Let's Bake Easy

Are you in a baking rut but kids are nudging you to make cookies or cakes? Do you feel intimated by baking ingredients and jargons you read in those cook books but wanted so much to make your own brownies or cupcakes?

Why not take it one step at a time. These tips and easy-to-find mixes will help you through your baking experience. This is how I started as well when I tried baking for the first time and it's what I recommend to friends who are first-time bakers and wants to create their own confections. 

Pancake mix

We make the traditional pancake with this mix. 

If you want a muffin, you can add sweet corn (canned in water) or cheese in your pancake batter (see package instructions for the batter). Line the cupcake pan with liners and fill cupcake liners with batter, pop in the over (oven toaster will do) and ta-da! You got corn or cheese muffins for the family. 

For the muffin, I used softened butter instead of oil.

More tip: when filling the cupcake liner with batter, make sure to fill only ¾ of the cup. The batter will rise a few minutes after you popped the muffin in the oven and the ¼ allowance from the rim is meant for this.

Everything is store-bought, canned corn, cheese, pancake mix. We love Maya or Queens brands. 

Sharon’s Choco Crinkles.

Easy to follow steps, you just need to have confectioner sugar available as this does not come with the box. 

We used an oven toaster for this recipe and the first one. Aside from baking based on instructions on the box, make sure to check and turn your goodies every now and then so they bake evenly on all sides. I do this even if I use my conventional oven. 

My happy bakers

And just like that, the kids prepared the table for our choco crinkle party!

Maya Fudge Brownie Mix

I have said it before, we're a big Maya products fan. This store-bought mix is my quick go-to when the kids have this urge to bake. Last weekend, we baked again and tweaked the ingredients a little because the little girl saw this recipe while watching Food Network (she said she wants to be a chef when she grows up) :) Instead of adding ½ cup butter, we put in ¼ c. butter and ¼ cup mayo. Once chocolate mixture is well blended, we folded in mallows and chopped cherries and it turned out gooey than fudgy. Just the way we likey J

 Any easy baking tip you want to share? Have a wacky Wednesday :)

How to Renew Your Driver's License

I finally got my much-deserved time out from work and took the opportunity to do some personal errands last Monday. I have like 6 or 7 itineraries/tasks for that day and wanted to have them done all in a day. It was a tall order, I know but I felt productive nevertheless at the end of the day.

You see, these tasks have been in the back burner for months and some even years like getting our copy of memorial lot title from the main office, etc. Weekday free is such a rare commodity in the Garcia household and husby and I reserve our company leaves for very very important activities and events that need our presence. The kids are top priority, of course.

Moving on, I would like to share my happy experience with driver's license renewal at Robinson's Galleria. I got there a few minutes before 10am and by 1138am I was texting husby that I'm done na. He renewed his driver's license in LTO Tiendesitas branch and mas konti daw tao so he wanted me to go there instead but I insisted on going to Rob Galle because of my other errands.

When I got to the mall, I went directly to LTO satellite office located at East Wing basement 1 (your landmark going to B1 East wing would be either Mcdonalds or Yellow Cab at level 1) . When renewing your driver's license make sure to bring your old license, cash and pen.

Here's the step by step procedure in renewing driver's license based on my personal experience:

1. present old driver's license at and get an application form from the counter (first door, the bigger/wider room)

2. go to the next door (medical exam procedure is done), fill up the form with needed information and submit to the cashier further into the room. This is quite a small room with narrow aisle so just work your way and be nice to everyone hehe.

3. present your application form, driver's license and pay  P100 to the cashier (for the medical exam, I think). The cashier will then give you a receipt, all your submitted docs and a queue number.

4. Wait to be called. I didn't fill up everything in the form when I submitted to the cashier and she didn't mind. I think her concern really is that I have my name on the form and my old driver's license. While waiting to be called for the medical exam, I took the time to finish filling up the form.

