The Weight of Nothing

The Weight of Nothing.....Tell me the weight of
a snowflake, a coal mouse asked a wild dove.
Nothing more than nothing, was the answer.
In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story, the coal mouse said.
I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow heavily, not in a raging blizzard, no, just like a dream, without any wound and without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles in my branch. Their number was exactly 3,714,952.
When the 3,714,953rd dropped onto the branch, nothing more that nothing as you would say, the branch broke off.
Having said that, the coal mouse flew away.
The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while, and finally said to herself, "Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace in the world."

This was written on one of the pages of my Ocarina songbook and I thought it was such a wonderful story to share during this holiday season.

From my home to yours, Happy Holidays and may the New Year bring us all the ever elusive peace that we want.

Desert Beauty

Visiting some friends this summer in El Paso, Texas brought a lot of pleasant surprises. We got a first hand introduction to a bit of Tex-Mex culture. Situated so near the Mexican border, you can actually see the hills of this central American country. It felt like we were in one of those tele-novela's and going about was like being lost in translation.

Dinner one Sunday was at Cattleman's, located within the desert just off the city limits. As the name evoke's, it is a carnivore's mecca with it's own cattle ranch. What impressed me more was the unexpected beauty of this seemingly desolate land. Being able to catch the sunset made this experience even more melodramatic.

Going over some photos makes me want to reach out for their Frozen Margarita made with the juice of a local cacti, perfect for an end-of-the-day cocktail.

USDA Prime Challenge

A good thick steak is something we REALLY enjoy in our house. We have also come to a conclusion that the best steaks are those that we prepare and cook at home either pan-fried or grilled over hot coals and served with whatever we want. No fancy sauces, just the taste of pure meat.

Having the chance to purchase USDA Prime (which we have never tried before), we decided to put it to a challenge against lower graded steaks. Verdict......it's called Prime because it is.

The Bread of the Month

A few months back, the New York Times' own Mark Bittman featured a no-knead bread from the Sullivan Bakery. For a while, I think this was one bread recipe tried in kitchens all over the world. I would visit blog sites and this no-knead bread would keep popping up. This is my own Sullivan bread served still warm, with some Italian salami.

"Get Lost" place

Paradise found.....Living in a small town can be a good thing especially during long, boring weekends. It gives us reason to drive to Siaton town, a 50-minute drive south of Dumaguete and spend a day or two at our favorite "get lost" place, Antulang Resort. Positioned at the southern-most tip of Negros Island, it is a place of refuge from our daily anxious and antsy lives.

Langkawas...I dug up some from my garden to use in my curry. Lovely colors!

Bed of Roses

Life is indeed a bed of edible, high caloric roses and porcine faces....Browsing through all the cupcake books has sent me into a baking binge. There is a bounty of web and blog sites wherein the only food they talk about is CUPCAKES.

The wonderful thing about them is that I don't get complaints from my nephew and nieces about who gets the corner with the most frosting or why the other got a bigger slice (or so I thought). These are simple vanilla cupcakes made with butter cream frosting.