The 3 Rs (returning, reviewing, renewing)

My husband and I as empty nesters. My two chicadees have flown away and are now busy with their own lives.



Occasionally there are shared meals and even short vacations together but as time goes by, these get-togethers are getting less frequent.



Although there are times when I wonder where they are and what they are up to, I am not sad for long. As a matter of fact, I must confess I consider this phase in my life as an opportunity for growth in.. (now don’t laugh or sneer) my spirituality. With no more kids to s-mother and no longer tied to a desk, there are less distractions (or excuses).

I am re-acquainting myself with my faith. I must admit that this is quite challenging to understand the WORD. It’s like going up the same mountain I constantly see while going through my life-- but this time, I choose to climb, to seek and hopefully reach the “peak”. There are so many A-ha! moments in this new found journey but also confusion and doubt at some crossroads.



But isn’t that what faith is all about….

So there! Although the “territory” is not new, I move through it with eager steps and awe at the revelations along the way. I don’t think I will ever “get it” 100% but you never know…. : )





༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰༺༻༰


Faith is like “palitao”—you start off at the bottom knowing nothing but with a burning desire to understand and live out your faith’s teaching, you ascend to the top. (Enough said before lightening strikes me.)



Palitao (Filipino delicacy)

2 cups glutinous rice flour (I find that the product made in Vietnam is of good quality)
¾ to 1 cup water
Freshly Grated coconut
Sugar
Toasted sesame seeds

Add some sesame seeds to a hot pan. Stir until lightly brown in color. When cool, add sugar about triple the quantity of sesame seeds. (ex: 1T seeds; 3 T sugar) Set aside. (although some prefer to have their palitao with sugar and minus the sesame seeds)

Place your flour in a bowl and slowly add half of the water. Stir and continue to add more water until you get the consistency of soft clay dough (too soft and you won’t be able to handle it; too hard and you end up with something very chewy and not so delicate). For easy handling in the next step, I find that cooling the mixture off in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes works.

Pour water into a pot (enough to go up half way of the pot). Bring to a steady boil.

Scope up about a tablespoon of the flour mixture and roll into a ball. Then gently flatten the ball into a thin disk or could be oval in shape (like a tongue). Drop it into the boiling water. Continue shaping more dough and dropping into the boiling water. Be careful not to overcrowd your pot.

The palitao is cooked once it floats to the top. Scope with a slotted ladle and lay on a tray of grated coconut. Turn the palitao over to coat the other side with more coconut. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle the sugar-sesame seed mixture.

This rice dessert will surely bring your taste buds to a higher level of deliciousness.

Note:
Some markets sell the rice mixture (known as galapong) and you need only shape it before dropping into boiling water. But I find that the quality is inferior than when you prepare the rice dough from scratch .