KITCHEN ADVENTURE : toaster smores

Saw this on my cousin Ken's FB page a few days ago.

SMORES!!! & I decided to make some too, because I am naturally inggitera that's why! And also because I have always considered cooking a stress-buster. Maybe because with cooking I can feel a sense of fulfillment when I hear that what I made can be classified as "above palatable". Don't get fooled by the corporate-career-oriented facade, it may be a surprise to know that I am also domesticated. Just last week I cooked laing, and a few weeks back, fried Oreos.

After a long day, I was lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride with my colleague. So I got home home earlier than usual. Deciding I have done enough excel files for a day, I rushed to a nearby minimart and purchased the stuff I need to make my own version of smores for the first time. 

Smores is supposed to be chocolate bars with toasted marshmallows sandwiched between graham crackers. Chocolate bars is not a staple in our house, so I used chocolate syrup instead. Below are the ingredients I used:

• graham crackers
• marshmallows
• chocolate syrup
• cookie butter

I started with just 4 pieces of graham crackers. The first thing I did was to carefully cut the graham crackers into squares. Laid 6 graham cracker squares on a plate, the remaining squares were set aside. Next, I placed choco syrup on 3 graham squares and cookie butter on the remaining graham squares.

Time for something soft and fluffy.

Now let's see if these darlings are ready to take the heat...

Ours is a regular oven toaster which does not have adjustable temperature settings. Depends on the toaster's settings, I think toasting can be done between 3 to 6 minutes. Take the mallows out too soon and it may not melt, leave it too long inside and it might totally burn. Since this is the first time I am doing this, I made sure I watched the mallows closely. 

now we just place graham squares on top of these beauties.

Ok these may not be as pretty looking  as the ones in Ken's photo but the YUM factor is stupendous!

Made 12 smores in less than 20 minutes and now my sugar level has skyrocketed.  I am not sure  when I can finally shut my eyes and get some much needed sleep. 

Sweet night everyone! :)

teach them to fish

It is cliche to say "Give a man a fish and he'll have food for a day, teach him how to fish and he'll have food for a lifetime"... But that is exactly what I did to make my sister realize the value of working for money. See my sister has not been working for quite a few months now a ( since mamu is away), my sister gets to keep the household running. Making sure that meals are cooked, clothes are washed. It is with high hopes that I am thinking that she will find a job as soon as my mom returns, but that is still a couple of weeks from now. And Christmas time is just around the corner. That time of the year when everyone, and I mean everyone needs money. 

With that in mind, I thought of having my sister do something to ensure that she will at least have money to buy presents for her inaanaks, or better yet, buy herself something nice. I thought that if I give her 1,000 pesos, the probability of her spending it all on foodtrips is very likely. So instead of giving her the money, I purchased milk, colorful candy sprinkles and declared that we are making pastillas. 

I had everything planned out, I wanted the pastillas to have fillings, so we made pastillas with strawberry, caramel, nutella and chocolate fillings and had them rolled in colorful sugar. We called it sweet surprise. they look something like this:

The first batch we made was given out for free. All I wanted was for my sister to have at least 5,000.00 profit. But my sister-in-law proved to be the "bestseller"! I sometimes think she can sell even ampalaya -flavored chewing gum! Orders started pouring in. From making 6 dozens every night, a day came when my sister had to produce 50 dozens! I urged my sister to not decline any orders, to strike while the iron is hot.

A month into our operation and my sister has already reached my 5,000.00 peso target. 

I feel good about it. My sister has her own money, my nephews have extra allowance, (they sell them to their friends), they all learn that  making money requires a lot of hardwork... but the most priceless benefit we all get from this pastillas-making activity... is the chance to bond! 

Got to go.. I think my sister needs help in boxing those sweet little milk balls! 

Post - VD blah blah

To be perfectly honest, I have yet to experience a kick-ass Valentine's day celebration, you know those types that would make other girls turn green with envy. Nor have I been given a huge bouquet of flowers, not that I am a sucker for flowers,... they do look nice, but i feel they are way too pricey and does not really have much to offer but aesthetic value. No, I am not being bitter, I am just being practical. 

So it goes without saying that the past VD went by just like any other Thursday on any given workweek. But it doesn't mean that I did not indulge myself in all the mushiness that surrounded me that day. And this was probably the most note-worthy love-related post I saw on Facebook that day. 

"A boy and a girl were playing together, The boy had a collection of marbles, and the girl had some sweets with her.  The boy told the girl that he will give her all her marbles in exchange for his sweets. The girl agreed. 

The boy kept the biggest and most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl, but the girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised.

That night, the girl slept peacefully, but the boy couldn't sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble."

Click here to see where I got this story

"Moral of the story:

If you don't give your 100% in a relationship, you'll always keep doubting if the other person has given his / her 100%."

To risk it all, to love without inhibitions, and to just put your trust that everything will be all good... easier said than done I guess. Maybe, at a certain point, I too have given all my sweets and slept peacefully, never really cared if I was given all the marbles that I deserved... after all, it only takes a few marbles to make me happy. So now I am saving up on sweets again, so someday, I hope soon, I can again sleep peacefully, not because I know I have given all my sweets as promised, but because I am sleeping with someone who has given me all his marbles. 

mush mush mush