The last weekend of July has passed productively. The garden of the seminarians at the Father’s House in Mchini Parish inspired me to start gardening in my own backyard. On Saturday I was busy preparing seedbed for my parsley. My plan actually was just to scatter the seeds on the seedbed and never transfer them into plots because I don’t have the powers to prepare them. Just preparing the seedbed made my lower back ache; however, it would be good to see vegetable herbs in my backyard. After the seedbed preparation, I also started potting soil in polyethylene bags because ornamental plants needed to be potted first before planting them directly to the soil. I tried planting directly but I failed because the soil was not fertile, moreover, termites are everywhere. Apart from this, my desire to plant ornamental plants was inspired by the roses I saw around Chipata, roses of all colors and types. I made a promise to myself that in two year’s time I would be able to fill the garden with roses. Luckily I am able to grow some; in fact some of them are already in full bloom.
On the same day, I made myself a good lunch. Experimenting on dishes has also become a hobby in Zambia. I have been craving for fish since it’s very seldom that I cook fish for meals because of the strong odor it emits when cooking which is not advisable to my enclosed kitchen (actually I can open windows and doors but I fear mosquitoes and burglars respectively). However, since it was a weekend, I grilled tilapia using my braiser a.k.a in the Philippines as "pugon" and makeshift griller from chicken wire. Since I was grilling, I also made “escalivada” as a pair to my grilled fish. Escalavida is another experimental dish courtesy of on-line recipe. It turned out well and I really enjoyed it. Of course, how can a Filipino meal be complete without rice? I fried the rice, eat it with escalivada and grilled tilapia with coke in can! I had a sumptuous Saturday lunch.
Cooking for the day was not yet over; I baked experimental bread---sweet potato bread. It tasted sweet potato but never looked like bread, it turned-out more like a cake. By the time I go back to the Philippines, I would probably be engaged in baking as a fallback career if I become unemployed for a long time which hopefully won’t happen since I want baking as a hobby although if it will bring me money I can make business out of it.
End of Saturday
No comments:
Post a Comment