Mindfulness and Poetry

 

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott

~~

My takeaway from the recorded session is this lovely poem.  Apart from the questions meant to be answered in coming meditations.  Ganda.

Perfect Cookie Dough Base

200g softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup muscovado sugar
2 whole eggs
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine butter, sugar, salt.  Add eggs to emulsify wet ingredients.
Combine flour, baking soda.
Mix and fold.

You can directly add desired combination of dried fruits, nuts and chips into the dough.  For this batch, I divided my dough initially into three to make different cookies.  

Preheat air fryer 180C for 2mins.  With about 5 to 6 small cookies placed on greased parchment paper, default setting of muffin/cookie (180C) for 9mins.  Here's the tricky part:  check the cookies and allow to cool for a minute then turn it over and put it back for another 2mins to allow the bottom part to bake further.  In retro, maybe I should've flattened by cookies, hmm..

I ended up with five variants. 

Not in the photo:  Rolled oats with Dates and Nuts.  Planned to be pecans only and mistakenly added the walnuts which was supposed to add crunch for the choco chip mix instead.  Also, sprinkled some cinnamon into the dough for more aroma.  I've added maybe about 2 tbsp of cocoa to the dough with Reese peanut chips no nuts.  For the cream cheese mix, I've sweetened it with 3 tsp of confectioners sugar.  Since I can't do cream cheese cake, attempted but for another entry, I made blueberry and macadamia with cream cheese mix. I probably made about 30pcs cookies of approx 25g per piece.

T-B: Oats, Dates and Nuts with Cream Cheese Fill, Blueberry and Macadamia, Choco Peanut Chips, Choco Chip with Walnuts

Threading on Dangerous Waters

Is what it means to feel nostalgic while listening to old playlists.  What was on my mind when I first listened to this song?  The way my insides turn upside down.. why?

Revisiting sounds leads me to new ones tho, 

at least that's what I got 

out of this topsy turvy 

emo surfin 

some sound waves trippin

am I wastin 

my precious time 

with too much thinkin..

all I'm sayin

I ain't stayin

until salty water dries 

from my eyes

Guitar-ist D

 

It was D's School Christmas Party and since we haven't done any real shopping for the past two years, I had to halungkat and reuse whatever we have for her OOTD.  Good thing she has this periwinkle top perfect for sweater weather and to tap her feminine side, she obliged to wear a spaghetti offwhite dress.  To complete her look, make the most out of her van's suede skater shoes before it disintegrates :D

I had to wait until her party's over and begged her to come out for a quick photoshoot in anticipation of her slides for her graduation.  It's easier now since we used her guitar as prop and it's an extension of her now that she's almost glued to it.

Back in the game

Armed with my brand new laptop and trusty earcandy player, fingers flexed, I am all set!

Will make the most out of the free 1k photos in flickr.  I'm so psyched I just had to post something and make my presence felt here :)

Hugot and Baking

"Buti pa yung cookies ko may dates!"

Modified recipe from Chef RV Choco Chip Cookies

1/2 cup softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup muscovado sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1 whole egg

1 1/4 cup All purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

choco chips, walnuts, dates, oats, whathaveyous 😅

mix 1: butter+sugars+egg+chips and nuts

mix 2: flour+baking soda+salt

mix 1+mix 2

scoop in preheated air fryer in 160°C for 8mins.  i ruin my cookies by turning them over and baked for another 4mins.

transfer to rack and patiently wait until cool enough to munch on.  makes 12-14pcs depending on greediness and mood at the time 😅

With Anchor butter, it smells even more heavenly.  Queensland butter is flavorful enough.  i've yet to sub with margarine pero baka madisappoint ako so next time pag wala na talagang pang butter 😁

2021 Music Mood: Chill and Wistful

coz that's what i need to be with all the crazy stuff.

not music related.  i find myself sending a draft of my resignation letter to my boss asking him of his thoughts on the matter.  bet he tried to be cool about it and simply asked me, off the record, what "personal reason" led me to this decision.

to put a soundtrack on this post, #3 and #4 are just so apt and right to the feels.