Cupcakes, Why Not?

So how are you guys?  It’s been a while. I got addicted to reading e-books, that’s why. Not only that, for the past few days, I tried to finish two books by Jenny Colgan, two wonderful, funny and engrossing chick lit read.  She’s a new author on my list  so it’s quite a novelty to read something with lots of cupcake recipes and pointers on baking…yes….cupcakes.  I never tried baking cupcakes though since the few sessions that I had with Sylvia Reynoso Gala’s Culinary Studio , I took money-making courses like Chinese cuisine, making bars and cookies, cupcakes not included. Once you learned the basic of baking, you could always experiment on other recipes as long as you have the right ingredients. I’ve done that for the past few months and it’s quite a thrill to discover new things in the kitchen.

If you have time and if you love chick lit books, I highly recommend these two, Meet Me At The Cupcake Cafe and Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe. Both books have excellent reviews at Goodreads.

Of course,  reading an e-book could not compare to holding  and smelling a nice, newly printed book in your hands but then sometimes, it is easier to get hold of a copy and read  it conveniently through your phone. It does not need so much space on your bulging bookshelves and you can delete it once you’re done to give way to other e-book titles.  Reading is such an engrossing hobby and once you start all over again, you simply forget the time. When you are transported to a new world, there is a different kind of magic.

Maybe one of these days,  I’ll try cupcakes too.

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The Gift Of The Morning

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

- Mary Oliver

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A Thousand Mornings (Part 2)…. Hello Mary Oliver!

Okay, I am reviving my month-ender and  “happy new month” blog. I used to do it in some of my posts but sometimes, in the midst of daily living, you forget things that were part of your routine.

May has quietly faded into June  and  as always it left something to cherish and to treasure. It was terribly hot but the afternoon showers that we got during the last week  somehow diffused the humid feel of the month. Yesterday, I visited my daughter at her office at BPI to get a package  sent by a friend from the US. I took an FX taxi from our place to Ayala Avenue and along the way I was like a child getting re-acquainted with an old place and taking note of changes that were not there thirteen years ago. Thirteen years, seems so long  ago -  yes, it’s been thirteen years since I left Bank of the Philippine Islands  when I availed of an early retirement to take care of my two kids.  Seeing new faces  but looking for old ones who were my former office mates, I now can’t imagine myself as part of the young crowd waiting for elevator rides  and beating the 8:30am rush  to log  in to work. I was with BPI for more than twenty-one years, right after I graduated from college. Waking up early, car pooling,  early morning masses at Greenbelt chapel, lunch breaks and quick walks to Glorietta, afternoon rush to share a ride with friends on the way home, the routine of a working mom, they came rushing back when I saw the facade of BPI. Ayala Avenue has changed of course with more high-rise buildings sprouting from every nook and cranny, it’s after all the Makati Central Business District. What I noticed though was there were lots of people lining up the sidewalk of Ayala Avenue smoking. I am glad I brought a face mask. During my time, smokers just stay at the back of our building at the open parking space. Why can’t they totally prohibit smoking in public?

Sometime last October, I wrote a blog on the newest book of Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings dreaming of having a copy of it when it’s published. It has become one of my top-rated posts  although it was more of me than the book. Yesterday, I finally got hold of it and perused each word, smiling like crazy holding it in my hands, enjoying the feel of  silk because the dust jacket  is so smooth to the touch.

This is my second book of Mary Oliver and I love how she portrays nature in so many different ways. It feels like you are beside a brook or just looking at an unknown bloom by the wayside or discovering the glint of the moon on a dark night.  Odette, who has become a close friend sent me all these, three books, two latest publications from my favorite author Richard Paul Evans and a copy of A Thousand Mornings together with a hard drive which she says I could use for all the shots that I want to save. Speaking of blessings, they pour in a thousand ways too.

Let me share one of her poems with you. Reading her words always keep me inspired, silently smiling to myself and telling the old me, I am lucky, aren’t I?  The  journey is long but I am blessed.

The Gardener

 

Have I lived enough?

Have I loved enough?

Have I considered Right Action enough, have I

      come to any conclusion?

Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude?

Have I endured loneliness with grace?

 

I say this, or perhaps I’m just thinking it.

       Actually, I probably think too much.

