Cooking Made Easy and Enjoyable with Del Monte Kitchenomics

The kitchen is my kingdom.  I love to cook, there’s no doubt about it.  I did not go to a culinary school, but we grew up watching cooking shows like Del Monte Kitchenomics on TV.  Now on its 30^th year of sharing easy-to-prepare, budget-friendly, and family-approved recipes, Del Monte Kitchenomics launches another season of its cooking show.  This season brings to your TV screens the new kitchen duo of actress Carla Abellana and multi-awarded pastry chef Jackie Ang-Po.  This tandem will give you exciting new recipes from the Del Monte test kitchens.  The show, which premieres on February 19, 2014, will also feature the Most Requested Recipes of Del Monte Kitchenomics Club members.

My pantry is never without products from Del Monte – from our bottle of tomato catsup to our fruit juices and sauces.  It’s hard to pick a favorite as every single product adds its distinct flavor to the food that we eat.  Moms like me can learn new ways of using these different products from the Del Monte Kitchenomics cooking show.  You can expect that your own kitchen dilemmas as a home cook will be banished with the recipes and tips from Carla and Chef Jackie. 

Del Monte held a Blogger’s Conference on the eve of the show’s premiere episode.  I attended the Conference for my sister’s blog totteringmama.com.  I got to interact with fellow bloggers as well as hear all about this exciting new cooking show from the hosts and Del Monte executives themselves.  Del Monte’s senior product manager Susie Aquino was there to introduce the new season and to share with us what this cooking show has to offer.  The Question and Answer session that followed afterwards was short and sweet, with the panelists addressing the questions with candor and simplicity. 

There’s nothing complicated about cooking with Del Monte Kitchenomics – no special skills required, no special equipment or utensils necessary.  The recipes have been tested and rated to ensure that they can be prepared by the ordinary cook in any kitchen.  One of the great things about Kitchenomics recipes is the costing.  The test kitchen team conducts a pricing research on the ingredients used for each recipe to provide a close-enough estimate of the total cost to prepare the meal.  This is ideal for budget-conscious moms as they can conveniently work on their budget and meal plans.    

Another great thing about Kitchenomics recipes is the fact that they are healthy.  Del Monte products contain nutrients, vitamins, and minerals to ensure that your family gets the nourishment that they need.  Since the recipes are also easy to prepare, you don’t have to toil for hours in the kitchen to serve delicious healthy meals that your family will love.  This makes mealtimes more enjoyable and memorable for the entire family.  Which reminds me, it’s time to start dinner preparations.  I just have to try that Del Monte Red Sinigang that everybody at the Conference was talking about.  It’s a good thing I always have a couple of pouches of Del Monte Tomato Sauce in my pantry.

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Catch the new season of the Del Monte Kitchenomics cooking show with Chef Jackie Ang-Po and Carla Abellana on GMA Channel 7 every Wednesday and Saturday (before Eat Bulaga) and every Sunday (before Sunday All Stars).  Happy Cooking!

In the Bag: Cooking with Goodies from a Cooking Event Launch

Last week was a pleasant change from our usual schedule.  Most of our days are spent at home or within our neighborhood – my daughter calls our subdivision “Subdivision ni Kuya” in reference to the confines of the Big Brother House.  We were coaxed by my sister to join them in the Moulinex You Cook 3 video recipe challenge launch at the SM Prestige Lounge.  Our normal schedule was pleasantly disrupted by a trip to the mall.  We were a few minutes late on the invite time, but we still made it to the event with some time to spare to register, fool around at the photo booth, and settle down in our seats before the emcee opened the launch.  

It was a cozy gathering of writers, bloggers, and members of the mall’s exclusive club.  We listened as the microphone changed hands from the emcee, to the Moulinex and Krups brand marketing manager, to last year’s You Cook 2 winner, and to this year’s panel of judges.  It’s not a whole lot to take in.  This year’s competition is open to ladies aged 18-40 who have the passion for cooking and the personality to shine in front of the camera.  Unlike last year’s competition, only amateur cooks (cook hobbyists as the organizers termed it) are eligible to join You Cook 3.  More information about this cooking video cum cook off challenge is available at www.moulinex-youcook.com.

