Whole Day Cooking 11292015

Yesterday was such a tiring day. I was supposed to coop up at home and finish submitting articles which I promised for a month-long project. But then on a Sunday with the boys at home, pity the girl brought up in a family that believes in gendered activities. (So I grow up thinking it sucks to have been born a girl. Tsk.)

With suddenly no househelp around, only the four of us females are doing household chores. I wonder why mom adamantly sticks to that distorted view that house chores are for girls only. Despite my repeated impromptu speeches on gender equality, she will only end up with a sigh and say that's the fate of a woman, to be a servant to men. No wonder the world is full of chauvinistic males! As if these males can be relied upon in difficult times. Bah!

So anyway, enough of the rants. I woke up early to cook potato soup with macaroni. What you'll need to make life a bit easier is to have a pack of Nestlé Professional mashed potatoes around, a carrot to be diced, onions to be chopped, garlic to be minced, a 100 g pack of macaroni to be boiled and you´re good to go. Plus, salt and pepper, and a few dashes of McCormick´s Italian Seasoning. Big bonus is if you have chicken stock stocked around (pun intended), which we did, for the extra flavor. No need for meat since the veggies and the chicken broth will do the trick.

Ingredients:

• 1 carrot in small cubes
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 2 onions, minced
• 100 g macaroni
• 1 cup Nestlé Professional mashed potatoes
• McCormick´s Italian Seasoning
• salt and pepper
• chicken broth

Boil around 5 liters of water. But just before water boils, you know, that moment when bubbles are just forming, add salt and pepper and garlic and onions. I don't know if it's just me but I do believe this way, flavor is enhanced. Then just add everything and bring everything to boil. You'll have a creamy macaroni soup. Yum! (I forgot the leeks... Sigh!)

Note: I heard my brother looking for leftover soup today. Okay, that says a lot. :)

Then off to writing. Come 11:59AM (and good thing I happened to glance at the clock), I ran down to the kitchen to fry the daing the bangus which mom had left on the table to defrost. It was my first time to fry daing and I cringed at the thought of destroying such beautiful fish which my sister did when she cooked bangus once. Anyway, suffering from oily projectiles even though armed with my trusty wok cover, I succeeded in producing wonderfully fried daing na bangus. I just hope I can do it again in the future. Probably just beginner's luck.

Off to writing again. Then it was past 1PM when my sisters arrived. So I took a quick bath and had quick lunch and dashed out of the house to go on a date (just a friendly date with a boy whom I first met in the mountains). 

Upon arriving home at 7PM, I immediately pulled out the things I need to cook spaghetti. When we're at our wits' end to think of what to prepare for dinner, I would always volunteer to cook pasta. This time, we have Dole Sweet Italian sauce which at first I was hesitant to use but there was no other alternative. Turns out to be one blessing with thick tomato sauce. YUM!!!

Ingredients for the spaghetti (which reminded me of the pomodoro I recently enjoyed somewhere):

• 2 minced onions
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• McCormick Italian Seasoning
• 1 kg spaghetti, cooked al dente (except with Royal I don't know how to achieve this...)
• half a cup of shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 3 pieces hotdogs, sliced (because we had no ground meat in the freezer... #drifterasalways)
• 2 tablespoons black olives, sliced (which fortunately I bought from a grocery store on my way home)
• 1 kg Dole Sweet Italian pasta sauce (I'm an instant fan)

Caramelize onions, then put in garlic and tomatoes. Add salt. For some reason, I believe that flavor is better when you add salt at this stage. Put in the hotdogs. Then pasta sauce. Did I mention to have hot water ready? Yes, pour hot water in. Add McCormick Italian Seasoning, just a few dashes will do. Then mushrooms. Serve separate from the pasta.

