Green Tongue

For a whole week I fretted.  Every time I sat at my terrace and happened to look up, I apologized.  Was it necessary? Could it not wait—another week, a month, a year? The questions of the guilty.

But in the end, with the rain clouds darkening the blue summer skies, it had to be done.  There was no telling the extent of the damage that could be caused in the event of a strong typhoon.

Wild (Garden) No More

He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.' Job 37:6



The weatherman said that the interment heavy rains does not mean summer is officially over. Apparently there are conditions that need to be met before it can be declared that the rainy season is upon us.

The Moment

My train of  thought was interrupted.  The old windows were making that sound again.  You know that sound old windows make when the wind wants to take it off for a spin.  Like the windows are trying to refuse the wind’s invitation by holding on by its hinges. Back and forth, the windows rattled.

Well, there was only one thing to do: bring myself and my thought outside to enjoy the late afternoon breeze. 

Flower Power

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul. Luther Burbank


Whenever I find myself thinking about a problem, I can’t help but sometimes get deeper and deeper into a bottomless abyss of despair and anxiety. It’s like an addiction of never ending what ifs and whys.

I remember the many times I would knock myself out with worry. Before long my fertile imagination would paint a guesome picture of the worse kind of accident. Then time passes and I marvel at how quickly these worries go “puff”.

Of course, there have been close calls and it would have been unnatural if I did not worry. But it’s dwelling on them far too long that causes havoc to tranquility. And so before I realize that dwelling on a situation is not going to help, I have already died a thousand imaginary deaths.

It’s a good thing that every now and then I get a wake-up call that puts everything into perspective. Sometimes it takes the form of a song, a passage in a novel,  and, sometimes it’s a shared story.

Just yesterday, a friend pulled me aside to share his wake-up call. Let’s call him R.

R is an early riser. At 4AM, he is up and busy sweeping the dry leaves that had fallen in his yard. As he sweeps the leaves into a pile, his mind is preoccupied with a financial problem. What should he do? Who can he ask for help? How will he continue to support family members who depend on him? These questions go round and round in his head as he moved on to water his plants. He is very passionate about his plants but lately, his focus had been on his problem. He was about to enter his house, when his attention was caught by a Trumpet shrub that was in full bloom. The morning sun was shining on it just like a spotlight on a stage actress.

He had been so anxious over his problem that he was losing all hope. He had buried himself in his own misery and had lost sight of the beauty that was around him. With new resolve, he got ready to attend the early morning mass. Then and there R accepted that he had done all he could and was leaving the rest to God. A God who never fails to send us reminders of hope in the form of flowers-- if we care to to take notice.

xoxoxoxoxox

I remember being served deep fried stuffed squash flowers in one of those provincial heritage tours. As I recall, the flowers were stuffed with a mixture of ground pork and shrimps; dunked in a batter; and deep fried. Unfortunately, I don’t have the recipe. But I will not dwell on my limitations.   Instead, I share with you some eye-catching beauties from my garden.

Periwinkle (suppose to cure cancer)



Lantana: a butterfly's delight



My Summer Blooming Lilies

Hibiscus aka Gumamela= a herbal tea

  These are my everyday reminders of hope.

Garden Duty

A cloudy day and the garden calls for attention.



Weeds to pull; baby basil plants to transfer from recycled sardine cans to a proper home in the ground;



grass to cut and unruly vines to trim.



Thankfully, I had M to assist me and we quietly went to work.

There is something to be said about the calming, almost trance-like, experience I get when I work in my tiny plot. Bothersome thoughts would come but would not stay long. How could they when my focus was on tilling the soil around my plants. By tilling around their base, the plants and I allow each other to breath easy.



A slow breeze try to cool off my flashed face. A butterfly leisurely float from one tiny flower to the next. A ladybug lands on my thumb. Everything seems to be right in the world.

Before I knew it, we were done. I stand to admire the result of our ministration.



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I held myself back from picking the leaves off my basil plants. I would need at least 2 cups of leaves to make a decent pesto. Perhaps in two weeks time. For now I turn my attention on my bushy oregano plant. It’s been more than two years now since I planted my oregano. Just running my hands through it’s tiny leaves send up a pleasing aromatic scent— reminding me of summer and all things Mediterranean.

