bits of here and there

nothing much is going on, not at the shop where no one walks the mall during 30 degree slushy weather save a few brave shoppers, will Christmas be good this year? November sucked.
kids are fine, that's the bright spot. Kylie turns 21, OMG. And Migay? 25!!! And Hunter has a birthday coming, 9??? That fast?
There is so much I want to do and am only stymied slowed down by my own wandering mind, visions of what I would like to bake, cook and market out there. But the slowness of it all makes me hesitate to do more.
caught Dan Rad in the Actor's Studio, really, truly meets all expectations, amazing!
Saw Twilight twice, the second time, really much better without the giggling and laughing at the wrong times, cheez, but oh, it's really for tweens, so deal with it. Maybe once more and then I'll wait for the DVD.Don't really know why I keep looking at the websites, sure Rob looks great but, hmmm, talagang walang ibang magawa, so diyan na lang muna hanggang lumabas ang Half Blood Prince.
Thanksgiving has come and gone, ate early for once and didn't know what to do with ourselves after, movie time for the kids but none interested me enough so I opted to watch the little one, Dandan Bell.
Todd bought the biggest baddest microwave floor model, should've been $300 but got it for $99+tax. Thanks ToddyBoy.

Barefoot Contessa & Book Signings

Ina Garten had a book signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore two doors from Mrs. A's Cupcakes&Cookies. I have always admired her and have watched many segments of her TV show on FoodNetwork. Very gracious and always cheerful, her new kitchen/entertainment barn is drool-worthy. I got to the bookstore early but couldn't make up my mind whether to do this or not. Buy a book, get a number and then wait. So I went back to the bakery but Kylie said, GO MOM!!! So I went and OMG, lines all over the place, my number was 321! I calculated that would mean 50 numbers etc, roughly around 1:30. I took a peek and there she was signing. So I went back to work and then at 12:30ish, I told Kylie I was going to check, and voila, they let me through to almost near the stairs, It went so fast and I realized I wouldn't have any photos so I tapped the shoulders of the two guys ahead of me and bribed them with a cupcake or cookie if they would take my picture and email it to me. Thanks Eric Jahn, (he did come across and after meeting),after greeting and getting the book signed(while wearing my icing stained apron), he and his friend got their cookies.
I remember Nancy Silverton of La Brea being a bit snooty and impatient. I remember Debbi Fields in her 4 inch heels, left handed that she is, standing for 4 hours straight without let up, signing her cook books at the downtown Mrs. Field's stores with lines waiting, but each book signed with a name, a little note and the flourish of Debbi with hearts. The book store signing of Ina Garten was strictly just her name, no personalizing and if it wasn't the current book, a book plate was given in lieu of the autograph. I wonder now, if I had only known then, I could've met JK Rowling at the Bookstall in Winnetka during her book signing stint when she was just getting known. (I still kick myself when I remembered seeing the news vans and wondering who she was!!!aurghhhh) For sure I passed up Rick Tramonto signing his Osteria book because I have actually met him at Panera in Deerfield where I had a stint as assistant manager and found him buying his sandwich for lunch and seeing him there with his kid on week-ends. So much for having foie gras daily, sometimes you need to eat tuyo (ok, I mean regular people food). I remember getting Martin Yan's autograph during a book signing at Cook's Catalog's warehouse sale where I bought my first mixer years and years ago. I am waiting for Anthony Bourdain and line up once more for that quick signature amidst a sea of faces and be proud of the squiggle that makes the book more important to me. ha!

bits and pieces

escape from realities serves a purpose, that of relaxing one's mind during what could be stressful depressing times. I have chosen a few bits of happiness.
Cooking, mentioned this time and time and again. so, on to the next.
DandanBell: watching him grow smarter each day curls and all. Times with Maddie strolling to the bookstore and just wandering through magazines and books while she takes quick reads in the kiddie section until I shout it's time to go. Ooops, I forgot all about her today as I was too busy gabbing on the phone with my VBF Beng. Suddenly, I realized she wasn't around when I got to the store and voila, there she was puffing and panting saying " Lola, you left me!!!" OMG. Freaked out a bit and then made sure she was with me the whole time afterwards. With a snide aside from Sam, you aren't going to forget Daniel while I go check out some coats, right? Smirk.