As the contest mechanics were being rolled out, my sister kept nudging me and was obviously excited about the prospect of preparing one of our signature dishes for a You Cook 3 video entry.  I have always been camera shy, but I am definitely confident in front of any cooking appliance.  We definitely have a lot of signature dishes in the family.  My mom raised us on “no-name” dishes that she put together with healthy ingredients sans any cookbooks.  We learned about her dishes simply by actual cooking and tasting.  I now have my own family, and with my husband’s dietary restrictions, I have also learned to get creative with “My Signature Dish” recipes.

Checking out my goodie bag from the event, I decided to cook my Chicken Parmigiana with Shitake Marinara as a post-birthday treat for my husband.  The Clara Ole tomato sauce and pasta sauce were used for my homemade marinara sauce.  This is a dish that is simple enough for my 11-year old to prepare on her own – she loves taking charge of the breading station.  It just takes a few minutes to put everything together once the marinara sauce is done.  Reducing the sauce and letting the flavors mingle for a while is the longest part of the cooking process.  Served over spaghetti noodles or penne noodles, this is a complete dish that is both hearty and healthy at the same time.  

I am not a professional cook, but I do cook with love and passion.  When my daughter’s classmates give her compliments and ask about food from our kitchen, I always tell her that there is only one secret – the food that comes from our kitchen are always prepared with unlimited amounts of love.

Know more about the Moulinex You Cook 3 Video Recipe Challenge at at www.moulinex-youcook.com or like the Moulinex Facebook page www.facebook.com/MoulinexPH  for more updates.

The First Heartache

No, it’s not the romantic kind of heartache -- I don’t think I am ready yet for my little girl to have a love life.  This one has to do with her first love, Taekwondo.  For the first time in two years and 9 tournaments, she finished without placing in her category, but with a load of lessons in life nonetheless.

It was heart-wrenching for me to see her teary eyed as she took off her gear after losing a really close fight.  It was the first time I saw that look of pain in her eyes and I knew she was fighting so hard to keep the pain inside her from showing.  I actually wanted to cry at the courageous front she displayed.  We gave her bear hugs and praised her for a well-fought match.  She ran off to watch the other games with her friends, but kept on coming back for money to sample the different kinds of food in the cafeteria – she probably had about four cups of the local flavored shaved ice treat called scramble.  The worrier in me can’t help but feel that there is something amiss despite her assurances that she is okay.

We finally got our alone time after school the next day and I took the opportunity to check how she felt about what happened.  It bothered me to think that she might be hiding her feelings.  Young as she is, I had to draw out her feelings and make sure that she processes them well.  After a few minutes of sharing, she admitted that although she knew it was just a game, she felt some kind of “pain” deep inside that she could not explain.  She said she felt like she disappointed her parents, her coaches, and everyone else who expected her to win.  We cannot, I told her, allow this feeling to douse her spirits.  We definitely are far from disappointed at her and definitely do not love her any less. 

At 10 years old, this is just the first of several other heartaches she will be experiencing in life.  Teaching her how to deal with failure and how to use her failure to improve herself is a lesson that she has to learn this early in life.  Despite her young age, coddling her and blaming others for her failure is not the way to ease her heartache.  Acknowledging what happened and seeing it for what it really is rather than waxing it over would actually allow her to move forward with valuable lessons in tow.  Things do not always go as you wish.  There are things that are not within your control.  You simply have to learn how to deal with these variables to tip the odds more to your favor the next time.  And if you should fail again, get up, learn from it, and try again.  

It seems that my daughter’s spirits are still intact – I am happy that she is taking this heartache in stride.  “I’m okay, mom.  I know that I did my best and I was there not only for myself but for my team,” she said.  Her indomitable spirit persists.  As for us parents, we shall continue to love, nurture, and prepare her as best we could so that she can enjoy life knowing how to deal with failures and celebrate successes.   

