Peanut butter & oreo stuffed brownie bites

Domestic Diva Diaries. You are definitely on the right blog!

Back in high school, I used to assist my mom in baking pastries from scratch. Our holiday bakefest usually ends with carefully packed chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies pirated from Mrs. Fields, macaroons (with desiccated coconut and NOT macarons), cheese muffins, chocolate cupcakes, crinkles, with all their fresh homemade goodness! Since these bakefests are not only physically demanding but rather costly too, they usually run exclusively during the Holiday season.

On most days when the need to showcase one's domestication arises, boxed instant cake mix will definitely help save the day!

Ghirardelli brownie mix would yield a VERY VERY VERY rich chocolate-y confection as expected, given the reputation of this famous opulent chocolate brand. It's not too milky sweet mind you, it's rich in terms of texture, consistency and cocoa flavor. Baked as is, is just way too sinful and if luxury has a taste, it would definitely be that of a Ghirardelli brownie square, hence I always look for fun and *coughs* cheaper *coughs* ingredient that could balance the expensive taste. 

Before I share this easy peasy recipe I discovered, I would like to debunk 2 baking myths:

1. It's okay to bake marshmallows into brownies if folding them halfway into baking time sounds too advanced-baking for ya. According to baking legends, baking marshmallows would cause them to expand, creating a batter explosion mess inside your oven. I just proved this wrong. 
2. Brownie mix CAN be used to bake small muffins or cupcakes. Just don't expect them to rise and be fluffy; remember, brownies are meant to be chewy, dense and thick. Muffin liners are awfully difficult to peel from brownies so patience, my dear

The first time I made cookie sandwich-stuffed brownies, I would complain about how difficult it is to cut the brownies without slicing through the cookies since they tend to float after the batter settles in the baking pan. The only solution I could think of is baking them into muffin pans with liners for easy partition. 

These were the only available muffin liners and are meant for jumbo muffins. I tried fitting them into smaller muffin pans but they easily crease, making filling more difficult and messy. Stacking two oreos is not economically sound hence I placed an oreo and a half held together by a generous smear of peanut butter. Oreos make a good baking ingredient; they are pliable but they also easily burn so be wary of baking time and observe them from time to time. It's tricky to distinguish burnt Oreo given its natural dark chocolate color.

If I can redo the procedure, I would reduce baking time to 20 minutes and give the brownie bites time to cool. Ghirardelli brownies tend to be crunchy on the outside (inside remains soft and chewy, I promise) with prolonged baking time. I'd give this recipe 4 stars out of 5. 5 is a level of perfection I can only give to, say a Valrhona souffle' or Myron's caramel pudding and that level is pretty difficult to reach, let alone surpass.

ISA'S VERDICT: Nutella over peanut butter. Being the girl who would literally eat spoonfuls of Nutella a day, I think substituting Nutella for peanut butter is already beyond my sweetness limit. We already have here a TRIPLE CHOCOLATE batter and adding oreo AND NUTELLA would make that, what? Penta-chocolate sumthin' sumthin'..? I could not, for the life of me imagine the taste as it would devoid the recipe of flavor diversity, only varying levels of chocolate. 

YARD SALE!

If you're around UP Los Banos area in a month's time (around first-second week of June), please support my clothing drive where I'll be selling heaps of pre owned/pre loved clothing mostly from Roxy, H&M, Topshop, Bayo, The Ramp, Forever 21 and soooo much more :) Now you know my clothes are lucky if they make the 7th round of usage, meaning most of them don't even make it to regular circulation, MEANING most of these clothes were only used about 3x MAX! With the exception of my favorite college clothes which I also tossed into this pile :) 

Keep you girls posted! And friends if you're reading this, let me know please if you wanna join! :)

Where we're going, we don't need roads

Business up front, party in the back!

A taboo, infamous quotation reference to such an exquisite statement almost defies its very purpose. Who doesn’t love a good surprise? For that special day Thursday the 25^th , I threw in a little surprise number in the form of this sweet tea-length dress to celebrate a family friend’s 18^th coming out birthday party, which is the major surprise overall.