Hunter and his anghit hair, Lynne with her wistful Hi Lola and my little whisper, do good in school so your dad doesn't freak out (but seeing so much of me in her at that age, huh? what's that on the board? Where did those numbers come from????) Taylor and his always perky self until he gets tired and cranky.

And then there's Twilight. With a drought of Harry Potter and the movie not till next year, Cedric Diggory died to become Edward Cullen, the vampire. The posters are all over the place, got some magazines and surf the net (after reading about HP stuff). Robert Pattinson will be at Hot Topic in La Grange sometime next week or this week, or today, whatever. Told Migay I wasn't going to line up like a teeny bopper for that. But, I did cajole another VBF to take me to Equus and I did wrangle a trip to New York just to see Dan Rad play Alan Strang. So there, that tells you that the wizard beats phantom and vampire any time. LOL. If it were DanRad, I definitely would camp out and be in line to say hi. But I can wait even if I am mesmerized by the Cullens and the entire Twilight phenomena. No midnight showing for me, but definitely yes for HP.

So am relaxed now as I just finished some fried rice for Les as a pale exchange for a sumptuous dinner with my sister tonight. Cooking again, Leveriza (leftover rice and whatever can be chopped and tossed into it for fried rice). Back to where I started.

turkey time again

As I face a bit of depressing downturn at Mrs. A's along with every other business in the US, getting a lift from the election results, and counting my blessings even as the coins are not dropping in fast enough, I realize that cooking is the way to cope.
As always. And tonight is the first turkey night. Got a turkey breast 7 pounder for Thursday night dinner. Threw in a spaghetti squash now that I know how to work on it (butter and paprika), some great longganiza from a private sausage maker, rice and hmm, what to do with the potatoes? Turkey is not the Thanksgiving type of flavoring. I opted for the PuertoRican Goya adobo salt mix taught to me by the wife of an aunt's brother. Made life easier feeding the five kids when they accepted the non-thanksgiving flavor of turkey. Phewwww.

So it takes me away from the realities of business being so slow, it's scary. I just finished making my first (canned) pink salmon patties, checking out the ingredient list from the can's label and then tweaking it to my own liking, as in using mustard panko instead of bread crumbs, adding more lemon and fresh parsley, onion and a hint of garlic. Last night was beef stew night but it came out like a non spicy caldereta. What's next? Maybe mechado or morcon, and a run at the chicken breast stuffed with spinach, greek style.

Hoping of course that we could all be here for dinner. It really is a bit of stretch to cook meals daily to fit everyone's schedules, so I decided to cook when I know I have time and can plan rather than cook uu-rada each time and not have enough.

Come to think of it, I have to force myself to bake once more if I can get over my mental OCD about getting my ingredients into the mise en place I am used to, as I want to make sans rival, chocolate crinkles, food for the gods and some other cookies to add to the store's repertoire.

Letter to Father Ken

Hi Father Ken:

We are honored to have you as the mass officiant for First Friday mass and that our mom, Gloria Y.Nichols will be remembered in that mass.
The novena prayers are actually prayers for the dead.

We would appreciate an after mass set of prayers for the dead and blessing of the cremains and hopefully have time for a set of eulogies from members of the family.

You may remember her as the little old lady who sat on the 2nd pew Sunday 7pm mass while her boisterous family sat beside her . She enjoyed sewing lace tablecloths that she gave Father Jim Keena for the altar tables.

She gave up a high profile life in the Philippines to come live here sans househelp and the amenities in life that she was used to, to be with her 2 daughters and five grandkids. She was the pioneer of the Philippine baking Industry and set trends in both baking, table settings, and restaurant service. Move over Martha Stewart. She touched many people's lives with her wit, wisdom and courage. She always had time to sit with friends and family to listen to their problems and help them find solutions. She was pro-life and has saved many children whose mother's almost did not have them, she being a prime example of a brave woman who kept me and my sister Patricia in a time when children out of wedlock were a no-no. She was an independent, hard working,creative individual who became, inspite of her dimunitive size and high school education, president of various organizations, such as The Alll Nations Women's Group, The Zonta, International Food Service Executives Association, Hotel & Restaurant Association of the Philippines, to name a few, that helped send many young Filipinos to school through innovative fund raising activities. At the HRAP, she was credited as moving spirit behind the Chefs On Parade, which had an Iron Chef competition, table settings, food competitions way before these became popular here in the US, again, ahead of her time. She also baked and decorated the wedding cakes of many high profile society couples including the sitting president of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Mayor of Manila Ramon Bagatsing's entire family, and it was said that President Marcos, her neighbor for so many years till he moved to Malacanan Palace, always made sure that the cakes from her Rolling Pin Bake Shop , was brought to the inner family rooms for him to eat, all the other grand cakes were sent to charities or staff.

