Productive weekend

It is a Sunday and it is the start of a new month, August. Happy birthday and advance happy birthday to all August babies. I hope that this month I will be more productive than I was last month. How was your July? If I were to summarize my July, I would say that it was ok because I did good or better than how I was in June in terms of productivity. But in terms of savings, sad to say that my July was zero. I do try to put in little amounts to my bank accounts as little as Php200 ($4) per month but I was not able to do so even with my $1 challenge for July. I will try my best to make up for it.

Yesterday I know that it was still the end of the month but I was happy that I ended it by making a lot of dishes. I made lumpiang shanghai, gravy and Bicol express. It was only when I was about to sleep that I remembered that I forgot to make tuna spread and to warm up my dad's car. I was just too preoccupied with the things that I did yesterday.

When I was making the lumpiang shanghai, I cannot help but to reminisce the time that I was working in one Chinese restaurant. Aside from helping in the kitchen by dispatching some orders, I also helped them by wrapping the shanghai mix in each lumpia wrappers. But before that, I need to separate each wrappers. Growing up, my mom had taught me that I should be careful when separating each lumpia wrappers as it breaks easily. I was happy that I was able to apply my mom's teaching to work that I also passed it onto our trainees. Before I taught some of our trainees how to separate each wrapper, I witnessed a few of them had a hard time when separating it. There was even one trainee who was like tearing a piece of paper and discarded the wrapper when she tore the middle part. I told her she should be careful in separating each wrapper because each wrapper is valuable to restaurant owners. I know that we use the discarded lumpia wrappers for our toppings in congee but those were really damaged wrappers. But with what the trainee did, she was wasting the wrappers because she finds it hard to separate each. That is when I started to taught them and I even adviced our kitchen staffs to proper monitor the trainees with what they were doing.

Even if making lumpia is very tiring, I enjoyed it more than making siomai, sharksfin dumpling or wanton. I really do not have enough patience in making those. For me, it is way harder than wrapping lumpiang shanghai. If I would help them in making siomai, it is when I would place the orange sago on top of the siomai. LOL. Now whenever I would make lumpia, I would always think about the times that I was working in a Chinese restaurant.

Last night @bbghitte asked me how I make my lumpiang shanghai but honestly I really do not have a specific recipe for that. Do you have your own recipe of lumpiang shanghai? Can you share it with us? There is also someone that I cannot forget with lumpiang shanghai and it is my dad's late best friend. He used to make the best lumpiang shanghai that our family and friends would always compliment and would even ask to take home if there is still some left. But my dad's best friend did not shared his recipe with me. He said that I have to have my own lumpiang shanghai recipe that people would love and that I should not be afraid to experiment with what I would put in it. That is why I would always experiement with my lumpiang shanghai.

The gravy that I made were just from the dripping of the shanghai mix because it became watery. I found out that our helper washed the ground meat that we ordered from our neighbor because it has bad smell. It is just one of the disadvantages of this pandemic. We cannot go to the public market to buy our wet items. Yes we can buy it in the supermarket but there is a huge price difference that is why we prefer the public market. We will just try to look for someone who can buy our meats for us.

If yesterday I was tired from all the cooking, today was different as it was my eyes that was tired. I think I have read more than 10 articles today and I have also replied to the people who commented on my past articles. I also want to clear everything on my notifications just like what @Ellehcim and @Momentswithmatti did. Slowly I know I can also do it.

If we are going to talk about my weight loss journey, I would say that I have not yet started with it. Same old reasons, same old lame excuses but I hope sooner I can get to start with it.

I do not know what I will do tomorrow or if my day will be as productive as how it was this weekend but I will really make it a point to read some of your articles and to double it. Please bear with me and I will flood your notifications this month until I have read all of your articles. Happy first day of the month. Next month will be the start of holiday season I mean the BER months. Are you ready?

P.S. lead image is a screenshot from my phone of the time and date today.