When I found out the theme for this week, I was excited since I luckily still had a bowl of strawberries in the fridge…

What’s more, I came across an interesting strawberry cake recipe at the back of a food label ( the excitement mounts – hahaha!) which I thought was fairly simple to make.

Long story short: I checked the recipe out, prepped all the ingredients, got to work and…

 This “thing” was what emerged – waahh!!!   What was supposed to be a three layered cake turned out flat as a pancake!!! What I thought was simple turned out to be simply disastrous!   (For photo purposes, though, I still decided to “pimp my (pan)cake” somewhat as a “firefighting measure” of sorts… *sigh* – aka : to make me feel better!).

What to do? Well, when life hands you lemons a disastrous flop of a cake, make lemonade use of the “good” ingredients and enjoy your strawberries and cream!

A berry good LaPis Sunday to all!

Continuing on from where I left off yesterday (incidentally, this also serves as a 2-in-1 entry of sorts since apart from it being part of my “Greek holiday tales”, it is also my entry for LaPiS this week – talk about “multi-tasking” huh? )…

So there we were, completely stuffed (and happy!) yet still craving for more… After all, no meal is complete without… dessert!

We decided to explore the area around the taverna to satisfy our “sweet teeth” as we were sure we would come up with some “interesting finds”.  After all, we were in the Monastiraki area – where the popular flea market was!

Walking around, we came across these tempting choices…

Too healthy…

Too heavy…

Just right… yum! And it even comes in two flavors – vanilla and chocolate!

Inspite of some “out-of-the-box” finds that day, though, it was funny that during the remaining days of our short holiday, we still had to go back to our all-time favorite dessert…

What’s your flavor? Tell me what’s your flavor… awwww!

Truly a treat for both the kids and the “kids-at-heart”!

A sweet LaPiS Sunday to all!

It was a berry-licious morning! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist )

We started out with a smoothie featuring mixed frozen and fresh berries, plain soy milk, plain soy yogurt and a bit of ground flaxseed thrown into the blender.

My share.

It was delish! Tart and sweet and wonderful. I’m not the biggest fan of plain soy milk (love vanilla-flavored though), but it’s good to know that I like it much better when it’s mixed in with other goodies. I’ve noticed other food bloggers using hemp milk, which I’ve never tried. Do you know anything about hemp milk? Have you ever tried it? Any recommendations?

I headed to the Mac store after breakfast to have a Genius look at my MacBook charger, which has been finicky lately. Since my warranty is still good, they replaced it! Saved me the $79 I was going to spend last weekend to just buy a new one. Hooray for Mac Store employees reminding me about my warranty!

Which brings me to a question. I managed to catch some of the Healthy Living Summit last month via web streaming and I noticed Kath talking about blog publishing software called Windows Live Writer. Anyone know of a similar program for the Mac? I’m an Apple girl through and through but I would love to use a program like this to organize my posts.

Came home to prepare our mid-morning snack of more berries and nuts – this is such a fulfilling (and filling) snack! Something to keep in mind for when my tummy grumbles in the future.

With my morning reading...Benner's pivotal work about nursing expertise and knowledge!

Now I’m off to get Zumba-fied with Beto! I discovered Zumba last year at my gym in California and LOVED IT! It’s basically Latin dancing incorporated into a cardio workout.  I do local classes when I can but also purchased a set of DVDs that I use all the time.

Cha cha cha!

My mother might be dying, but she’s not going down without a fight, and what I mean by “fight” is a lengthy, nagging discussion of how being a copywriter is not an adequate enough job for her daughter.

I can understand her concern. I was the kind of kid who always had a gig of some kind, one that brought in a steady paycheck to be blown either on Manic Panic hair dye, booze, concert tickets, or a Hello Kitty lunchbox. (Thank you, Marilyn Manson.) I’ve worked as a fish monger, surfboard salesgirl, secretary, legal assistant, a story department PA, whipping girl for a pilates studio, ice cream scooper, crystal shop keeper, and a green start up space-filler. I have always had a job. Now, perhaps it’s because I work from home, or maybe because I am dirt poor, but my mother seems to think I am unemployed. As in, “You need a job. How can you support yourself when I’m dead and you’re unemployed?” She apparently moonlights as a life coach.  No matter that I don’t rely on her to pay my bills, and that I contribute groceries and labor in return for my temporary freeloader status.

She emphasizes that she only says this because I need “something to fall back on,” and even a part-time job would help me out, or maybe get me out of the same clothes that I’ve worn since high-school. I try to explain that I am a copywriter, I get up at dawn and work, exhaustively, until my words are on the page or my edits have carved an angel from word-processing program stone. Nevermind that I don’t have weekends. Sure, I’m more broke than a Dane Cook joke, but I like to imagine that Ministry of Imagery is an viable company, since I do get paid in actual checks and spend my quite-long days working and being driven nuts. Anyway, to humor my humorous mother, and to stop myself from running smack into the walls in a panic, I present to you a list of jobs that I would happily apply for. But don’t get your hopes up, mom. It would take more than a sexy bisexual vegan or a tattooed MILF yogi to get me away from my paltry penny paying daily grind.

