The Mishaps In The Christmas Kitchen

A rather late post, because I was in the island for the holiday. There, it's a struggle to connect to the internet. I couldn't walk around the house with  my phone. It has to be strategically placed near windows on strategic parts of the house to get a better signal. Every blog entry I wanted to post was "patiently" on hold, because I could only connect - with limits - from my phone. In short, I could only read the stuff here and of the other sites, but quite a frustration to post an entry.

Anyway, one of the things I look forward on Christmas season is the getting together and doing things together part. From putting up the Christmas decors to cooking in the kitchen, then of course the best part of all, eating together. Lol.

This year, I was not able to help put up the Christmas decors at home in the province because I was in the city. The apartment in the city is also home, but we do not decorate it like we do in the family home and the only thing that represents the season are two Santa Claus figurines standing near the TV monitor on the cabinet. On special holidays like Christmas and New Year, we always go home to be with our parents, if the circumstances (e.g. weather and proximity [well, if we're in the country]) allow us.

Except for my brother who stayed in Cebu City because he had to work on Christmas day, all of us at home were doing our part in the kitchen the day before Christmas (that is when the magic in the kitchen happens). When you put people in a small area, on a fine busy day, with lots of things to do, temper could flare up. However, we have rule on times like this. To just “chill”, whatever happens. It is actually a rule initiated to keep my mother’s short temper under control (everyone who's aging, no matter how gracefully, are ultra sensitive to things, so...). As we were preparing the food for the Christmas feast, the rule came in handy to rein emotions (lol) when the following mishaps took place in the kitchen:

1.)    I managed to break the fiberglass chopping board while I cut the chicken bone with the force I exerted. The huge knife was somewhat heavy and the chicken bone was a little willful and did not want to be severed (lol). The chopping board were shattered into hundred shards, but thankfully they were not as fine and as scattered like the ordinary glass do when it breaks. However, I got so paranoid of the sting in my right eye after I broke it that I rushed upstairs to check in the mirror for any shard poking my eyeball. While climbing the staircase I was thinking, “If a broken glass flew in my eye, surely, it’s already bleeding by now, right?” That usually happens in movies, you know. You cannot fault me for thinking that. Lol.

2.)    I got too excited to cut the chicken parts that I also did the other chicken that was supposed to be grilled in the turbo broiler. There were two whole chickens. My sister, Moonyeen, cut the breast of the first one to be poached for the chicken macaroni salad and I cut the rest of the parts of the first one (thinking we will have breaded chickens) and did the other chicken. My mom was aghast with what I did. Well, she did not say in advance what the chickens were for! 

3.) Uh, the chicken macaroni salad...the pasta sort of looked inferior from too much mixing. The ingredients were put on installment instead of putting it one time, thus the pasta were torn by the grinding of the ladles. 

4.)    My sister, Kim, forgot to peel the skin of the peanuts before crushing them with mortar and pestle. The peanuts were used as garnish for my mom’s recipe, the Fresh Lumpia, to be served for the priests’ (who officiated the Christmas eve’s) dinner. I am not sure if the priests, and whoever ate the lumpias, noticed the unwanted peanut skin. I swear we tried straining it to save my sister’s skin (pun intended!) – a futile effort. My mom’s face crumpled, when my sister confessed her crime with a guilty grin. The crushed peanuts (let us not forget the skin) became one of those do-with-what-becomes-of-what-you-have stuffs.

5.) Because my mom hadn't made Fresh Lumpia for a long time and she's one cook who estimates measurement, she kind of messed up the wrapper and wasted a portion of the mixture from doing trial-and-error. I also have to blame the pan she used, it did not have a flat bottom. But, you make do of what you have, right?

6.)    My sister, Rikka, prematurely took the baked cake out from the oven. Wondering why it did not come out from the pan as she tried to turn it over the baking sheet, she poked the center with a knife and found it runny and uncooked. Like a lightning bolt, she quickly returned the cake in the oven before my mom could return to the kitchen. Our oven has no timer, so we keep track of the baking time and peek the look of whatever is baking through the glass door of the oven. Rikka was mesmerized with the beautiful brown cake with the top rising that she forgot something: looks can be deceiving!

7.)    My father flooded the tiled kitchen counter with oil. He accidentally swung his hand at the jar that contained the oil.

8.)    Because Rikka was so into frosting the cake ( a spur-of-the-moment thing supported by my other siblings and I because we like the fancy sound of it), but we had no whipping cream at home, so she whipped two tetra packs of frozen all purpose cream with lots of icing sugar. The mixture never hardened even until we set up the table for the midnight feast. BUT, as ingenious as always, she and Moonyeen thought of ways to have the Christmas color we wanted with the help of icing sugar and jelly candies (see the above picture!) What happened to the cream mixture? It hardened on time for Christmas day, looked and tasted like ice cream, that the slices of chiffon cake were topped off with it! But with the icing sugar in the mixture...too sweet for me. 

