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My homemade yams!

Another recipe that we made here in the house during Thanksgiving, using local ingredients is Yams. In the States they use sweet potatoes for the yams. Here in the Philippines we use the camote (similar looks to the sweet potato in the USA). Growing up here in the Philippines, we cooked the camote in lots of ways. Like slicing the camote into round sort of thin slice, maybe like around quarter of an inch, fry it until tender then add sugar. Other ways is just by boiling it and it can be substitute as a rice, eat with fish kinilaw (similar to sashimi). Really good to have that dish eating in the beach. Other ways of cooking is by boiling and mashed it and add sugar and wrapped it with lumpia wrapper and fry. All the dishes that I mentioned were really good but the yams is really something else. Its so good.

The holiday table

The holiday table

Feel free to share here some of your sweet potato/camote recipe.

***** Homemade Yams (Sweet Potato) Recipe *****

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs camote
  • 2+ cups brown sugar (Keep tasting until it comes to the sweetness you desire)
  • 2 cups marshmallow
  • pinch of salt
  • 3/4 – 1 cup of butter (eyeball if needed more)
Yams at left, and other holiday food

Yams at left, and other holiday food

Procedures:

  1. Peel and quartered the potatoes. Boiled water in a large pot and add a  pinch of salt. Boil the camote for 20 minutes or so, or until the camote are no longer crunchy; when its cooked. Drain just a little of the water. Not all to avoid dryness. Mash it with the potato masher and add the butter and the sugar. Keep tasting and add more sugar and butter if needed. Put like 1/2 cup of the marshmallow and mix to the mixture.
  2. Butter the bottom of the 8 x 8 Pyrex oven dish. Pour the camote mixture to the dish. And put the rest of the marshmallow on top of the mixture.
  3. Bake at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes or until brown. Really keep an eye for not to get burn.

***** Wondering if marshmallow is readily available here in the Philippines? Definitely yes. Almost all the malls carry it. If one mall is out, usually the other mall has it. Here in Davao one place that you will always see marshmallow is at Baker’s Basket, along Mabini Street, Davao City. Not far from Central Bank. Just near MacArthur Highway.  S & R carries them too. *****

We do cook yams not just during Thanksgiving. Sometimes on some other occasions too. We are addicted to yams I guess. Ha ha ha.

Have fun eating you guys. Happy Holidays!!!

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Excitement, sadness & happiness rolled into one!!!

As everyone of you know already here that Aaron is going to the States next year. In God’s grace and glory. My gosh, I am so excited for him that he already has the confidence to travel there. But at the same time my heart is aching a little bit each day. To tell you the truth I am sad too. My kids never been away from us for a long time. So this is really the first time for one of our kids to be away for this long. Can you imagine the day when we will be sending him off? So many of us here in the house will be so sad and excited at the same time.

When we first planned his trip we already shed tears there, especially me. Sigh… But I am really so happy that he take the leap to go there by himself. Aaron is our quiet kid. He will talk or make a conversation rather to people that he knows well and hangs out more often. That’s just his personality. He really took it from my dad and Bob’s dad. He is a deep thinker and observant. So of course as a mom I am a bit worried for him not asking people for help. I am starting to remind him that he needs to ask help from other people through out his journey. I continue on saying that many of those people will be happy to help him.

Aaron and I during his graduation

Aaron and I during his graduation

 

I did told him my journey to the States by myself at the age of 21. Naive and shy. I’m kind of like him in a way so quiet. But I never hesitate to ask a lot of people along the way. At that time internet didn’t exist yet, so I can’t share to the world my whereabouts. :-) .  Phone call during my time was  a bit difficult too, have to call collect to Bob if I want to get a hold of him. Luckily I didn’t call him on that journey.  So I have to really talk or I get lost.

This will be a new beginning for him. He will have to see the other side of the world. Being born there in the States and he has to start re-learning everything about the place. And seeing relatives again in a long time and some of them for the first time. I am telling him already to see my best friends there, one of them who I’ve met early on my time there. She’s a Filipina from Cebu, married to a guy who works in Boeing. They had 2 kids. My other best friend our next door neighbor, and practically we were like sister’s, she’s from Jordan. She had 4 kids who I love very much. Happy to reconnect with her 3 boys on Facebook. She’s not a facebook fanatic. She’s close to Aaron before because she was there when I had Aaron. She calls Aaron her Habibi (My love, my babe) in Arabic. Aaron learned Arabic from them before. Hopefully Aaron can visit them in Northern Oregon.

Let me tell you after my mother-in-law found out of Aaron going there, she told me that she can’t hardly wait for him to be there. She’s even telling me that she doesn’t know how to contain her excitement. Just minutes after telling her my God, she’s calling her friends right away, practically every person on her personal phone book list. Ha ha ha. They were really so happy for her. They know how much she misses the kids. Not so much for Bob and I. Ha ha ha… :-) .

My best friend here in the Philippines called me when she read the post of Aaron. I did not mentioned to her about it because I want to wait until Aaron will say something. So she found out on his post. She then called me and asked me how do I feel about it? I told her that I am happy, excited and sad, but in a good way. Happy that Aaron will decide hopefully then on what he wants in the future. Excited for him traveling and experiencing new beginning. Sad because he will be away from us for a while for the first time. But I thank God that He gave Aaron the courage to do what he plans to do. So thankful for internet nowadays, so easy to communicate with him and know what’s going on with him there.

Thank you guys for the moral support for our son. I really appreciate the nice message you’ve sent to Aaron on his post. God bless LiP Family!!!