Speaking of the oregano, I share with you today a recipe I got out of a Williams- Sonoma recipe book on chicken. It calls for some oregano.



When I first came across it, I was intrigued by it’s title, “Basque Chicken”. You see my mother’s father was a Basque. But that’s another story which I will reserve for another time.

Now on to the recipe. Like me, I am sure, you will find it easy to do and has an aroma that is sure to captivate you.

Basque Chicken
Adoptation From Williams- Sonoma Kitchen Library

1 chicken, about 1.5 kilos (In my case, I use thighs & legs)
3 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon dried thyme (I omit this if I don’t have it)
½ teaspoon dried oregano (in my case, I use 1 tablespoon of fresh oregano)
2 shallots, chopped ( I used 1 medium size onion)
2 tomatoes, sliced ( I used 5 tiny pinoy tomatoes)
1 cup chicken stock (I used ½ cube of chicken buillion dissolved in 1 cup water)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
½ cup green olives, preferably Italian (I used whatever the supermarket is selling)
½ cup black olives, preferably Italian
Note on olives: I used ½ cup only of either black or green olives

Skin the chicken and cut into 8 pieces. Time off any excess fat.
Warm the oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Stir in the thyme and oregano and add the chicken.
Saute, turning the pieces as they become golden, 3-4 minutes on each side. (set aside)



Add the shallots (or onions) and tomatoes to the skillet and stir until soft, 2-3 minutes. Pour in ½ cup of the stock and bring to a boil. De glaze the pan by stirring to dislodge any browned bits. Add the olives.



Return the chicken back into the pan. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.



Stir the sauce and then pour in the remaining ½ cup stock. Simmer until the chicken is tender, about 15 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a warmed platter with sauce and serve.



Serves 4-6.

Healthy Option From My Garden

Did I plant the seed of inspiration to start your own home garden?

Well, I do hope so because depending on what you planted, in a short time, you could be cooking up the following dish with produce from your garden! Meanwhile, you can start practicing by getting the ingredients for the following recipe from your local supermarket or wet market.

The recipe is for a vegetable stew-- so very Visayan. Although I think there is a Tagalog version of this but I can't seem to remember the name. Something about a thousand vegetables.

This dish is also very personal. The reason is that the vegetables used in the stew depends on the preference of the cook. So you may or may not add alugbati, okra, squash, string beans, or even gabi (yam). But the dish must have at all times Malunggay leaves-- no buts about it. To add flavour, you should have green onions, ginger and/or tanglad (lemon grass).

This vegetable stew pairs very well with fried fish. And if times are hard, a small dish of ginamos (fermented fish) or bagoong alamang (fermented shrimp) would do nicely.


Utan Binisaya



Basic Ingredients:
Leaves from 4 stalks of kamonggay (malunggay)
2 stalks of green onions (sibuyas dahonan;murang sibuyas), sliced into 2 inch length
1 stalk of tangad (lemon grass), tied in a bundle
1 thumb-size luy-a (ginger), quartered
salt to taste

Optional:
1 small tawong (talong), sliced into cubes
3 pieces string beans (batong; sitaw), sliced into 2 inch length
1 small sikqua (patola), peeled and sliced into cubes
Leaves from 1 bunch of alugbate
1/2 c cubed calbasa (squash)
1/2 c cubed gabi (yam)
2-3 pcs okra, sliced
1 sili espada (jalapeno)
Procedure:
Boil 3-4 cups of water. When the water is boiling, drop in the ginger and the tanglad. These are the ingredients that will flavor and add a lovely scent to your stew. Then add the vegetables in 3-5 minute intervals. Start with vegetables that take a while to cook (eggplant, string beans, squash, okra) and end with the malunggay. If you want some heat to the stew, add one sili espada. Season with some salt. The malunggay cooks quickly so you can kill the fire and just cover the pot for a few minutes. Be proud to serve such a healthy, nutritiously economical dish.