 

Then I step out into the garden,

where the gardener, who is said to be a simple man,

       is tending his children, the roses.

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Looks Yummy? It Is Yummy…..

I don’t know if I am the only one who is fond of turning left-over food into something that would look more  appetizing  to the palate. We have lots of left-over spaghetti sauce (I cooked more actually because my son loves spaghetti) when my daughter and her family came over yesterday for lunch.  I  found these day old sliced bread which we call in Tagalog Monay  and used it instead of pizza dough. 

We used to do this on left-over pan de sal sometimes topped with sardines, fresh onions and lots of cheese.  Just pop the bread slices in the oven long enough for the cheese to melt. It’s  perfect for that hot cup of coffee or tea while I’m  idling around in the garden waiting for my newly planted Vietnam rose to bloom.

It was definitely a lovely morning.

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Savoring The Quiet

The raindrops linger

And I stand here….

Still

Savoring the quiet

Of a misty morning.

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Today’s Blessing

“It’s so curious: one can resist tears and ‘behave’ very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer… and everything collapses. ” – Collete

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Authors And Books

I am going back to reading although it has become a bit slow for me. There was a time when I used to read three books a week, getting  older though made me quite a little slack doing some of my favorite hobbies, reading being one. Come to think of it, among all my books (probably  a thousand of them) there are only two signed copies that I treasure for the simple reason that they are the only signed copies that I have Two years ago, my daughter gave  me a copy of Nicholas Sparks’ The Best of Me   as a birthday gift  on the condition that I attend his book signing at The Podium at Ortigas Center. There was an attached invite from National Bookstore but it was not an assurance that I’ll be able to have my book signed. Nicholas Sparks is more of Nissa’s favorite author so I’ve read almost all of his books. The book signing was right after my birthday so you can just imagine how nervous I was because I have never attended one before.  Read my adventures here on how the day went. It was an unforgettable event in my life. I was really tongue-tied when I met him face to face. All I can utter was “hello Nicholas”.

Richard Paul Evans is  one of my favorite authors. Hmm, let me amend that, he is my favorite author. I’ve blogged  about him so many times here. Last year, I received a signed, first edition copy of his book  The Last Promise , a gift from an online friend that I met at Multiply.  Look at how he signs his books. This may sound  crazy but I guess, the value of a book increases when it is personally signed by the author. Do you agree?

I am looking forward to my three  new books  which will be sent by another friend from the US, my copy of A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver and two more latest books by Richard Paul Evans.  Right now, I am in the thick of reading Anne of Avonlea (second in a series of the classic books by L.M. Montgomery).

And I wish that like the late D.J. Salinger, I could do this too, ““What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”  It hasn’t happened yet because I don’t have  a terrific friend  who is a book author

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Wednesday Surprise

I miss my little Nate. They’re supposed to visit me today but my daughter got sick so I have to wait for another week before I get to see my “apo”. I am looking forward to having him around again and see what he has learned and accomplished in a month.  He is almost six months old now, time flies!

Last Wednesday, Josef and I went to Pasig City market just to buy fruits. It was his day-off so what better way to spend the  early morning  but to visit   a place that I haven’t seen for so many years?  I’ve been told by some friends that the price of fruits there are really cheap. The place is where fresh produce coming from the provinces are sold wholesale and by the kilo. I was simply awed by the variety of fruits they have, all housed in a large complex that used to  be just a  few stalls ten, fifteen years ago. Where can you find a kilo of sineguelas  at only P20? They had sacks and sacks of it lining up several stores.The other day, I asked some vendors here in our place how much a kilo of it costs and I was surprised that they were selling it at  P60/kilo. One  large  pineapple that sells around P75 to P80 a piece in our place costs only P50 in Pasig. Green and ripe mangoes are sold by the sacks and crates too.  Would you believe Indian mangoes are at P10/kilo? As we just took a commute to the place, I didn’t  buy much except these, all for the price of P400, a half kilo of fresh peanuts, a kilo of  sweet potato, sweet corn   and a large watermelon included.

I will definitely come back here if only to buy more sineguelas and fresh pineapples.  I haven’t explored the place yet. There are other fruits on display like bananas (all kinds, I think), durian (which I don’t eat). Think summer, think fruits!