Produce worker at Whole Foods
Pay: A little over $10 an hour

I have written about Whole Foods and produce, and how awesome I find both. As a vegan, and an avid advocate of a more holistic approach to consumption, I think I would help contribute to the Whole Foods team by being another tattooed, twenty-something, health-conscious cog in the wheel. Reasons I shouldn’t be hired include the fact that I call the place Whole Paycheck and I’d sleep with more than one staff member. I do know quite a bit about fruits and vegetables, though, and I can tell you how to pick out good ones. Of course, “shitting where you eat,” so to speak, might lead me to get a bad taste in my mouth whenever I reach my hand into the fruit bowl. But hey, if it supplies me with my new-found addiction of nutritional yeast, I’ll arrange carrots, kale, and cucumbers until the sun goes down.

Tattoo shop apprentice
Pay for an apprentice? None. But tattoo artists are paid roughly $100 an hour, with some also getting a cut of the studio money.

Working at a shop, I assume the pay would be minimum wage. Or maybe some ink. Although I might not be able to turn serious coin with a gig like this, I think that my extensive experience on the other end of the needle would help me to treat clients with a little bit of dignity. Besides, I’m good at being ordered around, especially by tattooed boys (and girls.) And perhaps I might not be taking the traditional career-track of becoming an apprentice to become an artist, but maybe becoming an apprentice in order to become a shop manager might not be such a counter-intuitive career move. After all, I’m very talented when it comes to copy machines and keeping displays clean, and I’ve always wanted to own my own business.

I’ve got skills sweeping, spraying, I can learn how to sterilize and organize the autoclave, I can sweet-talk unruly clients, and I’m a scheduling maven, so if you own or work at a tattoo parlor near Long Island, New York, you very well may have found your next apprentice. Only I don’t want to become a tattoo artist, I just want to work in the shop. Preferably for money, that will be spent on tattoos.

Low-maintenance secretary
Pay: Secretaries make anywhere from the mid-twenties to 40K a year, depending on the size of the company and the skills required. For what I’m going for, I’m thinking low-twenties. If that.

I have had this job, and I love this job. Allow me to clarify, what I mean by low-maintenance isn’t that I don’t complain when my boss hangs out with “the boys” six nights a week, drinking beer and eating wings. What the lack of maintenance implies in this case is that this would not be a partner-track position. Part-time, or perhaps even full-time, at a desk, doing traditional secretarial tasks, such as answering phones, greeting clients, collating, copying, filing, and scheduling. The less demanding the position, and the more long-term it could be in its soul-sucking boredom, the happier I’ll be. Just let me write during work, boss.

Personal assistant for eccentric artist
Pay: A personal assistant usually makes somewhere around $18 an hour (or 31K) but it’s tough to determine ’cause the hours and requirements can vary day by day.

This kind of a part-time gig would be good, ’cause it would keep me busy, utilize my undying respect for authority, and would likely provide fodder for future Jerk Ethic posts. As Patricia Cohen wrote in a New York Times article about personal assistants, “The job requires walking a fine line between intimacy and professionalism, a bit like the nanny who is paid to feed, bathe and hug your child.” And I’ve learned from experience that perhaps the problem with this job, or maybe my personality, is that once you send me out twice during a rain storm in order to get the “best” kind of organic calimyrna figs I will start wanting to stick a fondue fork in your eye. Fuck that you’re paying me overtime, since it’s 11:30PM.

Editorial writer
…makes about 54K a year?! Oh, hahahaha. I give it away for free right here. Dammit.

Nutritional consultant and yoga instructor
Median pay for a nutritionist is between 45K and 50K, while a yoga instructor can make $5 to $10 dollars per student if they’re teaching in a community center.  If they’re doing private lessons, their fee can go up to $60 an hour.

I have to say, this one interests me most. The idea of learning about what makes our bodies run, and integrating different cruelty-free methods and practices that help it to run better, is kind of an inspiring way to make a living. Granted, I’d probably need an RD or MS, both of which require maths, so it wouldn’t be easy. And although I love yoga to distraction, I look more like Awkward Facing Pygmy than Downward Facing Dog. Also, I’m just not one of “those girls.” I think I’m too cynical, too negative, too entrenched in certain unseemly aspects of the Western tradition. (Hello, Perez Hilton!) I’m a hedonist, not a healer. But I do like the science of our bodies, and if I could apply my mother’s perceived lack of my own employment toward helping people, well, maybe karma will swoop in and cure cancer.