My Nurturing Garden

"Mary, Mary quite contrary
How does your garden grow?"

Lines taken from a nursery rhyme remind me that my little garden needs some tending so that I may reap what I sow (so to speak). Now more than ever, with the rains becoming less frequent, the plants call to me. I could have a gardener come in but that would defeat the whole purpose. I feel that getting a gardener would cheat me of experiencing the feel of the earth on my fingertips; and, the satisfaction of seeing a living thing take root and grow. As I tend my garden, it nurtures me in return by giving me the feeling of peace and contentment that all is well with the world.

When I am up to it, I can get lost in a world of weed pulling and re-potting. I stop only when I notice that the sun is adamant in burning me to a crisp or when the mosquitos make a feast of me-- ouch!

And what do I plant, you ask? Well, nothing fancy. But I do have two garden rules:
1)my plants must be happy to grow in clay-ish soil and not require constant attention.

2) my plants must give back in terms of pleasing my senses: be it the scent they lend to the breeze; their colors that delight; their willingness to grace my dinner table.

So indulge me as I take you on a quick tour of my garden. My pride and joy are a line of white lilies. They are special to me as I bought 2 pots of the lilies on a whim 11 years ago during an out of town trip. And over time I have transfered them to line up my front wall and some I have given away as gifts.



I have a sprinkling of orchids but they're the hardy ones and I don't pay much attention to them unless they are in bloom.



Then there is my jasmine bush. This one I got from my mom's garden. So many childhood memories are triggered from whiffs of their delicate flowers.



Let's not forget, plants I gathered from neighbors' gardens-- with their permission of course. A cut here, a cut there-- San Franciscos with their different leave patterns; Santan minitures; fake Bird-of-Paradise; Periwinkles & a bush with lavender flowers whose name escapes me now.



I shouldn't forget to mention my lovely trees. You would think that I have hectares and hectares of land. But no, I just cram the little space I have with a "Kamuning" ( this is the one that have fragrant tiny white flowers every so often and whose dark colored leaves also give a pleasant smell).



Beside the Kamuning is my Narra (now that it's a giant, it pains me when I have to trim it's top); how I love to sit under it's shade with a cool drink and just day dream.



At the back of the house is my grafted pico mango tree (gifted to me by my sister) which last year blessed me with tons of yummy green mangoes.



Speaking of fruits, I have a lemoncito shrub (calamansi in Tagalog) not yet heavy with fruit. Maybe my constant checking is stressing it out.

And not to forget, my kamias or iba (in visayan)that is swollen with fruit. As quickly as the fruits are ready for picking, I too am ready with all sorts of recipes needing some of it's fruits to give that sourness so delicious to the palate: sinigang (fish soup), paksiw (a fish stew), ginisang kamias sa bagoong (sauteed kamias with shrimp paste).



Now the mother of all vegetable plant in the Philippines would have to be the Malunggay. I just have to stick a cut stalk in the ground and in a couple of weeks, I can see little leaves coming thru. Coming in second would be the aromatic tanglad or lemon grass-- more of a herb than a vegetable.



Several sili labuyo bushes (I believe they are called bird chili) can be found in my garden's nooks. THeir fruit gives the zing needed in my caldereta (beef stew). Or their leaves take center stage in my tinolang manok( chicken soup).



And finally, I also have some alugbate creepers. These are the vegetable that have violet stems and sticky sap and used in many simple Philippine veggie stews. I just stick into the soil stems of this plant and it will quickly take root. I help it along by putting some twigs near it to facilitate its climb.



Yes with a little investment in time, you too can enjoy the nurturing a garden can give. You don't need a large plot of land. You can even start with used cans that have been cleaned and have holed punched at the bottom. If you don't have soil, you can buy a pre-mix bag of fertile dirt at a local garden shop.(Now a days you have to pay even for dirt.) You could also dig up someone's vacant lot too-- the thrill of being caught can give you a great high.

I hope I have interested you enough to start out your garden. You must remember that all good things come to those who wait. Be relaxed in your approach and you will be richly rewarded with your own plant experience-- be it on your dinner table or sitting under your tree's cool shade.