That One Time I Pretended I Was Japanese

(This is way overdue but yeah. When am I ever not late?)

Here in the Philippines, Valentine’s Day is often celebrated by boy givings chocolates, flowers or whatnot to the girls they like. When I was still in school, my father used to send me flowers while I was in class. (One time, I got the flowers while I was in a contest, writing an essay haha) I appreciated it very much. It also proved to me that my father is the sweetest man in the world, no questions asked. I really don’t think I’d meet a sweeter man.

But in Japan, we all know that it’s the opposite. It’s the girls who give gifts to the people she likes. Though Valentine’s Day is commercialized, I still think it’s a pretty nice day. I don’t get flowers from anyone but my father. When I was younger, that would cause me to be all angsty on V-day. I’d get all gloomy when I see girls carrying flowers and teddy bears. And my foolish high school self would dream about getting flowers from my crush. Delusional high school student right thur. Dammit. But I grew up (a little) and realized that V-day is not just for lovers. When I was in high school, I’d give little chocolates to my friends. But never to my crush because I’m like Sawako who’s to shy to give chocolates to Kazehaya. Whut.

This year, though, I decided to try something else. I decided to bake cookies! Alex and I don’t really celebrate V-Day. I mean, we meet on that day but we don’t really do anything special. Last year, we didn’t even see each other that day. We also usually don’t give gifts because we’re not that kind of couple. Heh. But different is good (sometimes) so I decided to bake him some cookies last V-day. I wanted to bake him a cake, actually, but I’m no baker.

Also, I do not have an oven and I do not know how to bake. Lulz.

Good thing, I have a friend who likes to bake and was willing to help me with my plans. Thank you May for being such a good baking teacher! She just gave me a list of ingredients and I did the grocery shopping myself! I decided to go all out and to bake cookies for my family and officemates, too. Am I bored or what. Anyway, we didn’t have an oven but May agreed that I could bake at their place. Yay yay yay.

I made Peanut Butter with Choco Chips Drop Cookies, and I must say that it was pretty good. I’m not saying that just because I made them, too.  Wehe

Some of the things I learned that day:

1. There are different kinds of cookies! I actually thought there’s only one. Heh. We made drop cookies, but I don’t think I’m eloquent enough to explain what a drop cookie is.
2. Folding. It’s a baking term that May taught me ages ago but I stupidly forgot. But I re-learned it and I promise to not forget again.
3. It’s truly cheaper to just make your own cookies/pastries/cakes than buy it from a bakeshop. I made a lot of cookies (enough to feed 50 people!) and spent only 500php or so.
4. That you just really have to follow the recipe. Then you can also tweak it if you like but only if you’re really good already. Haha.
5. It takes a few tries before you get it right.
6. The wonderful purpose of shortening!
7. Taking a photo while stirring the batter is the most challenging part of this baking session.
8. Baking is messy. Like, really messy.

Those are the drop cookies before they went to the oven. The first batches were rolled in sugar first but it was too sweet! We decided that the succeeding batches to no longer be sugar-coated.

May also cooked pancit canton for me! I will miss Mommy May when she leaves for Guam next week. /sobs

The first batch! They were sugar-coated and we didn’t put shortening in it. It was too flat and too sweet so we added shortening and didn’t roll it in sugar the next time. I brought a lot of cookies for my officemates and I’m just happy that they finished it. I was scared that no one would like it and would think it’s too sweet! But they finished it and I can’t be happier. Heh.

The perfect cookies I gave Alex. Wahahaha. Actually, May bought the box, saying that I should at least give it with a nice presentation. Ha! That’s one of the things that escape my unromantic self. I guess being sweet takes practice. I just keep forgetting about the details! Hehe. Fortunately, Alex liked the cookies! That made my day, seriously. In case you’re wondering, he gave me chocolates which he tried to slip inside my bad but I saw him doing it, okay. I’m such a spoiler.

Happy White Day everyone! I’m pretty sure it’s still March 14 in some parts of the world. I didn’t give chocolates to anyone today and sadly didn’t receive any, too. Oh well.

(P.S. This is my entry for the category Doing Something for the First Time Every Month thing I plan for this year. Hehe. I haven’t posted about my first time for January, though.)