PUMPKIN-MORINGA-CARROT VEGGIE PATTY AND ROLL

I thought I'd combine pumpkin, moringa and carrot and cook these two ways.  The crunchy veggie patty and veggie roll;  "ukoy"  and pritong lumpia respectively to us Pinoys. 

Preparation of Ukoy.

Mix half of following ingredients: 

 Grated pumpkin ( kalabasa)

Grated Carrots

Moringa leaves, sun dried half a day to remove bitter taste

 Chopped spring onions and celery leaves

Pre-sautéed minced pork 

Add to the mixture a tsp of cooking wine, egg, corn starch, salt and pepper and form that into patties and fry.   It would have been great if I had baby shrimps to top the ukoy but since this is a spur-of-the-moment decision, I had to make do with what I had in my ref. 

Preparation of veggie roll: 

In a tablespoon of oil sautee the other half of the veggies, add a reasonable amount of the pre-sautéed minced pork and season with salt and pepper.  Let it cool awhile and wrap into a roll and deep fry.

I was walking with a neighbor this morning and we got into talking about the challenges of cooking for two especially the idea of avoiding leftovers.  Oftentimes it is a trial and error to cook just enough, I don't want to be short also. Rewind 5 to 10 years when veggies were still so affordable, I used to buy a lot and cook a lot too.  

Recently however, veggies are putting more dent in our marketing budget that to be practical, I now count the number of string beans, pieces of eggplants, miniature bitter gourd, bunches of leaves, etc. I will need for the week. Veggies wilt, you know. 

We are lucky that Jim's backyard okra plants give us around  6-8 pieces daily.  "Why, that's great", my neighbor replied. It is really great since oftentimes okra at the market are no longer tender.  This was when she told me that she makes veggie patty with moringa leaves, pumpkin and egg.  

I thought I'd try her idea two ways.  Hence the ukoy and the "fritong lumpia". 

I Made Dried Banana Blossoms

Do you use dried banana blossom?  I always do for adobo, braised beef, Pata Tim,  arroz caldo and all other congee.  

I often sauté banana heart in salt and vinegar with a little sugar and pepper; actually it's like pickled banana heart.  This is a great appetizer and my sister's favorite.  When she visits, I always serve this for any meal. 

But I have to remove a lot of the outer covering and only use the inner tender portion and end up throwing away the outer blossoms as shown below:

These are what I usually throw away.  

When we harvested two banana hearts last week, I thought I would not waste the outer blossoms.

I need to remove the plastic looking part in each blossom as well as the part looking like a match stick as shown 

Once this is done, the blossoms are blanched for 20 minutes in water with a tablespoon of salt.

Once drained, I made a mixture of equal parts of soy and sugar 

I soaked the blossoms in a soy and sugar mixture overnight.  

I drained again and sun dried. 

 I placed these in ziplock in the refrigerator and these will last for a long time for future use. 

I MADE MORINGA POWDER

                                  Fresh moringa leaves with their stems

I've been liquefying fresh moringa leaves with a banana for my evening shake.  However it is so much of a hassle to put a handful of leaves, liquify that with a banana.  Moreover, it has a slightly bitter aftertaste. 

I've been drinking matcha green tea with low fat milk for a long time now and I thought converting the moringa into powder would work as well.  So I thought of making the leaves into powder 

There are several suggested ways to pulverize but I chose a less complicated way, tweaking the procedure some. 

Leaves removed from the stems 

In a covered tray, I sun-dried the leaves for three days. 

Notice the difference from the fresh ones.  The dried ones  look toasted, and they crackle when moved about..

I used my coffee bean grinder to pulverize the dried leaves, 2-4 handful at a time.

This is how it looks after 20-25 pulse-grind 

I placed the powder in a sealed container. 

My shake recipe: two ways

In a cup of low fat liquid milk, I add a heaping teaspoon of the powder and shake well to incorporate the powder to the milk, yum! 

Or

I liquify 1 big lacatan banana and add one tablespoon of the powder and half a glass of water. Also yummy. 

I noticed that the shake has a slightly toasted taste sans the bitter taste of the fresh leaves.  I conclude the powder is better. 

I suggest you google the health benefits of  this superfood and I'm sure that you will be interested. 

