Lemon Curd Macarons

Baking, either at our place or at my parents' place, is never easy.  Here at our place, because of our tiny kitchen, we don't have enough counter top space for the two of us to bake at the same time.  If we do our bakefest at my parents' place, none of my regular baking pans fit because my Mom has a small oven.

It was driving both of us crazy.  So last week, we bought a new oven.  YEY!!

It's bigger; it can fit four 13 inch pans and has an even heating element.  I was practically jumping up and down all the way to my parents' home.    I was so excited to try it out!  I gathered all my macaron ingredients and went to work.

Unfortunately, because it's a new oven, our first batch was a dismal failure.  I totally forgot how quirky new ovens were.  It took my sister and I several baking attempts to get to know the oven.  Six batches of macarons to be exact.  (Most were still edible, but looked really pitiful though.)

On our seventh batch, after a lot of tweaks with our recipe as well as adjustments with the oven temp and baking time, we finally got it right.  I was squealing with delight when I saw the ruffled feet peek out from beneath the intact shiny meringue domes.  Finally!  A good batch of macarons that we can properly fill with the lemon curd I prepared.

Love the bokeh on this photo. :) 

Inspired by my sister (who loves doing origami), I made little origami boxes for the samplers we gave a few friends.  (Origami paper from Saizen.)

I'm thrilled that we now have orders for Christmas. :D

Babies!

They are part of the reasons why I love our job :)

Peryodiko for Rock Rizal

A couple of months ago, May and Leslie invited Nards and myself to take behind-the-scene photos of Peryodiko while they recorded a track for the Rock Rizal album.  We had a scheduled shoot with a client the same day.  So while Nards and PJ were taking portraits of beautiful women, Beng and I trooped to Sound Creation Studio to take photos of rockstars.

The studio is littered with a lot of cute Japanese toys.  I have a photo of Astroboy perched near the monitor.  But I left it on a different HD.  I might post it later.

I find this beautiful. :)   I love all the scribbled notes and chords on the margins.

My girls. :)

It was great to see Peryodiko, especially Vin and Kakoy whom I haven't seen in quite a while.  But the best part of the day was seeing Hazel.  We were classmates since the first grade, and I haven't seen her since fifth grade!

Vin's secret.  Ssssshhhh.

The album is finally out.  It's an awesome compilation of songs in honor of the 150th anniversary of Jose Rizal.  I love love love the album.  Great artists, amazing songs.  And the best thing about it is that it's free!    Listen and download the whole album here.

Pajama Party

Since Monday last, last week, I've been confined in bed because of a nasty virus.  I got the whole shebang: terrible headaches, congested passageways, deciding which was more important to me: eating or breathing, coughing my lungs out, body ache that was so bad that I whimpered when Nards felt my forehead, chills and fever.

I absolutely hate getting sick, but such is my disposition.  I am sickly, always have been since I was a child, but it has gotten worse after my bout with Dengue a few years ago.   I feel bad for Nards who was managing our businesses (including our maternity line) while doing photo coverage of events on his own. Then when he came home after a whole day of work, he has to take care of me.   He'd feed me in bed, take care of my meds, soothe me when I was sniveling under the blankets and entertain me by watching mindless sitcoms on the laptop.  I thank God everyday for blessing me with such a good husband.

So it was such a great relief to me that I was finally able to get out of bed and transfer to the recliner in the living room after seven days in bed.  It was easier on Nards, since he could work on the desktop, while I napped behind him.  It was a long weekend too, so there were lesser calls to answer, and we were not obliged to check our emails.  But I was worried because we had an engagement shoot after the holidays.  I was also supposed to do the hair and make up of our bride.

Nards didn't want me to join him on the shoot, but I insisted I was okay.  Cabin fever has set in days before, and I just wanted to go out of the house.  Good thing my sister assisted us during the shoot, and it wasn't as bad as I expected.  I was exhausted in an hour and had to sit down and direct the shoot instead of actively taking photos.

The concept for the shoot was a pajama party.  The couple both love staying in, surfing, reading and just hanging out.  And Nards and I both love basing our shoots on the clients' personalities.

I'm happy that they liked the photos.  It feels good to go back to work. :)