The 80% Domestic Goddess

I was free this Hari Raya holiday, so I had the chance to do more cooking than usual. Hubby had a good day at work too, so I decided to cook pasta for dinner. It turned out better than I expected, particularly as I had some bad results the past few cooking experiences. And I didn't follow any recipe, just my instincts and what I'd seen hubby do previously. So I was very pleased with the dinner. Here's the pasta: How to: After frying garlic till fragrant, add 2 diced tomatoes, then sliced mushrooms and continue to fry. Add 2 large spoons of tomato paste to simmer, lots of dried Italian herbs, dash of black pepper, simmer some more. Then add diced luncheon meat (cheaper than salami & all). Shredded mozerella goes last, to give a chewy effect!

The dinner was also great because of the courgette... I was excited to find it finally - in Cold Storage! I missed this veg so much since my brummie days when I'd just fry it plain or with other vegetables. So sweet and soft and yummy. After 6 years, I finally realised why I hadn't been able to find it: it's called a zucchini. And it's so large! A cross section:

Fried with carrots, shallots/garlic, balsamic vinegar and olive oil:

A very yummy dinner indeed. Hubby was suitably pleased and awarded me with 8 marks out of 10.

Bouyed by the dinner, I cooked Teochew porridge for lunch today. This is my 3rd attempt and the consistency was better than the previous 2 times. Here's a photo of the porridge in the corner, together with the accompanying dishes - beans, stir-fried bai-cai and the cai-boh omelette (hubby wanted it and I had to ask the shop assistant what a cai-boh was!):

Hubby liked this very much too (he's teochew by blood, you see, and only pretends to be cantonese). Another 8 marks out of 10. 80% is A1 - got distinction already! :)

Well, actually while I was shopping for dinner ingredients yesterday, I had decided to just grab a pack of pre-mix to bake (I'd been wanting to bake for months...). To my disappointment, I couldn't bake any cakes, coz I have no cake tins. But cookies are fine. Betty Crocker to the rescue. One pack of pre-mixed peanut butter cookies yielded 3 batches of cookies (actually, 2 only lah, but I didn't make full use of the baking pan):

The cookies up close & personal:

The first batch was almost burnt....Here they are in their new bed:

Oh btw, here are some old photos from a few weeks back, when I "lured" hubby back from his bunk for a mid-week pizza dinner. My first attempt. I made 3 pizzas. I forget what's in each of them, but there's ham, bell peppers, fresh / sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, & mozerella. I'd have bacon and olives if they were cheaper....

They look more different raw (above) than when cooked (below), don't you think?