While waiting for inspiration to strike me to finish that Sombrero island watercolor, I went back to one of my meditative hobbies—cooking. So we took the slow cooker out of hibernation and the beef shanks from my freezer drawer.

As a true-blue Batangueña, cooking bulalo—which is basically beef stew—should just be a cinch for me. I just need to have a lot of patience. And a Crockpot. Or an Instapot.

First thing I did is I blanched the beef shanks. While I the meat broth was boiling, I skimmed off the scum floating around. When the surface began to clear, I boiled it for a few minutes more and I threw out the water and washed the beef under cold water to clean it. It should be free of blood and other impurities to produce a clear broth.

I washed the pot so the new broth will not be contaminated with impurities.

After boiling for a few minutes, I transferred everything to the slow cooker with red onions, leeks, and potatoes. If you have corn, put that in. I will add more green leafy vegetables tomorrow plus some green beans.

Cook this for 8 hours under low heat or so until the meat falls off the bones and the marrow melts/disappears or whatever. Traditionally, this is cooked in a clay pot for four hours but during fiestas, we cook bulalo in a large iron pot over firewood.

My Crockpot is on its last legs and I should a) replace it with another Crockpot or b) buy an Instapot for the pressure cooker function and yogurt-making function. Crockpot is easy on the electricity bill because it only consumes as much energy as an incandescent bulb whereas Instapot consumes 1000 watts. However, it can make a lot of things, among them is yogurt. We love Greek yogurt.

I should hold off for now.

I’m still waiting for inspiration to strike me. Maybe in a few hours? Tomorrow? I’m not in a mood to mix colors right now. I wonder how freelance artists manage to finish commissioned art work 🤔 Writing is similar but oftentimes I can produce stories even when I’m sick or at the bottom of the barrel because there’s a formula to spot stories. Long-form though is a tougher one; even if you bleed me dry I cannot produce that kind of article when I’m not in the zone.

In the meantime, I will scroll through IG for inspiration.

The sandman didn’t come. I’m still fucking wide awake.

I decided to do some pencil work, as requested by Twin A. I think I’m better on pencil?