5. When it was my turn for medical exam, they checked my current height, weight, BP and eyesight. No need for urine and drug test based on new act so the process is actually faster.

6. After the medical exam, I was asked to go back to door no.1  and submit my forms (application form and medical form). I waited again for the picture taking and digital signature signing.

7. After my data was updated (I was delinquent for 7 months :( ) I paid P492.63 for the new ID and by 1138am, I got a new driver's license. Yay!

I paid a total of P592.63 and spent 1. 5 hours for my new driver's license. I surrendered my old non-pro license and I now have a pro license :0 See more on different types of licenses here.

After that I went straight to SMART wireless center to update my account (it's been dormant as well since our company issued a prepaid load monthly). From that visit, I realized that I'm actually a postpid subscriber since 2004. Almost a decade na. After SMART, I went to the bank to settle insurance payments. Tiring but I'm thankful I can do it all in one place.

I was able to go shopping pa for the kids' halloween costumes :)

Top 10 Visa Misconception and What we Need to Know

Lately, I have frequent day dreams of having a latte in a quaint cafe overlooking the Eiffel tower or walking along the cobbled streets of London. 

More than once, husby and I talked about celebrating our wedding anniversary in a European country. Preferably a place near the ocean because, as you can see in our travel destinations, we are beach people. Moreover, there are also talks of securing work abroad (this is more one-sided as husby is far from that throught, for now). 

Now comes the matter of going there, well, luckily for us we have family members who are already immigrants of London so it will be easier to take care of requirements. 

For some, in can be a hit and miss situation. Thankfully, now we have a lot of help from online researches and from institutions that assists those who are planning to work or live abroad. 

The article below hopes to enlighten those of us who wish to travel abroad either as a tourist,  work worce or as a student. It's a long read but it's worth the time. 

Top 10 Visa Misconception

The thought of working or studying away from your country of origin comes with tons of facts involving the processes, the laws or policies governing each country and certain misconceptions.

For certain visa application you can easily visit the embassy or a representative of the country you may want to visit or work to.  You may want to seek assistance from offices who does services of immigration or visa consultancy companies such as Global Visas.

 

Before you get scrupulous over some details in your visa application, let’s bust a few misconceptions about getting visas.

1.  All EU states are governed under the Schengen agreement.

The Schengen zone includes 22 EU member states and covers more than 400 million people. All the EU states are included except Great Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria. Four European non-EU members - Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Norway - have acceded to the agreement.  

This however is the prevailing truth, once someone enters the Schengen zone, he or she can travel freely without visas, and without having passports checked at borders.

2.  All nationality needs to get Schengen Visas if they want to work or tour Europe.

North Americans, most South Americans, Australians and Japanese are admitted without a visa for three months (90 days).

3.   You can apply to any embassy as long as they give Schengen Visas. 

You need to be certain on the countries you are getting your passport stamped on.  

That is why, visa applications must be lodged at the Embassy/Consulate of the country of intended visit. If your plan is to visit several countries, visa application must be made at the Embassy/Consulate of the main destination country—meaning the length of stay in this destination is the longest. If the length of stay in each country is almost the same, apply at the country of first entry.

4.  If you have a valid US Visa, you can  reside in the U.S. for that entire period. 

The terms “visa” and “status” are often used loosely and even interchangeably.  However, failure to clearly understand the differences between these words can lead to unintended immigration consequences.  

Visa is your point of entry to the country, but does not determine you admissibility.

An alien’s status is classified under the category of admission (such as visitor, student, intra-company worker) and the duration of stay permitted.   Thus, your stay permission is dependent on the kind of status you have.

5.   UK and Ireland  is in Europe, thus you can freely cross border  coming from other European countries.    Note that the UK and Ireland are not a part of the Schengen agreement.  Coming from other countries in Europe, you need to apply for Irish or UK Visa.

