Lengthening the Season

I remember when we were kids, with my Lola around, no one’s supposed to talk or laugh aloud during Holy Week, as early as Monday. No one’s supposed to go out, sweep the yard or take a bath after 3pm on Good Friday. Worse, no TV, no radio, no nothing. All you get are those crazy multi-colored columns which go “toooooot”. If you think life is hard, I think it was harder then for us.

Today, you can talk and laugh as much as you want, and by golly, you can even turn your house upside down from Holy Monday to Easter Sunday and nobody will admonish you for doing so. You can in fact reside in your bathroom the entire Good Friday, even after the Seven Last Words and nobody will holler at you. And thank God for cable TV. Nobody’s going to bore himself to death.

I also remember Mama boiling a dozen or so eggs every Easter Sunday morning. After attending the 9am Mass, my siblings and I would troop to her garden and start egg-hunting. Mama used to decorate the eggs with her colored markers and she would attach a 25-centavo coin to each egg with masking tape. Afterwards, we would count how many each one of us got.  Yup, those were simple but lovely years of my life that money, not even Mastercard, could buy.

These Easter memories prompted me to continue the tradition, this time with my two children Caitlin and Caehl, my one and only niece Meg and my two nephews Dominic and Dean. See related photo album (Easter Egg Hunt at #9 Santos St.). Not exactly grandiose
but enough to create memories, one that will make you look back at your childhood fondly and one that puts a warm glow in your heart.

I hope years from now, we will still have those no-fuss pure and unadulterated activities for them and that when they grow older and get together someday, they would reminisce about their own childhood with fond memories the way we do now. It is when you recall happy and loving times such as these that you’d want to stretch the years so you would have more time together, do more things together.

My Baby is now a Lady

She's fourteen, armed and dangerous. She just completed second year high school. There's my little girl, now so grown up, but will always be Mommy's Naknik.

Easter Egg Hunt at #9 Santos St.

We planned it a week earlier, with me and Ate Cae buying the plastic colored eggs at SM and me texting Azalea (my ever-indulgent sister) to take care of the goodies (to be placed inside the eggs).

We decided to hold it at my house (although it was difficult to find hiding places for 30 eggs in my bare garage/terrace).

There were only two participants - Kuya Dom and Caehl, with Cae and Meg begging off and Dean sleeping and at the same time too young to hunt. But it was fun just the same. Will we do it again next year? Paging Tita...

Caitlin's 14th Birthday

Start:

Mar 30, '08

My unica hija is turning FOURTEEN! Nasaan na ba mga ninong at ninang neto?

Rice up to the challenge

Two months ago, Alex started his “no rice” challenge. Well, he’s been successful so far although sometimes he rewards himself with a cup or two every week-end or when he’s playing badminton for the needed carbo.

 

I recall having the same diet four years ago; I minimized my rice and soft drinks intake, realizing that those two were the main culprits why I was getting big. I was down to 110, my ideal weight. Look at my “before” photo to see what I mean>>>

 

And then I gave birth in 2005. Actually, I think I was doing good back then; my body went back to its old form right away, as neighbors would tell me. I was all right at 120 lbs. despite the common perception that it takes a long time to recover after a pregnancy. Ako naman, ok lang. Take a look >>>

 

Perhaps, I was too “kampante” that I haven’t been watching out my eating. Yup, I’ve been having too much rice, soft drinks or iced tea and fruit juices. I so love C2 and other sweetened tea drinks. More so, I am a chichirya addict. Everyday I would buy E-Aji and Oishi potato chips (sour cream and onion, plain salted, hmmm) and munch on them while my daughter and I are “attending” our GMA Telebabad session. This is me now .>>>

 

One day I just decided I would try to cut down on rice again and simply put, to go on a diet. I am not getting any younger and it’s difficult to lose weight at this point. I hate going to the gym although I love to dance and exercise. One of our regional managers gave us a copy of Bump and Burn and Shawn T’s Hip Hop Abs. I would just have to find the time to do it on a regular basis. Diet pills and other supplements which promise weight loss are either too expensive or too scary for me. Meanwhile, I’m quite hesitant to take up badminton again because it’s been 3 or 4 years since I held a racket. I don’t know if I can still hack it. So for now, I’m concentrating on what goes inside my body.

 

To go back to 110 lbs is just not possible, all I want is just to shed off some pounds and inches to fit into my Medium clothes again. I certainly don’t want people to think I’m Caehl’s grandma when I’m just Cae’s “older sister”. Besides, I have an image to protect, ehem.

 

I so love challenges. Wish me luck on this, won’t you?

The Gift called Gab

Last year, I got a chain email entitled “4 Things About Me - Want To Know About U 2!” which said:

Return Directions: Now here's what you're supposed to do: And Please DO NOT SPOIL THE FUN! Hit REPLY Key. Delete my answers and write yours. Send this to a bunch of your friends including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little-known facts about those who know you. Remember to send it back to the person who sent it to you.

The last portion was 4 Things I Am Looking Forward To This Year. And I listed, among others, “hearing Caehl talk.”

