can cook?
I don't like cooking much but I don't hate it either. However I wish I'd listened to and learned more from my mum because it would make my life easier. now i cook a lot frm recipe books and websites. Both my mums dont need recipes...they cook everything frm their heads while i've to refer to the recipe step-by-step. My most frequented sites are allrecipes and epicurious since they are also available as iphone apps. They also have reviews and suggestions to make the recipe work better. I also have a favourite recipe folder to keep all the delicious-sounding recipe (has to be easy too) I found online. With the internet, there are no excuses. Anyone can watch How to cut an onion or How to make the perfect omelette.
So far I've tried asampedas (FAILwhale), sambal tumis telor (can lah but its been a couple of yrs since I last cook it...:|) and some other easy-looking ones in Asmah Laily's cookbooks. I loathe cooking Malay dishes...too much tumis-menumis and troublesome to make. Fortunately I'm married to a man who is not THAT into Malay dishes (phew!). The husband likes simple but nutritious dishes (think of salad...) and he's ok with trying out new dishes I 'experimented' in the kitchen. I cook for the girls mostly (except on one weekend when I cook for the hb) and mil cooks for everyone else on any other days.
With the amount of cooking 'skills' and time I had, the dishes I mastered are very few. I’m embarrassed to admit it but I just mastered doing fishball soup. Nope, not with dodo fishballs but using real tenggiri fish. Soup sounds easy but not everyone can cook good soup. I prefer my mum's soupy dishes over my mil's. I knew I had mastered it when the hb likes it. He's not a soup person so when helps himself for a second helping, that really makes me happy. :))) The hb can be quite a critique but it's really helpful because its the easiest way to improve myself. I can be quite an egoist sometimes to admit I'm wrong. hehe. And what's next on my list? mil's version of sambal goreng. *gulp*