First Bake

Another update of my recent cooking experience, which has been become more creative and authentic. All made from scratch, involved little bit war in the kitchen, but no pain this time.

I was surprised of myself as the result was not too bad at all. Very tasty and yummy (of course that's whay Hubby said, .... but it's true! ;p). I even got the highest rank I've ever had for the Ayam Goreng Kecap/Fried Chicken with Soy Souce dish, which was 9 out of 10! (ranked by hubby too, of course). That's perhaps motivate me to do my first baking dish later on, Makaroni Schotel/Baked Macaroni, which is delicimo too. :)

Ayam Goreng Kecap

Baked Macaroni (Macaroni Schotel)
first time baking in oven!!

Delicimo

As far as I don't like cooking, I'm surprise to find myself enjoying it (sometimes) lately. Maybe because we have such a fancy kitchen, maybe because I don't work, maybe because I started to get use to all the pain (*grin*).

Followed to my cooking attempt, trial and error last year and recent cooking incident, here is an update of few meals that I made since I've been here.

Note:

• It's hard to get ingredients and cooking spices for Asian/Indo dishes. So for the start I have to use spices in ready package. It turned out ok, it's practical, and better than not cook at all. (*grin*)


• These are only few meals that I took the picture when I remember. I cooked lot more.
  

Tom Kha Gai

Beef Rendang

But I also made few meals from the scratch. With all original spices, and with sweat and pain (*grin*) like this ones:

Nasi Goreng

Sweet and Sour Chicken
made it from scratch. Pretty proud with myself for this one


and of course, Perkedel Kentang (Potato Cake)

They might not look too good, but it taste good! At least hubby likes them and always finish them all. No complaint, no stomach ache, no critics. :D

So, what do you think? Do you think I'm improved ???

Such A Pain

It was hot,

pressure was in the air,

It involved lots of screaming and yelling, and splashing

and here are the result

some burns on my right wrist,

another one on the other hand

some more on further up near elbow....

another one under my left eye (it's covered my make up now so I cant take picture),

............

and few more everywehere such as my left leg and neck (not too bad), and floor.

..............

yes, splashes of hot cooking oil, fresh from the fried pan decided to land on my skin and everywhere in my kitchen yesterday

...............

all of that pain i gained, just for making these.....

delicious potato cake with corned beef

................

and you now know why I don't like cooking.

Eating vs Cooking

I like eating, as in: I enjoy the foods, I usually not picky, and like to try new foods. But when it comes to cooking.... that would be a different case. For sure, I don't enjoy it as much as I enjoy eating (*grin*). I'm not sure why, I did not find myself interested in cooking, baking, and anything related to kitchen and its utensils. Especially when I was in Jakarta. My mum was the queen of our kitchen, so was in charged in that area and cooked for the family everyday. I guessed I took it for granted sometimes. My sisters helped my mum sometimes, but not me. I was so lazy, kitchen just not my area, and I prefer to do something else... :)

I always think that I can learn to cook later, if I really really have to. And I did! Cooking became one of my problem when I got married and have to move here, far away from my mum. Could not depend on my mum cooking anymore (*sob*) I was only able to cook instant noodle at that time! Lucky, Andrew is a good cook. He enjoyed cooking, as cooking is one of his hobbies. But, of course I couldn't depend on him cooking all the time. What kind of wife am I ?! :) So there I was, learned how to cook. Tried my mum's recipes, tried other recipes, called my mum for advises, and been through lots of pain (got my finger wounded by the knife, skin burned from bumped into hot pans, got spilled by hot water, splashed by hot cooking oil, etc, etc).... - That's why I think cooking is a very dangerous job ! :D And it's probably why I didn't enjoy cooking from the first place.

After more than a year, I think I made a progress. I still cook when I have to or when I'm in the 'mood', and I still only cook simple meals. But I think I know about cooking spices and ingredients a lot better than before, and less hurting myself (*yay!*). Now I know how to cook beautiful rice (without rice cooker!), know how to avoid cooking oil splash, how to make nice chicken stock, know name of spices and how to use it, cook faster, able to make new and more variation of foods, and the food taste better and better. As people said, practice makes perfect. Hope to be able to make cakes next year. :)

Pictures above is only few simple meals which I usually made. You may click it to enlarge and see clear details. Will take pictures of others meals later :)

Lazy Sunday

I woke up at 10:25 am this morning..... hmm...what a sleep in :) Andrew had gone to walk when I got up. I made some coffee and toasts, put some clothes in the washing machine, and suddenly i felt like.... hair spa! It's been more than a month since my last hair spa. My hair screamed to have it again soon. So, I spent about 1 hour giving my hair and scalp (plus my body skin) a nice treat. 20 minutes to distribute all the cream evenly, and massage the scalp and hair. Then I leave it under warm towel for 15 minutes, while I used the waiting time to scrub my body with body scrub. Then spent another 15 minutes to rinse it thoroughly. My hair and skin felt smooth, soft, moisturised, and aromatic. Sooo nice. :)

I love to sleep in. But the bad thing about it is you'll spend almost half of you day for nothing. It will frustrate me if I actually wanted to do several things on that day because of little time that I have left. Like today..... So many things I planned to do today, but after the hair spa I felt a bit tense because it's already noon, and I have not done none of them. aaarrrggh.... But then Andrew gave me a 'snap' (;p) so that I was calm down a bit.

Anyhow, while Andrew was watching his fav. series, The Shield on 'original' dvd, I cooked the traditional javanese tempe, which usually called tempe mendoan. This is of course, my first try. Think it's a bit to salty,... but Andrew said it's fine, and he liked it. He even dips it in sweet soy sauce (with chili). I have to admit it's really taste the same as my mum's! yummo!! :)

Then it's time for ironing. As usual, 2 baskets of them (only) :(.... To avoid being bored and tired, I did it with my fav. series, Lost, played on the dvd.

It was about 5.30 pm when I finished iron, and supposed to get ready for church. But Andrew got a work call and has to go to work soon. So we missed church again today. Hope to not miss it again next week.

I didn't do some of the things I planned to do, but pretty much happy with what I have done today.