trying to be the woman of the house

ever since my parents left for Kuilin on Sunday I've taken on a whole different persona around the house. It was as if my mind had suddenly switched to woman-of-the-house mode, being in charge of everything, overseeing anything that comes and goes within the 4 walls.

i walk around the house and pick up things and put them back into place. i bring in the mail. i sweep the floor. i make sure my brother mops the floor. i straighten floor mats. i check the water dispenser. i make my brother fill up the water dispenser. i wash, hang and dry, bring in and fold the clothes. i rise in the morning with minimal help of an alarm. i shut and lock all windows and doors at night. i arrange things on tables and counters. i straighten up the sofa cushions. and i cook.

now now, don't need to drop jaws. i may not have in-born culinary sense but i have cooked edible decent meals before, none of which i've heard any complaints from my victims. but they were always simple dishes, which require minimal use of pots and pans. and they may have lacked a little taste and finesse but they aren't all that bad.

today i decided to be brave. i invited my friends over for dinner. i cooked, for 7 people, chicken chop with mashed potatoes and fries. sounds like a mouthful rather than a handful, but believe you me, i am exhausted.

i marinated the chicken chop myself. and i sautéed (learned a new word today) it. but it turned black waaaaay too fast resulting in me removing them from the pan before the insides were cooked. thank God for microwave ovens.

i boiled and mashed my own potatoes with butter, mayo and salt. this was pretty good actually. i didn't have a masher, so i worked up quite a sweat with 2 forks and a spoon.

fries were deep fried. they were...well fries...so yea...was alright.

the gravy, i made myself too. it smelled amazing as it was simmering. i threw in chicken stock, garlic, button mushrooms, oyster sauce, some other stuff i can't quite remember. i kinda remixed 2-3 different recipes. here's where it went wrong. recipes showed chicken stock in ml while my chicken stock concentrate was in gms. thus it was hard for me to gauge. which resulted in me using waaaaaay too much. in the end, you could rub salt into every square centimetre of your tongue and it'd still taste less salty than my gravy. it was that insane. which was a pity coz i didn't get to eat my mushrooms.

and...i broke 2 plates. from microwave heating.

so yea...today i cooked for a table of 7. cleaning up after was a chore.

i think i'll stick to running.