No flying pans. No angry words. Although we encountered some concerns in the kitchen, they did not ruin our Christmas. On the other hand, they made the Christmas 2015 more unforgettable, because we could look back at it with amusement. Also, we're grown-ups, but doing stuff in the kitchen on Christmas eve, we're all like kids again, bursting with excitement and prone to committing mistakes (lol). So, nope, the mishaps did not sound bad, they added color to the holiday, and they become part of the stories that will be served on the table for the years to come. 

All in all, though incomplete without my brother, it was a merry Christmas indeed! AND, I wish you had a lovely holiday from your side of the world. :)

Cebu City Christmas 2015: A Photo Blog Part 1

It's been a while, the second long hiatus for the year. Lol.

I promised to update photos for this season because the country which celebrates a loooong Christmas deserves to be highlighted and I'm hoping to make up for it.

But the photos I was supposed to take did not materialize, because: 1) I'm pressed for time, 2) due to some circumstances beyond my control, and 3) it's rainy season and some streets got flooded. 

Cebu City has an annual celebration every third Sunday of January in honor of Snr. Sto. Niño, the Sinulog Festival. So, the Christmas decorations in the city, lights and all, remain where they are until the end of January. The coming 2016 is extra special. The Catholic Church will hold the International Eucharistic Congress in the city. It will be very crowded with the influx of delegates for the congress, domestic and international tourists who will join the revelry, participants of the Grand Sinulog Parade, and devotees of the Patron Saint.

Why was I telling all that? Well, if you have the desire to come to Cebu City for the festival, you will still spot the scenes I have captured in my camera. But, you can probably do more justice with your camera than I did with mine.

So, here are some photos. More that I had neglected to capture, I'll do so after the holidays. Better late than sorry. Lol.


The picture says it all!

It's near the Crown Regency. Check this entry.

Every year, the same sponsor (a family of French descent that owns a jewelry shop, pawnshop, furniture and food company, etc.) puts up the Christmas tree. The design varies, though. Something to look forward to every year. The tree is set up inside the Fuente Osmeña Circle.

There is a lot going on here that my lens was not able to capture. A fountain with the flowing water. A variety show on the stage inside the circle. Food stalls. Lots of peeps just chillaxing and taking in the view and enjoying the cold weather.  Christmas lights hanging on trees. More lights on the iron fence of the circle.

The stretch of Osmeña Boulevard/Jones Avenue ('tis the old name, but people still use it).

The Cebu Provincial Capitol.

The stretch of Osmeña Boulevard/Jones Avenue ('tis the old name, but people still use it).

The Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral.

And the church I frequently go to, the oldest in the city. It has a beautiful interior with antique religious relics and chandeliers. At the moment, masses are held in the pilgrimage center. Although people are allowed to go inside, it is still not safe with the church's ongoing renovation after it was damaged by the 2013 killer earthquake (the one that also hit Bohol).

Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño.

Pasko is Christmas in English.

And, lastly. Two huge malls recently opened, SM City Seaside (which said to be the 4th largest in the world and I have yet to visit) and Robinson's Galleria Cebu, which part of the interior is shown below.

Musings Re Facebook Tint

This period has heard a call to be true to one's self. There is an outcry to SPEAK. We are encourage to speak our truth, to voice out our opinion, to push our ideologies. Thus, anywhere in the internet we can read anything and everything, from the most important to the very trivial. Maybe it's good because it allows us to tell our stories and be a part of something and aid change.

However, in that wake, we are in haste to belong. Maybe on some cases we resonate to the cause (whatever that may be) and, the idea in which it has been founded echoes our sentiment. That's good because we have companies to rally with. Strength in numbers, shared ethos and zealousness - the very same factors that usher the movement of extremists - are fundamental requirements that drive a revolution.

In this era where everything seems seamlessly connected and the line of true identity that separates one from the rest is blurred, how do we sift the revolutionists from the junkies who just choose to belong "just because". Should we identify ourselves to what's popular, what's trending, what's common...because, you know, status quo and oh, "I'm doing it because everybody's doing it!". Blah. I sometimes wonder which is more tragic, being well-informed or being blissfully ignorant, being highly sensitive or being indifferent. If there's no absolute truth, there is no such thing then as rightful indignation?

I would leave the musings as they are rather than explain in long narrative my stance on the (no) Facebook tinted profile picture (in my opinion it promoted divisiveness), which the musings alluded to. Restrain is acutely painful when you have a lot to say. But sometimes, being unobtrusive is more empowering than being very opinionated. 

For Paris, For Beirut, For Baghdad, For Humanity

For the cities that are covered in dark terror right now, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

For the families and friends of the innocent victims, I pray for peace and strength.

To the citizens of Iraq, Lebanon, France, the rest of the world who value peace and security are with you against terrorism.

I don't know what to say. How do you comfort the people who are suffering? Maybe for someone who can imagine the horror, being empathetic will quite do? So despicable of terrorists to feed on other people's fear and anguish. What makes it especially disturbing to me is that Christmas is coming and the families and friends of the innocent victims are going to spend the holiday mourning for the loved ones they lost. It is painful to lose someone you know is dying, but suddenly losing someone from a contemptible act  is beyond forgivable. I pray they will heal in time.

This world is hurting and more divided than ever. We are living with the hell we create.