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” Colin Powell

TIP BOX:  Helping Kids Deal with Failure

1.       Do not be judgmental.  Continue to give support despite their failure.  A big hug and words of encouragement would keep them from falling deeper into feelings of defeat.  As parents, we should be able to reinforce feelings of being loved and to preserve our children’s self-esteem through failures.

2.  Give them space.  Especially for ‘tweens and older kids, hovering might not be a good idea and might only cause them to shut themselves off from you.  Give them time to settle and talk about what happened when they are ready to express their feelings.

3.       Help them sort through their emotions. It might be as simple as falling off a bike or struggling to finish an 8-piece puzzle, but such failures could bring a wave of emotions that could prove to be overwhelming for kids.  Parental involvement in these failures is essential in helping kids sort through these emotions, identify what these emotions are, and learn how to deal with these emotions.

4.       Foster perseverance. Help your child get up and try again.   You and your child can both cull lessons from what happened and carefully plan out what improvements need to be done in order to succeed the next time around.  Talk about his strengths and weaknesses and talk about how he can turn out a better performance.

5.       Be a good example.  Younger kids take their cues from their parents.  The way you deal with failure and disappointment would influence the way your kids react to their own failures. Do not be the first one to cry foul over and react adversely toward your child’s failure.  Show that failure is not as important as the lessons you learn from it.   

“A man may fall many times, but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.”  Elmer G. Letterman

Parents And Children: Talking Life With My Tween

It was another melodramatic episode that we had the other night with my husband and my 9-year old daughter both wrangling with their emotions over an activity my daughter wanted to do but my husband would not allow her to – now, there’s nothing really unusual about that as I am sure a lot of parents struggle with the same issues.  As I tried to calm our daughter and talk through her tears to try to make her understand, I found myself talking to her in the very same words our parents used some two decades ago when I myself was a teenager.  Even as she kept on saying “it’s different now, Mom” when we started our talk, I pressed on until the tears ebbed and we came to a mutual understanding.

Her tears, according to her, are not because she’s mad but because she just feels that she needs to let out her disappointment about not being able to do something that she really wanted to do.  After hearing her out, it’s time for her to hear me out.  It was a long talk that we had – some two hours, maybe more, I think.  Some of the things we talked about:

1.      The birdling analogy:  the more a birdling struggles to get free from your grasp, the tighter you grasp it.  In the same way, we hold on to our children not to stifle them and curtail their freedom but because their wings are not just ready yet for them to fly off.  Children should allow their parents to nurture them and prepare them for independence.  When their wings are strong enough, they can flutter away into infinite skies without much difficulty and with enough sense to know the path home anytime they need comfort and solace.  Cooperating with your parents and showing that you understand what they are teaching you will ease that grasp a bit at a time and earn you your freedom sooner than when you resist. 

2.      We want you to enjoy life.  Not being allowed to do some things today, does not mean that we do not want you to enjoy life.  Our decisions are definitely not intended to make you feel bad.   There is a time and place for everything.  You just have to continue growing and learning as you should until such time when you are ready to do all the things you want to do – at which point, you can fully enjoy your life with both you and your parents confident enough that your decisions are borne out of careful consideration and sound judgement rather than of mere emotional outburst. 

3.      There are a lot of disappointments in life.  Just as you are now disappointed, there are a lot more disappointments that will come in your life.  What will determine what happens after is the way you react to these disappointments.  You cannot just wallow in tears and feel bad, harboring ill feelings and grudges.  You have to be willing and able to shrug it off, knowing that you have a lot better things going in your life.  Keeping these little bits of negative feelings will take up too much space in your mind and in your heart – space that would be better off storing happy thoughts and positive energies.  Focus more on the things you can do to push yourself to become a better person every chance you get.

4.      We are not perfect.  Do not think that we are expecting you to be perfect as well.  Our goal is to work together to prepare you as best we could for whatever cards life might deal you.  Daddy and Mommy also make mistakes.  You are part of the team – all three of us should cooperate to work towards improving ourselves and the life we live.  In case any one of us makes a mistake, we have our family to turn to.  No, your parents will not pick up the pieces for you but, they will be there every step of the way to see that you do get right back on track.

