more stupid things

Look at what I did to my pan and umm... plastic strainer thingy! I got these two with the apartment and I had been loving them until one day, after cooking pasta, I put the plastic strainer on top of the pot and both of them on the still cooking stove.

It's one of those fireless cooking stoves. I mean, yes, it's safe and all, and there's a light that indicates if the stove is on or not (and I totally forgot to see that). I came back from my room ready to eat when I smelt something burning, and then I saw this:

The horrible thing is, I had to throw out not one BUT TWO utensils and then I had to BUY another strainer. There's still a pot, though. Smaller, but it'll do. For now.

Oh, and this is just a reminder: this entry is labeled "stupid people", and from time to time, it's not about other people, but about yours truly.

the perfect pasta

I love pasta. I really do. What can I say, I love carbs! Carbs give me my curves... Okay, I'm probably delusional.

However, I had an epiphany just last night. I said to myself, "I'm going to make a garlic bread!" not unlike the way Ms. Vida Boheme (RIP Patrick Swayze) told Ms. Noxeema Jackson and Ms. Chichi Rodriguez that it was going to be a say-something-hat-day nor the way Mrs. Dalloway said that she was going to get the flowers herself.

So, I did.

There was no pestle and mortar, so I had another epiphany and decided to chop the garlic into fine, tiny pieces (thank goodness the IKEA knife was not sharp, otherwise I'd have lost two fingers), then dumped them into a little glass, threw in a lump of vegan butter, and mixed them together with spoon. I spread a bit on a slice of bread.

Next came the pasta. I put the pasta into boiling water and after about 7 minutes, I threw in the spinach (washed, obviously). After approximately one minute, I took the pasta and spinach out of the water. When I was cooking the pasta, I fired up my frying pan, put in the garlic butter until it sizzles, then I threw in the mushrooms. After the mushrooms were golden, I put in the pasta and spinach, sauteed them a bit, then put in the sauce, some tomato slices, and stirred some more. The timer in the little oven went "ding" and I saw the garlic bread, all toasty and ready.

So, yes. I just cooked, and I loved it. Who knew?

There's nothing better than a delicious and satisfying meal on a warm, lazy Saturday.

such is life

"Happy birthday, Ma," my voice trembled across the long distance line. This wasn't the first time I felt homesick on my second long trip to California. It had merely been two weeks and I was already longing for a hot tropical weather, a traffic dead-lock, and idyllic excursions with my felines. The fact that I wasn't home for my mother's birthday seemed to put even more weight on my already hunched back.

These past two weeks have been rather strange, to say the least. I was merrily walking on my weekly grocery trip to WholeFoods and when I crossed the parking lot (on a crossing that was meant as pedestrian crossing, obviously), a woman in an SUV said this to my face (she had her window down), "I had put my blinker on and I was politely waiting for someone to cross the road and somebody else stole my parking spot! So thanks a lot, Asshole!"

Needless to say, I was stunned. I still couldn't figure out if she was directing her anger to me or to another driver who took her spot. Must be someone from Los Angeles.

Another time, I was on the BART Train, on my way to dance class, and I had put on my earphones and played the music on full blast (I know, this was my mistake) and I was reading James Joyce's Dubliners. To cut the story down to the gist: don't ever do this. I learned the hard way and had a guy with a bike make everybody on the damn car look at me as if I were some kind of an inconsiderate asshole. Out of confusion, I said "thank you" instead of "sorry". English has never been my first language.

Then just last week, I witnessed seven police cars busting one sedan. The picture only shows three police cars, but I have two videos of it on my Facebook (I have edited the setting so you don't have to be my friend first). It was right under my window (I happen to live on the second floor of an apartment building). At first I thought it was just some crazy guy yelling on the streets but the shouting kept going on and as I looked out of my window, I saw police cars lining on the streets, their siren lights were on but no sounds. It started at around 2 AM and it took more than an hour to get everything cleaned up.

I found a latex glove lying around the next morning. Do police officers get tickets for littering? I guess not.

Then finally, I received my 12-inch frying pan from Amazon. It is just the right size and I went straight to making sauteed tofu, mushroom, and broccoli and much to my dismay, I realized that the kitchen in my apartment does not have an exhaust fan... Or a door. So, everytime I cook, the rest of the apartment smells like the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant. I had to spray deodorizer afterwards and just open the window.

