Places and Spaces to Be In – Places And Spaces To Be In

Quarantine Birthday Cake

This past five weeks in quarantine has been a weird time, to say the least.

Now that I’m spending more time at home, I have created the following routine: eat, sleep, social media, movies, repeat. My usual routine of hitting the gym after a workday and making dinner with friends is out the window and has now been replaced by the routine above. I hate it, I love it, I’m adapting with what I have. Happily for my dog, he gets the most walks now compared to my previous normalcy.

I can confidently say, that I’m coming out of quarantine with a couple more pounds on. I find myself more in the kitchen if I’m not in front of my computer. Unfortunately for my sister-in-law, my baking and cooking adventures have increased the temptations to divert her from her diet. She was complaining to her mom over the phone that my baking/cooking fest made the house smell too good.

My latest baking adventure was to create a birthday cake for my friend. I followed A Spicy Perspective’s recipe for the perfect lemon buttermilk cake batter. The key to this perfection (in my opinion) was spending the time to cream the butter and sugar. Don’t rush the process. Let it cream in that stand mixer.

I then threw the batter into two round 6 x 3 inch baking pans that have been lined with parchment paper. The leftover batter was then used to make some cupcakes.

After baking the cakes, I layered it with some raspberry preserves and used Five Heart Home’s recipe for cream cheese frosting. I did throw in some lemon zest to bring in more of that lemony flavor to the lemon cake.

In the end, the cake was fluffy and light. It was a perfect match with the cream cheese frosting and raspberry frosting.

(I apologize for my lack of food styling here. I ran out of time to do so…).

All in all, I felt super accomplished making this for my friend. To clarify: I didn’t get to celebrate my friend’s birthday with him. His sister (who commissioned me to make this cake as a surprise) came by to pick up the goodies and drop off some of the cupcakes with another friend of ours. We then joined everyone in celebration via Zoom. What a time we live in.

For more food adventures, follow me on my IG foodie account: convivial.corner.

Hope you all are staying safe and being creative during this time!

With love,

Arve

Hello, again.

Let’s catch-up a bit and Vasquez Rocks pt 2

Hello my dear little neglected space in this abyss called the internet. It’s been a while, and I’m so sorry for neglecting you! (Kinda…)
I started off this personal blog with somewhat a vague vision to share my travel experiences with you. But in a world where everyone is pretty much doing the same thing, I didn’t want to just create for the sake of creating. And to create without a purpose would also bother me…

But just to keep you guys up to speed of what’s happened to me this past nine months since coming back home from South Korea:

I’ve started, quit, and started a new job.
Traveled to Cebu, Philippines for two weeks while a war broke in the southernmost island (Marawi, Mindanao).
Hit up Napa Valley, California for a weekender.
Began MBA school. #CLASSOF2019
Made new friends through my friend, JR, and had a ton of fun taking them to new places.

Although I do my best to keep everyday interesting, the weekend adventures are what I look most forward to.

Take for example, this past weekend…

If you’re not familiar with the place already, let me introduce you to a place out of this world: Vasquez Rocks. Located about an hour from Los Angeles, you’ll find yourself wanting to sing the Lion King theme song (or is it just me…?).

To give it more of an added effect, you can climb to the highest tip and pretend you’re Rafiki holding up baby Simba… just an idea…

Personally, I would suggest coming here late in the afternoon, close to closing time. Based on the times I’ve been there, there tends to be less people and it’s just amazing when you and your friends just own the place for more uninterrupted photo shoots. Plus, getting there for golden hour is an extra win.We tend to associate SoCal to Disneyland, LA, and Hollywood. Even I, myself, have fallen into this trap. It isn’t until you allow your curiosities to take you to meet new friends who would open wide your world and introduce you to new places and spaces that would make you realize: there’s more to SoCal than what meets the generic storyline we’ve constantly watched on screen.

It’s either that, or I missed the memo that we’re supposed to keep these beautiful spots a secret.

Places and Spaces to Be In: Baegayangsa

Sometimes, the world just wanna be on fire. You know, the Autumn kind?

(Ok, I know that’s a terrible joke. But with what’s been happening lately back at home, I’m trying to find humor in the ridiculousness.)

So in celebration of the new season here in South Korea, I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Baegyangsa to witness Autumn’s splendor. While there, I happen to also discover a new favorite tea: pine needle tea with some honey. To me, the tea smells like Christmas and tastes like deliciousness.

Much love from this new season,

Lantern’s at Jinju

A photo journal of my trip to Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival.

Last weekend, I had an amazing time hanging out with Melissa, Julian and Julian’s former student, James, at the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival. Wished that we had more time to see everything (and the fireworks !!!!).

Overall, the short trip wasn’t disappointing.

– A