A woman takes on various roles in her life - that of a daughter, a friend, a lover, a wife, and as a mother - and as herself, independent of all other roles she takes on. The mind frame of "this is who I am" of a woman is not constantly changing, it's just the way it is. With a heart that is full of love, a woman that lives for and cries for the people in her life, strengthening relationship bonds that are based on nothing at all and that of having been the vessel for the life, taking on all roles in a multi-tasking manner and it doesn't end. More than just giving love, care, affection, support, the roles include the graceful receiving of the returns, not in the form of payment as being a wife, daughter, and mother is priceless. In appreciation of all my children, I would like to focus this blog post on my eldest daughter, Ultima, who is known to all as Timi.
When I gave birth to Timi in the US, the nurses would carry her all the time as she was a living doll, with a full head of hair with a adorable tuft. Her hair became a cascade of ringlets as she grew older, and my late husband, the charming, perfect gentleman, Rene Quema, used to fix Timi's hair every morning to place hair ties and ribbons. Rene was an excellent cook and a gourmet, and he trained Timi at an early age for fine dining to extracting the goodness of talangka. Timi was often invited to spend time homes of our neighbors in Makati who loved feeding her, such as Chariya of the 168 Thai Kitchen and the other neighbor who owned a Japanese restaurant.
Timi started cooking while standing on a chair that was placed in front of the stove. At the age of 5, she made her own breakfast which would typically be hotdogs, and I would wake up after she left for school to see the used frying pan, plate, glass, and utensils in the sink. At the age of 11, much to my surprise, after watching our favorite Martha Stewart cooking show, Timi was in the kitchen butterflying a chicken perfectly. Cooking and baking was a major source of our income for many years, and among the dishes that we sold such as bagnet and apple pies, the most popular was our leche flan that I had supplied to La Tienda, a Spanish restaurant, and our chocolate chip oatmeal cookies that Maxi would sell while she was in high school, bringing two large full bags daily and coming home with these bags empty.
Supercharged, our love to cook and bake transformed, and Timi and Maxi became the M.Y. San Sweet Treat girls. This was taken during our cooking event at Gourdo's at the Fort.
We wrote my cookbook with Sarah banging away at the keyboard, Maxi creating recipes, and Timi checking it - and then came the big day that we had to get it approved by our sponsor, San Miguel Corporation. We made sample dishes and went to their kitchen to meet with a bevy of chefs for the taste test. Timi, at the age of 16, defended our cookbook to the hilt as Maxi presented the dishes. The pizza recipe was in question as it had no tomato sauce and Timi said that a certain pizza parlor had pizza that had no tomato sauce. We passed the rigorous test and the book got published by National.
Peektures
Wacky poses of Almond, Maxi, and Timi
Mi Ultima
Timi is now part owner of Samu Eats, a Japanese restaurant located at 33a Z-compound, Malingap St., Teacher's Village, QC. The food and beverages are excellent with new and unique items are being added regularly to the menu such as heart-shaped sushi, Spam sushi, and tokwa't bacon. The katsu meals come with miso soup, a salad, and red ice tea. Her Japanese restaurant has been featured by When in Manila, PepperPh, and Unang Hirit.
Today is Mother's day. I get compliments from my friends saying that I have wonderful children, and I take no credit as I told my children that when they do something like study, when they stand up to get recognition, it is them alone that will be on that stage. The motivation must be from within, as I cannot push them, they have to fly out of the nest. I remember that once, Timi posted on Facebook that I never clipped her wings.
As all relationships are based on trust, I am there for my children and they know where home is as they build their own homes, live their life, and I watch them fly. I can still fly with them but I lead not the way for they will go into the future and I won't be there. They know that I trust and believe in them as the foundation is strong and they don't fail me. I love being a Mom, cooking, baking, taking care of them, and it does come back like the time when the young Timi and Maxi surprised me by cooking sinigang, how Sarah won a cooking contest when she just learned how to chop garlic 3 days before the event and astonished the Tesda judges with our white sauce, how the table was set with what they cooked, the hundreds of Christmas cookies gifts we made to give away for years so we don't have to buy gifts for family and friends, how they call me to ask for recipe help and many other things like a gift of kitchen utensils from my youngest daughter, Almond.
Timi and Sarah proving that you can have your cake and eat it, too.
To be a Mom to such treasures is the reason why I am happy this Mother's day and every day.
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