
My friend "J" inspired me to bake so I decided to make my very own homemade butter cake. The only problem is... Actually, there are two problems. First, I don't have a real oven. Second, I don't know how to cook or bake. But no worries! Undeterred by these minor issues, I went to the grocery (Unimart) to buy my ingredients.
I first looked for a baking pan. I was planning to use our toaster oven so I had to get a very small loaf pan. While browsing through the stacks of pans, I also chanced upon a small muffin pan. Perfect! I decided to make muffins too. With my loaf and muffin pans, I proceeded to the baking section.
Thank you Lord for ready cake-mixes! I decided to get the Maya Oven Toaster Butter Cake Mix and the Betty Crocker Corn Bread and Muffin Mix because they required the least number of ingredients.
How was the Butter Cake?
According to my friend "C", who was here to appreciate my creation, it was good. I can't exactly remember if she said good or okay but she ate two slices so I guess she liked it.
It was so easy to bake. It's impossible to mess it up. I realized 5 minutes after putting it in the oven that I chose the wrong oven toaster setting. I changed it and reset the clock. 5 minutes later, I changed it to another setting and reset the clock again. By this time, I was so sure that the cake will be a failure. After checking it with my barbecue stick (toothpicks are to short) a dozen of times, it finally came out of the oven perfectly baked. Surprise! Surprise!
I'm going to try the corn muffin in a few days. Wish me luck.
Faking It: Bake Butter Cake
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Faking It: There is Order in Chaos
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Me: "There is order in chaos."
This philosophy only works when you have no roommate. Once you get married, you can keep your chaos for as long as your spouse only sees the order.
Impossible? Possible.
Example:
ORDER

CHAOS

Try to have a theme for every box so that you'll remember what's inside. This is my "To File Box". When I am in a hurry and have no time to sort and store, I just dump them all here for filing later.
Faking It: A Clean and Neat Apartment

Clean and neat do not always come together. A very clean and antiseptic apartment will still look dirty if it is cluttered. On the other hand, an apartment that looks neat may have germs lurking all over the place. It is difficult to maintain a 100% clean AND neat apartment. The trick here is to fake it and achieve some kind of balance.
CLEAN
VACUUM! I can vacuum one whole room in our apartment in less than 10 minutes (5, if I don't get anal). No need to dust, spray or wipe. Just suck the dirt out of every nook and cranny. Buy the best vacuum cleaner you can afford. It will be worth every penny (centavo).
NEAT
HIDE IT! Hide your stuff in boxes and cabinets. Put everything in its proper place. It will only take a few seconds to return that stapler you just used inside the drawer. Compare that to one whole Saturday lost to cleaning if you let clutter accumulate.
