Like most people, author and children’s cooking teacher Vicky Veloso-Barrera experienced a year of woes created by the pandemic.
“My school Tiny Kitchen was closed last year,” she recalls. “My mom came down with Miller Fisher syndrome right before the lockdown; students who had enrolled early wanted refunds, but I had spent the money on hospital bills. It was difficult.”
There was a silver lining to all this that came with “lots and lots of prayer!”
Her old students, plus new enrollees, were willing to take online classes the following year, so she did not have to refund anyone. The online classes were a hit, and next year Veloso-Barrera expects more than the 25 percent of regular enrollment she had this past summer.
But there was more to come.
“Tiny Kitchen has always been my bread-and-butter work, paying for part of the kids’ tuition in the past,” she says. “But the dream has always been writing books for children!” Because of the late Vibal founder Esther Vibal, who supported and encouraged her dream, she has written 40 children’s books for that publishing company.
“The real dream was ‘The Sign of the Rabbit,’ a series for kids I started in 1999,” she explains. “I grew up with rabbits and my school nickname in both Assumption (College) and DLSU (De La Salle University) was Bunny.”
The story began when she mused about what her 20 or so rabbits did at night.
“Since they like to burrow, I imagined that they had a secret burrow right under the house where they had spaceships and plotted against the evil rats in our neighborhood!”
“The Sign of the Rabbit” was born, and “Book 1: The Black Cloud” was printed for free when a printer, whose daughter studied at Tiny Kitchen, swapped the printing costs for recipe books that she wrote for them. That was in 2005, and a few years later, she printed “Book 2: Convention on Io.”
She first sold her books mainly by doing storytelling in different schools, from La Salle Greenhills to Brent to St. Jude to MGC New Life, “anyone who would have me!”
But when Big Bad Wolf (BBW) came to Manila in 2019, cofounder Andrew Yap saw her books and BBW bought out the entire first printing.
“That allowed me to reprint the books and come up with ‘Book 3: Fibonacci’s World,’ which BBW also carried.”
But while the pandemic shut down book sales and school tours, it did provide her with ample time to write and print “Book 4: The Secret Rebellion” last year.
In the course of the lockdown, she finished “Book 5: The Troubled Mountains,” and last month released “Book 6: The First Seeker” on Kindle.
She’s now released the final “Book 7: A Never Ending Tale.”
This recipe excerpt, which appears at the end of “A Never Ending Tale,” features a spread of red and green treats that are perfect for Christmas.
Red Velvet White Chocolate Cookies
Blend together:
½ c butter
⅔ c sugar
1 egg
Add:
1 Tbsp red food coloring
½ tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp cocoa
Stir in:
1½ c flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ c white chocolate chips
Shape into patties on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.
Reserve one cookie for the shake.
Red Velvet Milkshake
Process in a blender:
1 scoop strawberry ice cream1 c milk
1 red velvet cookie
Avocado Ice Cream
Beat in a mixer until almost stiff:
1 c chilled whipping cream
Add:
1 c condensed milk
Beat until blended then add:
1 c mashed or puréed ripe avocados
½ tsp vanilla
Transfer to a container and freeze until firm.
Pandan Kaya Cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Combine in a large bowl:
1 c flour
½ c sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
Make a well in the center and add:
3 egg yolks
¼ c water
¼ c vegetable oil
1½ tsp pandan flavoring
Beat until stiff (do not overbeat):
3 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
Fold the egg whites into the first mixture. Pour the batter into a square baking pan lined with parchment or waxed paper. Bake 20-30 minutes or till lightly browned. Let cool, then cut in half horizontally.
For the kaya pandan filling, combine in a saucepan:
1⅓ c pandan water (made by boiling pandan leaves in water or combining 1⅓ c water and 1 tsp pandan flavoring)
1 tsp powdered gulaman
⅓ c sugar
2 Tbsp butter
Let stand 30 minutes. Then cook over medium heat until it starts to boil.
Whisk in a bowl and add:
½ c coconut milk
4 Tbsp cornstarch
Cook until thickened. Let cool.
Place one layer of cake back in the baking pan and spread with half the kaya. Cover with the second cake layer and then all the remaining kaya. Chill until set. Cut into squares to serve.
“The Sign of the Rabbit” books 1-4 are available at Tiny Kitchen. Email tiny_planet@hotmail.com; follow The Sign of the Rabbit on Facebook.