I am not entirely sure if it’s too early for us to be talking to her about the complexities of life, after all, life should be simple enough for children to enjoy.  We ended with yet another one of our parents’ constant reminder that:  we may not understand things just yet but if we keep an open mind and remember the things they are telling us, time will come when we will understand them and find them meaningful in our lives.  My daughter seemed to have understood as she played an active role in our talk, injecting her own simple interpretations of the things I am imparting to her.  And so, at 3 am, the tears were gone, we were hugging and chuckling, she said:  “Thank you, Mom.  I’m better now.”

P.S.  With puberty coming around the corner, I expect that we will be having more of these talks.  I do hope that she continues to approach our conversations with the same open eyes, mind, and heart.  It is our belief that this collaborative approach to building our family is the best way to prepare her for the future.  Oh Dear God, grant us the same discerning minds and nurturing hearts that you blessed our parents with to be able to steer our daughter through the challenges that make this life a truly exciting journey.  

Adobo (mid-) Nights

My 9-year old daughter woke up past midnight last night and declared that she was hungry.  She did not get to have her dinner because she fell asleep before nightfall and so I understood her gastric rumblings.  Off to the kitchen I went and whipped up a bowlful of adobo rice from the “take-two” batch I saved.  In a matter of minutes, the whole bowl was wiped clean as if a kitty licked it and my daughter sat contentedly by my side with a satisfied grin on her face.  You wonder how such a simple treat as adobo rice could bring such feelings contentment and satisfaction – not only for her but for me as well.  It was well worth having to bring out the pots and dishes even as I am about to knock off for the day and then not being able to sleep at all because it was too close to waking up time already.

Cooking for my family is such a privilege.  I’d like to think that all the love and care I put in every dish I prepare makes even the simplest of dishes truly special.  These special ingredients are what make my adobo rice better tasting than any other resto offerings anywhere.  The best thing about it, aside from not having to get dressed and go for a drive to get it, is that it is healthy.  It does not contain any of the unhealthy add-ons that resto cooks put in for an extra kick of flavor -- definitely none of those ingredients that cause your bodily functions to go haywire.

Healthy eating is something that we have tried to put to practice early on in our married life.  It is not easy to eat healthy when you lead a busy life – or so I thought.  During the years when I was still working, eating out was norm so that all the energy we have left could be spent playing and taking care of our baby when we got home.  And, while I prepared healthy stuff for my baby to eat like boiled and osterized meat and veggies and hand mashed pears or potatoes, my husband and I were eating restaurant food most of the time.  We ate really tasty food but we had no idea that instead of nourishing our body, we were harming it.  My daughter continued to eat healthy while we continued to eat the way we did for a couple of years until our bodies finally caught on and said “enough!”

In the past 10 years, my husband was diagnosed with hypertension and chronic kidney disease and I with thyroidism and gall bladder stones.  I had a laparoscopic cholecystectomy a couple of years back and my husband is continuously being treated to maintain his kidney function.  There is nothing else to point to other than genetics and poor diet as causes for these ailments.    Now, I understand why my mom tried really hard to feed us healthy food while we were growing up.  I remember how, even when we were already out of school and earning our own money, she would often reprimand us when we bought soda and chips for our “stash.”  Now a mother myself, I understand that I am not depriving my family of “enjoying” these unhealthy food when I limit them in our diet.  By striving to eat healthy, we are actually increasing our chances at longevity.  And so, while my daughter and I still go for occasional burger dates, we now take a more conscious effort to make sure that we are eating healthy food most of the time.  That basically means low fat, low sodium, and balanced amounts of carbohydrates and proteins.  It is with passion too that we invite our family and friends to join us in our campaign towards a healthier lifestyle.  Here’s to striving to live healthier and longer lives!  Adobo rice, anyone?  