Pangasinan Trip Part 2

Last week, because of the APEC meeting, relatives from my mom's side decided to spend an evening in Pangasinan to visit my grandmother. Mom chose me to go with her saying I wouldn't be of much help at home anyway since we no longer have any househelp. (Ah but she totally disregards the fact that among us siblings I'm the only one who is willing to wash my own clothes :P)

We left Manila late in the afternoon of the 21st. The whole morning was spent in the kitchen washing the dishes, cooking lunch, and preparing apple mint shake for our travel. I had to make sure that this time I would be well hydrated because the last time, I felt funny when we got home.

(Part 1 of our travel was a bit traumatic because I ended up with a bad stomachache and fever kept me from reporting to work. Because that week I suffered from intermittent stomachaches, I thought it might be something serious so I had to endure going to the hospital where they made me wait soooo long and any minute I could collapse because of headache. I had to endure the doctor reprimanding me why the hell I took Pocari sweat instead of Gatorade and why I didn't want to take meds. It was a bit awkward but I had to make it clear to her that I was only after the stool analysis to see if maybe I ingested something weird so I can take the necessary steps to eliminate it from my system.)

While part 1 was not enjoyable because there were too many of us and the introvert in me was screaming for solitude, part 2 is relatively tolerable because there were less people so I was in my best behavior. LOL. My cousins always ask me  why I am always in a bad mood. Tsk. If only they knew how much I wanted to run away every time we have a reunion were it not for the wonderful food... Plus seeing my maarte cousins. O.o

It was pretty funny to be with just my mom and her sisters. I played mahjong with them. It's been a while since my last game so maybe that was why I won big time, gaining 70% more than my original number of chips. At night I shared the same bed with my 4th Aunt and they were all surprised when in the morning they commented how I slept like a log when throughout the night there was an orchestra of snoring women. LOL.

The following morning we visited Manaoag Church, my third time to do so this year. Traffic was really bad. Tsk. Roads are narrow in the provinces and yet many of the people there already drive cars. Sigh! It feels like Antipolo. Since I had to accompany my grandma, the two of us plus an aunt got separated from mom and two other aunts. The bad thing is that they didn't bring their phones so it was no use calling them. I had to rely on gut feel to find them while grandma and 3rd Aunt stayed on one place. So anyway we did come home all together.

And I'm happy to learn that my cousin's kids are doing well in school. Awesome! I just hope that they are not taught the same stupid traditional stuff we got in my generation. The youth of today should learn how to discern truth from media reports and to exercise critical thinking and not just take in without contemplation what is fed to them by the media, and by the elders for that matter. In short, I would want the next generation, especially in my family, to be freethinkers.

On the way home, we stopped by Cafe France for dinner. I finally gave in to their request to treat them except I didn't have cash with me and I had to use my CC. Guess what? Only one order was charged and the rest declined. So mom had to pay for the rest! BTW, I so love their seafood marinara. Yumyum! In fact, I love Cafe France's food because they taste like hospital food, you know, with clean taste so you don't feel so guilty afterwards.

We went home at 9PM, tired and sleepy. I miss reading my books. I brought Three Cups of Tea with me but never got around to read even a page.

Me Love You Long Time- Maginhawa, QC

So for the second time I let a friend talk me into dating someone whom I know nothing about save what my friend tells me. A former officemate thought of it last week when we had dinner at Pancake House in Gateway Mall so I could get the art materials I bought in HK. Those stuffs she brought back to Manila for me since I didn't pay for luggage. (Yes, I had to cut costs following my consecutive travels this year leaving me almost penniless at the end of every month.)

So anyway, I won't write about the guy. I'm more focused on the food. LOL. BECAUSE imagine my excitement when I discovered that Z Compound in Maginhawa is actually hiding Me Love You Long Time, an establishment that offers Thai and Vietnamese fare! I still couldn't get over not being able to afford all the nice food I saw at the Legaspi Sunday Market. I must confess that every once in a while those yummy spring rolls haunt me. My favorite tom yum soup, whenever it pops in my head, makes me so distracted I can barely function as a normal human being. As for pad thai, I am still happy to have visited my fave stall in MCS.

