Gloria Y.Nichols (2)

These next few days will be trying times for my family as we are set to work on mom's physical remains.
But life goes on and I have a wedding cake to make for the granddaughter or a friend of hers. Interestingly, GYN made the wedding cake of her daughter while I am making the wedding cake of her grand-daughter.
Way back when wedding cakes were mom's choice of canvas, creating cakes with themes, following bridal gown patterns and re-creating them in cake, the traditional way of sharing the cake was putting them in a mini cake box. GYN did not leave this plain.Pieces of freshly baked Rolling Pin famous pound cake were carefully sliced, and double wrapped in glassine and parchment. The box was further personalized with tiny hand-made royal icing flowers with tulle & ribbons of the box matching the bridal party theme. These were then layered in outer rings surrounding the main cake. The image one sees is a frothy gossamer image of confection.
But GYN started getting ideas as usual. She then tapped her friend in our little town of San Juan who had a ceramic factory and ordered ceramic swans for another society wedding. Again with the Pound cake, tulle, ribbons and tiny flowers, this made waves. Clayburn Ceramics owner Mrs. Aranaz and GYn then moved on to making a ceramic dish with hand painted flowers and names of the bride and groom. Thus boomed the new trend in wedding give-aways.Pirate Chests, typewriter typeset balls, candy dishes, their ideas were endless.
GYN went on to add capiz jewelry boxes, tampipis, wicker baskets. Each time one new item debuted, other bakeries followed and copied.
Today, the list is endless as to the choices of wedding give-aways. Brides and planners come out with seemingly unique ideas of quaintness. Bakeries have found alternative sources for the ceramics.
But who started it? Where did this boldness come from? Gloria Y.Nichols, of course.
And the once simple pull-away ribbons with the wedding version of a chinese fortune cookie saying also went haute when GYN slipped a one carat diamond solitaire from the groom's mother's jewelry store into one of the pull-out ribbons. The next wedding had one each solitaire of the year's birthstones plus a bigger carat diamond. I heard even the men folk lined up to pull the ribbons. Our Rolling Pin staff were sweating bullets delivering the cake because the jewelry cost more than the cake. I do have pictures and names of the society weddings from newspaper clippings of Manila's Society pages where the news columnists waxed poetic about each of mom's creations. As these are getting brittle and yellowed with page, it is now my goal to scan and save these and hopefully share them with all. Maybe some of the couples will remember GYN this way.

Gloria Y. Nichols part 1

How does one start when writing about a woman who's life was filled with many interesting chapters through the years, facets so varied that so many lives have been touched in some way or another, enriching them with gems of wisdom GYN loved to share?

We start by working backwards. I would like to chronicle and share her life one decade at a time. If you have met GYN anytime this past decade, you would have met a small, frail looking, white haired (sometimes hennaed brown) woman with wide eyes, almost unwrinkled skin.

Yesterday,Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 5:05pm CST, she passed away peacefully after a short struggle with pneumonia. Patricia and I, along with number one grandson Anamite (Noel Angelo), Kylie (her granddaughter she left Manila for) Mite's wife Dawn, grandneice Lita Rebodos, watched as she fought the ventilator mask which at her frailness seemed to be a fear instead of an aid to keep her breathing. The decision to change to care, comfort and dignity came when no improvement showed with the treatments made as the pneumonia was far too rabid and invaded her whole lung system. She would not have wanted to be intubated and be a "living vegetable".

In the surreality of it all, it has been her teachings and being exposed to her quirky thoughts as we were growing up that helped me and Patty deal with her final moments. All the afterlife, near death and death bed lore and readings and paranormal genre that she shared with us, helped us deal with this particular moment.
That she was hanging on, I was driving back from work with Kylie, and was thinking"who is holding on to her?" and at that moment, Patty called me frantically asking to give the go signal to change from ventilator to the oxygen thingy and that mom was having an episode struggling and asking "Help me, I don;t know what to do!" and then said Kylie's name. KYLIE! I turned to my daughter and realized that it was baby Kylie who did not want to let go, more strongly than me, as I just wanted some more time to think. But Kylie was adamant and she was holding on to her Lola in her heart and mind. Through tears and chiding, I kept telling her, say good bye Kylie, look at her, she wants to go! I also wanted to wait for the evening when the other "apos" Bambi, JB and Migay got there to make this change but mom's struggles with the mask were too painful to watch. Within 10 minutes of the change from mask to regular oxygen, after readings of Psalm 23 both by Dawn and Lita, and with Kylie reluctantly letting go, mom sneezed twice and we all chorused "Bless You!" each time, she looked around and then was gone, asleep, smooth faced, at peace. Anamite was choking as he read Be Not Afraid.

Gone was this frail looking but actually, strong woman with a mighty interesting and colorful life.
A woman who raised two kids in an unorthodox way, raised 5 grandkids as if they were hers, and "lambinged" and held 5 great-grandkids with pride and love.
A woman who was ahead of her time when she was trend setting cakes, food and lifestyle in the Philippines.
She came with nothing and left with nothing but touched many lives with a richness of gems of wisdom, lifestyle, thought forms and philosophies.
Gloria Yandoc Galang Nichols, February 25, 1917 to August 25, 2008.

Sauces, Mixes, Marinades

I am a fan of sauces, mixes, marinades, packaged rice. OK, lets qualify, the ones you have to cook like Vigo, Near East, Louisiana Purchase and some others. Not the rice a roni or uncle ben although they should be good but too american for my taste.
But I tweak the instructions by adding regular jasmine rice and cooking these in the rice cooker, oh, and no butter, shudder and cringe especially when grand daughter Lynn uses "I can't believe its not butter" stuff with dried dill, yeccch.

Barbecue sauces, marinades you name it and I may have it in my pantry. Right now, I just raided a food show and have Iron Chef, Jack Daniels, Sweet baby Ray, Open Pit, Kraft and whatever is on sale, preferably under a dollar. And again, tweak with soy sauce, banana ketchup lea and perrins or whatever I can grab, garlic, paprika, turmeric, lemon to name a few.
Of the Philippine mixes, I think Mama Sita rules. Not because I knew her personally, and have known her daughter when they first started Marigold in a small facility In San Juan, but because through the years, they have really come up with an awesome product line that I am never without. There are other companies but sooo pale in comparison. The only one I have along with mama Sita is the Knorr tamarind sinigang mix. I tried others, but really, quality and taste wise, Mama Sita and Knorr rule.
I recently started with Lee Kum Kee's new line of sauces and I still have to get it right but they really are good. I try odd companies for the Bulgogi marinades. Can't think of one that jumps out.
I must be a snob too for there are so much more out there but I don;t use them because they sniff too commercially for me, but I will use Goya's sofrito and adobo seasonings over Preferida et al.
No matter what it is, by the time I use these, they would have undergone a lot of tweaking as I never follow the recipes, which makes them mine!
Do you want recipes? Coming soon!