Pink liliums and what do you call them again?

I love gardening but I'm no horticulturist . Well not yet, but perhaps in my future self. I call these great blooms pink liliums but I'm not really really 100% sure. I got these from my aunt's dressmaker friend two years ago and they're flowering again. I also have white lilies and peace lilies but they're still not flowering. :( They all look healthy and all but I haven't seen a single blossom all these years...

Anywho, I don't know the name of this plant either. So far this is my favorite indoor plant and I took it out today to see a bit of sunshine.

Yup, I don't know what to call these white flowers too..

But I think this is a guppy plant no? If is is, I hope it will have cute orange flowers soon...

I got them yesterday together with this unknown plant again with white and purple blooms...

They look dead but they look fine now after it has drizzled half past noon...

 I am doing my legwork right now and I hope to find the names of these plants. Do you have any idea what are these? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
"Til then! :)

A Chocolate-y Harvest

I only have afternoon classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I had the privilege to walk my little one to his daycare center which is just at the end of our backyard. 

While we were passing through my aunt's cacao orchard... 

I looked up into these...

and these farther ahead.... aren't they beautiful?

Since I was a kid my grandmother used to plant cacaos all over our house. She also have them plenty in the farm so we had  a steady supply of tablea whole year round.  

I have fond memories of our cacaos. My little brother and I used to have siesta in my lolo's hammock which he tied between the trees. We love it there because it's cool and he used to sing us songs and recount fables and tales. Sometimes he asks us to pull some of his grey hair or scratch his back and he would reward us with big one peso coins. And a single one peso coin back then already means four bubble gums to me!

Even if those trees were long gone, it's feels like this is me in the picture... :)

He had a grand time picking what he can reach and was so happy when he was able to collect all these...

He can't wait for me to slice them in half..

 He was jumping up and down when he saw the perfect seeds..

He waited no further and got his share...

  

Some of the seeds were overripe and others seeds are already sprouting so I had them separated..

But all in all we had a great harvest and I sang rain rain go away as I was placing these on a clean sack...

I really hope the rain will go away for now so that we can all sip a heartwarming chocolate next week! :)

Help me sing will you? 'Til then! :))

String Beans and Kantura Update

After I have put the anti-ant powder, the snails attacked my little kantura plot the following morning. Thankfully I rose early to take pictures and I found them about to cross the powdered ant poison.  Since the raining have all stopped, I quickly laid ash around the plot to prevent further damage. The kantura sprouts are not that visible... I am praying to have a better camera soon...

 because it's all blurry and I'm trying to experiment with lighting...

Our beans are all grown up I helped put strings for them to crawl...

See, they're all crawling their way up..

We can't do anything about the missing string beans courtesy of the beautiful snails so my hubby decided to place seeds in the empty slots while I was away in school.. After three days they're good as new!

My hubby still thinks it's Farmville that he'll be able to harvest 5 truckloads of these.. 

I'll be sprinkling ashes this afternoon so that the snails won't eat them again.. Or perhaps I'll do the beer trap.. whichever comes first...

The magic rose are doing pretty well too! I hope they'll grow fast so that I can have them as ground cover.

That's all for now! 'Til then.. :)

Freebies!

Sometimes babysitting my son at his daycare center instead of making my homework has great rewards. While I bought him snacks a few blocks from his school I finally saw my new garden treasures.

I got all them all for free from the store owner's garden. I was really eyeing the kantura, the mum-like flower whose English translation I don't know but I was surprised to find flame nettles in her garden too!

From L-R kantura, magic rose and flame nettles. 

I got these magic roses from his school's garden. When my mom was still alive she once brought these at home for my brother and I to plant. We call them magic rose but some people call them morning flowers since they only blooms in the morning and in late afternoons.

Flame nettles or mayana in Filipino is used to treat cough. My grandmother used to squeeze the juice out  and puts a little bit of sugar to neutralize the bitter taste.  My mum buys us cough syrups back then but my grandma still gives us these... 

Apart from its medicinal uses, it look great in gardens too! Now I have three varieties in my yard. Yey!

I made a small plot and  sprinkled the katura seeds.. But then I saw ants getting their own free haul of seeds too! For fear of killing the seeds when I spray soap suds, I sprinkled a chemical anti-ant thingy instead and the ants were all dead by morning... Sorry ants but I need the seeds for my garden... I'm already excited seeing some sprouting seeds today. I'm going to snap a photo of them for you to see. :)

Hope you had a great weekend.

Steamed cassava cake

It's Sunday again so I have time to cook something for snacks. I'm supposed to be studying binary, octal and hexadecimal conversions plus ayrton shunts, but here I am blogging my stress away...

My hubby was clearing our backyard today and he brought home some cassavas my aunt planted a year ago.    I'm not in the mood to bake some cassava cakes so I made the easier version - steamed cassava cakes.

Aripahol as it is known in my native vernacular is a popular delicacy from Iloilo. If you are in Pototan, you will find an aripahol made from glutinous rice. But if you are in my home, it would be made from cassava. 

Here are the ingredients:

1 kg grated cassava ( juice removed)

*1/2 kg brown sugar

2 cups grated young coconut

note: 

* you can substitute 1/4 kg brown sugar and 1/4 kg muscovado

Here's how:

Pour the sugar, young coconut and the grated cassava in a container..

Give it a good mix and they're ready to be molded...

you can place them into more attractive food shapers if you want...

next is to sprinkle sugar on top for your sweet tooth...

I spared others because some of my family are diabetic... then you're all ready to steam!

Give it a good 20 minutes and you'll have delicious steamed cassava cakes for merienda...

But, while I was busy plating my aripahol, I didn't notice my little one went outside to pick some flowers...

I finally found him in the living room concentrating with all his might..

See how proud he was?

Hmmm... he said he's going to be a policeman someday... 

 But if he turns out to be a chef, I'd be much happier... :))

 It's so easy you won't regret giving it a try... 'Til then! :)