Break Out Your Pots And Pans

Act 45:

“It’s never too late… To Learn To Cook

Open untouched worlds, new sensations and culture. Become an entertainer. Learn and make special recipes for special friends. Stimulate your creative juices. Invent your own recipes. Be a culinary explorer.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.” ~ Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

I LOVE COOKING. It’s relaxing to me. Over the years, I’ve had a couple of dinner parties, where I’ve cooked and invited friends over to come eat. I know there’s a lot of people out there who can’t cook to save their lives. I’m lucky enough that I can not only follow a recipe, but also branch out and modify the recipe and the food still tastes good. Or at least I hope it tastes good. I haven’t killed anyone yet. (that I know of)

Since I can follow a recipe, I can pretty much cook anything. I don’t really like cooking fancy shmancy things, but I can. I actually like nice and easy home cooking. As a kid, we never had a lot of take out food. My mom or grandparents cooked for us every night. Luckily my mom always wanted to eat something “new” every night, so we ate different things every night. It was funny. My mom and bro would eat the “new” food. My dad and I would eat half “new” food and then eat the leftovers from the night before. I love leftovers… so much that I always take my food home from the restaurant. Some people have called me “Queen Of the Doggie Bags,” because I’ll take anything home, even if it’s just one bite left of a burger.

I learned how to cook from my mom. She’s the best cook. I’m sure lots of kids say that about their moms, but I really mean it. Everything tastes better when she cooks it vs. when I cook it. I get almost all my recipes from my mom, well Filipino food anyway. I’ve actually introduced a lot of my friends to Filipino food by cooking it for them. I know how to cook the staples… Adobo, Sinigang… and now (because my Aunt taught me…) Palabok. Mmm. I cooked it for my cousins this past weekend. Here are some pics of the fruits of my labor.

I can cook a lot of other types of food other than Filipino food. I cook a lot of pasta. I make amazing german porkchops. I can make Chinese and Korean food and I make sushi all the time. The biggest problem I have w/ cooking is that most of my recipes are for 4 people. My mom’s and the non-filipino ones I’ve either gotten online, from cookbooks, or this recipe set that I have. I live alone, so cooking for four used to be AWESOME. I’d eat one portion for dinner, eat one for lunch the next day and either save two in the freezer or just one in the freezer and eat the other for dinner the next night. Now that I’m dieting and that I’m eating less… cooking for four is not a good thing. It’s too much food now and I’ve found that lately I just don’t have a lot of time to make big meals anymore.

So, late last year I bought the NuWave Oven. It’s wonderful for singles or couples. If you’re not making big meals or meals for a lot of people, it’s perfect for you. If you can’t cook or are a beginner, it’s perfect for you, too. The best thing about it is that it’s a time saver. I can take meat from the freezer and stick it in the NuWave oven and cook it w/out defrosting it. It truly does what it says it does. Believe me, I’ve bought a lot of infomercial crap over the years, this is legit! I can go on and on and on about it (just ask K.Neier I convinced her to start using it). If you don’t have a NuWave Oven, you should go get one. Call/email me and I’ll give you cooking tips and all the stuff you can do w/ it. I use mine all the time. However, you don’t need a NuWave Oven to cook smaller portions. I actually have a lot of cool recipes for singles and couples that I’ve developed that are quick an easy. I’ve even invented a couple of vegetarian versions of some of the Filipino classics (eggplant adobo). I’m not so full of myself that I’ll actually make a cookbook, but if you ever need any ideas… let me know and I’m always willing to share. I’ve actually shared come of my single recipes w/ my mom and bro and they’ve enjoyed them.

So, whether you’re a beginner or a season chef, go out and learn to cook something that you’ve never cooked before. I cooked Palabok the other night by myself for the first time. I had cooked it w/ the watchful eye of my aunt before, but it’s quite different cooking it by yourself. My cousins said they liked it, but they were practicing “pretending” to like it… so I’m not sure. Haha. Anyway, thanks to Ninang Babes for teaching me to cook Palabok. Now, that I’ve cooked it by myself, (even if it takes a long time), it’ll be part of my repertoire for stuff I make at dinner parties I throw. =)