citrus – Page 6 – morestomach

some weekends ago,
maybe it was two ago,
i had brunch with some of dw’s friends
i remember it was a blustery day
warm in the sunlight
cold in the shade
the kind of weather you felt
silly for toting a jacket
but foolish without a scarf

these friends of dw’s
had just returned from a jaunt out west
where they picked calamansi fruit
from their father’s tree
and shared with me
just the smell of these tiny citrus fruits
took me back to the time
i lived in manila
when my nanny made fresh calamansi juice everyday
a drink that wasn’t quite like lemonade
but had all the components to quench a thirst
that only childhood and tropical heat can produce

because our home now is nothing like
the heat the Philippines is known for
i like to utilize the oven much more often
than is necessary in the cooler months
there is always something to bake,
you know?
a cake
bread
roasting veggies
any reason at all to turn that knob
and so with that in mind
after a whirlwind 2 days in Charlotte
last weekend,
before the calamansi could go bad,
i used them in some breakfast cakes
to add a touch of sour and sweet
and all good things reminiscent of
the tropics
these cakes were born.

edit to add: felicia of dish by dish adapted this recipe, found here.

calamansi olive oil bread
adapted from gourmet traveller, Sept 2011 issue

makes 12 mini loaves

300 g sugar
3 eggs
1 cup almond milk (any milk, animal or otherwise)
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice 11 calamansi (that’s how many i had… alternatively, you can use juice of 3 lemons)
2 cups plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder

preheat oven to 350F

in kitchen aid mixer, beat sugar, eggs and pinch of salt until thickened

combine the almond milk, olive oil and calamansi juice, mix. slowly add to egg mixture. add in the dried ingredients

divide among greased tins (i used my mini loaf pans, though i think cupcake/muffin tins would be fine, or just one loaf pan, but the baking time would be different).

bake for 13 minutes

allow to cool before removing from tins

serve warm or at room temp

best eaten day of, with coffee or tea, or if you can’t possibly eat them all in one sitting, wrap well in plastic wrap, will keep for the week in fridge

so avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. a man is not very tired, he is exhausted. don’t use very sad, use morose. language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo women – and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do.” N.H. Kleinbaum, Dead Poets Society

this may be a weird thought,
but i equate online dating,
or rather,
the reading of online dating profiles
to reading a professional resume
i know in my previous
post i used the analogy of
Online Dating as
a Swimming Pool,
one where i dove headfirst into
the deep end
(cus, what other way is there?)
when i signed into
the match making site
i really viewed it as a
job application –
this looking for an ideal mate,
and interviewing to see if i’m
someone’s ideal mate
as a professional headhunter
i say without ego
that i am an excellent judger of
a shitty resume

personally, i have rules with
regards to how a resume should look:
punctuation (this space is exempt)
capitalization (again, this space is exempt)
grammar (seriously)
first person vs third person perspective
length of resume (too short shows lack
of imagination, too much bores me to death & i end up skimming)

this isn’t even touching on the subject
of pictures

again, with my rules:
recent pictures
(i can normally tell if a photo
is outdated, hello 1996 high school class pic)
group picture or worse, a picture
with someone (usually a chick) cropped out
the topless in the bathroom shot
(there’s an alarming amount out there)

last, but actually the beginning:
the manner in which the
perspective applicant applied
the wink or “yo” emails were
promptly deleted and depending
on my mood, blocked
if there was even a slightest
indication that the guy did not
read my profile
(which, i’ll be truthful, read
very much like how i talk,
which incidentally, is how i write here)
if the email was interesting enough,
the profile was alright,
it was then that i responded

i know, i’m such a brat
it’s a wonder i got asked out
but i managed to go on dates,
a few of them repeats!
this went on for an exhausting 3 weeks
when one night
i received an email that
stopped me in my tracks
made me sit down
log into my account
to respond
and give him my personal contact
information right off the bat
it was dw’s email
i just knew

you know when you ask your
mother/whoever how they knew they met
The One
and they say vaguely,
and maddeningly,
that you just know
that was my moment
i just knew
he woo’d me from the first email
and i just knew
he was The One

Meyer Lemon Bars
*note: i didn’t make these. dw did. i know. see what i mean?

1 cup flour
1/3 cup scant coconut oil, melted
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350°
Mix flour, coconut oil, and confectioner’s sugar.
Press evenly into bottom of square pan
Bake for 20 minutes

Beat remaining ingredients until light and fluffy.
Pour over hot crust and bake about 25 minutes longer
Cool
Cut into squares

other citrus and/or bars:
angry asian creations – lemon bars
angry asian creations – lime bars
morestomach blog – chocolate wonderfuls
spontaneous tomato – peach rhubarb oatmeal bars
une gamine dans la cuisine – brown butter peach crumb bars