Caroleen’s Treasures

—is easy. Buy a mature bitter gourd that you can use for your Pinakbet or other dish. Cut it in half and remove the seeds. Set it aside while you do the cooking. When you’re done, throw the vegetable peelings with the seeds in your backyard and wait until it sprouts.

This is ampalaya (bitter gourd) from the neighbor’s backyard. Manang Inday’s sister owned the house and they are not staying here so we are didn’t steal it. hehehehe. And I think it was from the Pinakbet that Manang Inday cooked several weeks ago. I noticed a little fruit hanging on a tree while I was doing the laundry last December 2 and I was very thrilled because we didn’t plant anything there…but we dumped something there. LOL

Daddy used to plant this kind of vegetable in our yard. We have a stretch of ampalaya that climbs up in the trellis made of bamboo and strings. Underneath are his mushroom beds and I did most of the yard work with him than any of my siblings. He calls me to help him with most of the carrying and watering and I learned a lot of things by being his sidekick. He will be here this Christmas so I was thinking what the kids can give to their Papang Lakay. I already bought a sling bag that can carry his celphone, money and a pack of discount cigar. Maybe I will add a pair of clothes or a pair of sandals. (He hates wearing shoes now).

I called Donald and asked him to wrap it with paper. Daddy asks me do most of the wrapping before and you can really tell the difference if the fruit was wrapped.

When Ella saw it, she investigated it closely and have an explanation why it was wrapped like that. She said it was wrapped with paper so that they fruit will not fall on the left or the right….but instead it will fall straight. LOL When she said that, she even made an action with her hips moving it to the right and left. She’s so cute!

After 10 days, here is the ampalaya with Miyaki. hehehehe. I will fix egg with ampalaya omelet tomorrow morning. Yum!