I was able to drop by what is now one of my favorite organic farms to date. We were given a tour before (during my first trip there) around the entire perimeter and the ins and outs of the farm (as well as it’s operations) were explained to us. I loved the meals (sort of like a buffet) that I was able to try out there immensely because all of them were delicious, had no preservatives (even the dessert!) and everything was quite fresh and organic (all picked from the farm itself). I also love going over the different produce that they were growing there, as well as the herbs which the owner handpicked himself and asked us to taste right off the bat. Don’t worry, it was quite safe to do so actually because they don’t use chemical fertilizers and sprays, which means that we can simply pick some arugula or even some mint, wipe them off a bit (even the side of your shirt will do for the wiping, just make sure it’s clean! Haha.) and stuff them in our mouths. The taste and the flavors of produce are simply amazing when they are grown the right way and are quite fresh. Big difference there. Gazillion pictures below. 
Georgia loves her naps (I love mine too! Haha.) and she usually has them in the afternoon. When I am out of the house the whole day, I am told that she doesn’t really do a lot of her naps and she ends up going up to our room. She “knocks” on our door to check if I’m just inside. She’s beyond cute! ♥
But when I am home, I make sure she can enjoy her naps. She cuddles right next to me and immediately goes to bed. She has in fact (for the most part) gotten used to still napping while I’m working on stuff (her favorite thing to do is come up to me while I’m in the midst of sketching something and she has the tendency to lay down on top of my work. Haha.). She isn’t too keen about me facing my drafting table for a very long time though.
Also, she looks totally adorable when she is asleep. Sometimes she barks in her sleep or she wiggles her tail – I sometimes would think that she is dreaming about her treats when she does the latter. The end. Haha.
P.S. When I am having a tough day, it helps to look at cute pictures – this is how I ended up writing this post (and talking about Georgia’s naps) in the first place. Such a weirdo, Pau. But yeah, you can never go wrong with too much cuteness. Haha. Love you Georgia!
P.P.S. She had a shorter haircut than usual but it’s her “summer cut”. Quite perfect for the hot weather.
Rainy Tuesday. Another food log – I’m thinking about doing this, the logs (I mean I love food documentation plus the actual meal itself. Haha.)
Just a couple of quick iphone shots of some of the stuff I had today. I felt quite faint after (haha) but company was beyond awesome.
P.S. I’m excited for my stools (!), flooring option experiment and I’m listening to awesome music
Jihyun Ryou’s project focuses on the present situation of food and how to preserve it. As quoted from her (and what I found particularly interesting), “I’ve learned that we hand over the responsibility of taking care of food to technology, the refrigerator. We don’t observe the food anymore and we don’t understand how to treat it”.
Basically, the cool thing about this is that the concept is actually very simple and quite basic. It is something we have easily overlooked in this modernized world full of technology. This is also my belated “Green” tribute to St. Paddy’s day. A very good example of Green Design, that addresses an aspect of the overuse of energy and food wastage. Enjoy!
Verticality of Root Vegetables
Keeping roots in a vertical position allows the organism to save energy and remain fresh for a longer time. This shelf gives a place for them to stand easily, using sand. At the same time, sand helps to keep the proper humidity.
Symbiosis of Potato+Apple
Apples emit a lot of ethylene gas. It has the effect of speeding up the ripening process of fruits and vegetables kept together with apples. When combined with potatoes, apples prevent them from sprouting.
Breathing of Eggs
An egg has millions of holes in its shell. It absorbs the odour and substance around itself very easily. This creates a bad taste if it’s kept in the fridge with other food ingredients. This shelf provides a place for eggs outside of the fridge. Also the freshness of eggs can be tested in the water. The fresher they are, the further they will sink.
Dryness of Spices
Rice absorbs humidity easily. The spice container with rice inside helps spices stay dry without forming into lumps.
Humidity of Fruit Vegetables
We tend to think zucchini, aubergine, cucumber, etc. as vegetables. But they are biologically fruits. This shelf gives them a space to be outside the fridge. Also through the ritual to water them everyday, they will stay fresh.
P.S. Really cool ideas that we can try to apply in our own kitchens and in how we store some of our goods. Doing our part in minimizing the use of energy will be a good thing to do for our environment. Cheers!
P.P.S. In addition, you can check out a video about it below. Functional and absolutely brilliant design!
Another thing that I dearly love – old houses/heritage/ancestral houses. I did part of my design thesis on one, how to conserve the existing structure itself and how to renovate a more recent addition structure to make it part of the existing. It was actually more complicated than that of course, with the space undergoing various transitions over the years. But I loved every minute of it actually, even crawling under old and dusty framing to take measurements. Haha.
