The Episodes in my Cooking Experiences (Part 1)

The Latest Episode

First of all I would like to thank God for He had given me additional life, renewed health and strenght and protection , that I was able to have the opportunity to be with the family of my youngest son , who from long years I have not seen and fellowship with because I was in the province and they were here in Pasay.

I had been with my youngest son's family for almost two years now when pandemic was on going. I will be sharing to you how I find myself being with them.

My Personal Purpose & Reason

Days, weeks, & month of Jan. & Feb. this year 2022 had past but only this month of March , I realized I had to write about what has been my experiences and activities. My personal reason was , to see for myself , how wisely did I used my time for the whole month. How helpful I had been to the family of my youngest son. How consistent or lax I had been in doing the things that I should be doing as a mother, to my son, as a mother - in law and a grand mother to my two grandkids. I also would consider this as an achievement or accomplishment test as a person, if I have been good or a better person, or not.

Here my activities and experiences, how the Month of March goes each day. My experiences and activities actually differs from anyone .It is understandable because each of us lives our lives differently for we were created by God unique from each other.

MY ROUTINARY ACTIVITIES

• WAKING UP AT 5 AM

Though my waking hours were different each day due to different situations faced each day, yet the sound of the cp alarm dictates the usual waking hours to be. The waking hours set each day is five o'clock in the morning.

As the alarm sounded I have to wake up. It's not a problem to me to wake up that early because I am easily be awaken upon hearing sounds.

This had been set because I needed to cook rice or the food to be packed as "baon" for breakfast . My daughter in law, is our breadwinner. She is having her breakfast at work. She has to be at work by seven o'clock so she needs to bring her food for breakfast.

• COOKING FOODS FOR MEALS

Cooking was the most frequent household chores that I am doing. And I did it with tactfulness for we have only a limited budget. I cooked only what is simple, and cheaper but nutritious and satisfying for us.

There are other tasks that I am doing like cleaning the room, babysitting but I only do them as a reliever to my son. I do laundry but it just for my own clothes, because my son and daughter in law do the washing of their clothes.

BREAKFAST

We eat different kinds of food for breakfast. Our food for breakfast depends upon our budget and our cravings. When pay day arrives we have slice bread or any kind of bread which is the kids choice or favorite.

Champorado

This is the favorite food of my youngest grandson, so I have to cook it for him anytime he craves for it.

Banana Flavored Pancake

This is the favorite of my oldest grand daughter, and us adults but not the youngest grandson. I cooked it when they missed it.

Pancit Canton

Pancit Canton of different flavors were stocked in our plastic containers. Anytime we wanted it for our breakfast they will just asked me to cook it for them.

Fried Rice

There are times that we had leftovers food from supper. So I have to find means that it will not be wasted. Leftover rice is made to a fried rice. To make it more appealing to eat I put much garlic and if there is hotdog or skinless longganisa leftover I will cut it in small pieces and mixed it to fried rice. And if there is none, I will mix scrambled egg cut in small pieces. I put oyster's sauce and soy sauce to taste. Kids loved it that way.

Maja Blanca

This is another food I cooked for breakfast. Having just 1/4 corn starch mixing it with sugar milk and margarine. Kids loved it . If it happened that we have sweetcorn available , I add some to the mixture.

LUNCH & SUPPER

At about 10 in the morning I just cook food that is good for our lunch and supper . I did it intentionally to lessen the time, effort and gas consumption.

To think what food to prepare for lunch is quite not easy to decide. Our decision is dependent not only on budget but also on the food preference and cravings of the two kids. If budget permits the kids foods are different from us. But if our budget doesn't allow it we adults adjust to it. The usual meat I cooked for lunch and supper.

• Chicken

Whenever I cook chicken meat , I cook different recipes out of it. More often I cooked fried chicken for kids, and for us chicken adobo.

If we wanted soup I cooked chicken soup called in our native language as "tinolang manok." Sometimes I cooked chicken soup with sotanghon mixed with malunggay leaves.

• Pork

I cooked pork meat which we called "nilagang baboy" which I mixed with pechay & potato, seasoned with pork cubes . If budget permits I cooked it adding sweet corn & saba, a kind of banana used in this kind of recipe .

