Warning: your clothes will smell like onions… if you decide to make French Onion soup. That’s what happened to me (but the soup turned out fine). Thank you, Julia Child for the delicious recipe.

My Red Velvet attempt. I made cupcakes a few days ago and here’s one of them. I rarely bake. I would do this more often if I had all the money in the world. When I say I “bake” anything, I don’t mean making baked goods using boxed ingredients and slapping store bought icing on it… I honestly feel like that’s hardly baking. Yeah, you put yellow cake/funfetti/whatever batter in the oven to “bake” but a real baking process to me is to bake from scratch: gather separate ingredients and mix them together to create something. I’m not implying that baking from scratch means you’ll create something delicious either.. No. Not at all. The point is, “baking”, to me is just the effort that goes into it— experimenting, playing with recipes, and all the work that goes beyond premixed/premade ingredients.

So… Was I happy with the way this Red Velvet cupcake turned out? Ehh. Meeh. Not so much. I sifted the flour just fine, unlike the last two times I made red velvet. Next time I’m adding more cocoa powder and using actual red dye (I only had pink for this one). I’ve made better cream cheese frosting in the past… this one tasted too buttery, and really off. But who cares? I ate most of it (and I suspect my roommates did too… unless I’m eating sleepwalking & sleepeating these days).

Ending the baking topic now. My sinuses have been acting up since last night, my headphones have disappeared, and I just burnt my tongue while drinking Thai tea. But it doesn’t really bother me. My mother visited me here in Davis yesterday & figured I was too lazy/busy to wash my sheets, so she brought me extra ones from home. Now I’m lying here in the dark on my freshly washed sheets and I’m about to go to bed with warm fuzzy feelings in my heart. The little things in life make up for things that bother me. Life’s alright! (but really though, this allergy/sinus thing is secretly and slowly killing me, I’m just pretending it doesn’t bother me :{ ).

Good morning. Starting off this beautiful day with tumblr, browsing through old magazines, and bananas in my granola cereal.

ang saya talaga mag pasko at bagong taon doon sa Pinas kasi nandoon ang pamilya ko. yung isang umaga, pinicturan ko yung kapatid nang lola ko… gumagawa siya nang suman para sa pasko. hindi ako masyado nag tatype nang tagalog so kung hindi tama.. pacienca na.

Lola making suman for Christmas Day. I’m back home from the Philippines after a lovely 3 week vacation to see my family. I had an amazing time catching up with cousins and getting to know new, younger cousins. Let’s just say I miss them already. It was fantastic getting to spend Christmas and New Years with them again. I photographed my Lola Ita (my grandmother’s sister) making suman, a Filipino rice cake wrapped in banana leaves for Christmas day. She lives right next door to my grandmother (like, two steps away literally) and they go to each other’s houses randomly to chat. It’s very sweet. 

A college student’s dinner: pasta, pasta, and MORE PASTA. I’m not even a fan of pasta, not at all. Occasionally, I’ll have lasagna and ravioli during group dinners out but I don’t really ever crave it. Like some other college student, I’m too broke or busy to care about what I eat and pasta is a quick fix to a hungry stomach. I don’t ever buy jarred sauce anymore, I found out that I’d much rather eat my weird made up bacon-goat cheese-seasoned sea salt concoction. At times, I’ll mix up the flavors by throwing in pesto and diced tomatoes. Anything with bacon or goat cheese = glorious. I pretty much eat this made up pasta all the time.

I finally got internet today after a week of being moved in and it’s not even wifi because the router hasn’t arrived. ARGH. ETHERNET. It’s been a frustrating deal to wait around for the internet provider to say the least. I needed to get some stuff done while online but I’m actually grateful I got forced to a life without real internet. I like to step back from the norm once in a while. I see it as a time to stop, think, and reevaluate— what or WHO should I make a priority? Change is good. Where do I want to go, what should I keep and get rid of? All these thoughts.

I finally got around to going through photos and papers from way back (I’m thinking middle school-highschool days). I’m a bit of a memory hoarder I have to admit. Before I left for college, I had kept all these things in storage and wanted to scrapbook them somehow. I have a flyer from my very first show, a hire card I got from my very first job, notes from people, and prints of the very first photos I tried to edit. Some really bizarre crap. They’re all going on visual journals (I have about 4 now). I’m thinking of scanning some pages and maybe you’ll see how embarrassing I was back in the day (and also some things I got to experience while I was in Europe!). Does anyone keep some sort of journal (not tumblr) nowadays?

Scones & jam. Breakfast at La Patisserie Valerie in York, England.

A burger with your brew. I’m not a burger person at all, but my favorite comes from Burgers & Brew. The food is even better at 2 in the morning… Yuuum. How can one even resist bacon avocado cheeseburgers? I know I can’t.

Mini Chocolate Meringue Cookies. My little sister made these yummy treats a while ago… She’s a little baker. (I think that this recipe was used)

Chocolate Ice Cream Soda from Fenton’s Creamery. Having some of that ice cream soda would make up for this unbearable heat…

Green Tea Cheesecake from Bluefin

Relaxing weekend back home. Lots of family bonding since all the sisters were home. Had delicious brunch at Pascal’s, late lunch/early dinner at Wahoo’s (note the EC sticker on their wall) and beignet’s at Powderface. Coming home on the weekends also mean doing nails with my little sister. We used an Easter color palette, of course. Though Brody gets plenty of roaming time indoors, he actually got to go out in the sun— something that doesn’t happen when he’s in Davis.

FLUFFY DONUTS. Strawberry flavored donut.

Manila mango. One of the many mangoes I ate last spring. These small, yellow ones are my favorite kind.