Australia Day!

Happy Australia Day to all the Aussies around the globe :-)

Today the entire nation down under is having their official holiday and having a good time. So time travel of 8 hours from Sydney, here I am in Manila thinking of my own ways to celebrate this day. I also asked myself what Australia Day means for me to celebrate tonight.

It was year 2000, when I first fell in love with the beauty of Australia. It was because of my friend who studied in UTS, Sydney who made me feel that way. He sent me e-mails narrating his life stories in Australia. He told me the places he visited, the people he met, the lifestyle he had and so on. He also sent pictures for me to visualize the beauty of the country who became his home for two years. It was his stories that inspired me to see Australia. I promised myself to visit my friend when he was still there. It didn't happen. I set aside that promise. But it was always there in my heart. Seven years later, finally I was able to go Australia. I stepped on the city of Brisbane for few hours, visited Melbourne for a week and resided at Sydney for a month. I embraced their culture and appreciated every single detail of their life. To my amazement about the life I had their for a month, it made me tell myself once more: "I promise that one day this is the place I will settle down and live the life I always dream of." It was a dream that will take two people to pursue. I thought this dream was shattered. I don't see it will happen anytime soon. But who knows what life brings? I will never find the answer today. Things happen for a reason, I may not be able to embrace that thought now but the future will prove it's true. So, starting today I will never take away that dream in my heart. It will always be there. And it takes a positive thought for good things to happen and for me to reach my dreams.

"Everything you want to learn about life is best learned with sand between your toes because life is a beach"

So tonight, let me celebrate by grilling my marinated pork in black beer with honey. Things I learned during my barbecue class in Sydney. And let me use my blender to come up with my Frothe Cerveza Negra with lemon and honey. Isn't that a feast for dinner already? And who wants to join me for dinner tonight?

Good Day Mate! :)

hugs,
joanie xxx

Frozen Strawberry-Mango Cake

I heart Strawberries.

But my strawberries from Benguet failed to taste as sweet as it used to be.

But nevertheless I still made this cake and was able to share it with people who are part of life. I hope I didn't fail to give them the sweetest dessert possible. And to the Ace Saatchi people who also tasted it, you should order next time :)

To my readers, here's how to do this frozen cake.

You will need butter, cream, gelatin (diluted in warm water), condensed milk, vanilla extract, sugar, broas, mangoes (cut into cubes) and strawberries (sliced into halves)

Arrange broas inside a tray. It will serve as the base of the cake then set aside. Heat a casserole in low heat then melt butter. Add the cream, condensed milk, vanilla extract then followed by sugar and the gelatin mixture. Pour the mixture on top of the broas. Cool for 10 minutes until firm. Then top the strawberries and mangoes. Place inside the freezer for 4-6 hours. Then serve.

Hope you like it!

hugs,
joanie xxx

The meaning of being Joan.

You Are Level-Headed and Trustworthy

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. Next precise thing after my zodiac interpretation :-)

Ms. JOAN ala MIRO

I am currently flustered. And I am running late with all the things I need to accomplish before the weekend. Due to my procrastination, this is the result I got–cramming! So how do I go about all these things? Step by step maybe, a huge amount of patience and probably people support. Then things will fall into place, I hope. So how would Joanie turn her new walls into a Jana Joana type of graffiti versus a Joan Miro type of mural? Dazed and confused? Argh! I am really torn and feeling helpless. But I hope this MAD back cover fold-in artwork would help me resolve my current confusion. A nice artwork I stumbled on the net and it's been ages since I read my favorite MAD magazine, and did some folding. And another thing that popped my mind just now, I also need to finish the Head Shot Project for Raffy Tesoro. I think I got the head shot that fits my mood. The "Maturity." Hope Joanie will get her work done soon.

hugs,
joanie xxx

Mr. & Mrs. Garcia