The Pilgrim’s Pots and Pans

Oh no, we’re not cooking her but this little kitty deserves a month of eating bland food for what she has done. By herself, she chewed my basil plant to its untimely demise. I don’t know if I should be amused or annoyed that a cat who lives with me has such unusual predilections. My college roommate Bea was amused (rough translation of our chat):

Karen: My basil plant was devoured by the cat.
Bea: Devoured? They eat basil????
Karen: Ay yes, well… by the great Tinee, who was caught several times. Well, you know my cats.
Bea: Gourmet???? Gee, makes me want to get a pet
Karen: Hahahaha! Tinee’s the worst! At first I thought the plant was sick because some of the leaves were dry. There were no aphids, none of the usual pests. Then I saw torn leaves but they looked healthy, no bugs. Some of the leaves were intact, not torn off but had incisions in the middle, as if something sharp cut through them.
Bea: What did Tinee do? She was eating the leaves?
Karen: Oh, then I caught her myself chewing on the leaves, really enjoying herself, like eating a salad. Turns out my auntie caught her several times too.
Bea: Can’t blame the cat. Good taste! Your fault Karen. You let the cat get used to it.
Karen: Hehehe! What, trained her tastebuds?

Indeed felines like to eat grass now and then. Oh, but Tinee? What a cat! There are other herbs in our garden – oregano, chives and I don’t know what else. Why oh why does she have to pick on the only basil plant I have? And it’s so difficult growing the herb in a water-logged area. Oh well, she must’ve imbibed my penchant for tomato-basil sauces. :cat:

It’s been way too long! But after more than a year, I’ll resume blogging. Give me a week or two to get comfortable once more. As it is, I’m still a bit disoriented and haven’t cooked anything. It’s almost dinnertime and all I’m having is a tin of pineapple tidbits.

What have I been up to? Well, the picture above is a bit telling. That’s my usual lunch when I go to Everybody’s Cafe in the City of San Fernando (P). I’ve been going there regularly the past year. :hungry:

More stories soon!

Weekends are when food bloggers take a break from posting about food and share pictures of their pets. Clare over at eatstuff.net initiated Weekend Cat Blogging and this week is its first anniversary! With the sparseness of my posts here nowadays, this is hardly a break but an explanation!

What keeps me from blogging more often nowadays? Aside from work and personal projects, there’s this big bundle of fur called Kittycat who refuses to budge from my computer table!
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I was shocked that they were shocked. What gave them the idea? or what didn’t give them the idea that I can cook? Hmmm…

Today, 22 May is the feast day of our town’s patron, Santa Rita de Cascia. We had been cooking vats and large pots of food since Saturday because one of my aunties and half a tribe of hungry friends descended on us yesterday, Sunday – kaduspirasan (on the eve) – to avoid the fiesta traffic and to go to a feast without being absent from work, I suppose.

A few hours ago, some of my mother’s friends came over after work. They realised I was the one in the kitchen cooking since they were in the adjacent dining room. They probably thought I was just puttering around boiling some water and reheating the food because when they saw me wrestling a vat of bringhe, they were astounded at how I was really the one cooking!!?!?!? They were flabbergasted.

Well, I WAS flabbergasted that they were especially after I overheard one of them say she thought all I did was bury my nose in books when I was off at that posh university on the hill. Hmmm… what does one have to do with the other? And of course I’m bristling at the implication.

I really don’t know where people get their ideas about me. I never pretended to be a spoilt, pampered princess who has never had soot on her dress. The funny thing is, this is perhaps the nth time this has happened.

I wonder what they’ll say when they see I’m quite adept at slaughtering and plucking a chicken, or even decapitating and skinning frogs. Hehehe!

P.S. The above is to keep the blog current. I’ll still publish my backlog posts. Please check backwards every few days or so. Thanks for the patience!

Unbelievable! Is it March already? Wasn’t it only Christmas the other day? I can’t believe how much time has passed. This blog has way too much backlog, hehehe!

I’ll write down what posts are to be expected in the next few weeks:

1. Bacolod escapade: featuring the famous sweets and hunting down more than just chicken inasal;
2. Fruits galore;
3. Finding the lineage of our hometown suclati (chocolate); and
4. Farm and marketplace adventures or how I make a pest of myself in the name of research.

Stay tuned or nag me to make sure I do write.