Cheese Tarts by EMC ♥

Cheese Tart ♥

I've always wanted to make sweets. Cakes, pastries, name it. But I haven't had the proper education. The techniques, the basics. I just watch cooking shows or browse the Internet for recipes. But that doesn't stop me from dreaming that one day, I would be a top-class pastry chef. I too would be making my own recipes for other people to try and I too would be making sweets that will make other people happy just like how sweets make me happy.

This is the first time I've ever made a cheese tart. Well I've tried making a cheesecake (Bobby Flay's Caramel Apple Cheesecake) but it failed to pass the standard (my standard :D). So I felt disappointed and discouraged. I thought to myself,"What was I thinking --trying to make a cheesecake that Bobby Flay did? I'm not even a pastry chef yet."

Then one day when my mom came home from Tagaytay, she had pasalubong with her. Langka tarts, Lengua de gato, and Blueberry Cheese Tarts. And so, the sweets-lover I am, I immediately opened the box and ate one of the cheese tarts. I should say that it was really good--"parang mini cheesecake!". Immediately, I felt restless inside with a lot of excitement. I told myself,"kailangan ko ring makagawa nito!".
Since I already have a cream cheese filling recipe that I made --from my walnut swirl brownie recipe--all I needed was how to make the dough. So when I found a recipe on the Internet, I started making my cheese tarts. The recipe said that I should use butter but instead I used shortening because I thought we're all out of butter.

The first batch of cheese tarts I made turned out to be a disaster. I can't even unmold the tarts because the crust kept breaking or crushing when I tried to, but I still managed to eat them (hahaha). I eventually found out that we still had half a cup of butter left (kainis!) when I refrigerated the tarts. It turns out that when I expose them to a cold temperature, it would be easier to get them out of the molds.

With the half cup of butter I found in the fridge, I had my second shot at making cheese tarts. And so, after they were baked, I let them cool in the pan for about 5 to 10 minutes--trying my best not to be impatient this time. Still waiting until just a few seconds left.. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and my cheese tarts are done!

Well I don't want to brag but, I must say they taste heavenly! :)

Can't Sleep.

Kahit patayin mo pala yung gripo kapag puno na yung timba,
kahit patayin mo yung ilaw o yung computer kung matutulog ka kahit sandali,
kahit pa hindi ka manood ng tv ng isang buong araw at magbasa lang ng libro,
kahit pa matuto kang magsegregate ng basura into biodegradable, non-biodegradable, at recyclable,
kahit pa itapon mo yung basura mo sa tamang tapunan at hindi sa kalsada o canal, ilog o dagat,
kahit gaano ka pa maging ka-eco-friendly..

..kung ikaw lang naman mag-isa, the earth will only be one less ignorant person
and one more mindful human being of his or her environment. Well at least it helps, but I guess not enough.

~if some 3 million tons of hazardous waste go off-shore and get dumped at sea each year, and if other wastes do not get disposed or managed in an environmentally sound manner, we might as well just live our lives to the fullest now because we only have until December 21st of 2012 because we ourselves are fulfilling the Mayan predictions, one by one, that the world would be ending in 2012. What date is it nga pala ngayon? January 1, 2012. (Technically it's January 2 already. Late post. tagal kasi gumamit ni miko ng computer)

Di ako makatulog. actually 9 am of January 1 nung nasulat ko ito - after finally giving up on reading my never-ending executive summary of The Basel Convention report. But it was worth reading. I just hope that the Khian Sea disposal incident, also the Koko beach disposal incident in Nigeria that caused deaths of innocent people because of dumping their toxic wastes at sea would serve as warnings that turning off the faucet when brushing your teeth, or even celebrating earth hour by turning our lights off and electronic gadgets off for one hour isn't enough to stop global warming (Well, I address this to the industries and future business owners and workers). Each year our earth gets hotter by 0.6 degrees. And if you have not seen the documentary "6 degrees Could Change The World", I guess it's time that you do (links are at the bottom of this post, please do watch Severn Suzuki's speech too at the earth summit). We owe it to ourselves and to future generations the good life and the preservation of our environment.

haay.. what am I saying? Stop the NIMBY Syndrome or the Not-In-My-Backyard syndrome and be responsible of your own wastes! Also, be mindful of our environment because one person can only help so much. I just hope that there is someone out there, by choice or by chance, reading my post and sharing the same feelings and thoughts that I have.

Severn Suzuki's speech at the Earth Summit in 1992
6 degrees Could Change The World