Time Flies Faster Than We think

August 25th marked a year since mom died. And yesterday marked the day we cremated her.
And what did we do? Celebrated like she would, eat and feast and remember. So on the day itself, I shopped for shrimps and blue crabs and had pancit as a side. She missed all the other sea food from home, but these we can get here, so that's what we did.

We had Sundays inviting friends over for a feast of hilabos na hipon, alimango and not the paltry blue crabs, inihaw na baboy and lost of side relishes like tomatoes with onions and red eggs. It was non stop lamon...hahaha. There would be Sundays too with all the breakfast foods, longganiza, tapa and tocino, with eggs anyway you want them.
And GYN set a pretty table, always with a theme, pinks, greens, blues, with flowers cut from our kalachuchi tree. Kamias in our Pinoy version of bruschetta/pico de gallo. Lots of dipping sauces: soy sauce with vinegar and siling labuyo, vinegar with garlic, mashed kamias with shallots, etc.. Those were the days my friends.....

One cannot regret her life, she rose from the mountains of Baguio, ran up the trees with the Igorots, had a very romantic life with Clinton H. Nichols, survived the bombings of Manila during Liberation, visited the US as a young widow, cam back home to a romance with the handsome rogue Ruben S. Menguito, allowed him his foibles as a second string QB, but led him to the path of fine dining with the HRAP and IFSEA.
Accolades, society weddings, her creativity knew no bounds. She knew the taste of what is should be, she set the prettiest tables, she was a fountain of knowledge, the best Ann Landers or Tia Dely when giving advice to the love lorn, the antsy brides and families of the weds to be, everyday conundrums.

She also opened my eyes to the other world, often leading to weird experiences that we embraced.....so my apo Daniel was singing about ghosts at last Sunday's mass, "ghosts are people too" he marveled. Pshew pshaw says the parents but the one single sentence that we challenge his folks to deny was when he said, "Ghosts have no feet". So mom taught us this not by what she would also say but with the books we read on the paranormal. So we have never been skeptics, and in fact enjoyed our joy rides with her following hearses, going to weird cemeteries, visiting old churches from around town to way up north, adventures.

This is remembering you mom, Gloria Y.Nichols, a giant who stood only 4 feet 10 inches or shorter, but with the name of a mega star in her hey days.

Luau Time

For Bambi's graduation party it will be a luau. What is a Luau? For many of us, we see a roasted pig (but the hawaiianos roast it underground), lots of pineapple and spam. Hahaha. So we will have lechon, the ubiquitous Filipino fiesta feasting food, macaroni salad with pineapple (chicken or tuna? with pickled relish and a bit of this and that, spicy chicken wings (from a Korean grocery)two kids of fruit salad courtesy of Kylie, pineapple upside down cake, mango and strawberry trifle cake, lots of fruit and veggies. Wanted to do a spam sushi but don't have time. Wanted to do this and that but ultimately, we'll just go with the flow, including a chinese pancit. remember, hawaii is a melting pot of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and so many other little ethnicities. we'll see how it goes.

Another Jeff Foxworthy adventure

So I went to this out in the wilderness flatlands area where there were three gigantic bleacher buildings called the Joliet Speedway, three tracks for different races. Underneath were food stalls of americana foodstuff catered by Levy brothers. Funnel cakes, lemonade, corn dogs, Beer, twisted fries, beer, popcorn, beer, burger, dogs, beer. Young and old were there.
Looking down into a muddy track with four giant giant tires as markers, drove in 2 sets of 4 cars, each garishly decorated each team with a single standout color.
Object of the game and bloodlust of the crowd which included boys and girls as young as ...wha???year olds? strollers of infants? fat little 7 year old girls, skinny 4 year old boys, was to see whose lead car could go around the track at least 5 times and survive the onslaught of being mangled, battered and beaten by the other cars. Like quidditch. Protecting the seeker with chasers and beaters. Only the cheers for each banged up and demolished car was like being in a Roman arena.
Interestingly enough, I picked each winning team including the final ones. Cheez, there were no betting booths because, mind you, this was a Family Event!!!

And the kids behind me were yelling loudly, Hey Mr. Popcorn Man, thinking we were all deaf..I whispered an aside, ermmm, they surely teach them young, don't they? And the chubby, red faced little girl (who probably will grow up to be a butangera na taga bayan ng pulang leeg) muttered a "I'll get you for that" when my thrilled companion blurted out that he almost touched the danged beach ball that was making the rounds up and down the stands. She and her little sibling were the loudest in yelling FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT when a scuffled ensued down the pit place. Bloodlust at this early age!

So Foxworthy, I'm earning brownie points for adventuring into the land of your brilliant spiels, and I'm not even a red neck! Still, this is part of americana I never knew existed beyond listening to someone else's stories. Chuck it down to being a tourist in my own back yard. And on to the next red neck adventure.

