least to me). I was serious about it and also felt the urge to honor my other set of parents on that special moment in my life. My birth has already been registered under my adoptive set of parents, they were listed as my parents in all my legal documents and they were the only valid beneficiaries under the Philippine law, so on matters I can decide on, I want to cross out one of that ‘adoptee’s what ifs’. In this matter, when to and when not?

5)     There is one or two you loved most or more. That is the truth even if you always answer equally when asked. And you will be asked hundred times growing up and even as an adult. It is already a torture to a child with one set of parents and being asked constantly, imagine if you have two. 

6)     Family health history left blank. I wasn’t hospitalized too often growing up that the blood type and genes I carried never bothered me much. If I filled up medical information in the past, I guess I never paid attention to them as my parents look healthy that time. Abroad, with legs spread my OB casually asked my family's health history, and I have no answer.

7)     Visa processing – as a result of my idleness and wandering while folding the clothes, I realized how Visa application and processing can be delayed, denied, expedited or approved according to your blood relation. #justoneofmyrandomthoughts

8)     Security questions and account verification.

CCA: And just for confirmation Ma’am, can you please provide me your mother’s maiden name.

Me: Concepcion or Torres? Oh, why can’t you simply ask my shampoo brand?

Bittersweet16

Grief is real

Denial was yesterday

And I guess I am coming to terms with anger

But pain is omnipresent

Deep, black, indefinite

My Bittersweet 16

there are just not enough words to describe the pain of loss. You get consolation from thinking even grief and sorrow will also end. But while you are at the bottom of the pit and everything is just dark, you just endure the feeling. You cry, you bleed, sleep through it, cry again, bleed again and sleep through it again.

You just have to survive the day, a dear friend says.

My bittersweet 16, my heart is still bleeding for you.  

  

You, Me and My Hormones

My Top 10 Truths, Discoveries and Realities of coupling (and the daily mundane things)

marriage is a union of 3 beings:  the man, the woman and her hormones.

I am not making it up.

Don’t give me that look.

To my husband:

 

1)       That is truth no 1.  And they are likely to be a part of our married life. That crazy monthly time my collarbones rolled into fats and my breasts are glaring at you like eye popping stress toys. Yes, they are the crazy times you are close to wringing my neck and packing my things. 

2)      I don’t mind you snoring. Please sleep tightly (and do not suddenly blab over breakfast that you did not sleep well the night before). Unless it starts to sound like a power saw taking down a hundred year old Acacia tree then I start to worry. 

3)      Changes are inevitable such us:

a.       The need for a bigger bed even if I want to sleep wrapped like a baby panda

b.      The maxi pads and the likes in the monthly grocery and the process of taking them from the trolley to the conveyor for the lady cashier to scan

c.       And the embarrassing moments you need to change the stained sheets  

4)      My alarm wakes us up early and I hit the snooze button and I just snuggle, then the alarm beeps again and I hit the snooze button again and I just snuggle…  That is the best part of my day. 

5)     When I say I am fine you go out with boys and I go to the coffee shop alone or stay at home, I am being honest. There are days we just want to do our things without disturbance or without having to explain or require us to be sociable.

To my girlfriends:

6)      You could be very ecstatic about the D-day or too occupied you cannot put into words what you want to say in your wedding vows. Do not say things only because it is sweet --- because you will be bound by it and anything you promise can be used against you. If you promise to always put food on the table, it will really be a pressure.

  

7)      It’s a different set of rules for each couple. For one: "Never go to bed with an argument unresolved" – it does not apply to all couples at all times. When you want to argue, you want to argue. And sometimes it’s the third party, hormones, that does the reasoning – and you have no explanation to that except your period. You just need to wake up like it’s another day.

8)      The process of doing the laundry, drying them, folding and sorting is an endless task. 

9)      The evolution of assets: When you insist on piling too many take-away or leftover foods inside the ref, that piece of appliance is ‘his’. When the freezer door won’t close there’s the urgent need to defrost, that becomes conjugal.

10)  You will wish sometimes socks have their own life and find their way to the hamper or to the drawer. Or socks are like your clingy, overly romantic girlfriend who cannot live without a pair. It will make your OC life peaceful and easier.

PLEASE NOTE THAT IMAGES HERE ARE NOT MINE NOR I BOUGHT THE RIGHTS TO USE.