Ah, that would be me. At least, I’d like to think so.
Who I am
I’m Connie Veneracion. That’s me in the photos — as a toddler and as an adult.
No, I’m not a schooled chef nor a trained writer. I’m a lawyer by education, and a newspaper columnist and magazine writer by happenstance.
I’ve retired from the law and print media years ago, but I’ll never retire from online writing. Why should I? Blogging keeps me busy, it keeps my mind active and I love the endless opportunities for creativity.
About this blog
Aging Like Wine is my third currently active blog. It was born because… Well, things happened in 2020 that left me with a lot of time on my hands. Instead of moping, I’m using all that extra time to clean my most populous blog (it really has become unwieldly) by splitting it into three — modern Filipino, Asian and this — the new home for all our published and to-be-published recipes for non-Asian dishes (and a few Asian fusion ones) that we have enjoyed at home.
Our unapologetic food philosophy
We eat fatty red meat (except our older daughter) and skin-on chicken. We love seafood including fat-lined salmon belly. We hardly ever sit down to a meal without rice, bread or noodles. That’s right — we’re not scared of carbs.
We all drink copious amounts of coffee and tea everyday, and we do enjoy cocktails.
Sounds unhealthy for 2020? Hmmm… My husband and I are in our 50s, and we are not on maintenance meds. Neither have we been diagnosed with any condition often associated with people our age.
The secret to aging like wine?
Our laid-back life
I live with my husband and two daughters, aged 28 and 26, in a house on a hill in a suburb of Manila on the foothills of the Sierra Madre where we grow vegetables, fruit trees and herbs.
Sounds too bucolic? Well, the suburb has its charms. It’s neither as crowded nor as noisy as the metropolis. During the cooler months, we can still bask in foggy mornings and nights. It’s quiet enough to hear birds chirping, roosters crowing and cicadas wooing potential mates with their love calls. If you find wildlife alluring, we do get snakes and geckos in the neighborhood occasionally. And bugs in so many shapes and colors. Bats too.
We have the luxury of having breakfast at noon, lunch at five in the afternoon and dinner at ten in the evening.
Yes, it’s a laid-back life. And, as far as I can tell, it is this lifestyle that makes us less vulnerable to the common aches, pains and health conditions that many of our peers suffer from.