Rain, Rain, Go Away

One month before Christmas.

A few more days left before spring ends and summer starts.

Less than 24 hours to landing at the home country.

It's raining today which dampens the mood of going home, not to mention that we'll be away from MacGyver for the next two weeks.

I chanced upon this spider web on the way home from mass today.

I had to use my umbrella as a backdrop to appreciate this labour of love.

Ratio and Out of Proportion

We made ravioli tonight.

It is long overdue considering we won this bid last 28 August.


Yes, yes. I know the shipping costs more than the ravioli moulds themselves but I was happy to win the bidding. (I have this obsession with ravioli and these moulds were so much cheaper than the ones in the store even with the shipping cost.)

We were supposed to have the ravioli for last night but I didn't have time to prepare the dough. (Cake? Ravioli? Cake? Ravioli? Guess which one won?)

Anyway, since the refrigerator conked out on us last night, I had to get the ravioli started pronto.

I had gotten a kilo of pork mince and a kilo of beef mince from the butcher yesterday (while the cakes were cooling) and I didn't want the meat I got to die along with the ref. So this morning, I started on the dough and mixed up the meat that would go in it.

The recipe said, "1/4 lb of ground beef and 1/4 lb of ground veal."

So I reminded myself, "1 kilo equals 2.2 lbs" but I didn't really do the math. I just decided to use 1/2 k of pork and 1/2 k of beef.

So I actually had a kilo of meat which is 2.2 lbs instead of the supposed 1/2 lb.

No wonder when I was rolling out my last portion of dough, I still had a whole lot of meat left in the bowl.

Good grief! So much for my Engineering degree.

Well, if it is any consolation, the kids liked the ravioli.

End of Warranty Guaranteed

Exactly one week before our flight to Manila, I come home to the news that the refrigerator has tripped the circuit breaker. This Whirlpool refrigerator was the first major appliance set aside for us when we finally decided we were going to migrate to Australia. It was passed on to MumofFive from her sister-in-law. When MumofFive decided to get a bigger refrigerator, this old one was moved to the garage and reserved for us, awaiting our arrival.

I don't know how old the ref is but just for the record, we HAVE been here for two years and it HAD passed through two families before us.

In a last ditch effort to extend its useful life, MacGyver removed the extension cord connecting the ref to the outlet and plugged the ref in directly. That just meant that the microwave oven had no power. No problem, I thought, I can live with that if that's what it takes to keep the refrigerator alive.

(In my mind, refrigerator ... major appliance ... major expense. LIVE! LIVE! You must LIVE!)

So fortunately, the ref was fine most of Saturday.

(Oh good, I thought, I'll have more spending money for Manila and Christmas if we don't have to get a new ref. We even baked a cake and bought ice cream from the grocery to celebrate. I'm kidding of course, we baked the cake because there was a recipe I wanted to test and we bought the ice cream because it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, in other words, it's getting quite warm these days.)

Things were looking good for the ref that MacGyver decided to revive the microwave using a different extension cord in the afternoon.

Nice. We were in business.

Or so I thought because early Sunday morning, I woke up to Gino at the doorway complaining that the power was out. The electric fan in their room had turned off and the heat had woken him up. Seems the refrigerator had decided enough is enough and it was taking all the outlets with it.

MacGyver got up, unplugged the ref and reset the circuit breaker. Everyone went back to sleep. When we got up, MacGyver switched on the circuit breaker for the ref and **poof** a couple of minutes later, MyGirl complained that her fan turned off and her laptop stopped charging.

OK. It's official now. Time for a new refrigerator.

(I suppose one can also say that a new refrigerator is a good thing. Gotta see that glass half-full.)

I don't know, there must be something about being in Australia and going home to Manila that doesn't agree with our refrigerators. It's strange but true. We were in Australia in May 2009 for our initial entry to the country and upon our arrival back in Manila, we found our refrigerator in Makati had conked out on us while we were gone.

Did you know that one of the major contributing factors to our migration to Australia was that refrigerator?

We had decided that we WOULD migrate to Australia but we hadn't quite decided WHEN. Since our refrigerator had conked out, we moved out of Makati and moved in with Father and Mother at Cebu Avenue. Since we were staying at Cebu Avenue, we had second thoughts about enrolling the children back to school. (Both GI and RD were graduating that coming schoolyear. GI from High School, RD from Grade School.)

In the end, we decided not to enroll the children in school and migrate sooner, rather than later.

And the rest is history, thanks to our refrigerator.

So I suppose, as we head back for Manila for the first time since we moved, I am reminded that we have come a long way and perhaps with a new appliance, we are to start a new phase in our life's continuing journey.

~~~~

I took a picture of the refrigerator before we cleaned it out.

Here it is without all the accumulated paraphernalia,

right before we moved it out to make space for the new one.

Thank you for your years of service, Mr. Whirlpool.

We hope your Westinghouse replacement serves us well.

Devil's Food Cake

I wanted to make my own Devil's Food Cake from scratch, complete with icing.

Don't ask my why. I'm pretty sure none of us needed the extra calories.

I think it is because the photo in the cookbook just looked so appetizing.

Anyway, when I finally found some reasonably priced cocoa in the grocery last night, my resolve to make this sinful cake was strengthened. I noted down the other ingredients I would need for the cake and when we went to the grocery this afternoon, I picked up the odds and ends of ingredients I didn't have stocked at home.

When we got home from the grocery, MyGirl and I immediately started on our cake.

It was to be a two-layered cake with icing in between.

Since I had used two different types of round pans, it was only when I flipped the second cake on top of the first that I realised they were not exactly the same size.

It is a good thing that I had put the one with a larger diameter on the bottom.

(That was actually sheer luck.)

It was quite warm this afternoon and the butter was at room temperature (or a bit higher due to its proximity to the oven) when we made the icing. I didn't think of putting the bowl of icing in the ref while the cakes were cooling so it was kind of runny when we spread it over the cake.

The icing layer we had placed in between merged into the cakes making a moist filling. (So that's how it is done.) The filling looks so different from the icing on top that I would never have thought they were the same.

As I said, the icing was all runny. Right after I put the rest of the icing on the cake, it cascaded down the sides of the cakes and onto the aluminium foil-lined chopping board.

We had to dash off to anticipated mass and when we got back, we found a whole batch of the icing had dripped down the counter and onto the floor. (Oh well, that's a couple less calories for us to worry about.)

We placed the cake in the refrigerator and when the icing had firmed up a bit, MyGirl re-iced the cake.

We had the cake for dessert and I must say it was pretty good.

MyGirl and I are extremely proud of this cake.

Maybe next time we'll try to make Angel Food Cake. It will probably be as difficult to resist having seconds but it might be a tad less sinful.

Sky's the Limit

I was on the bus when I saw this streaking across the sky.

It reminded me of Slash-M and Sesame Street. When we were young, we were fascinated at the occasional streaks in the sky. We would imaging them to be skywriting like the Alphabet Bates. Of course they never made any letters but we would stare and be amazed nonetheless.

More Than Just a Flat Tire

It's a flat bike!

I have absolutely NO IDEA what this flat bike is all about.

All I know is that this flat bike leans against the side of an outdoor cafe in Sydney.

You think Gumby left it there?

Faulty Bike Lock?

I was on my way to mass at St. Patrick's when I saw this on the side of the church.

Do you think someone went off with the rest of the bike? Or did the biker really just secure his spare tire beside the church?

Birds of Paradise

I took these pictures last October. Too bad my cellphone camera doesn't do these pretty birds justice.