Improvising meals

I’m one of those “improvise-as-u-go, don’t-really-follow-recipes” kinda cook… a danger to the people who have to eat my meals (poor hubby).

For example, if I wanted to cook kungpao chicken, I’ll go online and find a few different recipes for kungpao chicken, digest them, then spit out the parts I don’t like. If I don’t have certain ingredients which I don’t deem necessary, or I don’t really like eating them, I’ll just sorta skip them, or replace them with something I like to eat, or have in the fridge. If they ask me to stirfry it at high heat then turn the heat down, I may just turn the heat up again (coz it’s not cooking quick enough)… and then burn the sauce. *poor hubby x2* So, it is gonna be a very interesting journey for me (and hubby) in my newly equipped kitchen in JB.

However, it’s a different story when it comes to baking. My mom used to bake lots of cakes and cookies when I was a kid, and I was always finding ways to help her. She loved baking and would experiment with recipes. I heard dad tell me and sister that at one time she set her mind to making the perfect chiffon cake, and she baked about 10 cakes or so in a day before finally being satisfied with it. Poor dad had to eat so many of them (including the failed ones). LOL

I started baking on my own at 13 when mom allowed me to use her oven without supervision. It was stress relief, and good exercise (I used a wooden spoon and a mixing bowl instead of an electric beater). I never really fancied store-bought cakes, coz I can make them on my own. Now we’re saving up to buy an oven soon, and I’ll bring my kenwood beater down from kl (one of mom’s wedding presents for me), and then I can say “Let us eat cake!”

Anyway, back to the topic of meals… I’m starting to pity hubby, so I’ve called on my sis to recommend me good recipes that I don’t have to *improvise* – coz if I don’t trust them, I’ll try to change them, u see. Anyway, she’s been really helpful and she’s very experienced, cause living in the UK means cooking at home! Eating out costs a bomb, unlike here in SG/JB. And in Melbourne I still had pretty good chinese food coz there are plenty of chinese in Melb city…

Well then, I’m looking forward to another cooking (mis)adventure in JB again this coming weekend – which coincidentally is SG’s National Day weekend (Sat, Sun, Mon). Hope I don’t have to walk the causeway again this Friday. *fingers crossed*