I must say Goodbye to you!

Being a neophyte cook, i began to explore my little kitchen with these instants i got from the grocery. I became a fan of Del Monte, the moment husband favored my chicken curry using curry mix. But i guess, this will be the last set of my instants i have to use every cooking time. Husband wants me to cook the natural aka hard way.

And these sets of soup, that is very yummy with every fried viand will also be the last to behold my kitchen. Sigh. Now, no matter how hard it will be, i must bid goodbye to DelMonte Quick n Easy and Knorr. :(

My menudo that i cook this morning is quite the ground for hubby's disliking the products. He said it taste good, but he disagrees that menudo should have laurel leaves! I told him to complain on DelMonte's! Am just following instructions and its not my fault. Hahah

Oh well, in my mind, i know i have to cook every meal on its original way and not to be dependent on instants! Sure they are making my life easier but i have to learn things in a harder way to appreciate them! :)

Heavenly Chicken Tinola

The wifey me missed the saturday bonding with my mushroom family (oh SQL training really means sacrifice and am glad tonight will be the last session - relief!!). I was thinking of cooking tinola for saturday's lunch so i grabbed the chance to cook it sunday lunch! :)

Ingredients
* 1 kilo whole chicken (cut into parts or choice cuts of breast, thighs of wings).
* 2 1/2 cups young papaya or sayote
* 1/2 cup dahon ng sili
* 5 cups water
* 2 tablespoons ginger (roughly chopped)
* 1/2 head garlic (minced)
* 1 medium onion (diced)
* 3 tablespoons oil
* 2 tablespoons patis
* pinch of salt and pepper

Procedure
1. In a casserole, heat oil and saute' garlic, onion and ginger.
2. Add the chicken and water.
3. Bring to a boil and lower fire, let simmer until chicken is cooked.
4. Pour in patis, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add in papaya or sayote, allow to cook.
6. When ready to serve, put in dahon ng sili.
7. Serve hot.

I don't know if hubby is just making feel good everytime i served him the food i prepared sweat and all.. or he's making me believe that i am really the queen of the kitchen now, coz whatever i cooked for him, he keeps on praising me and telling me he is totally forgetting about his diet.. :)

I love hearing his praises and side comments on what seasoning to use and not to use (he hates magic real sarap seasoning, sorry claudine!). And prefers MSG! Oh well, atleast i know what to ignore in the kitchen.. heheh

Now am actually looking forward to cooking without peeking at my recipe notebook!! :) Ive been cooking from the heart.. and cooking from the mind is very very thing ive been dreaming. Best of luck on my memory, yeeebah!

Change

No, you're not getting lost, this is still the lover mushroom's blog! :) Just want to change it to a new look.. oh well i might be changing it again sooner when i have much time, but for the moment i think this new template will do! :) Am still looking for three column templates and i can't find any that suits my taste.. Hahah

Anyway, husband has a new job already and he seems to be enjoying in his new company. Which is a good sign, really. The job came right in time when we are on the end line of our hope :) The company is just a walk away from my job (good!), with same work time schedule (very good!) and is a petroleum company ( very very good!) meaning it might be out of danger in this time of recession.. I just hope so.

Yena, our little mushroom, is with her grandma while we are at work. So we left her when she is still sleeping and surprisingly she is still awake when we get home at night. Night time would mean cooking for dinner and playing with Yena who is making lots of silly tricks already. That leave me sleeping like 12am everyday! Well hubby wakes up when Yena asks for her milks, relief! :)

The wifey me, wakes up at 445am. Cook breakfast and do my home cooked meal for my lunchbox! :) Wakes hubby up at 530am and eat our breakfast together. And we end up running after the bus before 630am!

Lots of changes actually after our house moving, aside from me cooking which is the biggest change so far, hahah. But we are embracing all the changes no matter how good or not good it is, there is no contant in this world but change, anyway!

Try my Pork Afritada

I hurried home last night, my mind has been running wild on what will be for our dinner?! I thought about cooking Menudo, but there was no pork liver available so i settled on cooking Afritada instead. You have to know am always nervous cooking, seems like its always a first time. So last night, was like the rest of first times for me, my first time to cook afritada and my first time to cook for six persons - Yobib plus his three nephews, plus me and Yena! Record breaking people to feed for me! and it makes me more nervous..

Cook-It-Easy Afritada

Ingredients
1 pack Knorr Cook-It-Easy Afritada-Menudo Recipe Mix
3/4 kg pork or chicken meat, cut into serving pieces
2 medium potatoes, pared and quartered
2 small red and green bell peppers, sliced
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 cups (about 500 ml) water

3 Easy Steps
1. Heat oil in a pan. Fry the meat until slightly brown, then remove excess oil.
2. In the same pan, add the water, then completely dissolve Knorr Cook-It-Easy Afritada-Menudo Recipe Mix. Bring to boil and simmer with cover until meat is tender (30-45 minutes).
3. Add potatoes and cook for another 10 minutes (I added extra carrots!! feel ko lang :) heheh) . Add bell peppers in the last few minutes of cooking. Serve.

I dont know if my nervousness gets in the way of my cooking; The three kids loved my afritada, Yena had her two servings while hubby told me it was way too salty for him :(. He was still happy though.. I told him i can do better the next time for his taste :)

Oh my! Chicken Curry!

As an amateur cook, i know i will cook Chicken Curry in the near future! It is a must for me, coz i really love eating it, so i must know how to cook it when my crazy cravings come up. So when i did our grocery a week ago, i included in the list the Del MOnte Quick N Easy Curry Mix.