So two days ago, I had my fill yet again of my beloved tom yum and pad thai. (I'm glad my date was cool with Southeast Asian food and was also game with walking. Lately it's just sooo hard to get me walking because of the terrible air pollution. UGH!) Me Love You Long Time's pad thai readily satisfies my craving for that peanutty taste in noodles. The tom yum is too thick for my taste and I prefer it less creamy. It had five pieces of shrimps, all eaten by yours truly because the date eats only shrimp tempura. It lacks the special aroma of lemongrass, which is a bit disappointing, but then again, you don't get to see that many Thai food in the Philippines... (Now I'm reminded of Thai Manila, a resto near Tomas Morato where my sisters and I had one of our sisterly dinner dates but which closed down a few months after... I so miss their tom yum and red milk tea.)

After dinner we chatted about A Song of Ice and Fire and what a geek he was! And because it's been more than a year since I watched GoT (stuck in season 2) and read Book 4 (which I only sneaked in my reading schedule and for the past 3 years I have been more into non-fiction...). So embarrassing as it may sound, I felt stupid at how badly I recall names but remember the events. For instance, it took me a while to get BRB which I initially was saying "Freedom Fighters" then "Brothers without Borders", to "Black and White Brothers". All I remembered was that it was a group of outlaws headed by a man who had died only to be resurrected by a red priest. O.O

Unlike earlier this year when I was not at ease with going out with someone I don't personally know, I think I'm beginning to relax and just enjoy all these stupid dating games. And I have to say that because he agreed to walk with me I discovered a new route for getting home via Kamias. Now isn't that a pleasant surprise?

Ramona

Still haven't finished reading "Ramona", a novel set in the late 19th century Southern California by Helena Hunt Jackson. It revolves around the tragic love affair between a half-Indian adopted by an elite family and a talented Indian in an era when Indians were oppressed and discriminated against.

It is notable that in this novel, priests are regarded as benevolent missionaries who protect the Indians. In fact the antagonists in the novel, though not really the main focus of the story, are the white Americans (because the term "American" disputedly refers to America's original inhabitants, the Native Indians... And I share the same thought) whose landgrabbing activities and propensity for disturbing peace in the land cause the natives to flee and be slaves in their own ancestral lands. This, by the way, is an issue that the Philippines has also been facing as news reports of lumad (indigenous people) killings are increasing again.

Aside from providing a picture of the plight of the natives, Jackson also offers insights on the inner workings of human minds. Much of the narrative presents the different points of view of the characters but more so of the Señora Moreno, a complex character with whom anyone can easily hate and sympathize with at the same time.

On this note, I want to quote parts of the book:

"There is nothing so skillfull in its own defenses as imperious pride. It has an ingenious system of its own, of reprisals, --- a system so ingenious that the defeat must be sore indeed, after which it cannot still find some booty to bring off! And even greater than this ingenuity at reprisals is its capacity for self-deception. In this regard, it outdoes vanity a thousandfold. Wounded vanity knows when it is mortally hurt; and limps off the field, piteous, all disguises thrown away. But pride carries its banner to the last; and fast as it is driven from one field unfurls it in another, never admitting that there is a shade less honora in the second field than in the first, or in the third than in the second; and so on till death. It is impossible not to have a certain sort of admiration for this kind of pride. Cruel, those who have it, are to all who come in their way; but they are equally cruel to themselves, when pride demands the sacrifice. Such pride as this had led many a forlorn hope, on the earth, when all other motives have died out of men's breasts; has won many a crown, which has not been called by its true name." (p. 150)

 The context: the Señora found out that Ramona, her adopted child, wss having an affair with Alessandro the Indian. For this, she kept herself busy devising ways on how to separate the two.

"But surfaces are deceitful, and eyes see little. Considering its complexity, the fineness and delicacy of its mechanism, the results attainable by the human eye seem far from adequate to the expenditure put upon it. We have flattered ourselves by inventing proverbs of comparison in matter of blindness, ---'blind as a bat' for instance. It would be safe to say that there cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any other creature,so blind in its range of circumstances and connections, as thegreater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families. Tempers strain and recover, hearts break and heal, strength falters, fails, and comes near to giving way altogether, everyday, without being noted by the closest lookers-on."

