LAST week, about watching women. This week, about watching calories. In this time of quarantine, many of us have taken to what we once called - well, Home Arts. In particular, many of us housebound seniors have taken to cooking and baking like nobody’s business. The phenomenon lends a new meaning to the term: Senior moment/s. Retired Judge Claire Casuga Tabin recently showed us, her high school classmates, on our Facebook group chat, pictures of mango twirls and peanut butter cookies. In another chat group, my kumadre Espie Tinio Garcellano showed us her hubby and my kumpadre Lem at work on a variety of baking efforts. In yet another group forum, I spotted a one who turned barangay giveaway carrot into carrot muffins. Myself, it was carrot cakes for me with the carrots from the barangay vegetable packs. With all this baking going on all over, to include in the house, I am at this moment, frankly in dread of trying to get into my jeans. But let us take hope in the workout step up to be started... tomorrow. In the meantime, about cakes. In March 1982, yours truly had decided to stop teaching for a bit and proceeded to set up a home bakery. First out of the oven: Cupcakes and brownies. These were home mainstays, from a recipe called “Golden Cupcakes” found in one of my mother’s numerous cookbooks and just “Brownies” from another cookbook. If you ate at the BGH canteen thenabouts, the UPCB canteen, and in the old DECS division office on Military Cut-off, you probably had a taste of them. Those were the first three stores I left those brownies and cupcakes at. On my mother’s suggestion, we tried banana cakes. Each loaf was sliced into 12, and each slice retailed at one peso if I remember correctly. My route expanded. Aside from the three aforementioned places, cupcakes, brownies, and banana slices were now left to sell in my cousin’s store down the (Kennon) road, EPZA, the PNB canteen in it, and the Texas instruments canteen, too. I remember that the concessionaire for the Texas Instruments canteen, Manny Orros, said not to cut the cakes anymore, as they were bought whole. Again, on my mother’s suggestion, we “developed” carrot cakes. After which we decided to market more of the house staples: Chocolate cake and apple pie. We next turned out banana cream pies and lemon cream pies. The routes expanded more, to include the Benguet Central University and SLU Burgos canteens, those of a string of dorms still on Bonifacio, and the SLU hospital canteen. And yes, D and S. Our home bakery went on to become a rather well-established section of my mother’s later long-lived catering business. And while she is 85 this year, we still do the occasional special event and a few things—mainly fruitcakes and ube jam—at Christmas. The decades have however sent me in recipe development directions of less sugar, less calories, healthier flours and other ingredients. So, the quarantine bakery at home has been pretty good, with pretty healthy versions of all of the old faves. Still, the jeans, the jeans.