Whole Day Cooking 11292015

Yesterday was such a tiring day. I was supposed to coop up at home and finish submitting articles which I promised for a month-long project. But then on a Sunday with the boys at home, pity the girl brought up in a family that believes in gendered activities. (So I grow up thinking it sucks to have been born a girl. Tsk.)

With suddenly no househelp around, only the four of us females are doing household chores. I wonder why mom adamantly sticks to that distorted view that house chores are for girls only. Despite my repeated impromptu speeches on gender equality, she will only end up with a sigh and say that's the fate of a woman, to be a servant to men. No wonder the world is full of chauvinistic males! As if these males can be relied upon in difficult times. Bah!

So anyway, enough of the rants. I woke up early to cook potato soup with macaroni. What you'll need to make life a bit easier is to have a pack of Nestlé Professional mashed potatoes around, a carrot to be diced, onions to be chopped, garlic to be minced, a 100 g pack of macaroni to be boiled and you´re good to go. Plus, salt and pepper, and a few dashes of McCormick´s Italian Seasoning. Big bonus is if you have chicken stock stocked around (pun intended), which we did, for the extra flavor. No need for meat since the veggies and the chicken broth will do the trick.

Ingredients:

• 1 carrot in small cubes
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 2 onions, minced
• 100 g macaroni
• 1 cup Nestlé Professional mashed potatoes
• McCormick´s Italian Seasoning
• salt and pepper
• chicken broth

Boil around 5 liters of water. But just before water boils, you know, that moment when bubbles are just forming, add salt and pepper and garlic and onions. I don't know if it's just me but I do believe this way, flavor is enhanced. Then just add everything and bring everything to boil. You'll have a creamy macaroni soup. Yum! (I forgot the leeks... Sigh!)

Note: I heard my brother looking for leftover soup today. Okay, that says a lot. :)

Then off to writing. Come 11:59AM (and good thing I happened to glance at the clock), I ran down to the kitchen to fry the daing the bangus which mom had left on the table to defrost. It was my first time to fry daing and I cringed at the thought of destroying such beautiful fish which my sister did when she cooked bangus once. Anyway, suffering from oily projectiles even though armed with my trusty wok cover, I succeeded in producing wonderfully fried daing na bangus. I just hope I can do it again in the future. Probably just beginner's luck.

Off to writing again. Then it was past 1PM when my sisters arrived. So I took a quick bath and had quick lunch and dashed out of the house to go on a date (just a friendly date with a boy whom I first met in the mountains). 

Upon arriving home at 7PM, I immediately pulled out the things I need to cook spaghetti. When we're at our wits' end to think of what to prepare for dinner, I would always volunteer to cook pasta. This time, we have Dole Sweet Italian sauce which at first I was hesitant to use but there was no other alternative. Turns out to be one blessing with thick tomato sauce. YUM!!!

Ingredients for the spaghetti (which reminded me of the pomodoro I recently enjoyed somewhere):

• 2 minced onions
• 1 tablespoon garlic
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• McCormick Italian Seasoning
• 1 kg spaghetti, cooked al dente (except with Royal I don't know how to achieve this...)
• half a cup of shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 3 pieces hotdogs, sliced (because we had no ground meat in the freezer... #drifterasalways)
• 2 tablespoons black olives, sliced (which fortunately I bought from a grocery store on my way home)
• 1 kg Dole Sweet Italian pasta sauce (I'm an instant fan)

Caramelize onions, then put in garlic and tomatoes. Add salt. For some reason, I believe that flavor is better when you add salt at this stage. Put in the hotdogs. Then pasta sauce. Did I mention to have hot water ready? Yes, pour hot water in. Add McCormick Italian Seasoning, just a few dashes will do. Then mushrooms. Serve separate from the pasta.