Some tips for healthy eating:

Pasta Aglio Olio
(spaghetti with loads of garlic, basil,
olive oil, and a dash of chilli pepper flakes)

1.  Stay away from fatty, greasy, salty food – did you know that the regular fastfood burger patty contains about a thousand milligrams of sodium?  That’s already about half of the maximum sodium requirement on a normal diet.  Add all the grease both from the meat and from the cooking oil in the griddle and you have got a tasty treat that could clog your arteries and cause a coronary.  Home-cooked meals let you control the amount of fat and sodium in your diet.  If you can help it, skip that fastfood meal and take an hour to whip up a healthy meal for you and your family.  Oh, and keep the fish sauce and salt shaker off the dinner table please.

2.  Use herbs and spices – instead of using salt and other condiments, try using herbs and spices.  Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme are more than just herbs of song.  They can add a subtle layer of flavor to the food that you prepare.  Herb and spice rubbed chicken fillets pan-roasted with root vegetables is a much more palatable and healthier choice than deep-fried chicken coated in salty batter dripping in oil.

Fish Fillet in Lemon Caper Sauce

3.  Capitalize on natural flavors – you will be surprised at how the natural flavors of your food can be enough to make your dishes tasty without adding spoonfuls of salt and condiments.  Try cooking fish steaks on top of a bed of caramelized onions and bell peppers with a little canola or olive oil on a non-stick pan, add a dash of pepper and you have a quick heart-friendly tasty dish perfect for dinner.  A sprinkling of fresh lemon juice is also a great flavor enhancer both for chicken and fish dishes.

4.  Limit your intake of red meat – pork and beef are harder for the body to metabolize.  You might not notice it but there are layers of fat in between the grains of meat – notice that your meat shrinks and your pan fills up with oil when you fry your meat.  If you must have your meat, go for less fatty cuts, slivered and stir-fried with ample amounts of veggies.  Tossing together sukiyaki cut beef with snow peas, julienned carrots and cucumbers, broccoli florettes, and shitake mushrooms with oyster sauce only takes a few minutes to prepare.

Italianni's Herb Roasted Chicken
with garlic veggies and mashed potatoes

5.  Read the labels – you can get loads of information about the food that you buy from your grocery store by reading the labels.  Pay particular attention to the fat and sodium contents.  Also, look at the list of ingredients.  If it contains a long list of ingredients that sound more like a list of compounds from your chemistry book, put it back on the shelf and look for healthier options.  You can also try to look for healthier options in restaurant menus.  Going for grilled or roasted options is a good way to go.  We usually request the kitchen to hold off the salt when we go to restaurants that prepare food as ordered.  

The Trade-Off

I cook, I clean, I pick up after my husband and daughter, I drive my daughter to her after-school activities, I tutor my daughter, I write, I do so many other things.  No, I do not have an office with a view.  No, I do not have piles of Manila folders on my desk with papers waiting for my signature.  No, I do not scuttle from one long meeting to another.  Down plunges my “wow” factor meter as most people feign interest and ask with seeming embarrassment why I have not continued on to climb the corporate ladder.  I chose to devote my time and effort to my family.  It’s as simple as that.  Besides, what could be more important than family?

It was about six years ago when I made the decision to leave a promising marketing career in a multinational financial institution.  It was a difficult decision to make – but it was a decision that I knew was coming anytime soon after my daughter was born.  I was a workaholic.  I still am.  And, I think I always will be.  I always have to have my plate full.  Otherwise, I start feeling restless.  Those who know me would be nodding incessantly at this point.  It’s not healthy but, I guess I do feed off stress and activity.  So, although I have ceased to churn out business reports, pencil-push figures for the annual budget, and mark-off tasks in Gantt charts, no, I am never without anything to keep me busy.

