First of all let me introduce myself. I'm Tes Fajardo-Baldridge, a wife and a stay-at-home mom with 3 wonderful kids (2 are teenagers, Kikay, the youngest, almost a teenager)
Pinay Cooking Lessons started when I posted a photo of the cupcakes that I made for my youngest daughter's birthday. My friends asked me how I decorated them and I made a video showing them how (ang hirap kasing iexplain through words lang). I uploaded it here on facebook, they seem to like it (or were they just being polite? :D), asked me to make more videos, which I did, and after making a few more videos, I decided to make a page so that I would be able to share them with others who are not on my friend's list too, and presto!! Pinay Cooking Lessons was born!!! I was afraid that no one else aside from my friends would like PCL, but then one after the other friends came (that's what I call those who like PCL, I'm not comfortable calling them as Fans) and now PCL have 7364 friends and still counting! Yay!!
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| Nanay and I, circa 1968 |
My family and I have been living here in the USA for 3 years now, but I am originally from Maysan, Valenzuela City, I was born and raised there, and my family is what you call "taal na taga-Valenzuela", because even my mother and my grandmother were born and raised there. Almost everyone in my famiy cooks, my grandmother and my mother, tita's, cousins.... Making kakanin and minatamis was a family business. I learned how to cook from my Nanay, and one of my fondest childhood memories was going to the market in Meycauayan, Bulacan on Sunday mornings with her. She would haggle with vendors down to the last 50 centavos and it would exasperate me when they don't agree with the price because that means we have to go to the next tindera and start the whole process all over again...
Nanay did all the cooking back then, and I don't really recall helping her, but maybe I was watching and learning unconsciously. The first time I cooked was when my Tatay (who worked in London for 32 years, an OFW even before the term was invented) asked me to make an omelette for him (you know, the one with onions in it?) I was maybe in grade school at that time, and I didn't know how to make that, so what I did was I sliced the onions, beat the eggs, mixed them together, and placed them in a frying pan with a little oil in it. I'm not sure if I put salt in it, but when it was done, it looked good and I was quite pleased with myself. I served it to him and my younger brother, and was so proud of myself when he said that it was the best omelette he had ever tasted...until my brother told me that it tasted bad, and I think it did, now knowing that the onions should have caramelized first before adding the egg... hahaha!!! I started to bake when I was I high school, my friend Jho and I would bake cakes out of ready-made cake mixes and we had a blast!!
Then I got married, had 3 kids, and at one point both my hubby and I became jobless. What we did was we set up a makeshift halo-halo stand in front of our house and sold what else but... halo-halo!! At 10 pesos per glass it had everything...sago, gulaman, monggo, beans, kaong, nata de coco, langka, saging na saba, camote, leche flan and ube halaya. Everything was made from scratch, and we sold a lot, up to 180 glasses per day (which explains why my hubby's left arm is more muscular that his right (he's a leftie) :D). We added fishballs and squidballs to that, then moved on to other things like pancit, mami, pizza, tapsilog, and ulam. We didn't really have a restaurant or turo-turo, what we did was post signs on our gate saying "we sell...." or "... available" and people would come and buy from us. And it was great!!
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| my family (Rex, Lance, Bea, Kaye (Kikay) and I |
From having that makeshift halo-halo stand, my family has come a long way... now we're here in the United States. Hubby has a nice job, the kids are doing great in school, and I do a little catering here and there... life is good, God has been very generous to us. I never really ask for anything from Him, but He gives us a lot. By sharing my videos with you, I feel like i'm giving back to Him a little of what He has given us. We are not rich, we don't have money to give away, but we do help others as much as we can. Lagi kong sinasabi na di mo kailangang maging politiko or maging isang kilalang tao para makatulong ka sa kapwa mo. And this, I guess is my way of helping others, my way of paying forward God's generous blessings to me and family.
I hope that through this (my litany) you were able to know a little more about me... thanks po for reading.
Do check out Pinay Cooking Lessons on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pinay-Cooking-Lessons/112827652083017?ref=hl
And watch our videos on Nanaynikikay (Pinay Cooking Lessons) channel on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nanaynikikay?feature=mhee
Do check out Pinay Cooking Lessons on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pinay-Cooking-Lessons/112827652083017?ref=hl
And watch our videos on Nanaynikikay (Pinay Cooking Lessons) channel on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/nanaynikikay?feature=mhee
As a preview of the videos that I make, I'm sharing with you of my most cherished recipes, and this is my special CASSAVA CAKE, everyone who has tried it LOVES it, do try it please and let me know how kung nagustuhan ba ninyo.
1 kilo grated cassava also called yucca or manioc (I use frozen grated cassava available in Asian supermarkets, but you may use fresh grated cassava)
2 cups sugar
4 cups thick coconut milk
1/4 cup melted butter (plus additional for greasing pans)
2 eggs
Optional ingredient: egg yellow food color
INGREDIENTS FOR THE TOPPING:
1 cup thin coconut milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 can condensed milk
PREHEAT OVEN TO 340 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT
Inspiring! Great job! Thanks for sharing. Nini
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