Filipino Cuisine

As a Filipino-Chinese-Canadian, I am so, so, so glad that the Philippines is finally putting some effort into promoting the country! Despite the minimal budget, I certainly think that the attempt is a good one and hopefully, it works!

Growing up in Manila was priceless. The Philippines is the only place I know where all of these unique cultures are infused into one. Spanish, Chinese, American, you name it, you got it. Where else can you find old Spanish basilica-type churches, haciendas, giant malls, amazing beaches, rice terraces, etc. all in ONE country. The Philippines is one of these places where someone just needs to experience the culture to know what others are talking about.

CNN recently published 50 foods that define the Philippines and it totally made me miss the country even more. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Filipino food and I need to get my fix at least once every month. People ask me what does Filipino food taste like? Again, it's a mesh of all of these different cultures and it's part Malay, part Spanish, part Chinese, part something else!!! So yum! :)

Okay, getting hungry.. lol.

So, all for now.

XO,

Care

Cost: Free (I do need a trip back soon so I can get a fix, lol)

Tools Used: Chrome, Blogger, Google

Google in 2012

Hola everyone. No posts yesterday, it was too cold and my fingers were numb. Just kidding, hehe. Yesterday was just the first day back at work and I was bent on being focused :).

Anyhow, as the new year starts, there are articles now published about what Google should be doing in the new year. Here are some examples and I've summarized all the main points for you because who has time to read all of them right?! (me.. lol):

4 Big Moves Google Should Make in 2012

1) Google+ comes into its own

2) Android puts its house in order

3) Ceding tablet territory while building content

4) GDrive cements cloud domination

What Google Should do in 2012

1) Release a killer tablet (a.k.a. iPad killer)

2) Stop talking about GoogleTV and just start shipping it (gawddarnit!)

3) Raise the bar for what's ready to ship

4) Aggressively design for users, not nerds

5) Stop playing catchup.

6) Compromise less, play hardball more.

What will Google do in 2012

1) Launch an iPad competitor

2) End Google+

3) Google Wallet

There are a gabillion other posts out there but these 3 were my favourites. My POV is a mixture of the 3.. but I am quite confuzzled as to why no one is talking about the Google Wallet more. Um.. hello? NFC? I totally believe that Google can up its game in this space and subsequently endear itself to end users, especially as merchants and customers alike are looking to alternatives to cash/processor-merchant relationship. This is certainly obvious with the success of such payment-disrupting organizations such as Square.

Double this up with Google and its recent acquisition of Zagat. Google should perhaps look into rolling this whole NFC bit to a portion of its Zagat-rated merchants as a pilot, provide them with a minor incentive (and their regular customers) and see how it goes. I can see this building momentum (at first, locally) and a widespread adoption of NFC technology will follow. They can even focus on large local events (such as the London Olympics as post 3, point 3 states) as a start!

Note that NFC is not only for payment processing. Here's something I just thought up:

I'm in a new city and there's a tag for a cupcake shop just posted at a traffic light post on a popular street corner.

I can then scan it and find its location. Google Maps will bring me to the location.

I arrive at the location and I see an amazing cupcake display with all these yummy goodies.

All of them are tagged of course with what flavor it is, maybe even the ingredients and price.

I can then start scanning what cupcakes I want and voila, my list goes to the cash where I can then use a (hopefully) encrypted payload. :) While I eat my cupcake at a local park, someone asks me where I got them. I can then NFC the info to them which will then start up the process again.

Nom, nom, nom, nom.

Oops, here I am blabbing on about NFC but if you don't know what it is, this video talks about it:

Fully explained by folks from Google to boot (note that the first 17 minutes are what appeals to the business users and the remainder of the video is more technical. Skip to 39 minutes for Privacy and Security).

One of the points in the list above is also to design for users, not nerds. I get that. I'm not a technical person and I love Apple's intuitive designs and feel that Google can certainly make things a lot more 'user-friendly'. Perhaps to the point where its technology does not and will not necessitate a manual. That's the gold standard. I think NFC will certainly be more talked about if it reached more of a greater mass of end users, specifically those that are not too technical.

Okay, all for now!

XO,

Care

Cost: Free

Tools Used: Zagat, Chrome, Blogger, Youtube, Google, NFC

Toronto is cold. Brr!!!

Toronto is under a cold alert with windchills of below -25C. In short, it's FREEZING so keep warm folks!

Yesterday was a different story. The moment I woke up and saw the sun peeking through the clouds, I seized the day and took my little Canon out for some exercise, lol (Yes, I like to personify hehe). I had some colourful shots which totally brightened up my day! Yay!

Sigh... summer. 6 more months maybe? Oh well! I'll take sunny days, rain or shine, anytime!

Now, a question.. why are my pictures so small? I uploaded them on Blogger and they're frikkin large-sized photo but it automatically has been shrinking them and I've been uploading them as 'large'. Grr!! Geebuz!

Anyhow, small pictures for now 'til I understand how this whole thing works.

Toodles noodles! Most people are going back to work tomorrow after the Holiday week so bundle up!

XO,

Care

Cost: Nada

Tools used: Chrome, Blogger

Cat Can Cook's Awesome Banana Recipe

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!! :)

One of my many hobbies include baking muffins. I love muffins. Not cupcakes, not bread, but just cute little muffins. I just love how they are enough to be part of a meal, be a standalone snack, can be made savoury-ish and also is easy to share.