The context: the peace in the Moreno household was disrupted by the "scandalous" love affair and a maid named Margarita observes with great interest as to what is happening about, being Alessandro's jilted lover, but is surprised when Ramona, Señora Moreno, and her son Felipe all acted as if nothing happened as they went about their usual ways, dining together.

Personally, the last sentence struck a chord. I think of the Light again, how oblivious I was that she was in pain, that she was keeping something from us, maintaining a brave front and continuing to work as if all that work were nothing. It was only later on, early this year, when she started to complain about her legs aching. Being reminded of those moments make me feel guilty Because in the end, I could do nothing for her. And she has always been my biggest cheerleader and supporter, the one person who never tired of me.

So now in everything I do, I will do my best. When my strength falters, I will remember her pushing me, always telling me to reach my fullest potential, to strive for excellence and achieve my dreams. I just want to make her proud now as she watches over us from Heaven.

Metro Problems and More

It's November and it's hot. Yesterday it drizzled a bit which lasted for just a few minutes and it was back to being hot again.

There have been news of another El Niño which is expected to last until mid-2016. It's scary how symptoms of climate change are making their presence felt more and more. With water shortage, we can expect fewer harvest which means less food and higher prices of commodities. I wonder how future generations will cope given the ignorance and indifference of the people toward these challenges.

It's the third Ber month already. And Metro Manila is experiencing worse traffic problems. DPWH really has to start construction of the expressway from the south to the north at this time of the year. I am tired of labeling the government as incompetent. Methinks this is its way to maintain the status quo, to ensure that people are too tired to think critically and to dumb down the masses.

And they are doing a pretty good job with the help of the media.

I may be wrong but this is not a far possibility. Majority of "educated" people stop learning and reading after getting their diplomas. Who can blame them when they have other roles to fulfill. It is, however, unpardonable to not even engage in discourses that tackle important issues. It seems that people are already contented with whatever junk the media is feeding them.

For instance, there should be more topics on how to improve the quality of life of each Filipino. We can start off by observing about the current situations and understanding the circumstances we are in. We can narrow this further by looking into different sectors. For instance, we regularly experience the perennial traffic jams in urban areas like Metro Manila. We understand that there are several things which contribute to this: lack of discipline on the part of drivers, too many private vehicles, road conditions, irresponsible commuters, etc. What I would like to see is people drilling down deeper into the problem, not propose interim solutions like road expansion or expressway construction. Let's be realistic. If the number of private vehicles increase, there will come a time that building more roads would only bring more chaos.

How about something like influencing people to walk or to bike or to commute? There will be strong opposition to these since we all know that Metro Manila is one dangerous place where criminals prey on unsuspecting victims. Or how about a propaganda targeted at women that men who own cars are not cool because it shows how insensitive they are to the plight of others. Driving a car contributes to pollution and traffic. Instead of glamorizing car owners, they should be shamed for their vanity.

Because, just why are young men eager to get their own cars? To impress women, that's why. And women, oh women, please do not choose a lover based on what he owns. Stop being materialistic and look at a person for what he is rather than what he has.

And so I guess this is one of the many reasons why boys despise me. Because I would reprimand them when they try to impress me with their flashy cars. I even knew of one "environmentalist" who drives his car even with no other passenger and I often hint at his hypocrisy, telling him to commute instead but he wouldn't. The same goes for his friend who dated me and who retorted that he didn't want me to be drenched in the rain so he'd rather drive for me. @.@ The horrors! I despise such low view of women. I certainly don't need those "comforts". Methinks they are being sissies and making excuses to make it seem like they care for the girls. Ugh!

And yeah I can be a nagger. Because I believe it is the duty of one to speak her mind when she sees something is wrong. But woe to her who lives amongst those who choose to live in lies, imprisoned and chained to worldly desires! Must I lose hope. Don't want to though honestly I am getting all the more disappointed [and cynical].