Ground Pork.

There were only two recipe I cooked with ground pork. The one was sautaed sautaed ground pork with sayote, and the other one was ground pork soup with sotanghon with spring onion leaves seasoned with pork cubes and little amount of finely ground pepper to taste.

Shanghai

When budget permits I cooked pork shanghai, but if there is none my option is to cook fish shanghai.

Fish

I cooked fish when we ate meat for consecutive days. I have also different ways in cooking fish.

Our favorite fish is called "galunggong or gigi for short". I usually fried some and cooked some in vinegar with ginger & onions and sometime cooked in tomatoes, ginger and onions seasoned with salt. Another way of cooking fish is siningang or sour soup It is cooked with mixed veggies like kangkong leaves & okra which is also called lady's fingers. It is seasoned with fish cubes and tamarind mix for sour taste & put some green chili to have a littlev spicy taste .Other fishes are tilapia and bangus .

Bangus is seldom cooked because it is a bit expensive than gigi, & we can't afford it. Besides my son didn't like it because it has too many bones and not safe to eat by kids.

Vegetables

This is usually the last options in our dish. Whenever I cooked mixed veggies it's only me & my daughter in law liked it. Because we both liked it cooked with fish sauce, a dish known to be an Ilocano dish.

Spicy Adobong Kangkong Stalks

I cooked this one as an appetizer whenever I cooked sour soup fish , or pork. I used soy sauce and oyster's sauce to taste.

Spicy Fried Eggplant

I cooked this by first frying the eggplant then mixed it to sautaed onions, garlic tomatoes, and chopped green pepper seasoned with soy sauce, oyster's sauce and partnered it with fried crunchy anchovies or dried fish called "tuyo."

Bitter gourd or Ampalaya

My daughter in law was anemic so cooking ampalaya with tomato and scrambled egg is not missed

Boiled or Broiled Vegetables

I usually cooked boiled or Broiled Vegetables like eggplant , lady's fingers , or kamote leaves or malunggay leaves on different days and partnered it with soy sauce with kalamansi juice to dip it. We usually partner it with fried fish. If there is tomato we mixed it with onion and ginger and soysauce to be our sauce.

Canned Goods

These foods are our options when there was no time for my son to go to market to buy fresh foods. I cooked sardines without the sauce as omelet.They don't want the taste of the sauce especially my son , because according to him it taste fishy.

Frozen Foods & Eggs

Frozen foods or processed foods like hotdog, Sweet Ham , Burger Patties, Skinless Longganisa & Eggs are the foods which are kids favorites. When I cooked any of these kind I just added boiled veggies or leaves for us and just eat some of the processed foods cooked for the kids.

• Desserts

We used to have fruits as our dessert. The one we usually eat is banana, the cheapest among fruits. Sometimes we had oranges, apples, ripe mangoes and pineapple. That is was during payday. My daughter in law will bring home fruits. We had turnips and indian mango this last week.

Once we had lecheflan when I spare an amount from my monthly pension, to buy the ingredients. I cooked it myself. Sometimes we had gelatine when my daughter in law craved for it she will buy the ingredients and request me to cook it.

Water & Drinks

Last but not the least to be served is filtered water. And having filtered water reserved daily is what I usually been monitoring because water supply outage comes unexpectedly.

Fruit juices & soft drinks are served occasionally depending upon the budget & cravings.

All these things that I have shared to you are but just a part of my daily routinary activities ,as simply as it is done to the best of my abilities and according to God's daily provisions.

The Past & Previous Episodes

This will be my Part 2. And I hope you will look forward to it .

Foods is the basic needs of human beings. It sustains the physical body needs. Nutrients needed by the body to be healthy and strong can only be met by eating healthy foods. It is a necessity therefore that at home ,time for preparations of foods, and cooking it should be given much importance in daily household tasks .

So a woman, who becomes a wife and a mother has an important role to play at home. A responsible wife and a mother will not take for granted her role but will be determined to do her very best and ability to do the household tasks & responsibilities for the sake of her family all her life.

Thanks for reading .

#1 Article for Month of April

#24 Articles for the year 2022

April 4, 2022- 6:09 am