1. During the first few weeks of the lockdown, I was scared my food stockpile would not last me for a month. Because I did not know how to go about buying food without going out, I also though of foregoing my favorite comfort food. Then Nestor, the caretaker of my lot, brought me this abundant harvest of yellow mangoes. Yay! I was so delighted. They were a lot, I could not even consume them all. But I happily shared them with my in-laws Tina and Luna, my sister Jeannette who had her driver picked them up, my sister-in-law Rosita, my household helps, and the office secretaries who were reporting for random works. The rest we kept them to ourselves. My husband and I waited for the fruits to ripen slowly. We happily relished and enjoyed our own ripe mangoes that lasted us for about a week.
2. When there were no fresh fruits, and I did not like to send a runner to buy me some, afraid that he might get exposed, I used my stockpile canned fruits and whipped up this concoction, a favorite of my husband Lucas for desserts and snacks.
3. After two months, I decided to buy flour and baking powder and using my remaining dried blueberries from last year (hehe), I baked these oatmeal blueberry muffins. It was so good!!!
4. Then I had more mangoes of different variety harvested from my lot. They are called Indian mangoes. They are of the big giant variety kind. They are better eaten while still half ripe, as they are sweet and are crunchy during that stage. Since the store had reopened, I distributed them to all the workers who had come back to work.
Big mango from the lot, small papaya from the market, regular pomelo from Tina.
5. I exchanged recipes with my kids online, so I baked this quiche from the recipe of my daughter Marion. The baked quiche was good, but it was just too much work. Hahaha.
6. On a Sunday, I made classic pancake for snacks. My first successful pancake from scratch. I shared them with Tina and Luna too.
7. Then Nestor, my lot caretaker brought me my first harvest of avocados from my land. These were initially seeds, whom my sister-in-law Lolita brought all the way from LA. We germinated the seeds at home, then sent them to my lot to be planted. That was in 2016. Three seeds grew into three trees, and one of them are now bearing fruits. They are really first class avocados. They are called malagkit meaning creamy or sticky, the best kind.
8. And the latest delights are these malagkit native corns, also from my lot. We had them yesterday. I asked the cook to approportion the corn into three households distribution, whom we cook for everyday in our common Tan family kitchen. They are really really yummy.
During this trying and uncertain time of pandemic, I thank the Lord sincerely for not withholding food from us. Thank you O Lord. But please do end this pandemic soon. Oh how I want to live a normal life again. O Lord have mercy.