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Moms’ Day Out

Earlier she greeted me saying, “Now that I’m a mom, I’ve realized how both challenging and fulfilling it is to be one. Thank you for being a great example Mama . Thank you for helping me to become who I am today so I can also be a great mom to Nate. I love you! Happy Mother’s Day!”

My daughter is so thoughtful  when it comes to special occasions that we both treasure. Now that she is  a certified mom, it is more lovely to celebrate the beauty of  motherhood. Such endless stories  about the baby we both love. Nate is now almost six months old so everything that is new to Nissa’s eyes are all recorded in her cam.  They celebrated Mother’s Day by bringing Nate to the mall and had  dinner there, baby and all. It may not be a romantic way to celebrate with a baby in tow but he is precisely the reason why mother’s day exists.

Yesterday,  my daughter came over to cast her vote  and we later went to Burgoo for lunch, just the two of us. There was a time when we used to dine a lot in one of their branches when it was newly opened at Gateway Mall in Cubao. Though everything is a bit pricey, service is always good.  I remember spending a birthday there with the family and they gave me a small cake ( a larger version of a cupcake) with a matching candle to blow.  You can always draw or write anything on the large paper roll which they use as place mat while waiting for the food. Anyway, Nissa and I were both laughing when we were served what she ordered and that included some take-out for Josef.  Maybe the wait staff  was wondering  how we could finish all that food which I think would serve at least ten.   Hahaha, we were celebrating Mother’s Day, right?

This is their Supreme Sampler. They used to have spring rolls instead of those two large cheese sticks.  Those onion rings are old-time favorites.

I asked for their bestselling veggie salad and the staff recommended this. They call it Manhattan’s Best  with small slices of chicken, croutons, apples,  and pineapple slices on a bed of fresh lettuce leaves. I found it a little dry though.

This Shrimps and Ribs Platter was really pricey at P695.00 but I loved the spicy shrimps. It came with three kinds of dips and sauces and a small cup of corn and  diced carrots. One would think, these are more than enough for the two of us but Nissa said we’ll take  some of them home  so she ordered two more on the menu.

It’s a Seafood Jambalaya Supreme. Back in those days when  we used to frequent Burgoo, I loved ordering this since the mix of seafood,  sausage and chicken on a bed of rice was just an enticing meal. At P475.00, it would serve at least two , three if you are a picky eater. Their pasta would not compare of course to those they serve at Bellini’s  but we ordered a family sized one for take out.

The wait staff greeted me “Belated Happy Mother’s Day ma’am” and Nissa said, ” I am a mom too”. She smiled at us while she took our picture. It was really a great day spent with my daughter. And yes, being a mom and the joys of motherhood were the top topics on our list.

 

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Kamay Ni Jesus (Lucban, Quezon)

I haven’t gone on road trips for  more than a year now. The last time I did, we visited  the 71-foot statue of Mama Mary in Tanay which I shared here in a blog. I love visiting religious sites where one could savor the peace and quiet and get in touch with  one’s inner self and strengthen one’s faith.  I dreamed of visiting  Kamay ni Jesus in Lucban, Quezon but my ever adventurous son beat me to it. They spent the weekend in Lucban and visited the Shrine. Kamay ni Jesus is a  50-foot statue of resurrected Christ  on top of a hill. And just like Regina RICA in Tanay, you have to climb more than three hundred steps to get to the top. I borrowed some pictures from his cellphone. Hopefully, one of these days, I will be able to visit the place too.

One thing more that makes me long to see Lucban, Quezon is I want to get in touch with relatives there.  My paternal grandfather hailed from that place but our generation never got to know our close relatives there except for  his cousin and his family whom we used to visit in Quezon City when I was in high school.  The surname Abuel is pretty common in Lucban. How I wish that one day I could discover our family tree and get to visit the place. All I remember is the name of my paternal great-grandfather  that my late Dad told me before he died.

May 15, 2013 is another big celebration in Lucban. San Isidro de Pahiyas Festival is another event that I want to witness in Lucban. I wonder what kiping tastes like. It is inconvenient for me to travel solo so I’ll save the best for last – going on a trip to Batanes and attending the Pahiyas Festival.

By the way, son brought home Lucban longganisa, a roll of yummy Yema cake and a big pack  of meringue. The latter I think is one of their famous products.

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