Quick n Easy Chicken Curry

1 pack Del Monte Quick n’ Easy Curry Mix, combined with 3/4 cup water and milk
4 pc medium potatoes, cut into chunks
2 pc medium carrots, cut into chunks
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 pc medium onion, sliced
1 kg chicken, cut up
1/3 cup evaporated milk (or 1 cup thick coconut milk)
1 pc small red bell pepper, cut into cubes


Just 3 Easy Steps!

1. Fry potatoes and carrots. Set aside.
2. Saute garlic, onion and chicken in 2 tbsp oil. Pour in Del Monte Quick n Easy Curry Mix mixture.
3. Simmer until chicken is done. Add fried potatoes, carrots and bell pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens.

Makes 8 servings.

I really wish, first impression lasts. Coz hubby could not believe how i did it near perfection! :) He just loved the taste! He was not a fan of chicken curry before until he tasted my curry! I know i will have to cook it again and he will be drooling just the thought of it! :) So i have my DM Curry Mix a Must in my grocery shopping list! Wink

En Route for - - Quick N Easy Menudo! (I must try it out one of this days... hmmm)

Our Little Mushroom

It has been a long time ago since i posted photos of our little mushroom, our daughter Yena here. So for the time being here are her pictures while playing at her new play area at the new house (oh actually the whole house is her new play area! LOL) ..

The first ever visitor in our mini house is non other than fellow blogger and friend, Ghie!

Cooking happily ever after

I would definitely enjoy staying at home BUT the kitchen! I use to say that before, i do not know how to cook and i wont try until i have my own home, my own kitchen that is. Since our first day at our new mini house, i found myself kitchen-bound, by choice! Or else we would die of hunger, we don't have somebody to cook for us! :)

So for the first timer like me, i search the net every now and then for recipe's. Print all the menu i can cook home from my kumareng liz website and read every little instructions at the back of every home cook meal package from the groceries. I cannot be more happier when husband smiles at me and said how yummy my cooking was, well except for that chicken adobo which he said was quiet sour. Well, is it really me cooking?? i cannot believe myself too!


Over the weekends i cooked, pork sinigang (pork sour soup), sinabawang tahong (mussels soup), chicken adobo and fried rice. Fried every fish, chicken, hot dogs and eggs i can get. And boila! I can no longer say to my friends that i don't know how, now i can say that i am learning! And loving cooking for my little family.. :)

Novice Cook in the Making

I was so busy last night with the fixing and organizing when i received husband's text of 'what's for dinner?'. I'd like to scream at the top of my lungs a "WHAT?" Do my cooking time starts really now?? Am not yet done with the fixing!!

So without further hesitation, i managed to pull myself together and dare to try to cook rice! It may not be my first time but it seems so first to me coz i cant remember a time i cook rice and perfecting it. Since that day i burned our rice cooker i stayed away from the kitchen (for the chosen few who knows the story of that poor rice cooker of ours, please keep quiet! LOL)

Am happy that he said my rice seems so perfect! (Gosh, rice pa lang tumataas presyon ko sa nerbyos!! Kilig ako right after hearing his compliments though)

I was really nervous, i do not like to please everyone (my husband included!!) with cooking coz i really do not know how to cook. But i really wanted to learn - for my husband, i feel its such a shame that he knows how to cook while i dont! But because, it was 1030pm already and i don't have anything to cook yet ( i forgot to buy something to cook for dinner) hubby said we can eat canned goods for the moment just like we used to before in our apartment in manila. :) I guess he didnt saw the big grin in my face - i was saved for a tragedy in the kitchen! LOL

My first ever meatloaf omelet!! I woke up early this morning just so hubby can have this for breakfast.

And i have some for my breakfast at office too!! :)

Looks like a child is in charge of the kitchen with the way i write my post here. Forgive me. This is really my first encounter with my little kitchen. And i loved it!! i think i will love to cook some more! From the easiest to the hardest ones! Am ready.. Bring it on!! :)

Dream coming true

It has been my wish on day one of getting married to Yobib, to have our own space - our own home. I foresee it coming true some years more but as destiny get its way, we will have our own space sooner than i expected.

Well, to start with. Our new humble dwelling is from my mother's. I mean, my parent's house is divided into three even when we were small, that is to say they wanted their three children to have their fair share of the 100 sqm lot. When my sister got married, she had the middle area already.. and i will have the other! :)

I imagine the repairs and renovations would be cheap but i was so wrong - it turned out to be very very expensive and oh so way out of our budget.. Then a very good friend for the nth time again and again helped with the costs - i just cant thank her enough for all her help. Our abode will be colored lavender and will be named - Mini Nancy House in honor of her.

Thanks a lot Nancy, my mare! I thought a friend like u exist only in my sweetest of dreams but as i see it - a house and a great friend like you are so so much more than a dream coming true!

Underwear Origami - On Video

Last night, i told hubby not to be surprised when he saw his brief on our blog. Told him i'll bring it to the office and do the video on underwear origami on break period. And just as promise here is the video, hope you find it educating rather than titilating! LOL :)

So to start, place the underwear like this. Note the name in front, coz it has to show when you're done folding! wink.
It has to look like this! :)
Now for the video, thank you for my officemates who find time to hold my camera phone while i do the folding! :)

Happy underwear folding everyone!! :)

and another countdown begins..

We are moving out of my in laws house on March 11, full moon! I wonder why hubby and his family follow this belief :) I wonder too what is the connection between the moon and the house moving :)

But whatever it is, am just so happy coz i will be a housewife soon!!! Meaning i will be in charge of the kitchen! Yebah!