Since the last post...

Since my last post I've been busy "crafting." For one thing, I've been practicing with my sewing machine.  I created a pattern from a ready-to-wear pajamas and have created new pajamas from the pattern. Of course, I didn't want them exactly as the original. I wanted to add pintucking on the front. The fabric is very light weight cotton and should be perfect for this climate. They hadn't had their final pressing when I took the photo.

I attended a Parade of Homes last week. Holiday decor and food were the focus. There were 4 homes and they were all decorated for the holidays. Because it is difficult to find a lot of Christmas items here, friends donate/loan items from their collections to pump up the holiday decor in these homes. There are always last minute purchases from the new stock shipped in but the variety isn't great. As a result people do a lot of crafting to create their "look."  Paintings on walls are "gift-wrapped."  Things decorated with glitter. One hostess had painted/decorated 18" canvas rounds in a Christmas theme. They took up a large wall space and really added to the seasonal mood. The hostesses said they encourage taking photos so I did just that. Later I realized I could crop and print my photos of her "ornaments" and have 2-D 6" versions to hang on my wall.  She created the striped ball ornament using sparkly duct tape stripes. the snowman ornament was taken from a photo I took from a holiday pillow.  These are a nice addition to the holiday items we'd already collected.

I decided I had to create a pair of snowflake earrings after seeing a pretty pair on someone recently. Tons of Swarovski crystals and other cut crystals later and most of a day's effort and I had these earrings. They are about 1 inch in diameter.  They are really sparkly in the right light. I could not get the flash on the camera to cooperate so this is the best I could do.

Our maid/cook Tin cooked a lot last week and one of the dishes was a traditional Indonesian dish called gado-gado. It's served basically room temperature or chilled. The dish prepared Tin's way includes at least these ingredients: watercress, potato, tempeh, firm tofu, Indonesian long beans, bean sprouts,a very bumpy squash vegetable, krupak udang *, cucumber. All of the produce had to be carefully washed and most of these are individually cooked ahead of time then mixed all together with a peanut and chile paste sauce. It can be spicy or not, depending on how you like it. It leans pretty heavy on the green veggies and less so on the proteins but it's a nice meal. I've had it several times here.The krupak udang are these little round very flat things that are immersed in hot oil and they puff up into these crispy puffed things, rhough still pretty flat. They are made with tapioca, shrimp and spices. Some are very fishy some are not fishy at all. I prefer the not fishy variety. but not too many of them. Just a few on top. The dish is usually served with a side of rice. It was time consuming to prepare but it was very good. I won't ask her to make it often. Lots of work. but yum! (Sorry, I forgot to take the picture before I started eating!)

Recently there have been articles about both coffee and chocolate in the newspaper.  Both articles express concern for the future of these much desired items. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but I was naturally upset when I learned of the problems with cacao agriculture around the world. A nasty fungus has hit cacao crops in South America particularly hard. In this country there are 1 million cacao farmers, mostly small shareholders. An investment group here is hoping to raise money to somehow boost production in this country. They want to nearly double production but are held back some degree by aging cacao plants planted mostly in the 1980s.  More power to them. We recently located a new shop in town that sells chocolate manufactured in Indonesia. The chocolate is very good, though the "darkest" the cocoa solid content is 69%. To my taste buds, this is still on the edge of semi-sweet rather than dark chocolate, but still good. The article did not mention, however, the tiny midge insects responsible for pollinating the cacao trees. Hmmm. Hope they're doing ok. Without them, no chocolate!

We are getting close to the holidays so postings may take a little hiatus. Happy Holidays!