I’d say nobody does cutouts better than Topshop, until my recent Miss Selfridge discovery almost derailed my apparent idolatry over this brand. It is probably more fitting to say nobody does cutouts better than [insert list of Brands under] Arcadia group. HAHA. Sir Philip Green, would it be too much to wish you were my godfather?!

In the end, almost all concepts fall victim to the theory of reflexivity. Just like how technology is the greatest threat to technology, at the end of the day,Topshop’s biggest competition is, well, Topshop. (I swear quoting yourself kickstarts a cringefest!) The design team behind my number one retail of choice almost ripped Kate Moss’ design for Topshop some three Spring collections ago. Kate Moss’ design incarnation came with the best feature you could possibly add to give this innocent piece a kick—a sweeping back cut out the size of Texas.

So don’t be fooled, the most innocent of fronts could just literally be a front and clearly this isn’t only applicable to human behavior. I could always start professing my undying love for cut outs and back-baring, Pneumonia-inducing statement dresses, but I betcha already read through that more than once.

Who wore it best part deux, if I may. Just kidding! I managed to unearth these photos from Georgina Wilson’s Instagram, with Anne Curtis wearing the exact dress some fashion eons ago.

Nowhere Fast

Speeding through the meandering road of my early twenties life makes me wish I could slow down a bit. While my batchmates are making names for themselves in their respective industries, investing in properties, advancing in top management ranks, receiving hefty paychecks, getting hitched, here I am with a frozen post-collegiate employment feat. Not for long, I keep on convincing myself, what's 3 more semesters to fastrack a career I have been wanting to build and progress with in the future. 

I have long argued graduate school is slowing me down, but my genius of a father keeps on reminding me to look at it as one step back, two steps forward. It pains me to hold back from a lot of humanly indulgent things like shopping, dining and travelling to name a few (which I could possibly be enjoying  'til the heavens if I'm employed full time) but the expenses that come with attaining a post graduate degree is no joke and I'm just eternally grateful my parents are not pulling the plug on me yet. 

The demands of summer school is surprisingly intense. Being the lone Master of Science-pursue-r in class amidst a sea of students pursing a degree in Master of Management, I have consoled myself to exert extra HEAPS of effort so I can free myself off the dresses-and-high-heels-wearing-bimbo prejudice in class. By virtue of the UP grading system, 1.0 is the highest grade and I am beyond-the-rainbow thrilled my grades last semester didn't disappoint. While I still have a month of summer class to  endure, possibly a week of freedom to enjoy thereafter, I plan on conditioning my brain for a fully academically-loaded semester this coming June. 

And so the reclusive life begins. 

Electric Dreams

The color orange - probably the most feared, intimidating shade in the color wheel. It's a hit or miss, either you're really into it or the slightest hint (?!?) can trigger your gag reflex. This dress came with a warning, it's not for the faint of heart! I wouldn't call it poster piece in a long list of Topshop Hall-of-fame-rs, in fact, capital W-T-Fs were beaming in my head when I first saw this dress. FLUORO, seriously Topshop?! Wait til you see this in actual, words of caution: it can be blinding.

My little trip down the dressing room was intended as a joke, just for the heck of trying out something. I can say I was at the peak of my unexpected weight gain that time, last year (and no, I wasn't pregnant) and this dress was probably dusted with slimming magic. So that did the trick. 

I never really got into the neon/fluoro trend, I'd like to keep my highlighters strictly for scholarly business only, thank you. It was the collective impact of the style, details and material that begged the dress to be bought. The irony of using orange to come up with such a classy piece is almost too intriguing.

You can never really go wrong with lace, no matter how scandalous the shade can be. In fact it's almost sacrilegious to use those words in one sentence, how can you not look classy and lady like in lace? In the end, the scallop hem won me over.

I was speeding on a nightrain bound for a wreck: overwhelming graduate school demands, pressure to lose weight, desperate attempt to fit my workout regime and 'wasting' away days by cutting significant calorie intake from my diet.. all in a day's work. With real life bound to choke me any time now, I knew I had to get away, FAST. I almost forgot the bliss that goes with family time and the opportunity to dress up.

