My First Cookbook

I think I've just sorted the last box of books. I was so surprised to find my first cookbook! 

I recall going through it, but I don't remember cooking anything based on the recipes from the book. I learned how to bake first and it was only decades later before I learned how to cook, haha.

Ate taught me how to bake peanut butter cookies and I watched her bake apple pie. I didn't learn how to cook because I was traumatized when our stove malfunctioned. It was like a fire breathing dragon and that was so scary for me. 

I still bake peanut butter cookies and here's how I make it -

https://youtu.be/BPtt63o4CH4?si=WGqIGeJY6wlb5mtD

I eventually learned how to cook (to survive!). Nowadays, Miggy cooks more than me. I've been documenting our favorite home made dishes on "Recipes for My Son". It helps us whenever there's something we want to cook again.

#BeKind #StaySafe

The Domesticated Goddess Journey: Learning How to Cook

My journey to become a domesticated goddess started over ten years ago when Sweetie and I got married. It was hard since we always had helpers at home when I was growing up. Sweetie and I had to compromise about having helpers. He grew up without helpers (we're complete opposites!) and that meant he wasn't comfortable having any at home. My Mom knew I won't be able to cope so we always had someone who would clean the house once a week and do the ironing*. I had to learn how to cook though.  

I only learned to cook because someone advised me to treat cooking like a science experiment. I was forced to learn because a few weeks after our wedding the party leftovers from holiday parties started to dwindle and buying cooked food got costly. I started with egg, then hotdogs and canned goods. The only real dish I could cook ten years ago was spaghetti and lasagna. I didn't go further than that in the beginning because I have issues with gas stovetops. 

Circa 2007, cooking spaghetti. 

Eventually I expanded to simple Filipino dishes, but I had a lot of kitchen mishaps in the beginning. I cut myself many times cutting veggies, oil wisik and getting burned. I realized I should have paid more attention during cooking class in HS (I only liked doing the groceries hehe). My cooking prowess improved when I discovered electric stoves.

Here are the ways I learned how to cook:

(1) Coaching by friends - the spaghetti I cook for my friends was taught to me by my seatmate at OHSI, Maica. She had to teach me several times until I finally got it. It was the only thing I knew how to cook for many years. I learned how to cook adobo from Mang Gerry (Komikero) and my housemate's ex. Tappy taught me how to bake fruitcake and I ping her annually to review me how to make it haha. 

(2) Attending classes - I used to attend cooking classes hosted at Maya Kitchen. They used to invite bloggers and I enjoyed attending those classes. I was planning to enroll in cooking and baking class this year, but the pandemic foiled my plans. 

(3) YouTube - Would you believe it was Dominic Ochoa (the actor) who suggested to me that I could learn a lot about cooking from YouTube! I learned how to slice veggies properly because of YouTube and I look up cooking/baking techniques also via YouTube. I watch a wide array of cooking videos, I watch Masterchefs, homecooks and oftentimes I just search a dish I'm craving for. My current favorite is Simpol. 

From scaredy cook to baking bread (well funny looking ensaymada here).

I think Miggy is a better homecook than me. He has his Papa Lolo's talent and he is more experimental. One of my goals this year is to learn how to cook our family recipes. I'm stuck here in Singapore for now so I'm starting with recipes. I've been filming how I cook Miggy's favorite recipes so he can make it for himself back home. You can find the "Recipes for My Son" here.

I only started to learn how to cook ten years ago. It's never too late to learn! I'm still picky on what I cook (because I'm scared of oil splatter!), but I'm always up for a challenge. Maybe next year I can finally enroll in the class I've been eyeing to enroll in. 

What about you? Are you a talented cook or are you like me? Haha. 

If you're curious how I started my journey to become a domesticated goddess. Read the starting point here.

CB//176 #StuckAtHomeDay/206 #WFH120 #StayHome #BeKind 

The Day I Cooked Adobo

While I was washing the dishes after dinner Sweetie stood behind me and with a hug said, "Wow! My wife has been domesticated!" I laughed out loud and Sweetie asked, "At bakit ka naman tumatawa?" I told him that if my Kuya heard what he just said he'll probably faint and Anne would probably declare, "The sky must be falling!"

A few years ago when my brother asked me what I wanted to be years from now I told him, "I want to be a housewife!" My Kuya promptly laughed and said that it was impossible. He went on to say that I was too focused on my career and that managing a household would probably drive me crazy.

Save for the cooking classes we had in high school I never bothered to learn how to cook. I was a good student though so I learned most of the cooking theories. I always got myself assigned as the marketer and dishwasher back in high school because I was so scared of the kalan. At home someone always did the cooking and Miguel would complain whenever I fried bacon for him, so any cooking duties I had were done by someone else.

After more than two weeks surviving on leftovers taken from all the family parties we had and canned goods I knew I had no choice but to cook something. Drew suggested I start with some basic dishes like adobo and sinigang, so a few days ago I started to do some research about how to cook adobo. I started off by watching this video by Komikero -



Bought a couple of recipe books. Bought the ingredients and then as instructed by Komikero marinated the meat last night. An hour before cooking Anne coached me a bit and told me I can do it and there were loads of advise as well from Plurk. Just before I started cooking I panicked and called up my Mom to ask Dad some important cooking questions.

So I dumped everything in the pot and waited and waited and waited. Followed Ria's and my Dad's advise to add some sugar and waited till the meat was tender. Was it yummy? Ask Sweetie :)

Photos of how it went is at our Mabuhay ang Bagong Kasal blog.