Author: Layla

Gifts the student in your life will appreciate AT ANY SEASON

Published by Layla

  Missed a birthday? Too late for Christmas? Not able to make it for Valentine’s Day? Got a student in your life you need to appreciate? While this post is actually late, one can still give gifts that can be used throughout the year–especially when the recipient is a student! This post was inspired by a memory in law school: it was the season for class Christmas parties and exchanging gifts. One of my classmates played it safe and included a wishlist (I kid you not) along with the slip of paper where her “code name” was scribbled. Her list included: Post-Its (five pieces, the long yellow ones) Pilot G-Tech pens (0.3/0.4)–black, blue and red: TWO OF EACH Stabilo Boss Highlighters (Blue, Yellow, Pink, Orange, Green–AGAIN, TWO OF EACH) Index cards, both sides unruled; 100 pieces. 1 ten piece set of Staedtler Fineliner pens Okay, I can go on all afternoon! But at least you get the gist. The funny thing was, she wasn’t alone where wishlists were concerned. A few classmates even ventured as …

Soup du jour: Cream of carrot and celery soup

Published by Layla

The holidays have come and gone! To be honest, I’m still feeling stuffed, and mind, we didn’t even prepare a lot of food! For Christmas, we had roast chicken (followed Gordon Ramsay’s recipe for roast turkey…but as turkey is a good deal more costly in the Philippines, I made do with a large chicken), pasta (recipe to be shared one of these days), and soup. For soup, traditionally we have a special kind of chicken macaroni soup every Christmas. This time, however, I wanted to try something new. To be honest, I was nervous about preparing this–as it would be my first time preparing it. This soup recipe came from my late paternal aunt, who is the absolute queen (apart from my mum) of preparing good food. She shared this recipe to my older sister (do check out her blog), who made this soup quite often, but not too often as it to cease becoming a treat. When I was younger, I used to assist her in cooking and baking, and I would pretty dumb …

Mini Apple-Caramel Pie Puffs

Published by Layla

  I’ve seen this recipe go all over the internet for an age–and I wonder why I never gathered the courage to try until recently. One of my favourite bloggers made this too and posted the recipe here, and I followed the recipe loosely. Loosely because I took out one ingredient and used another (it still turned out the way I expected it to–and probably even better–in my opinion, at least). You’ll need the following: 4 apples chopped into small pieces like this: 5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (you may use lemon juice if you like, but I gave this a try and it brought out the best apple flavour EVER). 3 tablespoons cinnamon 1 and 1/2 cup brown sugar Puff pastry 2 tablespoons vanilla (I know what everyone says about vanilla, but everything seems to taste better with it!) Caramel 1 beaten egg (for the egg wash)