Another Coconut Recipe!

Here's another coconut recipe I'd love to try. Yum!

And it doesn't look too laborious to do.

I'd have to replace those raspberries though.

Whoa! Coconut Butter!??

I want some Coconut Butter! I am not sure if I'll find it as delightfully good as the spreads that I regularly get in the grocery aisle--Lady's Choice Sweet and Creamy peanut butter and Magnolia Gold butter. But the one-ingredient procedure looks very doable. And we have lots of fresh coconuts here in Cebu. To dry the coconuts into the ingredient needed for the butter, ehow tells me drying them is not rocket science too. 

Easier than a making a toast? Not for me as I don't have a blender or food processor (used in making the butter) and I'm not such a big fan of the oven (used for drying the shredded coconut). So what I did was email the above links to family and told them I am a willing guinea pig to taste test their first coconut butter. I hope they find the time to do this, busy that they are.

I Have My Eyes On You

Since it’s supposedly the month of all things love, romance, etc., let me post about a current object of my affection. 

I suck at love-letter writing, so let me just tell you straight: 

I have my eyes on you. Yes you, sleek ASUS Transformer Prime.

Love,

Tarajing

What’s a Must-Have Item in Your Ideal Home?

Cafeteria chitchat today brought us to the topic of houses. It has become a favorite topic lately with the news that at least two colleagues are moving to new abodes. So while we were in that subject, a guy officemate mentioned about a chandelier in his newly built house. I was real surprised to hear him say that especially because how he said it indicated that the chandelier was his idea and not the wife’s or the mother’s. I think I even let out a little chuckle because I thought men don’t need a chandelier.

Oh well, I thought maybe this is something he really pictured his house will have (influenced maybe by lifestyle programs showing grandiose houses with enormous, sparkling, ornate lighting fixtures). And then it made me think… What piece of item should my ideal house have? When I picture my little dream dwelling, what regular item (may it be an ornate fixture, a furniture, an appliance) always shows up in that image? Something that’s not present in my current apartment and in my previous residences?

That wasn’t so hard for me to identify as images of it vividly showed up in my daydream. And no, it’s not something you hang in the ceiling with crystals and dramatic lights.

A window seat. Um, not just a window seat but its bottom should be a storage cabinet as well.

Grabbed from photo from http://coastaldesignsct.com

 Image from http://www.cushionsource.com/

http://www.cabinetrybykmc.com

From http://remodelingbible.com

From http://woodworkinstallations.com

Swiped from http://www.diarioartesgraficas.com

What about you? What's that must-have item?

Trading Dreams

I woke up last Sunday morning with dreams about Forex trading – learning about it, getting good at it, going into it, and then later earning lots of money from it.  Yeah, you read it right, Forex. I know the topic is significantly way off from my prior posts but that’s just how my dreams are cropping up lately.

Well, what started it all was the unplanned pot luck with the neighbors just because it was supposedly the subdivision’s fiesta. I was in the middle of dinner when a neighbor knocked at my door and invited me join them outside, in a table full of contributed food and drinks. Caught in a good mood, I went out and brought with me my still-hot-from-the-pan Carbonara dish.

To make the story short, the guys were already drinking when one (American) asked about Forex. His question was met with silence as his drinking buddies, all Cebuanos, hate conversing in English especially when it’s not about food. So just to be polite, I answered, “You mean foreign exchange?” And then he went to discuss animatedly about Forex trading and his experience. He got my interest so I kept throwing questions. Maybe because I was asking the right questions that he insisted that I should learn more about Forex and that I should meet him and another guy neighbor so he could show us how the platform looks and all.

And just like that, I and Alex showed up at his place the day after. We were shown some intimidating graphs like this: 

 

My first reaction was, “Oh no not those boring graphs!” 

But when he slowly explained, it was just like learning a new software at work.  He gave me sites to look up and so now I’m going through lessons (free!) in an online school. I can't believe learning about Forex is fun! I hope the site doesn’t sell me anything later but so far I’m enjoying it.  I’m still in pre-school level for now so there’s nothing more I can share. 

Wish me luck!

Oh, by the way, my Carbonara dish was a hit at that mini party. :-)

Fashion Designing

I really want to design clothes but my sketches are painfully crude that seamstresses might not figure them out. It doesn’t help that I can’t sew and I am also clueless in pattern making.

God knows I have these vivid images in my mind--what I wanted a dress to look, its textile, the color and print, and accessories to match it. The putting-the-vision-to-paper, however, is a little too tricky for me. So I guess this will remain a dream.

I have to note though that more than five years ago, I took tiny steps to this dream. I focused on swimsuit design. I love the beach, sea and swimming, why not swimsuits? Also I noticed how those available in the Philippine market are far from diverse--they're made to flatter only women with perfect figures. Once, I brought a couple of newly purchased bikinis (after I gave up at stitching them myself) to a clothing-alteration shop. I walked out of that shop happy but a lot poorer. So aside from knowing what to concentrate on my designs, I already then had a concept on what will make it different from the rest of the swimwear in the local market (definitely not the unsophisticated drawing of the designer!). I even had come up with a name of my line. That little step also involved getting fabric swatches from manufacturers, after which I realized it’s too much work and risk. I don’t have the funds for the capital and it seems suppliers of good textiles are at least a flight away. For really good suppliers, I will need my passport and maybe even need to procure a visa. Well, back to just dreaming.

Oh, here’s a sample of my crude sketch for just a very basic two-piece (the details I didn’t add as drawing it in would ruin this more). 

 Don’t snicker. 

Of Neighbors and Breakfasts...

I imagine my dream abode to be located somewhere I can enjoy fresh air and some peace and quiet (I’m still torn if I want it near the coastline or the mountains). Yet I don’t want it too far from the city so it wouldn’t be such a long commute when I need to be there, and family and friends wouldn’t be too lazy to come over on special occasions.

Speaking of friends, I always have this silly dream of having a select group of friends to be residing close by me. Yep, my neighbors will be some of my wonderful pals. No too close though that I can hear them when they suddenly decide to have a videoke concert. Uh-huh, these crazy people are mostly videoke whores.

Back to my fantasizing… And in this silly dream I’d whip up some breakfast and invite them lucky friends over. And then they’ll fall in love with the food I prepare and enjoy the feel of my place that they want to repeat the experience. So they bribe me to keep on preparing them these light morning meals (or heavy brunches) and gobble them up in my cozy dining room or some special place in my home just for them. I can just imagine who of my friends will be so insanely demanding on how their food should be done (e.g., fluffy eggs, only organic ingredients for the pandesal, etc.). I don't know what it is with concocting breakfasts and getting paid for it (of course, sometimes it'll be on the house) by happy patron-friends... Maybe because breakfasts are the easiest meals to prepare and after that I have the rest of the day to myself? I don't know. What I know is that it will contribute to me feeling less stressed, more contented, and I guess, happy!

P.S. This post is inspired by a chat I had with a buddy who could be that insanely demanding neighbor above. Good luck to our dreams!