Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musings. Show all posts

Friday, December 16, 2011

Dropping By...

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Gosh, it's been a while huh?

Don't worry, I've been baking. I just never got around blogging about it, more so taking pictures of the whole process. It's too tedious, haha... plus I have work, so my schedule's pretty messed up.

Anyway, just wanted to post something since I received a comment about what a disaster their own baking adventure turned out because she followed my recipe. She bitched that her *expensive* blueberries would look better elsewhere. Yes, she said *expensive* blueberries (asterisks included for emphasis), but she also said they were blueberry pie filling. I would assume she used Comstock, the gooey type in a can used for PIES or cheesecake toppings. I stated preserves, which has lesser liquid in it because it's mainly fruit pulp. Canned pie fillings tend to thin out and get really mushy. Besides when you're in doubt, you can always drain it right?

I am NOT an expert. I am an ordinary girl with a fancy for cooking and baking. I have no formal training whatsoever. Like everyone else, I use Google for recipes and improvise when some ingredients aren't available. I watch baking techniques on YouTube and Martha Stewart like any diligent home baker.

So, why am I blogging about my kitchen EXPERIMENTS? For me to have record of the things I did and to practice my writing (which got me hired btw). I have a record of what works and doesn't. I don't have patience to write down recipes longhand in a notebook along with explanations and memories attached to each baking session. I'm weird that way, so sue me. I do not proclaim my EXPERIMENTS as successes or must tries. In fact I am my biggest critique, and I do nitpick on my posts. Maybe in some way all I to get out of this blog is to inspire people to experiment as well. Like the Coriander Seed Cookies, many got curious with that. Who would've thought a spice like coriander seeds can be used to flavor cookies?

So my challenge to you is this: Live curiously. I research about similar recipes and tweak them to fit what is available to me. Do the same, in fact double your research if you feel that the ingredients you're using are costly... and for crissakes, READ. Obviously, snotty comments like *expensive* blueberries tick me off. Don't you read? Don't you know how to research? Don't you have the common sense to drain those damn *expensive* blueberries? Or fold in the drained blueberry instead of stirring it like crazy which probably cause more liquid to pop out of those little buggers.

For those confused about the fuss, apologies. Because I live in a developing country, people here think of artificially flavored blueberry pie fillings as expensive. I know exactly how much a canned blueberry pie filling costs, and it's not going to *expensive* when used appropriately. (can I get an amen on this?)

If you're still adamant about finding no-fail recipes, may I recommend a tested site: JOY OF BAKING? The said site is good for newbie home bakers. They have the recipe in detail and even some videos for how to's. Almost a no-brainer. There are only two things that may cause a disaster when following their recipes: 1) poor substitution of ingredients and 2) the baker. 

Yeah, I'm bitchin' too... and I'm done. Bow.

Peace, Love, Happiness, and hopefully Curiosity starts now.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Non-food Musing: Better Blogging?

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I don't really know if I'm supposed to be embarrassed or what. Normally I would just write away and not care about how the blog looks and how reader-friendly it can be -- mainly because I doubt anybody would actually read or visit this site. I just saw the stats and noticed the increase in traffic. Mostly from blog forums I participate in. Avid fans of those popular blogs must've click on my name by accident or just sheer curiosity. I do know a few visitors which mainly are my schoolmates from UP Mindanao, but still, you know how we roll in school, we're are trained to be critical!

Wait... so that means Chuvaness and MarketMan checked on my blog too?

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.... breathe kAi... breathe.


Mygollygoshwow... pressure na ito. Oh well.


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

First Dibs

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Yay! I got permission to create a blog! *do the happy dance*

It's been such a long hiatus from blogging, I'm a bit nervous how this would turn out. Not that my previous blogs were most read, they were just nonsensical raves and rants (mostly the latter, blame it on puberty), what I'm nervous about is how well I'm able to execute the theme of this blog.

As the title suggests, The Curious Tummy is documenting my satiating of my gustatory curiosity, ergo, a blog about food. Hopefully The Curious Tummy, through religious posting and OC attention to details, would be at par with celebrated food blogs of Shoot First, Eat Later and Market Manila. Heck, why not throw in the wishing to rub elbows with the likes of Julie Powell or David Lebovitz and publish my own cookbook! (haha, dream on). 

The Curious Tummy will contain either reviews of the places I've eaten in or my own kitchen experiments. Now some would argue that it's not going to be called an experiment because most of the recipes I would be doing are my mom's tried and tested ones or lifted from cookbooks or the internet. But mind you, there would always be new ingredients added to whatever I'm making, and that's me and my imagination.

The question is, will these new ingredients turn a recipe into a win or a fail?