Once upon a time, when I only dreamed about being a SAHM, I believed that, were I to become a SAHM, I’d have time to, I don’t know, DO THINGS. Like play a video game or two. Write my novel. Wash the dishes. Sweep the floor. Make and eat lunch.
The reality is that since I’ve been home, I think about the only thing I HAVE been able to do is take care of The Little Empress. Oh and catch up on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit via Netflix during TLE’s seemingly endless nursing sessions and/or naps when she falls asleep on me. Which, as it has been for the past month or so, has been pretty much EVERY nap.
Still, I must have gone either completely insane or had momentary amensia because I rather zealously told my parents that instead of buying the lumpia for The Little Empress’ baptism party on Saturday that my sister and I would make them.
(To be painfully honest, TLE’s baptism is not so much a religious rite as it is an excuse to bring together family and friends and feast upon a slaughtered and roasted to perfection suckling pig and other delicacies. Chinese folks have their Red Egg parties, Koreans have their 100 Days and Filipino Catholics have baptisms. I had an aunt that converted to being Baptist which doesn’t do infant baptisms. My poor, oh-so-Catholic family (including myself) were at a loss for a bit as to how a child dedication differed from a Catholic infant baptism. But then they still had a reception so everything was A-OK after that.)
Lumpia is something that is a must have at any Filipino party worth going to. Lumpia is the great equalizer of dishes. People could argue that pancit is also the great equalizer (after all, it resembles chow mein and who hasn’t had chow mein?) but I say it’s all about lumpia. After all, kids love it, adults love it, your non-Filipino friends that might faint at the thought of eating anything else love it. It’s familiar. Its cute. It’s finger food. You dip it in sweet and sour sauce. And it’s DEEP FRIED! That, more than anything else, secures lumpia as the must have food the party.
Not having lumpia is a failure of epic proportions, surpassed only by the cardinal sin of running out of rice at a party. Which, by the way, once happened at my friends’ 18th birthday debut. While not quite a scandal, the shock was felt around the rented gymnasium. And of course, we still mention it to this day. “OMG remember Joy’s party when they ran out of rice?!”
Making lumpia is something best done in a group — after all, many hands make for little work. Lumpia rolling isn’t difficult so much as tedious. Back in the days, I could have easily tackled a mountain of yummy pork and shrimp filling in front of a DVD, making perfectly stacked rows of neatly wrapped lumpia to stow away in the freezer until they were needed. Since I knew TLE would make it more difficult for me to accomplish this, I enlisted the help of my sister. I thought that between the two of us, we could make short work of the task with no problem.
Oh how wrong I was.
Long story short, I will never, EVER again underestimate just how much time TLE can demand. Whether I was trying to prep ingredients or roll lumpia, TLE refused to cooperate. She didn’t want to sit in her high chair, play in her playard or even sleep on my back in a carrier to let me work. As a result, my sister ended up doing mostly everything. While I got to wrap a few myself, it was apparent that while delicious tasting, the resulting lumpia wasn’t something we’d feel comfortable serving at TLE’s baptism party.
So now, I get to swallow my pride and eat the $13.99/package for frozen lumpia from the local Asian megamart which, quite honestly, wounds my inner culinarian and is causing my inner cheapskate miser frugal conscience to have to go into therapy. (For the same in ingredients, I can easily make 200+ lumpia rather than the 40 or so you get per package.) Worse, I have to tell my dad that he was right (okay, this wounds me more than either of the previous two combined) because he totally pushed for buying frozen lumpia in the first place.
In the long run, I know it’s more important to tend to The Little Empress than to be able to boast that I made the lumpia for her baptism reception or that I kept an immaculate house. It drives me insane but as long as The Little Empress is happy, that’s all that matters.
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Text and photographs copyrighted by Michelle N unless otherwise noted.
I keep cringing at the price. Oh well. I need to figure out whether to get some from Goldilocks or get the ones at the Asian market, I think they’re Orientex brand. I know I like their longanisa and tocino but I can’t remember if I’ve had their lumpia.
Don’t worry about it. We got the baptism catered for ours. I try to cook Filipino foods but lumpia is one thing I wouldn’t do myself just cause I suck at wrapping those suckers. I’d rather pay the money for the frozen ones or buy them already made.