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Showing posts with label Rachel Ray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rachel Ray. Show all posts

Monday, May 23, 2016

Re-written: Relaunching the relauncher



Lately I have been thinking about going back to work. I have been working since I was in college. My parents did not even know that I once worked as a sales consultant at Rustan's, handling Benetton products. I earned money while in school. And while at that, I was also a part time volunteer at the Caritas Manila, teaching special children.

After college, armed with my diploma, the only other thing I had were my guts. I remember that my first job was at a video store as its Shift Management trainee. From there I became Promotions manager to a group of restaurants where I handled membership cards. Then went on to being Assistant Purchasing manager of an electronics company. Many years later I had a shift in my career; this was after I got married and gave birth to my second child. I joined the fast rising call center industry. and spent 7 years doing my darnedest at customer service. Years passed and my call center career had to end to give way to following my husband to Saudi Arabia. I worked at a 5-star hotel and was the only Pinay working at the HR department; there were only 2 Filipinas working in the hotel which, eventually became 3, when I was asked to hire my own assistant. As an OFW's wife I had to be there for everyone since we had no maid. So after a long while I had to say goodbye to my corporate career. The internet became my best bud and I started blogging again just so that my brain can start functioning as it's supposed to šŸ˜‚.

Being a CFL (certified food lover), my "suppressed" passion for baking, resurfaced. It's surprising where your interest can take you in your desire to learn! It was equally passionate kitchen divas like Paula Deen, Nigella Lawson, Rachel Ray, and Martha Stewart that helped me along the way via the internet. I turned this interest into a business opportunity. At a young age, I knew that I like selling stuff especially the ones that I produce. My first try at the food business started way back during my call center career. It was there that I sold food while taking calls 😁. I remember having to go to the grocery to buy the things I need for that night's orders, then come home and get my forty winks. I'd sleep for about 4-5 hours then wakeup to prepare the orders.

Moving forward... We ended 5 years of Saudi and moved back to the Philippines. Thinking I could go back to work was futile as my kids wanted me to take care of them.. In their own words, they wanted me home when they came back from school. And having no "Ate Sheila" to take care of them, I was blissfully stuck with them until such a time I can finally spread my wings... again... Well to cut the story short, Ate Sheila came back and circumstances found me wanting to go relaunch into a corporate career. I am not scared of interviews, mind you! I enjoy them! I guess it is because I always have so many things to say, so many experiences to share. However, much to my dismay, joining the fresh grads, and the seasoned talents, job hunting is not as sprightly as it used to be. The internet may have made job hunting easier but I realise more than ever, that the labor market is a lot more competitive these days. Where my Curriculum vitae is reviewed alongside the ones submitted by either fresh graduates or those who have their master's degree and Phd's. So for a relauncher like me who has extensive experience (or so I thought), it was pretty tough. Relaunchers like myself have to understand that further learnings are needed to keep ones corporate profile more attractive to the companies we are sending our Resumes or Curriculum Vitae to. Do not stop at reading! Enroll or attend seminars. Keep yourself abreast with new management skills or other trending skills that will boost your corporate appeal! I have had my share of successes and failures! And as always I go back to the thought that whatever the result we must be prepared to gear on, bounce back, and move forward!

So for now, I just leave everything up to the Lord. He has provided me skills that I can work on, a restless mind that makes me want to go to the computer and do this.

Need tips on job interviews? Click on this link http://callcentermomie.blogspot.com/search?q=interview






Thursday, March 29, 2012

Electric (oven) dreams

Lately, I've been pushing myself to learn more than just baking cookies and pastry bars. Back in the Philippines, I was seriously into all-gourmet ~ pasta, sandwiches, salads, and other dishes. Most of the recipes I know are the ones that I learned from my mom and a few experiments I've done in the past, or those which I've learned from watching my favorite culinary experts like Chefs Gaita Fores (I used to watch her on TV when I was still in my teens), Nancy Reyes-Lumen, Rosebud Benitez, The Dazas, Paula Deen, Rachel Ray, Nigella Lawson, David Rocco, Guy Fieri, Ina of the Brefoot Contessa and Bobby Ching. I'm a wannabe Chef!  It's just too bad that I didn't even think about getting a Culinary degree rather than staking it through College with a course in Business Management. But all that's water under the bridge and there is no other way but to move forward. Right?... Right!  :)

Perhaps having more time and a good reliable oven sparked much inspiration to further my craft :)  Sorry folks if I seem to blabber a lot about my love for the culinary and lose myself in the process. Back in college I remember telling everyone how I'd love to put up my own restaurant someday. Well, that someday hasn't come knocking on my door yet. But am happy to know that selling food in my previous work, and a small catering service on the side, has earned me quite a number of regular customers. I 've never felt this elated in my previous jobs! This is my calling, and every time I get good reviews from my clients, such encourages me to do better. 

Last year I've been requested to make Sans Rival (this is a 4-layer cashew meringue with french butter cream in between layers), I know how tedious baking this recipe can be. Baking meringue is something I haven't tried doing yet. But am prolonging such agony. It's this pain of wanting to try doing it already but it feels a bit daunting for me yet. So I digress.  :) I want to be able to do something I also have not tried yet but this recipe has got to be such that would make me closer to my goal of baking Sans Rival and facing it head on. Oh! I'm probably just making a big fuss about it but I keep telling myself that I have to deal with it this way. Inch by inch. Taking one baby step at a time. This week, has sent me baking different goodies. I'd like to think that my husband and children's "Wow!" at the pastries I make, is getting me closer to my Meringue. :)

From last week I've been coming up with crazy cookie and caramel bar ideas like the Mid-Eastern inspired cookies which I aptly coined as Jazzminced (aka Princess Jasmine), caramel cookies with minced dates and nuts, Alad-dark (aka Aladdin), dark chocolate cookies with chocolate chips, ground nuts and dates, and my personal favorie Jafire (aka Jaffar), butterscotch cookies with dates, mixed ground nuts and chili flakes. Yep! you read that right! Chili flakes gives it a bit of kick that worked well with the nuts!



I also came up with a Tropical-inspired butterscotch bar that I call Copacobanas, a fusion of coconut and bananas and then some of my secret ingredients. 






I also surprised my family with Red Velvets this week. :)






And today I finally made my husband's favorite Brazo de Mercedez! This really made my husband say "WOW!" ~ I might have seen his eyes sparkle a bit but the best part is, when he commended me with a "ang galing mo naman Mom! Magbenta ka rin ng ganito (a sentence akin to "you've outdone yourself! Include this on your online store") Being able to make my husband's favorite Brazo de Mercedez is such a feat for me. I was not sure how it would look and taste like. But I've surprised myself as well! And happily so! I was supposed to use condensed milk for the filling but I did not want to go to the Baqala just to buy a can of condensed milk, when I can do something in its stead. So, I followed my instinct and thankfully so because my husband (a forever critic of mine) said that it had the right sweetness to it. And it tasted so good! It felt wonderful to have accomplished something that I only imagined doing in the past.  You can visit my FB page https://www.facebook.com/vianaskitchen to view the other pastries and dishes that has kept me busy in my kitchen.

I can hear my kitchen calling me again...I'll have to sleep on this one. My oven's been in a spin for two weeks now :)