I was so giddy on Easter Sunday I was barfing unicorns, rainbows, butterflies and glitters! Recall how I called this dress hit or miss? Well my entire family put this dress under the MISS part. Like that has stopped me before, right? I was feeling anxious the first time I wore it out and got a surprising number of compliments from strangers. Not even exaggerating. It just goes to show my family doesn't get it sometimes. chos!

ON THE ORANGE CORNER.... !!!

Who Wore it Best?
Demi Lovato VS Ana Reynoso in Topshop coral lace skater dress
I obviously spent more time reading Us Weekly than studying for geometry in High School.

Arabela has always been our family's Easter Feast destination. It's a small quaint coffee shop located in the vicinity of the iconic Liliw church. This is so worth taking the road trip, take my word for it!

Allowed myself to indulge in a high protein, lean steak (relax, it's kosher).......only to cave in to their mouth-watering desserts. The true test of discipline came crumbling down...down.......down....

Strawberry cheesecake | Chocolate chip cheescake | Chocolate mousse | Blueberry cheesecake | SLICE OF HEAVEN ON A PLATE AKA Tiramisu 

HEAR THAT?! My stomach just exploded! It's highly impossible to order one dessert item off the menu ergo, two of those were for me. HAH! I shared naman the other plate ;) If you think cheesecakes are evil, wait 'til they serve it on heavy cream with chocolate syrup. Recipe for instant diet relapse, anyone?

Tan lines fade, photographs are forever

Life's a beach.
Grin and bare it!

She's totally beachin'

The sweltering heat makes everything ten times more difficult, even dressing up. I always try to conceptualise an outfit around a particular theme and do what it takes to look the part. My taste is also well-defined, I will never settle for anything less than how I picture the entire outfit to look like. The key is to incorporate old pieces and trust me, your closet is a treasure trove of past season's junk that can be reconstructed. 

When it comes to beach dressing, the challenge is to bisect the points of comfort, style and functionality. Heavy fabrics should never see the light of day and so do bold colors, but says who, right? Perks of living in the 21st century, we get to exercise freedom! For my beach wear, I built the outfits around the swimsuits. 

Exhibit A: Saint Tropez street style. As much as I hate paisley (Per Elle Wood's mantra: Nobody looks good in paisley), this Princeton Slider Bikini from Roxy, has a hint of paisley at first glance. But if you examine closely, it's more hibiscus layered with another printed fabric. The contrast of teal against coral makes accessorizing easier and the collective effect of clashing prints swayed the entire look into a complete bohemian vibe. 

I threw on a plum colored lace kaftan as a makeshift swimsuit coverup. It served me well as an after-sun bathing dressy tunic that took me from the beach to brunch-ready. When travelling light, it's best to consider the functionality of every article of clothing if you want to maximize your baggage allowance. I opted for a more covered-up tunic (never mind the dense lace fabric) as opposed to lightweight sheers because I want something dressy enough to be paraded around even off-shore. It almost neutralized the busy prints I have on with the tribal printed Cotton On scarf, floral purse, bangles and rainbow flip flops. 

Exhibit B. Baywatch Betty. Say 'Baywatch' and bright reds and high cuts instantly come to mind. I chose this red bodycon tank dress to go over my geometric bandeau bikini from Roxy. The black and white geometric print looks great when it peeks through the exaggerated wide armholes. 

The straps are left hanging to prevent overlapping tan lines and to bring out the geometric print of the bandeau by accentuating it with a red necklace. 

Of course I brought with me my cut out clothes AKA the clothes I-cannot-get-away-with-on-a-normal-day for my nightlife/party outfits. Give the night time sea breeze to cool you down for ten minutes before you come into terms with the actual night time humidity. I cannot express my desire to wear this top but doing so could be lethal as my parents would never approve of the little coverage this top offers. So after 9874692 years it finally made its debut in Boracay. HAHA. This beauty is rather tricky to style given its length and coverage; it almost slips as an exception to my ultimate rule in balance. 

Topshop zip back cut out top | Topshop pansy print scallop hem shorts 

I would normally resort to jeans, but skin is in.