Project Cook and Tell (PCAT)

My husband calls me a fibber. It is because when we were still dating, I told him that I couldn't cook. And now that we're married, he says he likes most of the food I prepared for him.


I did not really mean to lie to him because in my mind, I don't know how to REALLY cook. Yes, I sometimes make pasta dishes whenever I have time off from work. But I never considered myself a good cook - passable maybe but not good. So I told him that to save him from disappointments that can come from encountering the stuff i make.


There are reasons, though, why I consider myself just passable. First is my grandmother (mama's mom) who used to live with us. She cooked the daily meals and she's really good at it. So whatever sense of "deliciousness" I have, it developed from her. Food has to be cooked her way or better.


My papa is a superb cook too. When we relocated to our own house in Laguna, he took on the duty of cooking meals after he has resigned from his regular job. He still works by driving a tricycle or van to ferry kids to and from school but his schedule allows him to prepare the daily meals. Needless to say, those dishes are delicious.


So then, there was wee little me who had to go to school (commuting from Laguna to Quezon City and back again) and never had the chance to really improve on my cooking. It got worse when I graduated and held jobs that had me going home at way past dinner time and no chance of practicing how to cook there.


But now that I am in the US - so far away from my grandmother and my papa, I guess I needed to step up and cook, especially since my hubby goes to work and I don't. (Not yet, that is!) So I had to flex my muscle, stretch my imagination and exercise my palate. And surprises of surprises, I apparently could folow a recipe, make some adjustments and come up with a meal that is EDIBLE! Yehey!


And so I decided that aside from blogging regular activities in our daily life, I could start writing about my adventures in the kitchen. Thus, came PROJECT COOK AND TELL. So in my next posts, I would actually share recipes that I cooked for hubby and tell you how he reacted to it. Hopefully, those Passable Cooks like me will be able to benefit from my gastronomic experiments.