I've been searching for a great banana bread-type muffin and have tried many. Some turn out too dry, too sticky/ moist, not enough texture, you get the drift. I'm really looking for a simple staple I can just stash in my recipe book (a.ka. Evernote, lol).

Today, I'm trying out Cat Can Cook's awesome banana recipe. I happened to also catch this lovely lady at a local television show and she was great.

The link can be found here.

With JUST 8 ingredients and over 1000 comments, this should be killer right? We shall see!

Just the wet ingredients

The wet + dry ingredients

Before it goes into the muffin tin!

The 20 minute wait begins..

Et voila! One is a little muffin that I usually make so I can taste it pronto, hehe

Close up of the bunch..

Single muffin

Peeled single muffin.

Overall, I thought this muffin recipe is a keeper. I followed the recipe to a T and it tasted great and the top was a little hard and crusty while the bottom/ inside remained light and fluffy (how I like it). The only downside was that I felt the not-too-ripe banana aftertaste which was completely my fault because obviously, I didn't wait for the bananas to get a little riper, lol. I was so excited to try out the recipe and was also craving them. This recipe is not for the ones that enjoy really moist and sticky banana muffins recipes.

I'm trying out different ways of uploading photos on Blogspot and most photos were size "Small" with only the 2nd to the last photo as size "Large". Signing up for a Picasa account soon so we'll see how the photos get affected too. :)

Alright, all for now. Again, Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you had a fabulous holiday season!

XO,

Care

Cost: Maybe about $4 for the muffin recipe. Yield = 10 full muffins. The only real 'expense' I had was buying the bananas which were on sale at Walmart for $0.69/ lb.

Tools Used: Blogger, Chrome and Google (where I found Cat's recipe)

2012!

Wow, I can't believe I actually have been blogging for 4 days straight. That's pretty wild considering I've started and subsequently abandoned a countless number of blogs with topics ranging from being snarky with my bff to appreciating wine and everything in between. Lol, I'm really hitting my stride and starting to incorporate this in my daily routine.

2011 was an amazing year for me. I'm still fully coming into realization and acceptance as to how great of a year it was. In no particular order, I got promoted at work where I am now handling larger-sized Enterprise-level accounts in a very interesting industry, got engaged to a great guy, moved to a new house and was able to finally be debt-free (except for mortgages) with a nice lump sum payment on my Subaru. I paid off the financing on my car 2 years in advance! I'm not a car fanatic and picked the most solid car I could find a few years back and I know I'm driving her for at the very least, 7 more years, hehe.

My family is also great with the addition of a little bundle of joy who just (and I always choke up when I say this..) is the most special little person ever. I swear, despite the crankiness that comes with babyhood (new term? lol), she's just so perfect. I love her to bits and I can't give her enough kisses when I'm with her, hehe! Full disclosure, I stalk my sister-in-law's Flickr account multiple times a day, lol!

With that, 2012 is just some hours away and it's time to make new goals! I've given up on setting "New Year's resolutions" because I always break them anyways and hence, goals are more appropriate. I find that my habits are set and resolutions are meant to change them in such a abrupt way just because of the advent of the new year. I'd rather slowly ease myself into a new routine, rationalize as to why, and then move forward. It's the Care way! :)

Goals are EXTREMELY important IMO. I can't imagine doing something without a goal. It's totally necessary and I really believe in it. As Buddha (among other beliefs) has one time stated:

(Photo courtesy of http://thesecret.tv/wallpaper-and-pdfs.html). Side note, if you need a kick in the butt, read "The Secret")

I've divided mine into three different categories and for the most part, follows the S.M.A.R.T. way of setting goals (again, in no particular order).

Personal Development:

1) Go to hot yoga 3x/ week. -- Although I realize hot yoga has its physical benefits, I actually love going because it calms my mind and feeds my soul.

2) Read 6 biographies of inspiring human beings within the year. -- This year, I finished Buffett (Shroeder), Einstein (Isaacson) and Jobs (Isaacson). To be honest, I'm struggling to find non-biased biographies and Isaacson needs to write more, hehe. Just saying! I obviously love his books. If anyone has suggestions, please do share!

3) Be vegetarian 1x/ week.

4) Sweat for at least 45 minutes every single day. -- Running with Ninja, Yoga, WiiFit, Just Dance, whatever! Lol. Fitness is definitely top of mind.

5) Volunteer 1 hour/ week or cumulatively, 52 hours during the year.

6) Talk or FaceTime with family 1 hour/ week. -- They give me strength and keep me grounded.

7) Allocate 1 hour/ day for blogging, taking pictures, creating something. -- I need this to nourish my soul.

Professional:

1) Overachieve every single quarter and be 125% over annual number.

2) Make 20% more of what I made this year $$-wise.

3) Mentor someone deserving of an opportunity and help him/ her succeed.

Daily Affirmations:

1) Don't let toxic people in my life. -- I started practicing this towards the end of this year and it was amazing.

2) Appreciate everything.

3) Do one good thing daily. -- Simple things count.

Financial:

1) No shopping for clothing items until July 1, 2012. Clothing includes shoes, tops, bottoms, dresses, bags, anything to that nature. -- I simply have too much and I can shop in my own closet.

2) Save 45% of my income and put towards savings (RRSPs and TFSA), wedding, and travels.

That's pretty much it! I know that it seems like a long list but most of them are activities I have to do daily in order for me to achieve my goals.

Cheers to the new year!

XO,

Care

Cost: To be determined still.. :)

Tools Used: Started this post in Chrome, ended it in Safari, Blogger, Google to source some pictures lol