CREATING A LIFESTYLE FOR MY GOLDEN YEARS

How long do you hope to live?  Do you want to live beyond a hundred?

This book says it is possible.  It says that statistics claim that the average life span of Americans today is 94, but scientific and medical research  show that it is possible to live up to age 120.  

I'm so happy that I attended this  interesting seminar yesterday at one of my favorite places, The Artists Gallery. 

I love to go there often to visit Cynthia, the owner, who became my good friend after I organized my sister's milestone birthday party last year. Cynthia turned her beautiful house into a gallery and it became an interesting event venue.  It is big enough to accommodate 140  guests but she has dividing doors to isolate an art class, give privacy to a family dinner or a business meeting, and even a ladies' tea party or a seminar like the one we had yesterday. 

Cynthia's sister, Fatima Bustos-Choy MD, now based in the US  unselfishly gave this free seminar for 30 people along with a very generous merienda. A delicious spread was set up at the dinning room.  There were salad greens, tasty noodles, dainty tea sandwiches, finger foods and various sinfully-delicious sugar-filled but irresitibly tempting desserts. 

In the above picture on the left is my friend, Nitz with Dr. Fatima between us. 

Nitz and I were greatly inspired by the insights shared by Dr. Fatima lifted from the book of a Korean bestselling author and one of the most renowned meditation teachers of our time: 

ILCHI LEE.   I am just starting to read this book and the 6-paged introduction alone already inspired me and got me all excited. 

I can easily relate with Ilchi Lee's book especially after reading another book of basically similar topic. 

The  100 Year Lifestyle book is by Dr. Eric Plasker, an internationally acclaimed wellness expert and a renowned chiropractic Doctor. 

My younger daughter who is into wellness, meditation and such and has been practicing yoga for years believe that many books has been written about the subject and they say basically the same things only in varying  styles.  I started reading  "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind"  by Deepak Chopra sometime ago but it is quite heavy for me to absorb easily so I'm taking it slowly.

I was telling myself that this seminar couldn't have been given at a better time than now.  Recently, we sold our 31-year-old convenience store.   I have been managing it while I was employed full time.  When I retired in 2005, I was glad I had the store to focus on and to exercise my management skills.  

For the past two months after parting with the store, I felt like I was hibernating in spite my attempt to keep myself busy fixing things around our home.   I'm also gardening along with Jim for a more productive edible backyard garden.  Most importantly, I've been soul searching for activities to make my life more fulfilling and purposeful.  

When our son FaceTime on weekends, he would ask what's keeping us busy.  Likewise I heard that my younger daughter is checking out from her older sister who lives in town about my current pre-occupation.  I guess our children are so used to seeing Jim and I always pre-occupied.  I know they want us to be happy.   Now I wonder, are they worried that we are already slowing down? 

At the seminar we were asked to look back to the first half of our  lives and to recall the challenges and struggles in the pursuit of our ambitions.  Ultimately it was said that the first part of life is mostly defined as the time spent in search for success, something people in general perceive as a prerequisite for social acceptance.  That's the reason it seemed so important during that period. 

What then shall we live for in the second half? 

What can we look forward to?  Shall we just sit back on our rocking chairs or in front of the TV and relax?  If we have the means, shall we keep on traveling in the hope that fulfillment maybe found somewhere away from home?   Shall we stop competing, just take it easy, go with the flow and let circumstances take over our lives?  

The book says, we need a plan, make an outline if we must, for the remaining years and decades.  It is also important to make up our minds how long we intend to live. 

It is a well-known fact that in this day and age people live longer than in their parents'  time.  This book says that in Japan where people are known to live the longest formulated a method by multiplying our current age by 0.7 to determine the age we actually feel physically and mentally.  I'm 73 now; if I multiply that by 0.7, I should be feeling and thinking like I'm only 51.  Interesting, right?  How do seniors feel about this?  To find out more about it, I think I have to check out how people really think and feel in their early fifties. 

Going back to the decision about how long we want to live,  I feel that this should be based on how we want to live, and what we want to live for.  I hope that my life plan will dawn on me after I finish the book.   Moreover, I need to line up goals that I still hope to accomplish; family milestones that I hope to be part of in the near and distant future; including other major considerations that I still couldn't put my finger on at this point. 

