Respecting our children
Posted on May 12, 2009 · 21 Comments
[Today's column] When you buy a book at Powerbooks bookstore, your purchase often comes with a free magazine. Sometimes, it’s the in-house publication which contains a list and reviews of new book titles. Last Sunday, it was a parenting magazine with Lea Salonga on the cover and a snippet from the article she wrote that ... (more)
Zebra cake
Posted on May 11, 2009 · 64 Comments
A zebra cake is basically a chocolate marble cake. The difference is in the pattern. Instead of the marbling created by running a knife through randomly dropped blobs of vanilla and chocolate cake batter, the zebra pattern is created by pouring small cupfuls of vanilla and chocolate cake batter one on top of the other. The last cupful of batter poured pushes the one below it causing it to spread.
Legal advice and aperture value
Posted on May 11, 2009 · 20 Comments
A reader e-mailed me asking how I blur some parts of the photos in my food blog. I responded by saying, “By setting the aperture value between f/1.8 to f/2.2, depending on how blurry I want the background.” Actually, when I have the luxury of time (which is rare), I take more than one photo ... (more)
She’s off to college
Posted on May 9, 2009 · 28 Comments
She was the sweetest baby a mother could ask for. She talked before she walked but she never went through the “baby talk” stage. A part of me wishes that she can always be my baby but that would be selfish. Sam is 16, she’s going to college and, in less than two weeks, I’ll ... (more)
Oriental lima bean balls
Posted on May 8, 2009 · 10 Comments
I’ve been experimenting with meatless recipes lately, not to go vegetarian, but to come up with new ways to serve vegetables as appetizers, side dishes or snacks. Some experiments did not turn out well; others did like this lima bean balls. Fresh lima beans (patani, in Filipino) were boiled until almost but not quite mushy, mashed with a fork, seasoned and mixed with a beaten egg, formed into balls and deep-fried.
Is PAG-ASA hopeless?
Posted on May 6, 2009 ·
I stayed up ’till 3.00 a.m. waiting for the meteor shower but nothing showed up. Someone suggested it was because of the cloudiness but another said it was because the meteor shower was only visible on the other side of the world. So now PAG-ASA says there’s a big storm coming. Is that a reliable ... (more)
Nanny cam
Posted on May 6, 2009 · 13 Comments
This is a two-year-old video clip of a maid (nanny?) physically abusing a young girl. I first saw a truncated version in Facebook and I had to do my own search to find the source. It is authentic, it happened in Kuala Lumpur, the children’s parents were the ones who installed the camera and that ... (more)
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