Thursday, December 06, 2007

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.

9 comments:

My A's said...

Thanks for the wonderful meal Karen... Loved the mash potatoes!!

Looking forward to more perhaps? XD

Anonymous said...

haha broke the plates microwaving..make sure they're microwave safe first..

as for grams to mls.. 1 ml = 1g/cm3 . so i guess it's okay to substitute 1g for 1ml? also slightly dependant on ur stock density...

valeriechuan said...

karen when i m back for hols, u gonna cook a meal for me yeahh =)

i wouldn bother too much bout the measurements when it comes to cooking as compared to baking; coz too much of this or too lil of that determines whether your cake will rise or sink..HAHAH..

basically before u start cooking u have to pic in mind how or what is it that you're gonna cook.

It's always best to start off with half a cube of stock first then after that if nto enough only add on.

the chicken chop turned black fast i think it's because of the pepper or something in the ingredients used to marinate the meat,have yet to find out how to prepare good chicken chop or pork chop..Haha..

have u tried replacing Mayo with milk powder instead and see how it taste?..haha it was just a suggestion ;-)

hAppy cooking..cook more often and u'll get use to it..=)

shirlyn said...

hey..ALL THAT makes u a better cook k...u can run.but u still gotta eat...

take it as a practice b4 going to NZ...u WILL want to eat home-cooked food when u're there..=)

Kevin Siah said...

Lil' sis, looks like you have lots of semi-pro chefs giving you advice. I, unfortunately, have stopped cooking since I started work. And even the cooking I did in uni days were all very simple. Good thing, I'm not a fussy eater.

Gene said...

sweeeet story. you're cooking when you get to perth. i'll offer my kitchen. but you replace anything you break

valeriechuan said...

i agree with what shirlyn says =)

galnexdor said...

hahah ok...thanks so much everyone for the tips...

yea i agree with hooilian...measurements n stuff are not that important...go by taste=)

kelvin, that conversion is only true for water la! where's your physics?

and replace mayo with milk? ahah never...i love me mayo...

eugene, i'm not cooking for u...u dont want me to cook for u...ahahah

kor, i can cook for u when u come back...but ud have to finish everything...even if it sucked...haha

thanks again all...:)

valeriechuan said...

dont worry.your bro already said "i m not a fussy eater"..

so he will eat up everything..Heheh..;p