Grumbling like most old people do, she out lived most if not all her closest friends and colleagues, very healthy for a 91 year old until pneumonia hit and she was gone in 2 1/2 days. She lived a full life, went through World War 2 where she lost her husband Clinton Homer Nichols from Binghampton, New York and where she met her long time companion Ruben S.Menguito. Had 2 daughters Maria Delia and Patricia Menguito and was blessed with 5 grandchildren Noel Angelo, James Bernard, Patricia Nicole, Maria Ligaya and Kathleen Beatrice. She enjoyed her great grandchildren Hunter Noel, Lynn Faye, Taylor Ryne, Maddelyne Grace and Daniel Thomas all of whom will always remember their LolaLola with the myriad pictures taken of her with each of them. This is a microcosm of her life, not even touching her colorful youth growing up in the mountains of Baguio where her family migrated being the caterers of Americans who built the winding roads up the mountain, her escape from death during the bombing of Manila during the liberation and so much more. But hopefully, this will give you an insight of this woman we call mom.

Not too many people who have met her here know that she had this alter-ego. They saw her as grandma, mother of Patty or Delia, etc. But back home, her former staff are waiting to give her a proper burial at her memorial plot, rouding up all those who knew her for the caring employer and one who made sure that when we left Manila for good, that they all had jobs that would see them through.

Hope this long spiel will help you know her a bit more.
Thank again Father Ken, she would probably like the Ashes to ashes, dust to dust prayer that they say over the deads during All Saint's Day. I remember our yearly sojourns to the cemetery and wait for the Priest to say blessings over the graves of my grandparents. But whatever blessing and prayers you have for the dead will be appreciated as her gold coin from Charon to heaven.

Daniel in Equus

And here's my little wizard hero, all grown and the star of a play whose so many themes are just too frenzied to focus on one particular aspect. Each facet of the play needs to be dissected and debated. But then, it's not daniel but Alan Strang that we would be discussing. When it comes to Daniel, the first most stark image is that of an actor, not Harry Potter. The strength of his portrayal erases every pre-conceived notion of the heroic wizard. Sure, slyly, I would admit to being interested in that part of the play where he is touted to be totally naked. And yes, i did glimpse what i was there for, but if you asked me if that's all i saw or remember, i cannot even remember THAT. The play was too all consuming, his acting too amazing that the nudity is forgotten. The frenzied imagery in those last 7 minutes was too breathtaking and stunning that I got caught up in the hysteria of it all.
Kudos to Daniel Radcliffe, my baby's grown up. And Kate Mulgrew was amazing, Richard Griffith totally believable in his angst, and Daniel, the consumate performer.

40th Day Memorial for GYNichols

Time flies and the heart starts to heal. The mornings are still a bit iffy for me as I drive to work, sometimes with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach knowing that on the parallel raod not taken, mom used to wait for me as I would pass by each morning to look in on her and know she's okay.
But it's now 40 days, a busy first Friday, and a long drive through traffic for most of us, even i didn't make it on time for the mass. But Father Ken Sedlak finished the mass, went out to greet his parishioners and came back in for the final service for Gloria Y. Nichols. We weren't complete as some of the kids were stuck in the Firday traffic.

Friends, acquaintances and family were all there as Patty and i talked about mom. I regret not having seen my cousin Bing earlier because I would have wanted him to share his thoughts on mom who cared for him like a son, nor did I think of calling Leslie but I gave as much as I could , stories of the life of Gloria Y.Nichols, and Patricia said her piece, confirming my earlier tales of mom's creativity, wanderlust and life.
At the Social Hall, we shared pictures and albums of mom as we moved the Angel Urn with her cremains from chapel to the party.

We thank everyone who came to share and celebrate the life of GY Nichols and for those who helped us make this happen. Mom, here's your going away party, all in shades of lavender and violets, kids, grandkids and great grandkids around you once more.