One thing is for sure though, regardless how long I intend to live, I want to look forward to a life of optimism, "in health and happiness, feeling that life is fun and rewarding".  

CUPCAKE MEATLOAF, MY FIRST TRY

I've been making meatloaf in forever using a loaf pan.  When I saw this idea on Facebook, I felt I've got to try it.  So I prepared it for our Friday dinner with my daughter and granddaughter following the suggested recipe and not my tried and tested meatloaf recipe. 

This is the meat mixture with egg, carrots, celery stalk, Parmesan,  bread crumbs and seasonings. 

I made big balls and dropped them on muffin pans lined with paper.  Popped them in the oven at 350 for 40 minutes. 

Baking doesn't complete the job though, this is not yet the finished product.  It should look like a real dressed -up cupcake. 

Here they are  with mash potatoes topping.  I'm not great in putting on icing that they're really not looking that great like a cupcake should be.

"What's for dinner, Nana?", my granddaughter asked.

"Cupcake meatloaf", I replied. 

"Interesting!"

Interesting but it was not quite popular.  I learned my granddaughter doesn't eat meatloaf, though she ate one.   Moreover, when my daughter cooks at home, she fries the slices like any meatloaf, homemade or otherwise.  But to be fair, they taste good as well and so not a flop afterall. 

Well, they're not really looking nice like all cupcakes do.   "Better luck next time", they all say, but there won't be a next time, promise!  Well not cupcake meatloaf anyway.  Im going back to my traditional meatloaf method and recipe. 

A FUN DAY AT THE SALCEDO COMMUNITY MARKET

Two weeks ago today, my sister from the US came for a visit.  Wanting to make her enjoy Filipino delicacies, food and wares, our son-in-law and older daughter brought us to the Salcedo Community Market.  This opens only on weekend mornings. 

Here we are at Salcedo Community Market

"I always like to go to markets and groceries", my sister told me.   I fully share her sentiment.  To me, they are like mines, you can never tell what they have in store.  

On the first stall we happened upon, my sister already bought puto and kutsinta to bring home.  We went around the stalls one after the other so as not miss anything.  

After passing several stores, we stopped to pose. 

Here is my daughter and  my granddaughter who couldn't  smile, I guess her month is full. 

                  Japanese pancakes

Pancake batter cooked on rounded steel molds; two pieces make a  sandwich where we can choose a filling.   I chose cream cheese, my sister wanted hazel nut spread and my granddaughter liked the choco chips. 

Mid-way around, our purchases added up and so are our bags became heavier. I got two containers of balaw-balaw (fermented rice with shrimps) it is Jim's favorite; suman sa lihya for merienda later and two packs of Lucban longanisa to bring home for breakfast 

Further along, I saw my sister grasping a roll of bills. When I raised an eyebrow in question she said:   "it's easier this way so I don't have to open my wallet every time I purchase.  Wow! She was in a buying mode 

There was roast corn in a cob, brushed with butter, it was my granddaughter's breakfast.  There's even grilled bangus (milkfish) with tomatoes and onions inside.  My sister bought one to bring home.  There was also lechon (Roast pig) served with sauce or a meal set with rice. 

I love this suckling pig roll, a piece of that crunchy goodness rolled in soft wrap with celery stick and hoisen sauce, it tasted like duck skin roll but more tasty. 

Grilled hotdogs, anyone?  My 4-year-old grandson would  love this. 

BBQ lovers will love this, especially the popular chicken inasal. 

Here are the all-time Pinoy favorites, ready to eat bopis, ginatang  ulam, kare kare, dinuguan, tapa, escargot, mussels, etc..  There's also bake Mac and lasagna. 

Oops! There are also plants and native crafts. Look at that Mexican hat on my sister. 

There were lots of Filipino delicacies in colorful containers and packages looking very attractive for balikbayans to bring back home. 

And for dessert, the "dirty ice cream" is one of the most delicious ice creams  I've ever tasted.

Finally after seeing almost everything , we bought our breakfast and found seats by the tables provided.  I didn't bring my water so I bought sago and gulaman  to wash down the Chinese lumpia and lechon I had.  

