“Where would be my next journey after this vacation ended???
What should I be doing after then???
What could be my purpose on my next sojourn???”
Questions keep on bugging me even from the beginning of what I am calling a “break”. I am now on my second undisturbed vacation but not technically a rest from all of it. I am surely taking this chance to recharge and unload. So far, though it’s boring for a lot of time, I am having enough opportunity to have a check and balance of myself, my family and our home, and also the surrounding I’ve missed for a year.
My project for my current client has ended last month and if I am going to review the results and the deliverables I’d had, I therefore conclude that I was able to commit on the deal I had with the company. It has been a truly rewarding experience, including the thrill and the perks, working with Fruit Magic. I managed to learn the aspect of a ‘quick service” set-up of the food industry. Another scope on my job has been added and another portfolio for my credentials was made. And to tell you the truth, I haven’t had enough and I planned so much for them but projects are still needed to be approved so I really needed to take a break and who knows, they might call again to continue having my service for them.
Anyways, I am considering of going back to a real kitchen operation after this craving for calmness and relaxation, though literally it is not what the latter generally meant. I have already found a good prospective employer and I am just waiting for the result of our meeting last week. If I’ll be given the chance of working with them, I will be pursuing my real objective for my career… that would be learning Italian cuisine. But still I am waiting for the “call”.
So here I am, taking my time to update this blog.
This year, 2011, is truly amusing for me. The first half of the year had given me so much I could ask for… and maybe too much I am expecting for. My birthday passed on a blink that I haven’t had enough time to celebrate my special day. But I am still thankful for another year of surprises, challenges, and learning. Though there are times that I feel so down because I’m incapacitated of doing and having what I want for the moment and the inability and being dependent gives me shrills of stress. Guess what? My Girbaud wallet is once again just an ordinary wallet. But I am not bothered with that anymore like what happened to me before. I don’t want to stress myself because of only not having financial capacity. I know this is just for now. Time and again, I’ll be somewhere. So I just forget about it.
Being at home for a lot of time changes again my daily routines. For a workaholic like me, most of my day is spent outside and majority of it is at work. I never had any decent vacation since I came back from Cagayan, so I think this is what I can call now my most awaited vacation. My day starts late-by the middle of the day. I preferred to wake up late because if I started as early as 7 o’clock in the morning, I’ll just bore myself by the afternoon. My life at home is very typical. Wake up. Brunch. Coffee. Clean the pantry. Exercise. Read anything. DVD. Net. TV. Prepare dinner. Eat dinner. Coffee. Write anything. Transfer recipes. DVD. Sleep. Until the next day again. See… how routinely is that? There are just some little fixes when something came up like if a friend of mine invited me to go out or if there are interview invitations. So generally, I am really getting bored already. I am too adventurous to stay at home for a very long time doing very few tasks. I hate having continuously repeating events day after day. But what else can I do, I am incapacitated for the moment. Just like what everybody hypocrite-ly says to take your time and appreciate what you are on right now… damn it! I am bored.
What makes it harder is the fact that you crave for so many but you don’t actually have any means to take on that. I get hungry every thirty minutes or so. Watching kitchen series and travel channels give me new ideas but then also gives me some irresistible cravings. I just finished watching Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservation” and great it was for showing me several cultures of mostly westerners but damn it was for making me hungry for so many dishes it showed especially the freshly baked breads of French boulangerie and the bulky roasted steaks from a local restaurant also in France.
On another hand, I am planning to have this blog on an overhaul. I am a chef but this site never reflected that I am one. I always just babble about my miseries in life here. So I am thinking of putting my “tried and tested” recipes here. And more than that… I want to really transform this site on a much positive intuition by also incorporating what I consider my culinary life of the moment: the books I’ve read and still reading, the future plans for my career, actually almost everything. I think I missed the point of having a blog ever since I started doing this. And funny I was… I never “tagged” all post I have in here. So more than just of a de-loader of my stress… might as well function and share.
So… what would be my first offering for this blog??? Ahm... hehehe, I really don’t know. I don’t have a solid plan yet.
Right now, I am reading “1001 Foods to Die For” by Corby Kummer. I am re-reading it after skimming from front to back. So far, I got new ideas for my upcoming menu already. My knowledge for so many dishes was concentrated and maybe intensified after having the first hundred pages of this book. What I know before are just “facades’, the information on this book brought me to rears and attics of each dish. I am having mismanagement of my idle time right now because I have so many plans in mind. I missed my two weeks deadline for a review already so I am giving it another couple of weeks. Maybe after that I could already give a more decent feedback on this book.
By the way, I made this muffin recipe the other day and I just wanted to share it to the public. The recipe is healthy with less sugar and less calories. So try this!!!
Recipe: BLUEBERRY MUFFIN
Yield: 18-20 pieces (1/3 cup portion)
*I always used to separate the ingredients into groups when writing a recipe so it is easier and more convenient on explaining the procedures.
*This recipe serves only 100 to 130 calories. (Based from BIGOVEN calculations)
Dry Mixture:
1 ¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 ¼ tsp Baking Powder
¾ tsp Iodized Salt
¾ tsp Cinnamon Powder
2 ½ cups Cake Flour (I recommend you also use a pancake mix for a softer and fluffier muffins)
Wet Mixture:
½ cup + 3 tbsp White Sugar
¾ cup Unsalted Butter
3 pcs Eggs
¾ cupButtermilk
1 ¼ tsp Vanilla extract
Other Ingredients:
250 grams Over-ripe Bananas
100 grams Blueberry
Toppings:
1 ½ tbsp White Sugar
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tbsp Lemon Rind
1 ½ tbsp Butter
1 ½ tbsp Flour
Procedures:
Pre-heat oven at a temperature of 150°C while preparing the muffin batter.
Also, grease muffin molds then line with paper cups.
Sift together all dry ingredients then set aside.
On a mixing bowl, start creaming wet ingredients starting by mixing butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. When mixture becomes light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time. Then add milk .
On another mixing bowl, mash bananas then mix it with the creamed wet ingredients.
Fold dry ingredients into creamed mixture.
Add blueberry to the batter.
Spoon batter into muffin molds then top with streusel.
Bake it for 20-23 minutes.
Enjoy!!! ^_^