Thursday Night Dinners

Last Thursday, on a whim I made paella, then I had a pork roast and some other stuff. I was rushing as usual, and as I was boiling pasta, watching the paella simmer, and doing multiple tasks, i asked myself why i was doing this. And I realized that it's because I want to push myself to see if I can do it! Get a meal for 17 persons done every Thursday, within a certain amount of time (one hour to 2 tops) as I get home late, and still serve hot meals to my kids and their families. And to test recipes and flavors. I saw Bobby Flay do a paella throwdown, and that's what made me decide on paella for dinner. Came out pretty good even if I only had chicken, chorizo de bilbao and shrimps. Now on to the next Thursday....sotanghon anyone?

Jeff Foxworthy Would Be So Proud

It was a surreal experience. I went to what i thought was a traditional American Pig Roast, as opposed to our Lechon frenzies, and I was expecting a big pig like our lechon and American sides, the American sides were there,bbq sauces, mustard, hot peppers, cole slaw, potato salad, pickles,a yummy cool whip with cherries, walnuts and coconut thingamaglob which I actually liked (2 servings since no one was touching it, maybe cuz it's a usual fare for them) lots of sweet roasted corn, right off the grill (sanay ako sa corn naka tatlo pa nga ako). But where's the pig? Why are there crockpots with some shredded gunk? Alas, poor pig, you became pulled pork...

But....looking around the 150 or so people, er, was I the only Asian? Oh hey, there's a token black dude (security guard for the venue) and 3 sets of sheriffs with barely concealed vests....and tons of loaded, well kept shiny big monster Harleys, and lots of tattooed men of all ages in various shades of black, harley t shirts with too many sayings I cannot remember any sa dami, and women in all shapes and sizes, all of them holding red plastic beer filled cups (there was a beer station, they ran out of bottled water but not beer). Two sun darkened men probably in their late 50s dancing all over the place shirtless (and I am ready to barf or die laughing) even getting onto the stage just to jiggle their fat bellies and let the alcohol make them believe they were still in their early twenties....I stuck a stoic look on my face so as not to draw attention to me....
tattoos, studs, girls with their jelly bellies peeping from their short blouses and tees, where was I????

To get there, it was a dirt road hidden away from the well paved highways of the area.
Brooooom brooms went the bikes as they showed off their rides....hey, was that my lawyer there with a bad ass expensive harley? hide hide maridel.

The bands were playing a mix of electrified country and some stones, hey there's achy breaky heart....but unlike pinoys who jump up and dance, only a few were bellying their dance moves aside from the two over grown teeners.

I've seen scenes like this before, on TV and movies, but here I was gob smack in the midst of the whole surreal party. But for a good cause, MomsCookies.org raised over 4 grand to fund cookie baskets for our troops out there (bring them home).

and as the light grew dimmer, and the mosquitoes were out in full force, it was a great relief to leave this magical(?) americana, thank goodness we were in Illinois and not somewhere else where I could've been part of the Pig roast.....

another thursday night dinner

one daughter decided not to relieve me from work till too late. and then while trying to figure out what to feed the hungry horde, she calls and says the car seat is in her car, another set of minutes i have to use....so i grabbed 3 pounds of shrimp, 3 pounds of longganiza, and chicken breast, then cheated by buying marinated bulgogi and adding another few pounds of thinly sliced beef to extend this, and baby bok choy for last minute veggies...clearly not remembering there are 5 kids who may need soup or pasta or pancit...
so I get home at 6:49 pm and they are all expected within minutes. thank goodness Kylie cooked rice.. Hilabos the hipon, start the longganiza, and then wow, I have time pala! Then I started the bulgogi, nuked the bok choy with oyster sauce...then they tell me James is coming....OMG, so I bring down the pasta pot and slice the boneless chicken breast, garlic, onion and crushed tomatoes with a jar of Bertollis' marinara.
Whew...and we ate and ate and ate...and the kids ate the rice and meat, then pasta.
And of course, they came and ate, and all's well that ends well, whew...

bits and pieces

So St. Patrick's Day has come and gone.
But I remember my first St. pat's Corned Beef dinner, really promdi..I didn't know their corned beef came in those weird slabs with spice packets....akala ko I'd have to cook at least 8 cans of carne norte....hahahah. Years later, each kids mastered the art of corned beef for St. pat's JB topping it off with wilted cabbage leaves for effect when he served his masterpiece. Bambi does a good one but this year, she followed her mom's advice and had 2 roasted and one boiled for flavoring the cabbage and potatoes, her entire sibling group bravoed the end result. (Note to Sam, boil the root crops to near tender before adding the rest, then your Irish Stew which everyone enjoyed immensely would be more stew instead of pulled meat)
But on St. Pat's itself, on the prodding of sister Patricia, I did one better, had the boiled corned beef with potatoes and cabbage (and I had to pressure cook this because I was short on time and it really worked!!! It would've been 50 minutes per pound so a 4-5 pounder would've been done by 10pm, and instead, I got it to 80minutes and tender) I pulled out the meat and added the potatoes and cabbage to the cooker and then put back the meat..But I did the pinoy version, guisadong corned beef (garlic,tomatoes, onions with corned beef, diced potatoes and shredded cabbage. Came out a good side dish to the dinner and of course...freshly cooked white rice, didn't know which we liked better...hahaha.