White King in Our Hearts and Homes

We grew up with this particular White King.

This is more than just a cookie jar.

This is part of Father's legacy.

I want to make sure that this legacy lives on, even if only in our hearts and homes. 

So one of the things I did when I arrived home was to make a custard pie aka an egg pie. This was not to be just any egg pie.  It was one that used a recipe from the RFM Test Kitchen.

The memories are vague but I do believe there was a time we would accompany Father to his office at Pioneer so that we could attend summer classes at the Test Kitchen. Before and after class, we would hang around his office. 

He had a White King cookie jar in his office as well. Uusually there were cookies inside the cookie jar and he'd let us have some while we waited.  When Father was done with his work for the day, he'd have moved the pile of papers he'd signed from his IN tray to his OUT tray, pack up his attache case, then we'd head for home.

Yes, good memories.

Let's make more good memories while we can.

CUSTARD PIE

Filling :

1 1/3 c condensed milk (1 14 oz. can)

1 1/3 c water

4 pcs eggs (or 8 egg yolks)

1 t vanilla

1/2 t  dayap or calamansi rind

Procedure :  

• Combine condensed milk and water.  
• Add eggs, vanilla and dayap rind.  Blend well.  
• Set aside and prepare pastry.

Pastry :

1 1/4 c all purpose flour, sifted

1 t baking powder (opt)

1/3 c shortening or margarine

4 - 5 T cold water

Procedure:

• Preheat oven to 450 F
• Sift flour and baking powder together.
• Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or two dull knives until particles are the size of peas.
• Add water a tablespoon at a time tossing with a fork until mixture is moist enough to hold together.  Form dough into a ball.  
• Wrap in cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. (optional)
• Flatten out on a floured surface and roll out to fit a 9-inch pie plate.  Flute the edges.
• Pour prepared filling into pastry lined pie plate.
• Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350F and bake for additional 10-15 minutes until done.

Breakfast is Served

I think breakfast is the simplest meal to prepare. It is the meal where I am almost certain everyone will finish their food and there would be minimal left-overs.

Being Filipinos, we still like to have rice for breakfast. Cereals and oatmeal are not considered as normal breakfast fare for us. In fact, if ever I decide to serve oats or cereal, I have to be sure it is not Sports Day for any of the kids because they would surely complain that neither of those would not tide them over for the whole day at school.

Rice and E- double G - S, eggs.

Yes, we have eggs for breakfast. Eggs can be soft-boiled, hard-boiled, fried, scrambled, poached; it can be used to make an omelet or a quiche (something I have yet to try).

For me, it is much simpler to have eggs for breakfast.

However, if I were to go through the my family members' list of preferences, you would have probably express your doubts that having eggs for breakfast is a simple matter.

Given a choice, they would all prefer omelets. The more it has inside (as long as it didn't come from a branch or have roots once upon a time), the better. At its simplest, there is cheese omelet.

I have found it simpler to make one omelet per person rather than making a giant omelet for everyone. As it turns out, there is a particular type of cheese which MyGirl does not like in her cheese omelet, so clearly 'omelet to share' is not an option. If I were making cheese omelets for each one, I had to be sure to use different cheese for MyGirl's omelet and put it on her plate so nobody else would eat it by mistake.

If there happened to be some ham or bacon in the ref, it would be a ham or bacon with cheese omelet. If by some stroke of luck, there are mushrooms in the refrigerator (most likely excess from the previous night's dinner), it would be a ham or bacon with mushroom and cheese omelet. The latter is RD's favorite one.

Naturally I cannot serve omelet everyday. So on the non-omelet days, I would fry eggs.

In Manila, when I made fried eggs for RD, I would often apologize about nearly burning the whites giving him fried eggs with crusty bottoms. He assured me that they were fine and would eat his breakfast happily (as long as the yolk was still runny). I always thought he was just being nice about it (because that is the way he is); until one day, I managed to 'produce' what I considered to be the perfectly fried egg --the yolk was intact and the whites were not crusty. I was quite pleased with myself. What I failed to realize was that what is perfect for me was not perfect for my customer. When RD saw the fried egg, his face dropped. "But I like mine crusty," he said. "Next time, Mom, can you make mine crusty?"

OK ... to each his own... MacGyver would have wanted that 'perfect' fried egg.

No problem. Fried eggs have to be done with runny yolks; whites are not crusty for MacGyver, crusty for RD ...

But there is a catch! MyGirl and GI do not like fried eggs.

Runny? Firm? Crusty? Not crusty?

Nope.

They don't like fried eggs ... period.

So I would scramble some eggs instead.

That would have solved the problem if both of them would accept fried eggs with open arms. Unfortunately, GI does not like scrambled eggs either. Well, he would probably eat the scrambled eggs if I put them on his plate but given a choice he would not want them. If he were to eat them, he would most likely ask for ham or bacon even if there was hotdogs or breakfast sausage on the table. Since I am aware of the positions of fried eggs and scrambled eggs in GI's 'how I like my eggs done' totem pole, there are days I just end up making GI an omelet. (So much for non-omelet days.)

We rarely boil eggs. I have a lot of excuses for not wanting to boil eggs. My pans are too small. Using the electric hot plate takes such a long time to boil an egg. I can never be sure if the eggs are still soft enough, or if they are already hard. (Yes, twirling the eggs to check would tell us if they were hard or soft, but by the time they are cool enough to twirl, the water in the pan has already cooled down.)

However, my all-time favorite excuse is boiled eggs are not as popular as omelet, fried eggs or scrambled eggs.

We tried poaching eggs in Manila. Mother had a technique which I still don't get. Theoretically poached eggs are healthier than fried eggs making it the better choice between the two. The only problem is that whenever I poach eggs, I feel as if so much of the eggwhites gets tossed out with the water. I would much rather boil the eggs, keep everything intact, and take my chances on whether the eggs will be soft or hard.

Until such time that I can figure out better things to serve for breakfast, the family will be stuck with eggs. And until I am able to find one or two extra egg rings, on non-omelet days, the pan will have two fried eggs and one scrambled egg looking like ...

Elmo!

Vamos a comer.