Flavored Peanut Butter Livelihood Workshop

A great opportunity to start your business right from your kitchen...

Brooms from Plastic Bottles: a great way to save Mother Earth

Everyday tons and tons of plastic bottles are thrown anywhere.  All efforts have been tried and tested to save these plastic bottles from littering.  Some RUN for Fun just to deliver the message.  But no amount of saving “devices” and running if the message falls in deaf ears.

And if you cannot stop from buying and throwing these bottles, check this out. There is greatness in recycling. You both save Mother Earth and your wallet. 

Livelihood Workshop on Hand-Made Stuffed Toy

Teddy bears are so cute and they make the perfect gift for almost any occasion.

From birthdays to graduations, Valentines to Christmas, get well wishes to welcome home, whatever the celebration, there's always a special teddy bear.

 

Join us on July 11, 2012 and get thrilled with making your first handmade teddy bear and start building your FIRST home based business.

Lampshade made of disposable spoons.

I really could not get the idea why my mom kept and washed disposable spoons after every birthday party she hosted. I know she saved them for the next parties. Although, she temporarily stopped doing it after I bought her sets of stainless ones. It may look "untidy" to some but keeping them really matters to her. Her heart bleeds with every spoon and fork wasted. Little did I know that it was also her way of saving Mother Earth. Until now, she reminds us to bring our spoons and forks every time we eat outside.

Everyone talks about green movement...about saving mother earth....but only few really understand the real meaning of it. And it is really worth appreciating to see other people taking extra effort transforming non- biodegradeable materials into another work of art rather than showing them by joining FUN RUN or Bingo Games.

Here is another work of art from disposable spoons....

Photo from Facebook

HEAVENLY STRAWBERRY MACAROONS

The past days were filled with preparing the menu for an intimate dinner with 6 friends. Google has proven its worth with my constant search for easy to prepare menu. Being a non-culinary expert and an expert with anything processed food (from pancit-canton to canned goods), easy-to-prepare menu became a staple topic for research.

With less help from my “kusinera” friends – a three-course menu with five mixed concoctions were all set not until my niece asked for the dessert.  Tension suddenly broke out with less than three hours prior to the event. 

Good heavens must have heard my cry and showed me a post from facebook about Strawberry Macaroons.  It was a both a bliss and a discovery that the dinner ended with lots of plans for the Strawberry Macaroons. 

Photo from Facebook

Here is the recipe of this heavenly dessert.

Strawberry macaron
Ingredients for the macarons shells (around 30-40 macarons):

200 g dried almonds powder
200 g confectioners’ sugar (or ice sugar)
200 g sugar in powder
2 . 75 g eggwhites
50 ml water

Put the almonds and confectioners’ sugar together in the blender and mix. This «pasta» is called the tant pour tant (TPT) because there is as much as sugar as almonds powder. Reserve in a bowl.
In a pot pour 160 g of sugar in powder, add the water but do not mix. Bring to a temperature of 115°C.
Meanwhile beat the eggwhites (75 g) with the remaining sugar until stiff (the mix should be consistant but not too much, just avoid the beaten eggwhites form a beak)

Still beating the eggwhite, pour the boiling sugar. Mix until the temperature reaches down 40°C (or no temperature sensation on your finger). This process (2 to 4) is the so called meringue italienne.
At that moment add the remaining eggwhites (the unbeaten ones) to the TPT. Mix gently. Add a third of the meringue to make it more supple. Mix gently and add the rest of the meringue. Mix softly. The final TPT should be quite soft but not liquid (literally it has to do a ribbon)! a tip from tartelette : Test a small amount of pasta on a plate: if the tops flattens on its own you are good to go. If there is a small beak, give the batter a couple of turns.

Fill a pastry bag with a piping nozzle of size 6 or 8 (diameter in mm). Pip small rounds onto parchment paper. Space the shells (coques) by 2 cm at least (as seen in the following picture). Let them sit out at least 15-20 mns

Meanwhile warm up the oven at 150°C.
After 15-20 mns, put the macarons in the oven for 12-15 mns, depending of the size (1 parchement paper at a time or the shells break). Let cool before removing.
Strawberry ganache

300 g of white chocolate
300 g strawberries

 
Slice finely the white chocolate and reserve in a bowl.
Wash and clean the strawberries. Put them in a pot and mix into a purée.
Over low heat cook the purée (makesure it does not boil!)
Sieve the purée over the chocolate and mix gently.

 
Refrigerate the strawberry ganache for at least 3 hours(it takes quite a time to get thick)
When it is cold and constant, fill a pastry bag with the ganache
Pipe the ganache on the center of the shell and top with another one (if you don’t put enough ganache the shells will dry!)

Keep the macarons in the fridge for a couple of hours

Photo from Google

REAL BUSINESS WITH BEADS.

Last night – while I was packing (actually re-packing) unused new stuffs for storage and gift-giving, I chanced upon an old gift from a friend, an old, rusty personalized bracelet. I am not really keen on wearing them but I always find the idea of “personalized” gift as a potential business venture. 

Early this morning, while my sister and her family was busy watching Harry Potter, we had a short chat on the possibility of starting her own small business in the small town of Kokomo, Indianapolis. Capitalizing on her kikay daughter, I suggested she will get her hands busy with “kikay” accessories – like bag tags, hair clips and bracelets. The ever non-artistic member of the family – she had this abrupt abhorrence of the idea – not until I showed her some of the tips.

Here are some of the ideas I got from the net that made her really enthusiastic.

Photo from Google

Photo from Google

Photo from Google

Photo from Goggle

Starting your business with little faith of yourself matters most to the success or failure of the venture.  Oftentimes, we gauge the success of the enterprise based on the success or failure of others. 

In my sister’s case – she loves doing it but has little faith to herself. She feels like being non-artistic and a full-time mother is all about acting like “maid”.  

I remember when she was in elementary and I was in college when I started doing some “kikay” stuffs and I asked her to model for her classmates.  We had a good income. We “manufactured”  the accessories in our room and she wore them in school the following day. 

With that simple beginning, she is now excited to start her own line.  You are a big girl now sis... 

HEALTHY PASTA OPTIONS

“ARE YOU GREEN AND GROWING OR RIPE AND ROTTING?” I was reading an old magazine when this phrase hit me big time. But just like interesting phrases – they are always left written on a piece of tissue paper. But this one had its way on my cork board.

For the past months, I have been drinking pure barley (from Sante).  Although the smell never attracted my senses at first, but the thought of getting healthy made the smell inviting. I wrote about it in my previous blog but the idea of dipping my hands into “the green lifestyle” started when an office mate gave me a malunggay pasta after his trip from Bicol.

Malunggay noodles from Tabaco City

 As a certified pasta lover (well, I tried my own versions of pesto) but this malunggay pasta blew me away. I claimed I had the first try of malunggay pesto but when I shared my experience to my peers- the idea never astounded them. “Where have you been?” I quoted one asking me with disbelief. Where am I?  Nah – I have been busy eating pancit canton done in less than 5 minutes. I have been addicted with ready-to-cook spaghetti.  Grocery stores have been my refuge for the so-called “fast life.”

Bagoong Pasta - a blockbuster at the recently concluded TiangGREEN in Pampanga

 But anyway, I am hoping an entrepreneur will soon build a PASTA PLACE that only serves vegetables-based pasta. I will not get amazed one day someone will prepare a squash pasta.