Comfort Food

Weekends are the only time I can actually cook for my son. I usually take the opportunity whenever it's just the two of us that's left at home because I get stressed out when hubby or MIL looks over to what I am cooking. I feel like I am being judged for my cooking inability. :)

So, yesterday when they all went to Manila and I chose to stay home with Johan, I looked at what we have in stock and cooked.

Yeah, I know, where's the effort there when all I really had to do was mix everything together. I chose to cook Carbonara since it won't take so much time, which I don't have given that Johan won't let me out of his sight for more than 5 mins. Plus, I don't get to eat this too often as the people I'm living with favors spaghetti over this dish.

When I was done, I was scared Johan won't like it since that'll be the first time he'll be having Carbonara. But, boy, was I surprised when he finished the entire plate I laid out for him and kept on pointing his finger at me, saying, "A best!" which translates to "You're the best!".

As evening came, something stressed me out too much I almost had an asthma attack. I had to get out of the house into the backyard to cool off and calm myself. When I went back in, I thought I needed comfort food. 

So, I made this:

My own version of Banana Split had two Bananas, scoops of Ube and Cheese Ice Cream, Condensed Milk instead of Chocolate Syrup and chunks of Cadbury Fruit and Nut. 

I was in sweet heaven! Comfort food did the trick and I was feeling a whole lot better when I finished the treat.

Convection Cooking

I know! I am a late bloomer to the wonderful world of convection cooking, well even to the simple world of cooking that is. I said it before and I'm saying it again, I am no wonder kid in the kitchen. I used to hate cooking because my taste buds always play tricks on me whenever I had to measure an ounce of this and an ounce of that - the combination always ends up tasting different - even after following the recipe word for word.

Now, everything changed. I am now interested in learning to cook. My motivation? My son. He's growing fast and soon he would need more nutrients in his system. I have to start being creative in the kitchen and learn to whip up fast but nutritious meals for our small family.

I know, it's not how one is supposed to start learning how to cook but, at least, I'm making progress. I am now in love with our Convection Oven. Hubby and I bought it after Christmas because I had this very splendid idea of serving moist, tasty whole chicken for New Year's Eve. And I must say, it was a success.

Sorry for the lack of presentation, we were in a hurry to devour it but it is super yummy
and all it took were some lemongrass, garlic, salt and pepper and li'l bit of oil

I've cooked four whole chickens from the time we bought the oven and I cooked Lechon Kawali in it thrice. I am so amazed at how good everything tasted, it's like I can cook anything in it.

Soon to follow will be cupcakes. I found a great site wherein there are tutorials and recipes on how to bake using a convection oven. I just need to buy my baking tools and ingredients first.

Preparing the Weekly Menu

photo credit

I am not domesticated. Well, when it comes to the kitchen at least. I admit that I don't have the confidence to take full control of the cooking, I don't trust my taste buds really well if it would be me preparing dishes for the family. Yeah, I suck at cooking that's why my MIL is the one in-charge of the kitchen.

A few days ago, hubby made it known that I even suck at planning what to cook. You see, I list down the stuff that MIL should buy from the market and it usually consists of ingredients for the same dishes every week. The other day hubby told me he's done with having Adobo every single week. He said he already had enough Adobo that his system might be running on soy sauce instead of blood. Funny. Ha. Ha.

So, I promised I will prepare a weekly menu of varying dishes and will not repeat a dish at least a month after it has been served. I browsed CasaVeneracion.com and so far, I have made two-weeks worth of menu. I copied the recipes on a word document and printed them out for MIL.

I only hope I could keep this up and that I don't run out of dishes to serve or else hubby might run away from me already. =)

Education for the Undomesticated Me

My parents both worked when I was growing up hence the reason behind me and my siblings being raised by yayas. I was used to having my meals set already from the time I woke up until I came home after school. My clothes washed and ironed for me. Even when I left home and stayed at a dorm during college, I never washed my clothes, I would either bring home my laundry every weekends to have it washed at home or bring them to a laundry shop. Nor did I cooked my meals as me and my dorm mates would just eat out to nearby fastfood chains or canteens or if our budget won't allow it we'll just settle on the ever-reliable Century Tuna or Lucky Me Pancit Canton.

So, it is no surprise when I end up an ignorant undomesticated wife.

Cleaning is no problem for me, it's an easy task that I can perform. The hard chores for me are washing the clothes, ironing and the worst would be cooking. The first time that I washed my husband and mine's one week's load of laundry I felt really bad for myself. I felt "kawawa" because imagine the volume of clothes (shirts, jeans, jackets and even towels) and I have to do it by hand. We don't own a washing machine yet. When I was finished my back was aching, my hands looked like the hands of an old lady and I've got scratches on my wrists and fingers. It's hard but I at least did it. 

Ironing is hard as it would mean standing up for at least an hour. We even bought one of those steam irons that you can see at the Home Shopping Network. You fill the tube with water, press the button and your shirt is ironed out front and back with just a few swipes. You can even hang your clothes when you use the steam iron so you don't have to use the ironing board at all. That tool is of great help to me, it makes the job easier and faster plus it is energy saving as it does not consume electricity unless you press the button.

Now, the hardest is cooking. Sure, I can fry eggs and the like, I can cook rice, I can do the famous adobo, but the taste buds of my husband's is entirely different from mine. The first time that he asked me to cook, it was tapa with gravy sauce, more like the sizzling type. Difficulty level for this dish would only be minimal as the gravy sauce is instant, you just pour in water and mix, the tapa is only fried. I don't know what I did wrong but the end product tastes like very salty, burnt tapa. Even the gravy sauce tastes different. Haha! I was fighting back tears when me and my husband were already eating because I can see that he's just forcing himself to eat what I cooked. After we ate, I immediately went to the bathroom and cried. =) 

Well, at least my only problem would be cooking, my husband cooks well and I know that he'll do that willingly for as long as when I learned how to cook just so he won't have to endure another of my cooking disasters. Maybe I'll borrow my mom's cookbooks or maybe I'll enroll in a culinary class. Dream on... Haha!