It took a while before Caehl (now 28 months) learned to talk. Well, there was the usual babbling. He can understand us, and can recognize numbers and the alphabet. He has this Barney numbers chart and Lion King alphabet chart at home and he can say the numbers and letters while pointing at them. He speaks to us in the tone and cadence of human speech but not real words yet. Caehl is tall for his age that most people would mistake him for a 4- or 5-year old and wonder why he’s not talking yet.

Personally, I am not alarmed. Thanks to my exposure to Internet, I am consoled by studies saying that children vary in their development of speech and language. I told myself, his time would come. The fact that his Ate Cae was singing Lupang Hinirang before she was 2 does not frustrate me (although it does frustrate some people I know).

It all began with shapes. Azalea, my sister, gave him a Fisher Price yellow boat, which is actually an enhanced Shape-O (a classic Tupperware toy, yung mga ka-age ko would know what I mean). One day, he just said the shapes out loud. “Square”. “Triangle”. “Circle”. “Star”. Well, the words are not perfectly enunciated but endearing just the same.

Next was his farm animal book, which was a Christmas gift from his Ninong Jet. He goes, “Donkey,” “Sheep”, “Chicken”, “Cow”, while pointing to the illustrations. "Ney" is not just Ney, he can say it knowing that it’s the name of his Ate’s favorite band vocalist, Ney Dimaculangan (6Cyclemind). He can say “Ate” and refer to his Ate. “Da-ddy” is really Daddy, and it’s not just babbling. “Mama" is my mom (his lola). "De-de" is of course, milk. “Ahs teeee” is iced tea. His “Yehey” has become more recognizable, followed by a "na-na (no more for you)". “Sa-raaaap” is delicious. “Go” is what he says when he wants to go out.

His most current favorite is Ate Cae’s Family Tree project. He points to each family member’s headshot and says his or her name aloud. He calls himself “Ky”.

And yes, he so loves Wheel of Fortune. The announcer goes, “Wheel of….” And Caehl goes, “Cho-chun!” He participates by suggesting letters, usually “M” or “S” or “I”.

Me? Well, I’m “Na-nny”. Close enough. Don't argue with the mom.

Chili on My Siomai

u r the... apple OF my eye,
mango OF my pie,
palaman OF my tinapay,
keso OF my monay,
teeth OF my suklay,
finger on my kamay,
blood in my atay,
bubbles OF my laway,
sala OF my bahay,
seeds OF my palay,
clothes in my ukay ukay,
calcium in my kalansay,
calamansi on my siomai,
inay OF my tatay,
knot on my tie,
toyo on my kuchay,
vitamins in my gulay,
airplane OF my Cathay,
star OF my sky,
hammer OF my panday,
sand OF my Boracay,
sultan OF my Brunei,
highlands OF my Tagaytay,
MOLE on my Ate Guy,
baba OF my Ai-Ai,
voice OF my Inday Garutay,
spinoh OF my Popeye,
sizzle when I fry,
wind when I paypay,
tungkod I'm when pilay,
feeling I'm when high,
more shoulder I when cry,
wings I when fly,
chilli on my siomai,
prize when I vie,
cure tons my "ARAY!",
to who tons my "WHY?",
foundation OF my tulay,
truth behind the lie,
the life after I...
In, you're my FRIENDS short
habang buhay

Recently, pork siomai (the ready-to-cook kind) has been on the family weekly menu. No matter how I love the shrimp- and sharksfin- variant, we have to settle for pork (since it’s the only one Alex prefers).

However, the siomai which are available in the supermarkets do not come with chili. We just dip it on soy sauce and calamansi. For Alex and Cae, they’re not missing anything. For me, it means a lot, something is indeed missing. Is chili available in the supermarkets too? There isn’t any in Shopwise and SM and other local supermarkets. I searched every condiment section in vain. The closest I managed to buy was Lee Kum Kee’s chili garlic sauce but it didn’t satisfy me.

The internet girl that I am, I can only slap my forehead a million times for failing to Google it. Of course, what is Google for? After typing “chili sauce,” I was given more than a million links to chili sauce recipes. But no, that wasn’t what I wanted and was looking for. How dumb of me, the correct keywords were “chili for siomai”. That’s when I realized it wasn’t chili sauce after all, but chili paste! So silly (pun intended)!

So this is how siomai experts do it:

Chili Paste:

• 1/8 kilo Chilies (Siling Labuyo)
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil (sesame oil would be nice, too)
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Simplest version of chili sauce would be to chop chilies well and fry them in oil, sesame or vegetable oil, never olive oil if you want it to have an Asian taste. Combine chopped chilies and minced garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

Thank you, thank you food bloggers. Bless you (burp).

 

(Special acknowledgment to photos.the-protagonist.net/.http://pamski71.multiply.com/dimsum3.jpg for the image)

Caehl goes to a party!

Caehl attended a birthday party yesterday at McDonalds hosted by a 7-year old who lives on the same street as ours. We picked him up two hours later. Ang kulet-kulet!

Caitlin dances the Mazurka

The Sophomores won 2nd place and were adjudged Best in Costume as well. Performance level! Ang galing ni Ate Cae sumayaw.