MY Cooking Rehearsals

Lately, I' ve been experimenting on my cooking skills. Though a bit out of the usual regular budget, I view this experiment as a practical cooking school for me, which, I have always wanted to do, but never found the time and much effort. Not until lately though.

Anyway, my trial cooking these days is like riding a roller coaster.
Sometimes my chosen recipe is a big hit at home, sometimes its just ordinary or worse, its a disaster. Midway, they all were edible though.

What i love with cooking is the smell of spice and herbs on my handwashed fingers thereafter. Its this smell that does'nt go away easily even after a good handwash with some of the best soaps I know. In the past, I never liked the smell of spices on my hands, thats one of the reason why I did'nt cook much. But today,I regard cooking differently.

ITS A CHALLENGE to win the palate of my children! While I love cooking menus with herbs and veggies on it--typically the complicated ones, they, on the other hand prefer just the simple way of cooking-- and mostly, they just like it simply fried and crunchy. But i won't give up introducing these taste of herbs in our dishes...Not until they get used to it. Hala.. The only fan i have at home at this time and at any given moment, with any of my home made cooking high or low impact--is my handsome hubby. He's my best & gentle critic and the one who gobbles up my cooked food and says its great! hehehe.

My grocery shopping these days are more eventful and meaningful. I scan the grocery aisles for those ingredients that are new to my eyes which i never gave a second look at before.And.... I learn and re-learn the stuff on my list and exclaim with an "oh" and an "ahh, so thats why this is so and that is so.."

Successful recipes on my list were as I have relayed on my previous blog, though needing some tweaking here and there,they are :

*Pork rib stew
*Steamed Fish fillet in taosi sauce .

I tried cooking other recipes though. These were a hit at home :

*Crunchy Tilapia fillet
*Tanghon salad --------------->>
* Homemade Chicken Nugget strips
* Mango pearls




*Cheesy spaghettini ::



Not so very successful were :

*Ensaladang Lato and prutas - The Lato expired on its own and watered my dressing! I didnt know Lato ( that seaweed with puffy circles which contains water inside) would shrink when its soaked in vinegar. Its been awhile since I last ate Lato. I overlooked his vulnerable qualities.Til next time, my Lato.

*Grilled chicken in herbs - I was the only one who loved it! bravo? yeah. hurray myself! i'll give it a try again one of these days..

*chocolate sauce - i made one, to coat vanilla ice cream..it turned out like an ordinary MILO milk! i used dark chocolate bars to melt with water and sugar. I guess i placed too much water.Cge lang next time napod. I won't stop until i get it perfect coz this is a favorite of my kids!

On my next try:

*Quick Paella - - for chinese new year. A bahala na recipe 'coz i have'nt tried this yet! Oh yes, i know its best to serve recipes that are tried and tested on special occasions, but,i want to try this. See what happens... wink. I wonder if this is a mexican dish or a Pinoy one..We'll have this with tikoy as our desert. I havent done my research on chinese recipes yet.This will do for now,i guess. I'll just have chicken handy again just in case it turns out not so ok for the kids.

*Pancit Puti with chicharon
*Chicken recipes--my children love crispy chicken. I dunno why God created chicken! What i am trying to figure out now is how to make them like their chicken with a taste of herbs on it.
-- I used to put them in processed bread crumbs from the grocery, but of late, I learned how to make my own bread crumbs! Its very fun to discover so many things. You create and recreate stuff in the kitchen. Ordinary bread from our bread bin, toast in the oven then pound with a heavy pestle using a mortar of course!( i used to have fun with mortar and pestle way back in bio chemistry colllege days.I did'nt want to miss having this as a main charcter in my utensil cabinet).

There's so much to learn and discover in cooking!

I am starting to love it just as much.Another good thing i love with cooking is--my appetite does'nt shoot high when i'm the one cooking our meal! Its a miracle? a grace of sorts?.. oh. well.. i will see this cooking passion through..Practice makes perfect.

One of those pretty long blogs ,eh? hakuna matata. Precisely ! There's so much space , there's Unlimited paper ,inkless pa.

Basta...Another of my wannabe list:: to be my own chef ! owwwwwwsss....

Lagi.. promise..wink.