To those who think being a full-time mom is a walk in the park, you have no idea what you are talking about.  I remember one time as I was driving home with my daughter, we were practicing for her “big school” interview.  I asked her the basic questions:  What’s your dad’s name?, What’s your mom’s name?, What do you want to be when you grow up?, etc., etc..  When I asked her “What does your mom do?”  She quickly quipped, “Oh, she drives for me, she cooks my food, she takes care of me, and then she goes to work.”  Translated, being a full-time mom means having a whole lot of tasks in your Gantt chart, all marked out without end.  Being a full-time mom is the toughest job in the entire world. But, it is also the most rewarding in so many facets. Those who take the "career" as seriously as we do would understand. Only those who do not give a care as to how their children and families turn out can make derogatory comments or scoff at it.

It would be hypocritical of me to say that I do not get affected by the implied association of  being “just” a full-time mom to being too lazy to hold a full-time job, to not being bright or capable enough to be considered for long-term employment, or to being wasteful of God-given skills and talents.  There are times when I do feel the slump.  Most of the time, a great big bear hug from my husband and daughter or a phone call from my sisters would bring me back out from my mental flagellation.  Come to think of it, I bet there are a lot of moms out there who wish they had more time to spend with their families instead of being stuck working for big bosses in the steely corporate jungle.  They work their butts off like there is no tomorrow in hopes of eventually earning fatter paychecks to bring home to their families.   

As devoted parents, our efforts should be focused on making sure that we provide our children with all the tools they need in order to be the best that they can be. These tools, if I may stress, are not limited to material things. In fact, the most important tools that can never be taken from them are those that are non-material. Our success will be judged not by spectators on the side-lines today but by our children later on in their lives when they weather life's challenges and come out with their persons intact, all because they were brought up properly.  Our performance appraisal as career moms will be done much, much later.  There is no raise that comes with a raving appraisal, nor is there a promotion in store.  But, I bet the feeling of contentment and pride that comes from a job well done as a career mom has no equal. 

I chose to forego the regular paycheck and the chance to be the top man in the corporate hierarchy in exchange for the financial juggling I have had to deal with as I make an effort to add to the family coffer.  Yes, I still manage to generate some income even outside employment. Aside from being a full-time career mom, I am also a freelance writer and an insurance and financial services professional.  Money does not come regularly but sometimes we do have a little more to spend for a special mommy and daughter day out – a whole afternoon at the mall checking out stores that daddy does not have the tolerance to endure, food-tripping on frozen yogurt, soft tacos and nachos, a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, and just clowning around while people-watching.       

No, I am not employed.  Yes, my family is my career.  Do I regret making the choice?  No, not at all.  Being a career mom is not glamorous or prestigious for most – not at the very least since you have to get down and dirty most of the time.  I do miss dressing up and being made-up all the time.  But, nothing beats the enjoyment of playing dress up with my daughter and fooling around with face paint.  I do miss having money at the end of the month to spend for doodads  --  but then again, sometimes there’s not much left for anything else other than the daily grande-sized after-lunch gourmet coffee, the sit-down dinners almost every night, and the Friday nights hang-out with the gang.  I definitely feel more contented being around for my family even if it is a 24-hour job with overtime.  I would not trade being a career mom back for any other career. 

Here are some of the trade-offs I have had to make by choosing to be a career mom:    

1.      Waking up at 5am to get dressed and ready for the office  >>  Waking up at 5am to help my daughter get ready for school and my husband for the office – after they’re out of the house, I get to spend a few minutes of alone time before I go and deal with the day’s schedule

2.      Enduring the 2-hour traffic to work  >>  Getting out of the house after the rush-hour traffic has eased

3.      Cracking my brains for projects that will benefit the company  >>  Cracking my brains for projects that will enhance our family life

4.      Restaurant dinners after late nights at the office  >>  Whipping up home-cooked dinner every night with my 9-year old daughter as my assistant chef 

5.      Friday booze night with office friends  >>  Mall dates with my daughter and cuddling in bed with hubby and daughter during sleep-in weekends

6.      Phoning care instructions to a relative when my daughter or husband is sick  >>  Dispensing tender loving care myself whether any one of them is ill or not

7.      Fussing over how to manage my task list to attend to important family matters while important projects are underway  >>  Being able to shove everything else aside temporarily to attend to whatever needs to be attended to for my family

8.      Hearing about my daughter’s day from someone else when I get home – sometimes the day after  >>  Being right smack in my daughter’s life and hearing about her day’s highlights first-hand

9.      Sleeping in the car on the drive home with my husband  >>  Sleeping in my husband’s arms after the day’s chores have been wrapped up

10.  A pat in the back from the bosses for a job well done  >>  A daily dose of a hug, a kiss, and “Mom!  You’re the best Mom ever!”