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Hypocrisy

Have you guys been reading or hearing on Philippine news TV? Regarding one of the big celebrities here in the Philippines wanting to marry his girlfriend. Why would that be a problem? The guy, he is 60 years old and the girl is 16 years old. To be honest I think if the girl was over 18 it might not cause a lot commotion here.

I think one of the reasons why it makes some noise not just here but all over where lots of Filipina married to foreigners community. The guy he is so nationalistic that sometimes  he sounds like he doesn’t like the Pinay to be married to the foreigners. But his sister married someone from Europe. Well that’s just his opinion. It doesn’t bother me really. But what does bother me when he’s one of those person that’s against older foreigner guys marrying the young Pinay.

Freddie Aguilar with 16 year old girlfriend

Freddie Aguilar with 16 year old girlfriend

But look what he is doing. He is wanting to marry an underage girl. My Lord my daughter is older than his girlfriend. To be honest, really just thinking, I know my daughter is too young to marry any guy right now, and I know she’s just not ready to have another life (babies) to support. It’s just like babies making babies. I know that celebrity guy can afford what the young bride wants, I would also say the same to any foreigner that married to Filipina, he can afford whatever the young bride desires.

For me that celeb guy should just zip his mouth before, since he already know that he had desire for youngster. I’ve read somewhere that his second or third wife, he married her when the girl was just 17. He said he loved her too much that he let her go later. He should know better, the media now scrutinized him and the girl. Honestly I felt sorry for the girl, now she’s going to be followed by the paparazzi. And he claimed that he didn’t know the girl was just 16 years old before they had the relationship. That really shocked me. He didn’t ask her birthday or what year in school she is? Knowing the year level of the girl, he can already figure it out her age. I don’t think the girl stopped schooling. I don’t think they are too poor.  Or like he said he was blinded by his love for her to backed out. It’s already too late for him to know her age he said. But what can we say the parents were okay with it, and they approved of him marrying the girl when she reached the age of 18. Not sure if they are now living in one roof. The way he said in the interview, it didn’t sound like they are living apart. But who knows.

Really, I’ve met a lot of older guys married to a young Filipina (the Pinay is over the legal age) like a little over 20′s. And you know what I saw the love and care with each other. The thing that I had in mind now with the 16 year old, most of them were so immature, just a few are not. What if hard times/trials come along, can the 16 year old think right away on what to do? Maybe some can too. This is a difficult subject to tackle because for me it’s really up to the person. But I am hoping too that it will not happen to my daughter or other members of my family. I saw a lot of what happen when a 16 year old married that early. Trouble in paradise mostly.

*** But I guess it’s not so uncommon to a young girl become the mistress of someone here (some were pushed by poverty and the parents). So I guess its just the same. It’s one of the other unending cycles here in the Philippines “The young ones (underage girl)  married or living in with the older guy”. ***

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Wheelchair access in the Philippines

I was just watching TV at our bedroom and in the show they had someone on a wheelchair.  So that really got me thinking of how the people here on a wheelchair go from their day to day lives. I mean not a lot of establishments here that were so accessible by them. I’ve seen lots of places that don’t have wheelchair access. Even trying to ride the public transportation would be so challenging for them. We don’t have public van that had easy entry for them. I guess unless the family will spend money to have custom made car. Going somewhere without help, it must be so difficult though. I mean going in and out of the jeepney with no help must be really hard. I know of course some passengers will help out. We as human being do our instinct to help. I guess that’s the best we can do.

Ramp - You won't see many of these in the Philippines

Ramp – You won’t see many of these in the Philippines

When my mom was confined on her wheelchair whenever we brought her somewhere, we had to bring one of our nephew or brother-in-law with us to carry her in and out of the taxi. Sometimes Bob would carry her in and out of our car. My mom likes to travel with us. She enjoys Bob’s driving. Ha ha ha. It was not easy for her being confined in the wheelchair, I’m sure it was not comfortable for her too. We brought her places for her not to be depressed on being inside the wheelchair. Sometimes when she stayed at my sister’s house and they’re bringing her to the mall, some taxi drivers were so nice and helpful in carrying her.

I’ve known friends here in the Philippines that use wheelchairs too. But one in particular. I’ve seen him going around the places with his wheelchair. He is not whining about being in it. Instead he is so active in helping out other less fortunate people here in the city. I’m so happy to know him. He is so busy with his speaking engagements here and other places in the country. People really get inspired by him for not dwelling on being in the wheelchair. I really applaud him for that.

handicappedLuckily now malls, hotels and condos are easily accessible by wheelchair already. I think the schools too. Not sure if all hotel bathrooms are accessible to wheelchair user. I guess if booking hotels try to ask them ahead of time and get the rooms that are wheelchair friendly. The good thing here if the person has money, he/she can just hire a private male nurse  to carry her/him in and out of the car. The going in and out of bed. Must hire 2 nurses for the 24 hour shift. But if the person has no money, I guess just ask the family for help. I’m pretty sure the family will help out.

Honestly I never thought the hardship of the handicap people endured before. But after seeing how the US cares and changed a lot of the building code for the handicapped people to have easy access, it really made me think a lot. I’m wishing and hoping that our government here have the funds to change a lot of the buildings to have ramps for the easy access of the handicapped. I mean I’m not saying for an instant or immediate change but slowly. I’ve seen there too when I went to the doctors office and all the names outside the rooms had braille writing for the blind people. They really show there how they care so much of the handicapped people. Just like the parking area of the handicapped there, they really made sure that its handicapped person that parks. Here we have handicapped parking but some people just don’t follow the rules and park illegally. They had also there that park illegally but the building owner immediately alert the car owner about it. If they don’t listen the building owner will call up the police.

Just a thought, I don’t mean to start a fire here.

Cheers Everyone!

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