We had no intentions to go out and see a movie yesterday. But we did, and we had a good time.
I was teary-eyed at several points in the movie, and so was my big chuck of a boyfriend! Haha. I hope to never have to go through such pain. Seriously.
I plan to scrap a page for this but hadn’t done any until now. Maybe tomorrow I can get down to it. Maybe.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned Scour.com before in this blog and I don’t even remember how long ago I started using it as my default search engine. I used to have another service that allows me to earn very little money for every search I did, but I noticed that my earnings didn’t budge after several days! Anyway, so I switched to Scour.com. I actually don’t remember how to earn more points, and how much each point converts to, but I just use it regularly for searching about stuff.
I used it to search for the keywords I was given for an article writing gig. I searched for images thru the service, and even looked up moving companies San Francisco. More recently though, I searched for WP themes again.
I found a new theme that’s got me deciding to relaunch a photo blog. It’s on http://verabear.net/digitalmemories but it ain’t ready yet.
I surf through many blogs each day and I always find something new, something interesting, or something that will move me to action. Today, I landed on a blog that completely made me forget the many things I had wanted to blog about. But I don’t mind, because this is something I should dedicate space to.
I can’t say that I’m familiar with Ms. Chuvaness or her blog, but today I am a fan of her campaign to help equip the Jose Fabella Hospital, to care better for the 80-100 children born there each day. Visit her page, and donate via Paypal. Through her blog I clicked a link to Moms For Moms, the people behind the moving slideshow of Fabella photos. Apparently, they were moved by another blog post, this time from Handy Dandy Diapers, and so they were inspired to take on the cause. I am still checking out the last link, I’m thinking of purchasing diapers through them because they might be able to deliver it to the hospital for me, and they also make their own donation on top of your purchase.  I’ll be sending them an email right now to inquire on their pricelist.I know it is more convenient to donate via Paypal through Chuvaness, but I want to explore this route too.
I have never been to Fabella, nor do I know anyone who has actually gone there to give birth. But I have heard about the plight, not just of Fabella, but of public (government) hospitals throughout the country. I guess what makes Fabella distinct is the reputation of birthing 80-100 babies each day. It is, after all, a hospital specializing in the care of women and children. Â It is no shocking news that mothers who have just given birth, or are waiting for their turn, would share beds with other mothers. It is not a surprise anymore to hear of two babies sharing one bassinet. Â This happens in other hospitals too. It is a sad reality. Public health care in this country, has a long long way to go.
Which is why Pinoys the world over are enraged over the US$20,000 dinner that the Philippine president and her minions recently had at the Le Cirque in NY.
Families who cannot afford the costs of giving birth at private hospitals troop to Fabella. It is at this hospital that 80-100 babies breathe their first independent breaths. It is where they have their first taste of the world, and unfortunately for some, their first bitter experience. Understand that many who go to Fabella don’t lead privileged lives (I am generalizing here although for all I know, Fabella may have paying customers too). If our babies’ first encounter with the world is something as trying as this, what can they expect from life outside the hospital?
Let us help Fabella care better for its patients. It is ultimately the government’s responsibility to allocate more funding for the health sector, but it is also our responsibility to help where we can, when we can. Supporting this cause won’t make the problem disappear, our hospitals will still be ill-equipped and our doctors and nurses underpaid. That’s an advocacy that I leave others to tackle. There will still be 80-100 babies born there each day. Population control is another matter altogether.
(Did you recently buy a home entertainment system complete with mounts and maybe even a comfy couch? Did you recently splurge on an expensive bag, or designer outfits? I’m not on a guilt trip here, and I am not telling anyone to sacrifice the lifestyles they are accustomed to. But I am enjoining readers to think about sharing their blessings, no matter how small or big. Maybe in between your big purchases, you might consider doing something for others too.)
Finally, here are the photos of my second (and successful) attempt at making cinnamon rolls! I made these last night, and there are only about three or four pieces left. These really were perfect. The bread was soft and tasty too.
The first step was to warm the milk, sugar and vegetable oil mixture. Last week, I think I overdid this part and there was some curdling going on so I made sure I watched it closely and transferred it to a bowl to cool:
Alfred was with me at that point, but he was already growing impatient and wouldn’t agree to wait 45mins to an hour for the mixture to cool down. Next step is to mix in the yeast, and then to add in flour after a minute or so. This is how the dough looked after leaving the dough to rise for about an hour:
Doesn’t look much does it? That’s because I only made half the original recipe .
Flash back to my attempt last week. Here’s how the dough looked after mixing, and after an hour:
At that point I’d already punched it down and mixed it a bit. But take a closer look and you’ll know that the dough overflowed!
Next was a bit of kneading and then rolling out the dough. This is a challenge because we don’t have a decent countertop for this purpose. This turned out to be my work area:
I used a cookie sheet. This turned out okay but I couldn’t roll the dough thin enough because the rolling pin handles would hit the sides of the pan. Which explains why my first try is quite thick:
I knew at this point that it was a success. First time I tried this, it didn’t look this way. It was too soggy then!
Here they are before going into the oven, having had about 30-45 minutes time to rise. There were two more trays after this batch.
Here they are, straight from the oven. I had already glazed these with the coffee flavored frosting leftover from last week’s attempt. I didn’t drown them with it though. Â Let’s take a closer look shall we?
If you can’t imagine how this tastes, imagine how heavenly the smell was in our kitchen. 🙂 I’d make these everyday if I could!
I am once again giving P-Dub’s Cinnamon Rolls another try. My first attempt was a semi-success. It tasted good, but I didn’t get the consistency I expected. Â But it was really good.
This time, I’ve decided to make all of them in small bite size pieces and call them cinnies. Haha. I don’t have a counter top that I can use to properly roll out dough you see, so I’ve got to part the dough several times and then roll and spread some yummy goodness, cut and bake.
The boyfriend is supposed to be helping me, but he doesn’t want to wait for the hour that the dough needs to rise. He says he’s sleepy. At 7PM!
We’ll see, if he gets any sleep. If he does, then we’ll see if he gets any taste of my cinnies. He didn’t get any the first time around.
What I really should be trying to bake are the oat bran muffins that Delaney sent over a few weeks back. If I make them healthy muffins, I’d need not buy any other weight loss supplement to curb my appetite or make me flush out the excess fats in my big body. That’s my next target.
