My Cooking Activities for Today

As long as we eat , cooking food daily is inevitable . And as a woman, it is a must to know how to cook, even the simplest menu .

Today, I cooked sweetened monggo, Maja Blanca and stringbeans with jute , cooked in coconut milk , & ginger and added sweet and spicy shrimp paste to add flavors into it .

My Preparations

• Cleaning the firewood stove

I take out all the ashes and charcoal that was left from cooking food yesterday from the firewood stove . Placing it in a plastic container and later to be dump in the backyard.

• Soaking the monggo seeds in water for easier cooking

• Cleaning the caserole to be used in boiling the monggo.

Cooking in firewood is messy because it makes the cooking utensils accumulate carbon that sticks in it, making it to look black . Continuously using it in cooking without cleaning it at once, the carbon thickens on the outside of the cooking utensils.

Since I have not cleaned it many days, I decided to clean it first before using. Before cleaning it I first soaked the monggo seed in water to make it easy to be cooked. So as I was cleaning the casserole the monggo is soaked in water. I think it took me an hour in scrubbing the thickened carbon, till it was eradicated.

• Cleaning the casserole using charcoal directly scrubbing it on the surface of the casserole is a lot more effective than scrubbing it with ashes combined with rough leaves we called isis.

When I finished cleaning the casserole I prepared the firewood stove putting in firewoods to be burned to start cooking.

While on the process of boiling the monggo, I started to peel 2 pcs. of coconut to be used in cooking veggies with coconut milk.

When the monggo was already cooked, I put some sugar in it to sweetened it. Then I let it boil till the sugar melts and thickened. While I waited it to be thickened for it will take minutes, I grated the 2 pcs. Coconut , extract it to get the coconut milk to be used in veggies and in Maja Blanca. I set it aside after extracting it from the coconut.

Since my veggies were not yet prepared , I have to keep the fire burning . I thought of boiling water to be used for bath while preparing the veggies. I used the small kettle in which its content match to fill in our thermos.

When the water boils my veggies were ready for cooking. I pour the second extract of coconut milk in a frying pan , with the sweet and spicy shrimp paste and put in into a boil. When it boils I first put the string beans. When it is half cooked I placed the jute leaves and ginger, bring into a boil until the first extract was absorbed by the veggies. Then I poured the first extract of coconut milk and bring to a boil again till the veggies were fully cooked and the coconut milk thickens. This veggies which I cooked will be good for my lunch and supper.

While on the process of cooking the veggies I am preparing for Maja Blanca to be cooked. I reserved some amount of the first coconut milk extract for it .

Cooking Maja Blanca

I bring to boil the mixture of water , sugar and margarine in a casserole. When it was boiling I poured little by little the mixture of cornstarch , sugar and coconut milk, stirring it continuously to make it smoothly cooked. When the desired consistency is met , I poured it in a plate.

There should be latik on top but I forgot to set aside some amount yesterday, when I cooked palitao sa latik yesterday .

This will be be for our afternoon merienda today.

Cooking in firewood is difficult for you have to keep the firewood burning. And to keep the firewood burning you have to put firewood again and again when it is consumed. So far constantly cooking in firewood ever since I was back here in the province , I learned some techniques to make it more easier to cook. And discovered lately that charcoal being used to eradicate carbon that thickens on cooking utensils is more effective than using ashes and isis leaves.

I finally finished all the cooking before lunch at twelve. I just have biscuits for breakfast and my son the sweetened monggo. And veggies for lunch and supper and Maja for afternoon merienda .

And so the remaining hours in the afternoon was for my rest and nap and for my earning apps.

To my readers who lived in the province can easily relate to me. while those who lived in the city and those who are financially blessed can somehow lead you not to complain for you have some basic comforts in life to enjoy .

As for me, though province life is difficult, yet there are things that I fully enjoyed here. The simplicity of life here , is less stressful . The situations being faced here is easy to cope up with .

As a senior , life in the province is more suitable for me. I have lived long enough in the city , on my younger days, enjoyed what to be enjoyed there while studying and even during my working days.

In everything in life, you have to use your time wisely in every opportunity you have and every situation you face. Life is to be lived to its best and to the fullest so that there will be no regrets thereafter.

Life then , can be likened to cooking. Make use of what you have and available .Cook what you can only afford. Learn from your experiences and discover for yourself how you can improve and aim for the best that you can enjoy the result of your accomplishments and be satisfied in it.

Anyway, I hope you find cooking an enjoyable task each day and not a burden.Enjoy cooking and enjoy eating what you cook to stay healthy and strong.

Have a blessed day .

Article #2 as if October, 2022

Title: My Cooking Activities for Today

Published: October 6, 2022
Thursday - 2:40 pm