It was a pleasant experience that made us want to go back there.  I am truly amazed at the ingenuity of our folks to create delicious and interesting food and crafts.  

In my excitement, I all forgot to take more pictures.  Most of them were taken by my sister who wanted to show friends back home. 

OH NO! EVERYONE IS GOING TO HEAVEN SO SOON.

Our family doctor, Dr. Ric Pascasio left us so soon!  This is both a shock and a surprise, though not a pleasant one.  I thought all along that he'd outlive us, knowing him being so relaxed and simply taking life in stride. 

Whenever we visited him,  I often tell him to take good care of himself.  "Walang iwanan, Doc, ha?",  I recall saying that to him again the last time we visited.  I'm glad I brought him my homemade pudding  along with other snacks.  He just smiled.  Oftentimes he'd say not to blame him for taking care of us well that we may live beyond our 90's like his other patients. 

When Jim experienced a prolonged tummy issue at the turn of the millennium and the hospital seemed unable to pinpoint what's ailing him in spite several tests, my former boss urged us to see Dr. Ric Pascasio, who eventually became our family doctor. 

Immediately he assured Jim that he can help him, he stopped Jim from taking the eight medicines that the hospital prescribed and told him to take a pill of probiotics that stabilized the tummy and worked pretty much the same but more than what Yakult can do.  He didn't believe in altering the course of nature, instead he practiced bringing back the natural function of the body so it can heal itself.  

At the end of that first visit he promised Jim:

"I am your doctor and I will be responsible for your health, you can call me anytime day and night ".  True to his word, whenever we called, he would prescribe medicine on the phone. 

One time that I called  to consult about Jim's condition, he said, "I knew you'd call today, how are you?", I'm not surprised for he was gifted with keen intuition, so he can feel my vibes. 

 "Not so good doc, I'm having this sore throat, I feel like I'm going to get sick", I replied. 

"I thought so, I can hear it in your voice, you can take this capsule, three times a day". 

I'm sure that Jim and I are just among the thousands of people who felt physically, psychologically and emotionally relieved by this great Doctor.   He can see what's wrong through our eyes; thus there's no need to undergo the routine tests of X-ray, ultrasound or even MRI, unless you want to double-check. 

He always took time to share his anecdotes to relax his patients even when many were waiting for their turn outside his office.  He used to talk lengthily to his patients at odd hours in Australia, Japan, Canada and in the US, and that was before the advent of skype, FaceTime, viber  when overseas call is not cheap. 

He never ran out of stories, sometimes he would turn on his component and sing-a-long  "Hello, Dolly",  I believe it remained his favorite from his stint as a singer at Bayside, the famous nightclub in his prime.  He encourages everyone to dance and sway,  feel the rhythm and just get lost in the melody to keep the entire body in sync. 

You have to know this password:  "PPD" for "Pinaka-Poging Doctor" (the most handsome doctor) so the guards at the village gate will let you in.  All tricycle drivers in their village get free consultations.  When he prescribes medicine, he will give the most practical one and would refer patients for laboratory test at a clinic that charges reasonably.  Such is Dr. Ric Pascasio, a jolly fellow, compassionate, with simple taste but with exceptional talent to treat the sick.  He will always be fondly remembered. 

I say everybody is going to heaven and leaving us since just last week, another buddy of Jim also passed away , a health buff who runs marathons.  At this phase in our lives, we readily get news that a former colleague or a friend is seriously ill or have passed.  Sometimes it is depressing. 

The recent passing of Dr. Ric Pascasio, the shock we experienced when we heard the sudden passing of congressman Roilo Golez, Jim's former classmate and friend as well as Jim's buddy, Ed from Petron somehow made me all the more aware that life is short.  BTW, MY family is still mourning the passing of my sister-in-law  (wife of my eldest brother), we just marked her 40th day this week while we are still recovering from the loss of our compadre, the father-in-law of my older daughter who also passed a few months ago. 

Such is the order of nature, it is inevitable, only the timing that is not known to us.  That is the very reason I always tell myself to live in the moment; urging me more than ever to throw myself into it and live it to the fullest for as long as it lasts.  And there is always that hope that maybe it won't end so soon.