One Lazy Saturday Afternoon

It's the start of summer -- not officially though for my daughter since her schoolyear doesn't end til tuesday. Days are warmer and longer. It's a lazy saturday afternoon... I've already spent half the day surfing (sadly, I'm not referring to the waves but the net )... No lunch for me yet, I do not deserve it since I have not had any physical activity since breakfast. That's fine by me. I finally have some time to listen to myself. And so this lazy Saturday afternoon goes...

Summers are always lazy times. When my sisters -- I have 3 and no brothers -- and I were in grade school, summers are usually spent at home with mostly indoor activities interspersed with outdoor play -- only in the backyard or at most within the gates of the subdivision where we used to live. My mom would teach us simple Spanish sentences like Como se llama? and Cuantos hermanos tiene?. She'd make cut-outs of different shapes in different sizes from colored paper and we'll have an art day. We'd invite other children from the neighborhood to attend our "summer school" at home capped by a merienda of pastries from our neighborhood bakery and a glass of orange juice. Those were really fun times.

Summers during our high school were also fun. We were active in our neighborhood's Youth Club. We'd organize sportsfests, religious activities and children's activities. There was one summer that we had a sportsfest. We had the works -- uniforms, opening and closing ceremonies, trophies and medals, some teams even had sponsors. I'm proud to say that despite the "prissy" image that I had during that time, I actually got several medals. I ran the 5-meter dash and finished at 2nd place, our women's basketball team got 3rd place. I also got a medal for the table tennis women's singles -- I only learned how to play table tennis that summer and only for the tournament.

Another unforgettable summer activity that we did was the "Pabasa" which is a Holy Week tradition wherein a group of people would read the story of Jesus' sacrifice in a singsong manner non-stop for several days. In our neighborhood, it was done in the meeting hall. The main section of the hall was where the people gathered while a small portion to the side was appointed as the kitchen. This is where glasses of the local ginger ale, "salabat," which supposedly makes the drinker's voice sound better are served. It is also from this kitchen that I've tasted one of the best vegetable soups in my life. To this date, I have not tasted a vegetable soup that equals the one prepared by Mang Pabling (God bless his soul) every summer.

As we grew older, our summers became more like the rest of the year. In college, I took advance units during the summer to lighten my regular load. When I started working, the workload did not allow me to take summer breaks -- no, no, no the workload did not even allow me to take an hour's break. There were times when I even had to work through the Holy Week. Oh but we all know that there really is no difference whether it's summer or christmas for the working man -- each day just rolls by and turns into another day. We did have company outings -- for two summers out of the seven years I worked in one company. Those were fun too. In both cases, we went to the beach. I love the beach.

If we had the time and money, I'd take my family to the beach every summer. It would be fun to spend lazy afternoons lounging around in a veranda looking out into the sea. It would be fun to take a dip and play in the waves just as the sun is preparing to set. I can just imagine how much my daughter will enjoy building a magical sandcastle while her dad and I sit back on beach chairs under a vibrantly colored beach umbrella. Early evening strolls on the beach would be oh so romatic after a light dinner with fine wine and soft music. Wait, wait, wait... where did my daughter go? Oh well, I guess taking her strolling along with us wouldn't hurt a bit. It would be a tad less romantic, though. Sleep would be restful in a bedroom that opens up to a veranda, letting the fresh breeze from the ocean fill our dreams. We'd wake up to the splash of waves on the seashore, beckoning us to go into the sea's embrace. And so, as this lazy saturday afternoon continues, let me escape to my dream vacation at the beach... surf's up!

•March 18, 2006•