• Are your containers for rice, sugar and salt filled to the brim? And while you’re at it, why not include the fridge, the pantry and the car’s gas tank.
• There much be 12 assorted (or is it 13?) fruits that are round on your dining table. This is definitely a challenge if we strictly follow the “round” rule.
• Don’t forget to have lots of coins to toss in the air. An assortment of international coins would definitely put you on a higher level.
• Make ready that polka-dotted outfit. The bigger, the bolder, the better.
• Be sure to turn on all the house lights as well as open all doors and windows of your house at midnight. Luck will be on your side as you breath in all that foul air from the firecrackers.
• The house must be squeaky clean and put in order. Scrubbed, waxed and buffed to a shine.
Over the years, I have done most if not all of the above. Best of all, I always made it a point to wear a polka dotted duster (house dress) while sipping some wine in my brightly lit home by 12 midnight. I figured that doing so would mean I would be comfortably, intoxicatingly wealthy.
Can you guess the results? Hint: Two out of three’s not bad at all.
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I sat yoga-style on my terrace floor after spending the whole morning weeding and pruning in a effort to put order to my tiny garden before the end of the year. With my hands on my knees, I closed my eyes and did some slow breathing. Random thoughts of the year that pass went through my mind— the mom moments, the travels, the detours, the laughter and the tears, the scare, the hugs, the mistakes, the faces of friends and family. Then a strong breeze came through my garden. And as I continued to close my eyes, it’s as if all that happened this year were swiftly blown away. All gone and taken away by the wind.
I open my eyes and everything seemed so bright.
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Looking back at the past week, I have to confess that I used the Christmas season as an excuse to over-indulge. Rich, gooey, and finger-lickingly food. Salty and sweet and everything else in between.
But that's in the past now and I sure am ready for some healthier eating habits. And if you are in the same mode I am in right now, you will like the following dishes I recently prepared.
Herb Infused Sweet Potato Greens (a tralala name for talbos ng camote ensalada)
A whole bowl of freshly picked camote tops
Chopped onions, tomatoes—about ½ cup each
Thumb-size ginger, peeled and minced
Some basil & tarragon leaves
Salad dressing:
Juice from 6 calamansi—about 3 tablespoons
3 Tablespoons water
3 tablespoons brown sugar (I like it sweet—as in very sweet) maybe substituted with honey
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
Blanched the camote tops in hot water. Remove just short of their becoming very wilted.
Add the chopped veggies
and toss with the salad dressing. Who needs ice berg lettuce when you can have this!?!
Baked Tomato-Onion Stuffed Milkfish ( fancy Inihaw na Bangus)
1 whole boneless bangus
Juice from two calamansi
1 med-size tomato, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Pat your fish dry with a paper towel. Squeeze the calamansi over the fish. Add the tomatoes and onions in the stomach area. Season the whole fish with salt and pepper.
Drizzle with olive oil. Fold to close up the fish.
Wrap in tin foil. Put it in a pan and bake or set on your griller for about 20 minutes.
Serve with lots of steaming, white rice.
Hmmmmm.... New Year's eve is just around the corner. Some beef mechado would go just as well with steamed rice : )
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