College Days, a Ref Cake, and Nasty Co Interns

I was in my 5th year in College, which was basically, my intern year when I had to travel and live in certain provinces in Luzon where our university has affiliations to clinics offering rehabilitation medicine. It's a basic requirement for all graduating PT's in the Philippines to practice theoretical and clinical applications in standard, controlled and actual environments.

It also means, having to cohabitate and tolerate other interns from other universites. It also means having to tolerate untidy habits like unthrown garbages, the smell of left over beer wafting through the air when you wake up in the morning, having to wait for over 1 hour in line to the bathroom because a couple is sneaking a "quickie" inside. It also means you have to get along with the whims of your classmates like a night out everynight, food trips, unplanned beach hoping, wasted nights and mornings after a drunken tirade and having to kiss ass to our ugly, overbearing, conceited, did i mention ugly...? CS's.

How did this ref cake fit into the picture? I was having a discussion with my one of my barkadas one night and we were talking about what to prepare for a dinner on a Friday night. We agreed that we'll make carbonara, some grilled fish, grilled pork and i offered to make a ref cake. When all of a sudden, this co intern and a board mate (we live in the same boarding house), just blurted out "Ref cake? Eh ang dali lang gawin nyan eh. Kahit sino pwede gumawa nyan" (Ref cake? That's just so easy to do. Anybody can do that), all the while smirking, and grimacing, belittling my effort. Since Im the type of person who will not speak to you if I dont like you, i did not honor her snide comments with anything and basically ignored her existence. She could have dropped dead in front me and I would never have given a damn about it.

So actually, yes its true, it affected me more than any other comment or actions Ive experienced in the past. Why? Because ive always known that I love to bake, cook and concoct delicious goodies. That particular memory made me averse to making ref cakes from then on. As if making ref cakes (mango creme pies, banana creme pies) would suddenly poof her in front of me. Needless to say, I hated making creme pies because I remember that night and the snide comments of an untidy, dimbo who's a poor excuse of a food critic.

Until recently when our office sponsored a summit to Boracay and we drank this smoothie in Jonah's called choco banana peanut smoothie. And it was hands down the most delicious, sweetingly tempting, banana smoothie Ive ever had the pleasure of tasting. After that trip a friend of mine (Ross) decided to make a choco banana peanut cake. I saw the picture and it looked so yummy, so asked for the recipe. And she said it was actually a ref cake. OK...a ref cake..Was I ready to let go of the past to satisfy my sweet tooth cravings? well, what the hell I wanted to make one.

So I did! And here it is....

My version of choco banana peanut creme pie

About 7 pieces of Dole banana

2 packs of chocolate cream (nestle)

About 1/2 cup of condensed milk

About 2 tbsp of white sugar

Crushed Graham crackers

About 2 tbsps of brown sugar

About 12 pcs of choc-nut (locally made chocolate with peanuts)

Cut the banana into bite sized pieces about .5 in thick. Set aside and place inside the ref covered.

Beat the chocolate cream, 2 tbsps of white sugar, and condensed milk. Set aside or place in the ref to cool.

Combine the graham crackers and 2 tbsp of brown sugar. Add a few crushed choc nut.

Crush the choc nut with your fingers. Dont forget to lick them off your fingers after doing so! Yum! (wash your hands afterwards of course!)

Now your ready to make your creme pie.

Place a layer of crushed graham crackers at the bottom of your pie dish(you can use the uncrushed whole crackers if that's the beat of your music *wink). Then take out your chilled chocolate cream. Mix in the banana slices. Place a dollop on top of the crackers, then layer with crushed choc-nut. Next layer again with crackers, banana cream, and choc nut until you fill the brim of your dish. For added pizaz, layer in additional slices of banana and uncrushed choc nut.

Place in the chiller or inside the ref and let sit for 4 hours. Serve! With whipped creme and coffee!

Sitting in front of our teli, with a serving of the choco banana peanut cake (creme pie), i couldnt help but remember that co intern. Funny thing is since I never gave her a second look, I coudnt remember what she looked like, much less what her name was (she was named Broomhilda for all I care) and I thought to myself, i am bound to meet people like that along the way. That wouldnt be the end of that. People who dont have anything good to say to others. People who I just cannot bring my self to get along with. Im bound to stumble upon nasty "co interns", even now that I am a mother already. Question is, if i would let myself be affected by their annoying presence.

Yeah, anybody can do a ref cake, but Id bet my bottom dollar, she can't do s**t about anything, she cant make ref cakes as deliciously and awesome as I make 'em. (Or she could probably be the Head Chef of a 5 star restaurant, or a multi-awarded pastry chef..who cares? She aint pretty like me...=P)