So it certainly was a treat for me to be able to visit another awesome ancestral house, the Balay Negrense. At present, it is now a museum of sorts that represents the lifestyle of Negrense Sugar Baron during the late 19th century. Ancestral houses here in the Philippines are classified according to certain periods and foreign influences (ex. American Colonial Era, Japanese Era, etc.).
Though I can go on and on with this the whole day (I really find it interesting!), I’ll leave you with a brief account of it Architecture-wise and then class dismissed for now. Haha. So, here we go.
This house is an example of a bahay na bato (which literally means “House of Stone”, I can explain further on the history of the bahay na bato another time if anyone is curious about it). It’s lower storey which is typically the stone part of the bahay na bato is actually made of concrete. As typical of old houses, it’s floors and foundation posts are made of a sturdy local hardwood. It has a good high ceiling for the second storey and wide open windows.
Pictures below. Class dismissed.
P.S. A couple of moi pictures too. I had a lot of fun, had to control looking giddy being in the house. Haha.
I love pancakes a great deal and I could eat a couple any time of the day (it’s not limited to just breakfast food for me). I even went through a phase wherein I would make them every single day. Haha.
Even though I think I am already done with that phase at present, I still get the occasional cravings and when I do, I like to be creative with my pancakes. The pancakes above are quite delicious and healthier (in a sense). I make them when I am craving for some pancakes and a bit of apple pie – these babies address both concerns. What an invention! I’m a genius! Haha.
No eggs in my pancakes and I add a bit of oatmeal and flax too. I made some apple cinnamon (which I really really love. By the way, you can bake it for awhile in the oven as well), they do have cinnamon sticks that you can use and I don’t use sugar either. If you must, do use an organic substitute.
Perfect for the weekends, complements the much needed R&R and I find them comforting. Have a good weekend everyone!
I was quite worn out for the last couple of days, with all the design stuff (plus a couple of appointments) that needed to be done, attended to and crossed out in my to-do list. An example from yesterday’s to-do list was giving out specifications for stools and a table I had someone customize for me among other things. I had a lot of fun though! (and a bit of a headache. Haha.)
Anyhow, here are a couple of hasty shots from the Green Design Talk I mentioned a few days ago. It was quite an awesome talk by Archt. Joy Onozawa (an awesome lady and a Certified Green Building Designer), packed with so much useful information about our environment, the situation of our planet at present, how we can incorporate Green Design in architecture and interior design.
For those who aren’t familiar with Green Design, its basically environmentally conscious design. When applied in interior design, It’s about us designing responsibly by thinking of the environment as well, of us helping our clients use spaces that respect the environment. It was certainly quite interesting to learn things like how we can use our country’s humidity to our advantage when we are designing or how by simple reconfigurations in our design we can already make interiors a lot cooler without using too much energy (i.e. air conditioners or electric fans).
We were also given a tour of Greenovate Corporation’s Green Model Unit, an earth-friendly home which incorporates an environment-friendly design concept and built using affordable pre-fabricated materials which acknowledge the concept of minimizing the negative impact on our environment (ex. It allows its occupants to save on water and electricity). Yup, I enjoyed listening to the talk beside a nifty solar-powered air conditioning system.
I can go on and on about this (I think I’ll do a separate post all together about Green Design) because its beyond awesome but I think I’ll stop up to here for now. A couple of pictures below.
Definitely one of my favorite places here in the Philippines. It’s simply beautiful and it definitely took my breath away. ♥
To quote Luci Lizares-Yunque, “Like a lady wooed by her man, the Ruins play with your emotions especially at sunset with its orange pinks and purples hues. He charms, tickles and romances you. But at sundown, the Ruins take a different persona. With blue and golden sights emanating from nooks and crannies, it is now a lady, teasing, flirting, a temptress confident of her beauty as well as her majesty.”
A couple of cool facts about it – 1. This was built in the early 1900′s by a Filipino sugar baron for his wife (their initials M and M were molded onto the mansion’s posts). Only their unmarried children were allowed to live there as well, 2. This was intentionally burned down during World War II, 3. It is of Italianate Architecture with neo-Romanesque columns, 4. The walls were incorporated with egg whites mixed with cement which gives it a certain sheen/gloss.
P.S. I definitely had a lot of fun taking pictures under the heat of the sun. I had no idea pictures (one of them below) where taken. Paparazzi, stop it. Haha. I kid
I am at loss for words at the moment. I do have a lot of photograph backlog so I’ll work those. I also have to finalize two designs for armchairs I’m working on at the moment and finalize a color scheme. I have to move my butt and start getting a couple of things made. In some ways, I have come to realize that I tend to use this journal as a receptacle for my to-do lists. I’ll have to try and stop doing that and just stick to paper like how normal people do it. Haha.
