Life Lately

Career: Last month, I was asked by my adviser if I could be a part-time lecturer at the university this semester. Turns out, one of the faculty members suddenly had to take a leave so they needed people to fill in. So yes, it's back to school for me! I'm teaching one subject (two hours per week) this semester. 

didn't think I'd be using these again

My first day was actually overwhelming. You see, I haven't taught class in almost two years and I haven't spoken in front of a crowd in almost a year. That's why teaching a class of 124 students made me so nervous during my first day-- my voice was breaking, seriously. Thankfully, during the succeeding class lectures, I was able to gain my footing once again. One of my previous students from 3 years ago even sat in my class and afterward told me that I (including my teaching style) haven't changed at all and I guess that's not so bad considering how long I haven't been teaching. 

Social Life: One of my goals this year is to make time for friends and I'm glad that I'm being true to that. Over the past two months, I've been doing a lot of catching up with my friends and it feels refreshing.

Health: Twice for the last two weeks, I tried boxing classes because I thought it would be a good activity not just for losing weight but also to relieve stress. However, I think it just gets me even more stressed! After classes, it's either I get (1) sick or (2) too drained of energy that I just want to sleep until the next day. I'm guessing it's not a sport for me so I might try a different sport. I will update on that!

Hobbies: I've been making a lot of cupcakes. I also managed to bring out my watercolor and pick up a brush after more than a year! This time, I enjoy doing watercolor calligraphy/lettering.

chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

matcha cupcakes with anko and matcha cream cheese frosting

Baked Buffalo Cauliflower

Here is a healthier take on buffalo wings (because come on, who doesn't like buffalo wings?): BUFFALO CAULIFLOWER! This is the recipe I used but here are some of my notes on the recipe: 

• I was left with quite a lot of batter (what a waste) so perhaps you can decrease the flour and milk to 3/4 cups. By the way, I used whole milk and all-purpose flour.
• 1 cup of buffalo sauce was too much for me too. 1/2 cup sufficed.
• I didn't have garlic powder and I ran out of garlic too so I omitted that.
• I made homemade buffalo sauce by whisking together equal parts of sriracha and melted butter. Any kind of hot sauce should work but also be sure to adjust the hot sauce-to-butter ratio depending on your tolerance and on your hot sauce.
• I baked the battered cauliflower for 20 minutes and then another 10 minutes with the buffalo sauce. My cauliflower turned out mushy which I really like because I'm not into crunchy vegetables so decrease baking time if you want crunchy veggies 

I ate half of it for lunch with some beef and rice while I had the other half for afternoon snack. It's really good, I swear! Now, I'm thinking of other things that I can bake or cook with homemade buffalo sauce and since I still have a lot of potatoes, maybe I'll try potato wedges this week.

Things I Make Sometimes

Sometimes, I make crowns.

This floral crown is made from scratch. I created the flowers by hand from lace, ribbons and crochet thread. I gave it to a friend who's currently living in Australia and visited the Philippines for vacation last Christmas.

This crown, on the other hand, is not yet finished but it's supposed to be an elvish crown and it's made of armature wire. Have you seen The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies yet? Don't you think Lee Pace rocked Thranduil?? I mean, I never liked Thranduil in the book because he's such a douche but Lee Pace is just too amazing so I can't bring myself to totally hate Thranduil. Don't you agree?

Anyway, I really need to practice my wire-bending skills before I finish this.

Sometimes I make pies.

I learned how to make pies in Home Economics class in high school and I even made buko (coconut) pie and egg pie at home back then to show my parents what I learned in school haha. However, I found the pastry pie crust-making process a bit difficult and time-consuming so I didn't make pie again until recently. However, I recently wanted to challenge myself to make pies again.

And no, it has nothing to do with Pushing Daisies and Lee Pace making pies in that TV Show. Yeah, I watched it over the holidays and it's just absolutely adorable.

...

Fine, maybe a little haha. But hey, even before watching Pushing Daisies, I've already decided on making pies again! I guess Pushing Daisies just reinforced that decision.

And guess what, I'm enjoying it! I guess the only difficult part is cutting in the cold butter with the flour for the pastry crust because I don't have a food processor but otherwise, I like making pies! I'm actually thinking about buying a food processor so that I can make pies with more ease. One more thing I love about pies is that I can make use of more local fruits for baking.

Sometimes, I make boiled eggs for ramen. 

I'm just practicing how to boil eggs for ramen topping because I found a recipe for miso ramen and the ingredients are readily available in my pantry so I'm gonna give it a try this weekend. I will give an update on that!