I've found a perfect solution to this issue (as well as to my diet issue): I will only cook heavy meals for lunch and eat sandwich for dinner. Therefore, I don't have to worry about sleeping with a heavy scent of sauteed tempeh with soy sauce around me.

It has, indeed, been a rough week. However, I'm sure others have had worse. Like the Irene for example.

Well, such is life.

jetlagged much?

I promised myself that I would go straight to FatChanceBellyDance for a class. I took a little nap after lunch (I had Chinese). The nap was much needed because I just carried tons of WholeFoods stuff for five blocks. After setting the alarm on my cellphone, I dozed off. I woke up to a strummed guitar sounds from my neighbor and realized that it was 7 PM already - I had missed my class.

Lord knows how many times and how hard I've been kicking myself on my arse.

By the way, the Chinese restaurant located right in front of my apartment doesn't sell the Chinese pancake like the restaurant near the hostel. However, the Kung Pao Tofu was quite delicious and satisfying and I was also given a treat: a fortune cookie! So after the nap, I opened the cookie and guess what's inside the content:

Yes, me and hundreds of other people who received that cookie. Creative? Perhaps. Original? Who is anymore. Alert? BAHAHAHAHAHA... I wouldn't have missed my class had I been alert.

Anyway, for dinner, I made myself some toast, cut a half of a tomato and microwaved (!!) several pieces of broccoli nuggets, all served with a decent serving of vegannaise... That 4-month old vegannaise. Thank goodness it was the last serving. I had to go back to WholeFoods to buy more.

Oh, well. I forgot to purchase some few items. Plus, I have plans to clean the whole apartment tomorrow... If my mind decides to be alert.

kiss the cook

Yes, yours truly here prays every night to God almighty to confront his fears and soar like an eagle in the sky.

One of those fears being conquered is... COOKING!

Okay, folks. This is extremely easy. I mean... I'm cooking illiterate (whatever that means. You get what that means, right?) but it's easy as apple pie. (OKAY SO MAKING APPLE PIE IS NOT EASY. BAD ANALOGY.)

Here's what I did:

I took a bunch of broccoli, chop them up and even keep the stems. I steamed them in already boiling water for two minutes until they turn bright green and just yummy. I added some salt too. After some more stirrings, I took them out of the pot and set them aside.

I bought the tofu off WholeFoods and it turns out to not contain water (or at least minimal), so I didn't have to dry it. I just dice-cut it and prepare it with some sliced mushrooms.

Now for the frying pan, I used an iron pan because I'm somehow scared of using teflon. So I used quite a lot of vegan butter to grease the pan and make it non sticky since I heard tofu can get stuck on to the surface of the pan. After the butter is all melted and sprinkly, I poured the tofu slices in and sauted them until they're golden brown. And then I added the mushrooms, sauteed a bit, and added the steamed broccoli. I also added an extra pinch of salt (I really should've bought maize powder and soy sauce to make that thick sauce), and voila! It's done!

Just for a little taste, I put mayonaise as a dip. Next time, I should learn how to cook rice. I can always buy cooked rice from the nearest Chinese restaurant. It costs less than USD 1.

I deserve a kiss!

learning to cook

Not many people know that I love cooking. Well, I LIKE cooking. I don't really like the cleaning-up afterwards.

Currently, I'm living in a hostel. That means there's the communal kitchen, refrigerator, dish-washer sink, everything in it. During busy hours (breakfast / lunch / dinner), the kitchen gets... busy. So we sometimes have to wait to use the stove or the frying pan or the pot.

That's why I decided to go down at 3 AM to make some Penne and mushroom. The recipe (or lack, thereof) is courtesy of my boyfriend.

He still cooks and is ambitious about it (I love that about him... I love eating, and he is an excellent cook). I need to get back on being serious about cooking once again.

Hell, there was even a time when I would bake a cake each night for months! Of course the cake usually failed. Ha!

But this morning, I made a breakthrough. I cooked! And it didn't fail (too much). So, yeah... I think I'm pretty proud of myself.

Later, guys!