Really we have pumpkin here in a can, imported from the States. And it costs a fortune to buy it. Since Bob doesn’t really like to eat food coming out from the can, I have to be inventive to make the recipe of what we have here in the Philippines. It worked out most of the time. I have to find what’s the best substitute from it that we could find here in the Philippines.

Bob saw a recipe on the internet about how to make a pumpkin pancake. As you all know we don’t grow pumpkins here in the Philippines. Instead we got so much squash growing here at any places from the 3 islands of the P.I. My sister and my brother-in-law grows squash at their farm too. That’s where Chris got started eating squash. He likes it a lot.  So when Bob saw that we still had some left over squash puree on our fridge he then search on the net of a good recipe for squash puree aside from pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread. Really its an easy recipe to make.

Here is a video of the original recipe that Bob saw on the Internet:

Here are some pictures of my cooking process, the recipe is below the pictures.  Click on the picture to see a larger image.

Here’s the recipe that we use below:

Ingredients: (Mix all dry ingredients in a separate bowl)

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground all spice
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tbsp white sugar

Mix all liquid ingredients in a separate bowl:

• 1/2 cup squash/pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil (canola will do too)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest (sometimes i don’t use it and it still taste good)

Procedures:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients well.
2. Whisk all liquid ingredients, then when its smoothed put the dry ingredients and continue to whisk. If you want thinner pancake just add a little milk. Just eyeball it.
3. Heat a frying pan (griddle) on medium high heat with olive oil, canola oil or vegetable oil. When the pan is hot put a ladle of that squash batter on the hot pan and let it cook for like 3 minutes on each side or until the bubbles form on the pancake and it is brown on the side. While the pancake is cooking try to lower the heat of the stove so that the pancake will not get burn right away.
4. You can put butter on top with jelly, maple syrup, or cinnamon sugar. Or any toppings you want.
5. If you want to make it into waffles, just don’t add any additional milk to the batter. You can put any toppings you want too.

Well, I hope you will try the recipe and let me know what you think. We’ve been making squash pie over Thanksgiving. It’s super yummy. We’ve been letting friends taste it and they liked it a lot. Hey, we paid P600 per order of pie before like 4 years ago. Now we are making our own. Loving it.

Hope you guys have a good and fruitful New Year! Stay safe!

The Girls on Christmas Giveaway 2010

In Bob’s family they consist of his parents, Bob & I and kids, Bob’s brother & his family.  My first experience celebrating Christmas with them was when I was in the States. That time his dad was still alive. It was fun having him as we prepared dinner early so that we could start the opening of the gifts earlier too. My first Christmas experience with them, we opened our gifts at around 7pm on Christmas eve. With slow opening of the presents we end up finishing up for almost 4 hours. With the talking and story of why we bought certain presents and stuff. It was really fun and exciting. Bob’s dad could always guess the presents he was getting even before he opened his gifts. He just shook the present and viola he already guessed it. Even if we brought the presents with us right before opening. He was really something. I felt he had a third eye. .

After opening, we would talk and had fun with our presents  for like an hour or so. Time for us to head home preparing for Santa’s swinging by our house. We had to prepare cookies and milk for Santa and the sugar for the reindeer. Then the next day kids and adults would have fun getting what Santa left on our stockings and at the Christmas tree. Its all unwrapped presents he left there at the Christmas tree. Wow the kids really had fun.

Later that day we will have Christmas dinner at Bob’s parents house. Mom would cook really good stuff for all of us. She prepared pies a few days before Christmas and some other food that needs long preparation. Mom was also preparing rice for me of course. Sometimes I forgot to bring with me my rice cooker to their house. As you know they don’t have rice cookers with them. Somehow she knows how to cook the rice in the pan. It turned out good though. They even eat rice with me sometimes, only thing they put gravy on it. ha ha ha, not my rice.

The following year all of us decided that we would eat dinner around 3pm, so that we can start opening presents by 5. So that we still have time to talk and hang out. We said that because the family keeps growing (with few grand kids coming) and it would take longer then. Really that turned out better for all of us. Kids had more time to enjoy playing with their toys and the adults had the time to chat and reminisced the past Christmas they had. It was fun for me learning more about what Bob and his family did before and also learning the culture. I’ve listened to the story of the family and they asked me about my family and the life here in the Philippines. It was good conversation for us learning both cultures.

Bob and I incorporate both of our cultures in our celebration now. It is good for us to teach our kids now. Its up to them if they want to carry both cultures with them when they had their own families. I know they all like the way we celebrate Christmas and the Thanksgiving. They told me that they like the way it is. I am also hoping that they will continue what Bob and I stated 10 years ago now. The giving of gifts to the less fortunate people. That would really make me and Bob happy if they did. That’s one thing that was added to both our celebration now.

Make a donation to this year’s LiP Christmas Drive!

