Three (once) Painful Stories

Things we buy are bore out of life's issues.  Or frustrations.

I think.

I find that it is true for me.

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When I got my hands on some gift cheques, I made a mental list of the things I wanted to buy.  

Things that will address some life issues and frustrations.

Things that somewhat make the pain go away.

new friends

Chicken.  I am always paranoid that I'd serve raw chicken.  

Salmonella.  

I remember getting the bird in and out of the oven checking and re-rechecking if the entire thing is cooked through.  

I hate hate hate, having to cut through it to see if it is still pink.

There was a time that I got very frustrated because as we were eating, I discovered that I had to put it back into the oven.

Horrible.  

I love mealtimes!  I especially love cooking and serving my husband various dishes.  I look forward to sitting with him, enjoying what food I put together.

Obviously, I was not happy having to 'fix' something while relaxing with my husband.

Not to mention having to change plates and forking through the rest-of-the-chicken--assessing the 'state' of the fowl.  

It was a nightmare.  

I decided then to postpone any whole chicken cooking until I get a thermometer.  

Ahem.

Guess what I'm cooking this weekend? :)

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Apples. And pears.  I love them.  I love them raw, chopped in a salad, dipped in caramel, baked with brown sugar, butter and rum, as pie filling.

I once bought a cheap apple corer because I was making stuffed apple wrapped in a pastry and there was truly no way to core the apple but buy the gadget (none that I was aware of).  It was the only one corer in the grocery store, so I went ahead and got it.

It was able to do the job, I even used it to take the 'eyes' out of peeled pineapple one time.

BUT, as with poorly constructed things, it broke.  The 'blade' twisted.  You get what you pay for, I guess.

Long story short, I was making diagonal cylinders through apples for a while.  It meant getting more flesh out that necessary to catch the seeds.  What a waste of good fruit!

Last night, I threw that flimsy abomination away.  Good times :)

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Meat. 

Okay.  No painful story here.  I lied.

The meat tenderiser however, will enhance the Filipino Tapa I often make :)

just white

My blog had become such an exciting space, filled with exciting things like dinner plates and saucers.

It had just gotten more exciting with today's entry that is the noodle bowl.

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I think the designer of the bowl crafted this piece with proper ramen in mind rather than instant noodles.  However, I had decided that I would use this for such.

And ramen too, if I ever come around making those :)  

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In case you are wondering who my fiancé feels about such a feminine bowl, the answer is that he doesn't mind.  

He said that he just wants something that is big enough to handle his soup and could not care less whether it had flowers, butterflies or guy things like gears and tools.

When probed, he confessed being partial to simple plates.  And by simple he means plain white.   

He commented that it was good that I got a spoon and holder with it because he deemed those useful.  

He notice the glaring truth that we have no chopsticks yet.

kitchen starter pack

Finalising the paperwork for our first flat is taking longer that I would have liked--despite my fiance's prompt (with thorough review) replies.

In the meantime I had been scouting for things we would need and planning our move.

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The whole consulting-before-purchasing is quite new to me.  

I am so used to managing my own money and buying things based on needs, wants, moods and admittedly, whims. 

Truth be told, I can (still) spend on whatever I want with no issue.  But buying things for the house really isn't about the money but rather planning and building a life together.

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How much stuff will fit in our home?

What kind of activities do we intend for our home?

What are the absolute musts?

When should we buy? (eg. now vs. after the flat is turned over to avoid doubling the 'transfer')

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Yesterday, I revieed the items in my cart with my fiance. 

It reminded me of project budget review with Management.   

I told him which items I thought we needed as soon as possible and the basis for my choices.

Most of the items got an easy 'Go', but there were some that required an answer to the follow up question 'Do you really need it?'.  

There was also the occasional, 'How is this different from xxxx, can't you use xxxx instead?'.

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I ended up getting everything 'approved' :)

Cart, checked out! 

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What items?  

A cast iron skillet (high maintenance but so worth it!), non stick frying pan, caldero with glass lid, mix of wooden / nylon / silicon cooking utensils, can opener, corkscrew, space saving hangers (which I decided not to buy yet), mortar and pestle (my favorite buy!), grater, pizza wheel, chef knife, bread knife, santoku knife, pastry brush (essential to a calzone maker!), whisk (two words: salad dressing).

plato

I am not about to write something philosophical.

I want to write about plates.

I know that I am supposed to by writing about wedding preparations but somehow, I can't stop thinking about dinnerware.

I know I want white and other near white shades with various textures and finishes.  The mixing and matching is keeping me up at night!

It doesn't help that I imagine preparing various dishes to test my shopping list.

Soup and salad, porridge with tokwa't baboy, pizza (of course), pasta, tacos, spring rolls, grilled squid and pancit.

I am thinking of more dishes as I am typing this--which means that I am currently re-evaluating my list.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no.

So apparently I need to add another item--a bigger serving dish to cover pancit.