A Change...

Although Grams is still in recovery, I realized that during the next six months, she will have to have undergo chemotherapy 3 times every 20 days. Grams might not have the energy to manage her everyday life without the help of her new caretaker, Marievic. So in the meantime, I think our recipe book project will have to be suspended, which means I will have to think of a backup plan.

Knitting Project
Truth be told, I don't think I know a lot about Grams...especially her hobbies and what she likes to do in her free time. All I know are the activities that we do together, basically knitting and cooking. Since cooking is not feasible, maybe we can start knitting together? Maybe we can knit a sweater together and for each story she tells me, I can try and knit a small picture of that onto the sweater, to make a collage. In the end, we will have a sweater that represents a part of Gram's life.

-----> After the first chemotherapy session, I realized Grandma was too weak to even lift her hands. This plan will probably come to a dead end.


Anyways, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, we didn't barbecue, or went out with friends like everyone else did, instead, we had a nice dinner at Grams house. This time however, my cousin, Leslie, and I were the main chefs, while Grams got to rest and enjoy the meal.

I went to Grams house earlier to help with the preparation. We planned out a menu:

Pumpkin Chicken Mushroom Soup
Stir-fried Tomato and Eggs
Steamed Seafood and Tofu
Steamed Squid
Loofa Gourd with Scallops

We went to the supermarket to get the ingredients.Walking down the isles, looking for the vegetables and meats on our shopping list, we wanted to bring a small can of pickled sweet cucumber, one of Grams favorite food, but spent too much time wondering on whether Grams was allowed/able to eat it or not. In fact, the entire menu was carefully thought out, both of us spent quite awhile considering the foods that are good/beneficial for Grams health, which is a brain-racking task. On our way home, Grams called my cousin, Leslie, "Remember to buy some vegetables! We have nothing in our fridge now!!" So we stopped at a street vendor and bought fresh tomatoes, some spring onions, garlic, and handfuls of different vegetables.
When we went home, Grams opened the door for us, and exclaimed," Deary! That is a lot of grocery goods!"
"Yeah, you told us to buy some for the week didn't you , Grams?" I asked.
" I only told you to buy some grocery, not bring the whole supermarket home! Now we have too much to put in our fridge!", Grams mumbled over and over under her breath.
We stood there aghast, and confused, not knowing what to say, but we can come up with a conclusion, Grams is very hard to satisfy.

In was chaotic in the kitchen. We had trouble cleaning the pumpkin, making a big orange gooey mess in the sink; neither of us knew which way the fish should be sliced ( aligned and parallel with the veins ) so the slices looked like they were torn from the poor fish itself, and we also had no clue how long it took for the shrimps to be well cooked. Grams came in the kitchen to get some water, and almost screamed at the top of her lungs," What in the world are you two doing? Do you even know how to cook?" Leslie tried to calm her down, and lead her out to the living room to rest, however without avail. So I decided to coax Grams instead, which worked out perfectly as Leslie tried to get everything cooking and boiling. Even Marievic,who had been watching us two klutz and chuckling at the side, couldn't bear it any longer, and offered to help us, which we were more than grateful for. She even added another dish, Mixed Fungi Stir-Fry, to our menu!

We all sat down around the dining table and watched Grams as she took a piece of pumpkin from the soup. Our brows were dripping with sweat,and we were holding our breaths as we watched Grams reaction. Grams chewed slowly, then stuck up her thumb in approval and announced, " This pumpkin soup is delicious! Oishii!" The dishes we made were overall very simple, easy-to-do dishes, nothing fancy for Mid-Autumn Festival, however I  was very happy and glad that Grams appreciated and liked it at least. I think it was quite a meaningful Mid-Autumn Festival this year.