Authentic filipino cuisine?? I think YES!

Whew! I'm all caught up on sleep now.... I think, so I thought I would give an update about how our Philippines Dinners went. I'll just start off by saying what an experience they were! Margo and I spent at least 12 hours in the kitchen, not to mention the few hours in the grocery store, for each of the two dinners, and ask either one of us and we will tell you our hands smelt like dumplings for the entire week. And even now that I have washed them so many times I still feel like I carry around the smell of the Philippines with me, which isn't a bad thing at all. =) So for those of you who didn't have a chance to make it to one of our dinners, we made sinangag (vegetable fried rice), green beans (we didn't prepare them any special way due to a severe lack of time hehe), siomai (dumplings), and cassava cake (cassava is a root that is grown in the Philippines and is used often in cooking).

Basically it took a whole night to make the rice, and the next whole day to make all the dumplings. Have you ever wondered how to mass-produce dumplings?? No? Well me either... that is until a couple of days ago when it hit us that standing over one wok for approximately 24 hours waiting for our massive amount of dumplings to steam just wasn't going to cut it. So, with our homemade steaming machines *muahaha* (we actually made three of them, one of which I accidentally "steam burned" my thumb with haha) we were mass-producing siomai like nobody's business!

Overall the dinners were a huge success! Thank you to all who supported us through our journey of creating an authentic filipino meal, we couldn't have done it without you! Margo and I are both so blessed to have so many supporting us, and to have friends and family that stood by our sides and held us up when we were close to collapsing from exhaustion. =)

I was reminded this whole past week of how God has so many hidden surprises for us, and so many unexpected ways to bless us. And even more than that, I was reminded to NEVER underestimate God. We serve an all-powerful, all-knowing God who sometimes is just waiting for us to put a little effort in and then just trust that He will provide. Philippines here we come! =)

My next post will be a summary of our trip with Adventures in Missions to the Philippines, but as for right now I'm on my way to see what there is for lunch.....possibly some sinangag and siomai??? Why yes! haha...

God Bless!