Drop me a line, AinsleyDrew at the gmail one. Thank you to everyone who donates! Seriously. Talk about karma.

Hire Ministry of Imagery, ’cause in spite of my maternal unit’s nagging, it is an actual job.

Like It. It’s like eating my brains, if you were a zombie.

My boyfriend is so awesome, he makes you stare.

A hearty beach picnic…long, tall and refreshing drinks…plump, juicy fruits…freshly-picked vegetables…

These are the usual images that come to my mind whenever I think “spring and summer foodie thoughts”

And I think these photos will give you an inkling of what I mean…

It’s a bit ironic though that I actually took a photo of these veggies during winter – hahaha!

I would’ve preferred taking a photo of the salad sans the fresh orange juice so that the cut-up fruits (in this case, I used gala apples, bananas, mandarin orange wedges and strawberries) would be more visible…   Was supposed to do a “re-take” of this but couldn’t – since strawberries were unfortunately not available during my last trip to the grocery (*sigh*).  Anyway, I found that this is one delicious way of making the kids eat fruits – and a variety of it, to boot! Incidentally, bet you’d never guess where I got this recipe? While watching a presenter introduce the next show in  BBC’s Cee-Beebies - hahaha!

Pardon the delayed post since I’ve been having some trouble uploading pics to this site lately…

A belated happy LaPiS to all!

I have been meaning to try this for some time since canned peaches are a family favorite while yogurt is something which is very much a staple in this part of the world. 

Though I again had some trouble with the double boiler process (what should take 10 minutes per the recipe took almost 5 times longer! ), a slight modification to the recipe did wonders for me and got me the results I wanted.

Now this will definitely make a “comeback” to our table soon!

The Finished Product

Up close and delicious!

I got this easy recipe from the Treats Desserts Recipe Book.

WHAT YOU NEED: 12 pieces canned peach halves, drained; 6 egg yolks; 1 cup white sugar; 1/2 cup water; 1 cup plain yogurt; 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (I just added this); sprigs of mint for garnish

HOW TO:  Puree peaches in blender until smooth except for half a peach which should be sliced thinly  and set aside for topping. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl.  Beat until pale and creamy. Add the water and mix well. Place the mixture in a double boiler over barely simmering water, beating constantly, until the mixture is thick and creamy (about 10 minutes).* Remove from the heat and stir in the peach puree and yogurt.  Spoon the mixture into individual bowls or glasses. Chill for at least 2 hours.  Decorate with slices of peach.  Garnish with mint and serve.

*Since the thick and creamy portion somehow eluded me, I put in an envelope of unflavored gelatin instead and proceeded to the next step in the recipe.  Also, instead of using individual bowls or glasses, I just placed the entire mixture in a pyrex dish (less washing for me – hahaha!).

Unlike our “Media Noches past” in Manila, being in the “Kingdom Far Away”  for New Year’s Eve meant a simpler holiday spread.  Aside from the fact that it lessens the “kitchen workload” on me considerably, I felt that replicating what we were used to back home is highly impractical (and could also be wasteful) since, after all,  there would only be hubby and I and three kids who will share this midnight meal to welcome the new year.

Nonetheless, I learned that simple could also be delicious as these pictures will (hopefully) show. 

Fiesta Ham (yes, we were able to get some ), cheese wedges, grapes and a bottle of non-alcoholic wine spritzer (so the kids can join in the toasting!)

Before I forget, I also prepared some macaroni salad to complement our simple fare

As we welcome the new year, may we remain “steadfast in faith, joyful in hope and unwavering in love” and may our austerity in certain things lead us to greater prosperity not only in resources but also in the loving company of family and friends.

From our family to yours, a blessed 2009 to all!

Though crisp and cool salads seem better suited to the warm, summer months, I decided to whip one up a few dinners ago nonetheless.

Foraging through my vegetable bin and crisper, I found a small head of Romaine lettuce, two cucumbers, 1/4 of a medium white onion bulb, a few pieces of crabstick and some leftover canned peaches in syrup.

What to do? Chop them all up, place in bowl, season with salt and pepper, toss and drizzle with your favorite dressing (ours is the “nearly-depleted” creamy Japanese sesame one – yum!).  A final tip: I found that adding a few teaspoonfuls of the peach syrup pushed the flavor a few notches up the “delish scale”.

 This is best served with anything grilled or fried and makes for a perfect starter together with warm, creamy soup.

Bon appetit! 

Bet you can’t say this in one breath…

Ready? Go!

…a scrumptious blend of jumbo Chilean flame raisins, sunflower seeds, dates, roasted hazelnuts and brazil nuts with multi-grain flakes topped with sliced strawberries and bananas, drizzled with honey and served with milk!

Why the tongue-twister, you ask? Because this, ladies and gentlemen, is what I had for breakfast today! Packs quite a punch, huh?

I thank you. (*bow*).