i bottled the sun!

we have this voluntary siling labuyo (capsicum frutescens) plant

beside our calamansi tree now measuring over 3 feet in height  having lots and lots

of small fruits this time of the year.

my nephew and i decided to harvest these chilis last sunday

and picked about 5 cups of chilis!

 we brought them home and the husband was so curious
what the heck am i going to do with this amount of chilis.
(he doesn't like spicy food!)

i decided to make some garlic chili oil used as a condiment
for my favorite dumplings and siomai.

i washed the chilis and carefully removed the green stems.

 i minced a half a handful of garlic,
heat up a bottle of vegetable oil,

 added the chilis, the garlic, a teaspoon of salt, and a teaspoon of sugar.

 i brought the oil into a boil while mashing the chilis.
i also boiled some water in a separate pot to sterilize my jars.

after bringing the oil into a boil, i placed the mixture into the jars.
(warning:  the smell of the boiling chili oil is really awful, had us sneezing for a while.
note to self: wear glasses and a mask next time.)

my finished product! :)

i gave the other jar of chili oil to my cousin's husband who is also a fan of spicy food.

a small quantity of this mixture is enough to spice up your foods.

super duper spicy!

wordless wednesday: yummy guacamole

going bananas

i was surprised this morning when the husband brought these bananas from our backyard.

the last time i checked, they were still very thin and green.

but today, the husband harvested these plump, unripe but mature bananas.

this banana variety is called "saba."
a variety which originated from the philippines.
it is a much more shorter version of the usual banana, much more plump, and the peels are much much thicker.

this banana mainly used for cooking such as turon (banana wrapped in lumpia wrapper),
banana cue (sugar-coated fried bananas in a stick),
nilupak (mashed bananas), saging con yelo (sweet plantain with crushed ice),
or ginataang saging (bananas cooked in coconut milk).though usually used for cooking,
this banana gives more potassium when eaten raw.
it has a much more starchy, a bit sour, and a bit sweet taste than the other types of bananas.

the husband harvested more than 10 clusters of these bananas
with one cluster having an average of 20 bananas!
that is too many for us to consume!

we only kept 3 of them for our favorite turon with langka (jackfruit)
and the rest were sold to our neighbors for 1php each.
these bananas will ripen in about 2 to 3 days, much quicker if kept in a sack.

these bananas will be our merienda for the next few days together with our calamansi juice.

free merienda fresh from our trees and we've got some money from selling them too.

yay!

happy thursday everyone!

oh so corny!

it was another lazy and spontaneous sunday.

after looking for spiderwebs,

taking photos of bugs and butterflies,

going to my lola (grandmother - mom's aunt) to get some rain lilies,

playing with the nephews with those leaves and weeds that you can stick on shirts,

and just killing time resting on the hammock,

we were hungry.

 

good thing, my kuya told us that the corn he had planted is ready for harvest.

we ran straight to the cornfield!

he planted the corn for our family's consumption.

corn overload!

 my nephews playing in the cornfield while harvesting corn.

these are perfect for picking.

we  harvested two baskets of corn.

what to do with them???

since we had inihaw (grilled pork) for lunch and had lots of wood,

we grilled the corn!

delicious!

since the corn was so fresh, it tasted sweet and yummy.

no need for butter or salt.

our stomachs we're full after eating these.

we'll definitely be harvesting corn again next week for merienda :)

rainy day

what to do on a rainy day?

HARVEST SUNFLOWER SEEDS!

luckily, yesterday was a bit sunny and my sunflower heads were dry.

i cut them and hung them to keep them dry.

today, as it is rainy and i've got nothing to do inside the house,

i grabbed my sunflowers and started picking the seeds from the head.

they were not really dry but mature enough to harvest.  i cut them early because were itchy worms already lurking on their leaves. those nasty worms trying to sneak into eating these sunflower seeds for the chickens...BAD!

 

BEFORE

petals gone

 

pretty sunflower

and AFTER

bald head

i got two handfuls of these seeds

fat seeds that is

for the husband's chickens and fighting cocks

i wish tomorrow will be a sunny day

(^__^)