6.  Does that mean that UK and Ireland people need to get Schengen visa to go to other European countries?

While the UK and Ireland are not part of the Schengen area, their citizens can stay indefinitely in other EU countries, only needing paperwork if they want to work long-term or take up residency.

7.  What are the rules for working in France? I’ve heard that I have no hope of getting a work permit.
8.  It is legal to work in the U.S. on a visitor's visa.
9. Getting a valid airline ticket booked while applying for a certain visa can help with the approval of visas.
10.  Applying a Visa on your own is easy and cheaper.

European Union citizens can legally work in France. Foreigners outside of the EU must do the following, in this order : find a job, obtain a work permit, obtain a visa de long séjour, go to France, and  apply for a carte de séjour.

Visitor’s visas do not authorize employment in the U.S. In order to work, a person needs a working visa, called an H-1B visa or some other type of work authorization. H-1B working visas are for college graduates who will work in a job related to their college degree. This visa is valid for 3 years, with a 3-year extension, for a total of 6 years.

No agencies have advised that a visa applicant make any travel plans, including purchase of air tickets, unless their visa was cleared by the consulate.

Have you ever found dealing with the government easy? We bet not. All over the world citizens find government bureaucracies frustrating, annoying and insulting. It may have something to do with their virtual unaccountability, their lack of skill and experience or maybe, to be honest, they just do not care!

The processing is tedious and may require you to spend a lot of time waiting.  However, there are trusted agencies like Global Visas who can deal with this for you.  They can actually make them care for you having known the laws for that.  Global Visas can make applying Visas easy for you.

Global Visas has won for its clients the most difficult battles as far as visa facilitation is concerned, such as immigration to Australia. The expertise of the Global Visas team allows it to deliver the best quality service in the lodgment of spousal, fiancée, tourist and working visas. The company holds the distinct advantage of having personnel in destination countries as well as constant updating of visa regulations in these areas: the USA, Canada, UK and other parts of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asian territories. Visit http://www.globalvisas.com/ for more information.

Online Worksheets for Kids

With our hunt for Sophie’s new school comes our preparation for the entrance exams. We are not yet sure if she will turn grade 1 or  kinder 2 again next school year. It will depend on the school that we will decide on.
You may be wondering why she needs to go through K2 second time around. For some schools (like UPIS), K2 is their only entry level for her age level so we practically have no choice if we decide on this school (or if they decide on us since slots are limited).
Good thing, the little girl is enjoying the school hunting and entrance exams. At first, I worry that it may be too much for her to take tests several time. Ako nga pagoda na sa kapupunta at kaka-research about these schools.

I found these helpful online review websites for my little girl and it may provide some help for your review time as well. I read one blog where the parents make their own reviewers with matching drawing for topics that needs illustration. I wish I have the time for that but I don’t so these sites are really heaven sent to us:

http://edhelper.com - they have worksheets for math, language, reading and even puzzles which Sophie enjoys. The site is easy to navigate and has practice worksheets from easy to difficult levels for kinder and grade 1.

http://schoolkid.ph – you need to be a premium member to access more worksheets but there are also free printable worksheets to use. This is a great reviewer since it’s a Filipino site; particularly appreciated the Money: Identifying Bills reviewer.

http://www.time4learning.com/ - a good website for parents who are homeschooling and for afterschool reviews. I love that it's interactive, kids does not seem to mind school work. There's also a subscription fee per child. We haven't signed up yet but we tried their demos and the activities were well explained with fun sound effects (the producer side of me can't help but notice the sound effects and graphics, hehe).

We don’t print the worksheets to save on paper (and trees). What we do is provide Sophie with numbered papers or booklet, let her read the questions from our computer and write the answer on the paper. We just turn off the automatic sleep function of your computer to avoid hassle during review.

Another helpful reviewer are the workbooks from their previous school year. I use Sophie's kinder books to review both Sophie and Sam at home. There are some topics and practice pages there that kids (even at higher level) can still use since some topics are recurring.