Green Design talk pictures soon! I thought I was gonna be able to post them today but I still lack a couple more. Also, I have a long Georgia to-do list as well. She isn’t due for her other annual shots for a couple more months but I do need to get her a couple more things. I’ve been doing some research on stuff that would be best for Georgia. Talk about that next week when I pick up one of the big items.
Anyhow, I’m off for a snack. Toodles!
P.S. I guess the words start coming back when I get started ticking off things from the top of my head. Silly Pau. Haha.
I am definitely liking these pictures (below) a great deal – I have always loved this concept. It’s super fun!
This is Ikea’s baking book which contains classic Swedish recipes (from small biscuits to large cakes). As stated, the idea of this book became to tone down the actual baked goods and put the ingredients as the main focus (they presented the recipes in a totally new fashion). It starts out with graphic still-life portraits of the ingredients and then culminates to the picture of each finished product. Such fun art! ♥
P.S. I was able to attend the talk scheduled for today about Green Building Design. We were also given a tour of the model unit that was built based on this concept. I’ll post a couple of pictures before the week ends hopefully and talk about it some more. It was a lot of fun!
I had a really good and productive day today. Finally decided on the outdoor furniture that I needed for a project, got those today. I also got a couple of really cool pieces. Picking up one of my favorite chairs later on in the week. It was quite hot (i.e. very very hot) today and I got a minor headache from driving around in this heat but I had a lot of fun getting things done and I’m quite excited. Yey!
By the way, beautiful drawings above by Yellena James. I really, really love them. I have always had this affinity for this kind of art. Simply surreal, rich, organic, dreamlike and in some ways, reminds me of the sea.
A really cool concept by Dutch designer, Lucas Maassen and his three sons. His Furniture Factory Collection is a fresh collaboration, Maassen employed his sons Julian, Maris and Thijme to paint the pine wood furniture in their factory.
Don’t be outraged or be alarmed about this if you are a parent because as noted in the contract between the boys and their father, they may only work three hours per week as allowed by Dutch child labor laws. I would also like to think that this helps them learn about the concept of hard work and dabble in their creativity.
I’d love to participate in something like this. Paints, brushes and leave me in the Studio – awesome! Check out a cool video about it below.
Film by: Mike Roelofs
I know, I was away for quite some time. *doesn’t make eye contact* – Haha. I was actually nursing a tummy pain problem and when I eventually got better, it was this design journal’s turn to experience problems of its own. Anyhow, I’m very very happy to be back. (Insert megawatt smile here).
What better way to start this month than by sharing an experimental concoction I came up with? Cool beans!
During the beginning of the weekend, I was told that they got some fresh scallops for me and I can do whatever I wish with said scallops. The thing is, I get really excited when I experiment with cooking. It reminds me so much of designing, you can play around with different ideas and apply creativity. I also like taking advantage of fresh ingredients because the flavor they possess is simply awesome.
I definitely had a lot of fun doing this and I knew what I wanted to come up with – a savory scallop dish. Though I wanted to use some cooking wine that was especially good for seafood, I decided to just go with an alternative so that in case my mom will eat it, it’ll be completely safe and non-alcoholic. Also, I won’t do a step by step thing but will instead discuss how I sort of did it (i.e. a paragraph or two). On to the cooking!
I do love ratios and stuff but with this, I made my own proportions in a sense. I decided to steam the first half of my scallops (I want to try something different with the remaining half. Perhaps do a play on oriental flavors for the next batch). Steaming is actually a good and healthy cooking option. To start things off, I seasoned the scallops with some salt, pepper and garlic beforehand. I then infused the steaming with some fresh lemon grass and a lemon for some subtle zest. Quick note, cooking time for the scallops is about 8-10 minutes when you steam them.
Do take advantage of the natural “fresh-from-the-sea” flavor of the scallops (I wanted that particular flavor to be the focal/base flavor) and keep things simple. Use the remaining scallop juice/drippings from steaming and make a thick, rich gravy of sorts. On low heat, add some evoo and mix in a couple of cloves of garlic (chopped finely), stir for at least a minute. Add in the drippings and simmer for a couple of minutes to thicken. You may add some cooking wine at this point to deglaze the sauce but since I wanted this alcohol free (even if its just wine), there are wine alternatives that work as well (examples include white grape juice, water, etc.). Add some fresh herbs (think of herbs that would complement the taste that you are going for) and some fresh chives towards the end. Don’t forget to season with some salt and pepper. Plate your dish and acquaint with your tastebuds.
This is quite a rich and savory dish that is really good (I loved how it turned out) and would also be perfect for Lent. Have fun in your kitchen and make some art of your own!
