On Being Boring

I'm exposing an evil insight here when I say that worse than suffering this soon to be unbearable summer heat, is to suffer it with soon to be unbearably bored, unbearable children! My kids' whining can drive me hair-pulling mad sometimes although they do guiltily take me way back to the days my cousin Joana and I would whine, "We're bored!" in unison. To which mother would mockingly reply, "Only boring people get bored" and to which she would deftly add insult to injury by quickly dispatching us to go clean out a closet somewhere. It drove me mad hatter mad I tell you.

And of course we all know that fast forward to the future, I would inevitably subject my own daughter to an impromptu spring cleaning whenever she made the mistake of uttering those blasphemous words of boredom at me, her mother. What goes around comes around after all.

And so like other generations of moms before me, my happy little children will definitely and as always be enrolled in summer programs for either sports, music or art or a combination or most likely, all! I know, I know, there will be repercussions for doing that, as much as it's good for them and they enjoy it blah blah, but I do it shamelessly for their sanity and mine this summer. As I daresay, many other moms do! I know you're there...

If you are, there, and like me you're still in the process of deciding which classes to enroll your children in, may I suggest this...

My children saw the performance of Where the Wild Things Are by the My Masterpiece Movement a few weekends ago and enjoyed it immensely. The story was presented by teacher Ana, a gifted storyteller who narrated in coordination with a creative shadow play of the book, and was accompanied by a complete live band as well. It's storytelling taken to a higher level thanks to the Movement's membership of teachers, artists and musicians! What's great is that their schedule this summer takes them from San Juan all the way down to Alabang! For more information please visit their website at: http://www.welovemymasterpiece.com.

Humble Mamon

I've been sick the past 48 hours and have been confined to my bed, bored, frustrated and bored some more. When hubby asked me what I wanted from the outside world I automatically requested for mamon. Duh? Shouldn't he know by now that mamon brings me back to life? Chicken noodle soup aside, mamon is my sick food.

My attachment to mamon started at a young age. Mother would buy it for me when I was sick, to cheer me up. Mc Donald's worked better on my younger brother but I was happy with my yellow spongecake, thank you very much! There truly is something about the sugary sweet and fluffy simplicity of the mamon that comforts me like a security blanket. It does not confuse the palate and assures you that yes, you will get better soon and yes, you will get your taste buds back. It's humble, it's homely and it hits the right spot. I daresay, a mamon a day keeps the doctor away!

In the hierarchy of pastries, the mamon would most likely be at the bottom. It's an unadorned spongecake is what it is. It has no fancy flavors, colors and sprinkles the way donuts and cupcakes do. And no matter what brand, they're packaged quite plainly in clear cellophane too. Definitely no pretensions there my friends.

Red Ribbon trumps Goldilocks any day. Sorry Goldie! If like me you like desserts that are dense and moist, then Red Ribbon's mamon is the one for you. The top of the mamon is so wet and sticky that parts of it gets stuck to the wrapping. My son scrapes this down with his finger and sticks it in his mouth. What a yummy mess!

Another favorite which has only been known to me recently is Max's Bakeshop's cheese mamon. Perhaps as a child I wouldn't have liked it as much, as I enjoyed pastries that were cloyingly sweet, but for my older and more sophisticated taste buds, I rather enjoy their none too sweet and light and fluffy version.

Anyway, thanks to the powerful healing powers of the humble mamon, I'm feeling much better. I hopefully won't be needing one for awhile.

Brilliant Idea

Did you know that Starbucks gave away their used coffee grounds? Here I found them nicely packaged at their branch at Fully-Booked, High Street. I'm not sure if all Starbucks shops display their coffee grounds this way but I simply asked for some at the counter once and they generously handed me a huge plastic bag of it.

I add the coffee grounds to my compost pile although a friend of mine dumps all, and I mean all his grounds every single day in this one potted plant of his. I don't exactly know what this does chemically but let me tell you, this particular caffeine-pumped plant of his was tall, healthy and has been drinking coffee for over ten years now! Crazy I know.

Turkey Honey-Dijon Panini

This turkey sandwich was supposed to be a lean accompaniment to the slightly high-carb watercress soup in the previous post, but all my good intentions flew out the window when I saw the slab of bacon while shopping for the turkey. I find it hard to say no to bacon and after assembling my sandwich this way, I would not have it any other way.

Turkey Honey-Dijon Panini

Ingredients:

• French sourdough bread loaf, thickly sliced ( I got mine at Bizu and had them slice it)
• Swiss cheese, thinly sliced (I used Emmental)
• Hickory-smoked turkey, shaved
• Bacon, thickly sliced and fried until crispy
• Honey dijon dressing (below)

-Brush the outside of the top and bottom halves of your sandwich with a little olive oil.

-Flip the bread slices over and generously cover the other side (the inside) of both halves with the honey dijon dressing.

-Layer on the cheese on both halves.

-Loosely pile on the turkey on the bottom half of the sandwich and top with crispy bacon.

-I had more watercress and so added this to the assembly.

-Put both halves together and press in a panini grill until cheese is melted and the exterior of your sandwich is toasted to your liking.

-Eat hot off the grill!

Honey Dijon Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 1/4 cup Lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 2 T Dijon mustard

-Whisk ingredients together in a bowl or shake in a tightly covered container.

-Whisk or shake before using.

-Store in the refrigerator.

In addition to the soup and sandwich, my neighbor Jo, who joined me for lunch brought a nice caprese salad of sliced salad tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and a generous chiffonade of italian basil dressed in a balsamic vinaigrette and freshly cracked pepper. Satisfyingly, the salad went very well with the turkey panini sandwich.