On the early morning of the 24th of December we go and distribute the presents for the poor. Usually we finished up around 3 or 4pm. Try to rush home and start preparing for our dinner and Noche Buena. It’s just really a simple dinner just like any regular dinner day for us. The only difference is we will eat earlier. Then after the cleaning up of the table and stuff, the kids will then prepare the chairs in front of our Christmas tree in preparations for the opening of the Christmas presents. Being so many people in the house we have to start a bit early. We open our presents one person at a time. The person that receives the present has to show everybody what they got. Then after opening we prepare the table for the Noche Buena. It’s not really as fancy as the other Filipino families. We will have the Filipino snacks and other finger foods and drinks just to keep us awake. While waiting for midnight the kids will play outside. Here in Davao firecrackers are strictly prohibited which I am thankful for. I don’t hear injuries here compared to other cities here in the Philippines. Still have some hard headed people here would not listen, they go against the strict laws against firecrackers. But rare though. On Christmas day we will have a big dinner for all of us family. We cooked ham, scalloped pineapple, mashed potato, beans, rice and some other Filipinos dishes and pies. We will just lounging around the house and enjoyed each others company.

Anyway, how about you? How do you celebrate Christmas? Feel free to share, we love to listen to your stories!

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

I decided to decorate the house early for Christmas this year. I started decorating like around the middle of November. I decided to decorate the whole house instead of just the Christmas tree only. It was fun for the kids helping me out putting the decors. I am still trying to finish up putting up my Dickens Village which is almost done. I am just trying to change the bulbs of the houses and putting the snow, then I’m done. My wreaths are all up, one on our living room the big one and one on our entrance door. My Santa pictures are up on the wall already and the Santa throw was already put on our living room couch.The monks were up too on the chicken hutch.  Hmm, guess we are just waiting now for the party.

Happy Thanksgiving to all LiP Readers!

It was fun showing it to our maid all the decor though. It was her first time seeing lots of decor and with some story with some of my decorations. It is also her first time getting gifts. So its really going to be fun. She’s really amazed of the stockings that we have put near our tree, since we don’t have fireplace here. It really is amazing seeing her face when my niece Nicole told her that Santa will come here in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve.  She asked me then if its true. Hey, what can I say when my 7 year old niece right in front of me. Big SIGH and SMILE… lol…

It’s going to be a good Thanksgiving. A lot to be thankful for from God for: Having good and loving family and stays in good health all throughout the year. Having  friends and meeting new friends and distant relatives here on LIP/Facebook and our other sites. Also our LIP drive keeps growing and stronger.

It’s going to be a good and busy Christmas too. We are looking forward already for our LIP drive. Pretty soon we will prepare the stuff for the poor. Now I am starting to feel the spirit of Christmas. We really are excited to give to our less fortunate people here. Thanks to you guys for your help, at least we can make some people happy during the holidays. It’s really a good feeling to give. I thank you all for helping our less fortunate people here. It’s really highly appreciated by us and those poor people. God will shower more blessings to you and your family.  If you can help bring a smile to a poor Filipino family this year, why don’t you consider making a donation, big or small, to our LiP drive by using the “donate” button at the left.  All donations will go 100% toward giving food and gifts to poor families here in Mindanao.  We appreciate all assistance on this.

HAPPY GOBBLE, GOBBLE DAY EVERYONE! GOD BLESS!

PEACE!!!

A few days ago a friend of mine from Cebu came here for a visit and she’s opened a store in Tagum. Its a clothing line. She travels abroad to buy here stock and sells it here in the Philippines. She will be opening a store here in Davao city soon too. I can’t wait to see what she has for the kids in time for Christmas. I can get stuff a little bit cheaper then from her. I’ve been looking at some place for Jean Jean and my nieces. It’s easy to get for the girls. The boys are the hard ones to get presents for. They want different stuff. I have to be busy and finish up for my shopping before giving away for the poor. I have to work double time right now.

A yearly Davao Christmas Scene outside Victoria Plaza

All of us here in the house are excited for our LIP drive. I hope we can give to a lot of families this year. We’ve been very successful with our drive in past years. We have to think what area we are going to give away. It’s going to be far from here in the city as always. A small village of course. It will be fun to give over to the people in the mountain since they hardly come and visit to the city. At least we can give some Noche Buena (the Filipino tradition of midnight dinner during Christmas Eve). Kids will be happy that they will have something too for Christmas. Can’t wait to see the faces and the big smiles of those people. It’s totally priceless.

A REAL Philippine Christmas Parol

Just driving around town and watching the beggars (especially the kids) breaks my heart every time. Gosh, we are just wishing that these people were not in that position they are in. Over the years we’ve been living here in Davao I’ve been seeing this same old man begging. His 2 arms were half cut off and he is blind too. He usually begs for money in the same area in the intersection near where The Venue (entertainment place) used to be here in the city. Probably some of you saw this old man before. We’ve noticed that each time we saw him he had different kids that accompany him. I’ve already heard a lot from the taxi and jeepney drivers that these beggars have bosses. The boss will get their money. With that in mind we decided that as much as possible we will give food instead of money to the beggars. If you give food at least the beggars will eat it right away. A few weeks ago I went to the downtown area to buy barbecue on sticks for our dinner. After we bought the barbecue we swung by at the gas station to have gas for our vehicle. While waiting for our vehicle to be filled, an old woman came to our car begging. I told my niece that will give the old lady barbecue pork in a sticks that we bought and some chips. Luckily we have chips in our car. You know what, the old lady was really happy that we gave her food. She’s really thankful that we gave her dinner. So we made commitment now that we will always give food instead of giving money. It’s really a good feeling to share with others and seeing that they are happy when you give.

Anyway, I hope everybody will have a good holiday season and a good year ahead.

Happy Holidays to all of you!

To all of you out there Have a wonderful New Year celebration. Stay safe everyone.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!