Calamansi Crinkle Cookies

Calamansi is a citrus fruit native here in the Philippines. It's green like a lime on the outside, but orange inside and is about a third of the size of a golf ball. It tastes sour, with a tiny hint of sweetness. It's the Philippine lemon, if you will. Calamansi is used in a lot of Filipino dishes and I love it!

I'm a big fan of lemon and anything sour. Unfortunately, there aren't any lemons here in the town I'm in. While browsing around Pinterest, I saw a recipe for Lemon Crinkle Cookies and it sounded so good! So I decided to work with what I have available here and substituted lemon for calamansi. These Calamansi Crinkle Cookies turned out delicious.

DIY Projects from Too Much To See

"Too Much To See, The World Keeps Turnin'" is the name of my old blog that I don't really use anymore. BUT, I have done some DIY projects there that I would like to share here on Latitude Adjustment.

Click on the links to see more:

Infinity Scarf from a t-shirt

From shirt to skirt!

How to remove glitter nailpolish easily

Holder for charging cell phone

Tiger Balm

Tiger Balm. Sounds like a crazy, Charlie Sheen-esqe type thing, right? It's actually pretty awesome, useful stuff, especially to travelers susceptible to mosquito bites.

In 2009, J and spent a week in Thailand. While there, I got tore up by mosquitoes (I mean, anywhere I go, I get tore up by those little suckers). I had no anti-itch stuff, so we went to this little store looking for something. I remember seeing Tiger Balm at the local Asian market in my hometown in California, but never paid no mind to it. But I saw it on the shelf in this tiny Thai store next to some other medicine-type stuff, so I picked it up to check it out. And right on the back of the jar, it said that it helps with the relief of insect bites. It only cost a few Baht, so I got it-- and I've been loving it ever since. I take it everywhere I go when I travel.

Recipe: Nips Cookies

I live in a small town here in the Philippines. There's only 1 grocery store, a small open market, a handful of small shops. And I like to cook, more specifically bake. So I've decided I won't let my limited access to ingredients stop me, I'm going to work with what I have.

Today I baked some Nips cookies. Nips are candy-coated chocolates... the Filipino version of M&M's, if you will. I love M&M's cookies, but M&M's are a little bit on the more expensive side here. But Nips- they're super cheap. They don't taste the same, but the difference is subtle. You can even find Nips at your local Filipino mart or Asian market (in some, not all). So I decided to take a stab at some Nips cookies. This recipe, of course, can be substituted with your favorite candy-coated chocolates, or even chocolate chips. Either way, your tummy will be happy.

Interlude

If you've ever listened to music, you know what an interlude is-- a short piece (usually either music or dialogue) inserted between songs on an album. It's an interruption, or sometimes a connection, of sorts to the flow of the songs. Of course the word not only applies to music, it can apply to other things as well.

Right now, my life is in its interlude.

We've been everywhere and back, going from one country to another. We've been living in the Philippines for 3 months now and we've decided we're going to live here for a while. We have a pretty good set up-- we have a nice house, we're surrounded by family, and we're taking a step forward to being more self-sustainable with our garden (being self-sustainable has been one of our goals for our lives).

So, Philippines is our interlude in our mixtape of traveling and always being on the go.

With this being said, this blog will now mainly consist of my endeavors/doings/adventures here as we start our home in the Philippines.

Since living here, my days have been filled with being a housewife. J is outside with his cousins working on the garden all day, I'm inside cooking, cleaning, doing laundry-- the whole deal. All I have to say is mad props to fellow housewives, especially those with kids. I now know it's no easy task. And I'm grateful for having the best example of a great housewife/homemaker my whole life-- my mother.

Anyways, I don't know how long this interlude will last... months? Years? Forever? Who knows.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Being that it's fall (well, not here 'cuz it's hot and humid all year round and the coconut trees stay green all the time), but somewhere in the world it's fall, which means, of course-- pumpkin time. I wanted to try and "feel" the fall spirit here in the tropics as best I could, and baking these pumpkin snickerdoodles filled the house with that all-so-familiar smell of pumpkin and cinnamon and I was able to feel the fall spirit for a little moment.

I found this recipe and the cookies came out so good! They were a big hit with everyone and were gone quick. My husband says the texture isn't like your regular cookie-- it's more "cakey." They're moist and nice and fluffy. We even had a couple for breakfast one morning. They're super easy to make! If you want, try putting a little chocolate or cream cheese frosting on top. And if you really want a stronger pumpkin flavor, add more pumpkin!

Sorry for the crappy, cellphone quality pic! My other camera wasn't handy. Either way- they're delicious!

Backyard Update #2

Here's Jason's permaculture update #2. Our backyard is coming along, a little slower than planned, but it's coming nonetheless. I can't wait to see when it's all finished- it's going to look so cool!

http://mestizomagic.blogspot.com/2012/10/tropical-permaculture-in-philippines.html

Boracay, Philippines

If you've heard about the Philippines, it's highly probable you've also heard of Boracay. Boracay is world famous for its pristine beaches. Tourists flock here by the hundreds, even thousands. You'll find people from all over the world here. Some foreigners love it so much, they stay.

We had the opportunity to take a trip there for a few days to meet up with some friends from the States. The first day we got there, we just hung out because we got in in the afternoon. We ate dinner at Tilapia N Chips, located at D'Mall. They had really good fish and chips, and the pieces of fish were BIG. We stayed at a place called Culpepper Lodge in Station 2, which was just a 2 minute walk to the beach. They had pretty nice rooms, our bed was HUGE and the price was within our budget (1,000php).

Tropical Permaculture

Jason has started to document his tropical permaculture project on his blog. Check out the first update:

http://mestizomagic.blogspot.com/2012/09/tropical-permaculture-in-philippines.html

And subscribe to his blog, too!