Yesterday, Pam came over to my place cos she wanted to learn how to make pizza. But when I met her at 12noon, and told her that she needed to wait at least another three hours before she could eat her pizza, her stomach made her change her mind.. She was hungry! So she decided on steak instead. So off we went to buy the beef and some vegetables to make the meal more wholesome. The steak turned out fine - I just did the flipping for her while she told me when to stop cooking! Hmmm.. seems like she was the one teaching me how to cook!
Then we decided to make oatmeal cookies cos that was her favourite too. Baking's my forte, so I taught her how to cream the mixture, and basically dump everything else in, stir it all into a paste, and ball the dough into bite size chunks on the baking tray before dumping it into the oven. It was fabulous! Pam loved the cookies!
Wendy came over too. It was her day off. So there we were, all three of us in the kitchen like some tai tais, making cookies and listening to bossa nova music, once in a while perring out of the window to see the heavy downpour outside. We talked and laughed, and munched on left-over cookies that could not fit into the containers we had. Then Pam wanted to bake some more! Flipping through yet more cook books, Pam decided on some caramel nut thingy dipped with chocolate. The recipe seemed pretty easy enough - just sugar, water, nuts, and chocolate... I had them all in my home..
So there I was, stirring the sugar mixture over the hot fire.. I must have stirred to vigourously cos a drop of the burning hot caramel jumped onto me and "ouch"... Now I have a little bubble on my wrist area. It doesn't hurt, but I hope it doesn't burst.. It'd be an awful sight if it does. But the candy turned out OK.. We dipped it with lots and lots of chocolate cos that's the way to enjoy sinful food, aint' it? :)
Pam left in the late evening cos she was meeting someone. So it was just Wendy and me.. and my dear brother playing his new computer game at home. I had picked up some new seasoning at the supermarket earlier and wanted to try it out. So I did.. Sprinkled the seasoning onto the chicken, baby potatoes and carrots and dumped it all into the baking bag that came with the seasoning. Just for the fun of it, I also dumped three cloves of garlic (which I ate just like that after that!). Dumped the whole thing into the oven for about 45 minutes and tah-dah! It was really really really really nice.. Soft, juicy, tender chicken that was a little sour and spicy... kinda like buffalo wings, but better.. The potatoes and carrots and garlic turned out wonderful with the seasoning too.. Hmm.. Maybe I should try it on turkey for X'mas?
I am motivated. Later today, I will scour the supermarket again, and see what else I can whip up..! In the meantime, it's back to design work... but before I do, here's a quote for budding cooks out there...
Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And, cooking done with care is an act of love.
--Craig Clairborne
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