Summer is indeed upon us! Pretty soon, school will be out (the Philippine school year is from June till March) and parents will be hard-pressed thinking of activities to occupy their children’s time at home.

Do you remember what you did on long vacations? Well, I do! I climbed trees, visited relatives, played endless hours with cousins and nieces, read voraciously, watched old movies on TV and let’s see… what else?! I had begun to learn for real cooking under my grandmother’s strict guidance. ‘Real’ meant slicing what seemed like too many onions that brought tears, roasting peanuts, cacao and coffee beans, cleaning fish and slaughtering chickens - all the prep work that I never thought had to be done to prepare a meal. All the tedious steps might have turned me off from cooking but years later, I’m still at it. Hmmm… this website is the evidence, I suppose.

All those memories are brought on by this month’s Lasang Pinoy. Iska in Beijing, with all of her fabulous Edible Experiments is hosting us with the theme Kusinang Bulilit, Lutong Paslit or in short, cooking by children. For non-Filipinos, the words bulilit and paslit are both endearing terms that mean small children. They connote cute and cheerful youngsters.

Iska invites us to write about food and children - how we first started cooking, at mealtimes or how we involve our own children, nephews, nieces in meal preparation and eating of course! I predict a fun and messy Lasang Pinoy 8, hehehe!

Please do join! Entries should be posted by the end of the month, 31 March. Anyone who doesn’t have a blog but would like to join, just let me know. I’ll be glad to host any number of entries!

Breakfast is perhaps the simplest of the day’s meals but just like Joey, this month’s Lasang Pinoy host, it has a very special place in my gut, er, heart. My problem though was what to post for Gising na! ALMUSAL! not for a lack of ideas but for having too much!

The traditional Filipino breakfast is quite flexible in that it can consist of the previous day’s leftovers, something cooked especially for the day’s first meal or odds and ends procured from early morning vendors. It has to be ready before people go out to the fields or to the sea. This has been the case for centuries, it is still true at present. Nowadays though, factories and offices can be added to the list of workplaces.

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On cold mornings, getting out of bed can be a struggle. I often wake up at my usual time then fall asleep for five, ten, fifteen more minutes. It doesn’t help that the skies are still dark at 6.00 a.m.!

What makes me jump and have a nice and early start however, is the promise of a good breakfast. What would wake up the senses better than the smell of garlic frying, waiting for the rice to join in and sizzle on the pan?

For February, Lasang Pinoy is on a breakfast mission. Who would be the best host but Joey a.k.a. ChichaJo of that delightful blog 80 Breakfasts! Head over to Joey’s and read the details for Lasang Pinoy 7: Gising na! ALMUSAL! or Wake up and let’s have breakfast!

We’d be delighted to have you join us for first thing in the morning. The deadline’s on 28 February. Do let me know if you need a blog to host your entry!

Graphic drawn by Iska and edited by Mike