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WHEN THE NAUGHTIEST LITTLE DUCK COOK…
Hi… Hi… I’ve done the 99% of this article since a couple months a go, but I was too embarrass to post it. But, okay now, it is no use to cover it up again. So here I am, telling you my first experience of cooking.
*****
DAY 1 OF ‘COOK CAMPAIGN’
The Morning
I know I’m not a really good wife after all. Ever since my lovely hubby and I got married at about 1,5 weeks a go (ehm… ehm.. *nervous* I’m proudly announce: I’M MARRIED!!! Bubbye, to all of the hot hunks I’ve met before… hiks..hiks..) I’ve never cooked him anything. I just bought something for dinner, and made fried rice for breakfast. Fortunately, my hubby didn’t complain. He’s simply understand. But the more kind he was, the guiltier I felt. Therefore, I made my decision of spending this time’s holiday with one thing in mind of Today’s
Mission : COOKING. So I woke up that early day with a grin. It was a bright holiday morning; I thought “What a perfect day!” I’ve been planning this since yesterday. I had (almost) all the spices I needed (I brought some of them from my momma’s house). However, I still have to buy some fresh main material.
So I shook my sleeping hubby’s back “Come on, you HAVE to accompany me to buy me things, I can’t cook without them!” While whining, he agreed. After I jotted down things that I needed to buy (the chosen one from the recipe book, the simplest food of all time, Sayur Sawi Putih). Then off we went to the nearest store.
Nevertheless, as we got there, (still on my hubby’s ride) I saw lots of woman with the same intention as I did. Then I felt my heart sink with shame. I felt embarrassed, and thought, “Look at those professionals” At that moment, I told my hubby, “Hon, can we just go to some other place with fresher supply? The vegetables there seem so wither” Yeah, I know I lied, but if I told him my true feeling, he’d hush me to buy them still, and advise me not to let my self being manipulated by such thought.
As I succeeded, we tried to find other vegetable seller with fewer buyers. When we found it, to impress my hubby, I pretended to be my mother when she shopped. She used to bargain almost everything she bought “How much does this cost, Sir? What? Rp. 7000,-? How about Rp. 5000,-?” Of course, I did not make it. He.. he.. I did not inherit my mother’s talent after all. But since the seller were such a funny man, and I found out that the price quite cheap, we eventually bought it all full prices happily, and went home. We just need one more material to complete my shop list, kaldu ayam (hell, I don’t know the English world for Indonesian phrase “kaldu ayam”/water used to boil chicken meat). We couldn’t find it anywhere. I thought “Oh well, never mind, I can make the food without it, anyway”
After I stuck everything to our fridge, and finished our bought breakfast (what an irony) I felt somewhat tired. Therefore, I decided to take a rest for a while (stop protesting, it was a holiday; I could sleep at anytime I want). “Don’t worry, Hon, I’ll make the food this afternoon. Now leave me alone”
The Afternoon
We woke up at 13.30 WIB. And I haven’t cook anything yet. It’s very late to have something cooked for lunch by this time.
Then somehow, I did not feel the same enthusiastic as I had this morning. I thought, “Why should I cook? I can’t cook. I won’t cook” Then I lazily told my hubby, “Can we just buy something for lunch, it’s too late to cook now. And we’re starving, aren’t we?” *puppy eyes mode on* He’s such a nice kind of husband. We had Bakmi Ayam as lunch that afternoon.
The Evening
My hubby was just a human. He couldn’t resist to tempt me, “so you were saying this morning, that you wanted to cook?” Blushed, I went to my kitchen. It was a very small kitchen we have there. While opening my stupid recipe book, I realized that I missed one material on that recipe, the celery. I thought I didn’t read the book carefully. So while cutting the vegetable, I wonder about kaldu ayam, and about the celery, and about the fact that I actually can’t cook, and about how my hubby will react when he ate my ‘future’ food with so much weakness in the making process.
For your information, the food I mean here is the “soup/vegetable” part of food. Each time we have breakfast, lunch or dinner, we should eat at least: rice, meat, and vegetable, fruits and milk. I don’t consider processing meat as something edible as a problem. I always can fry some nuggets or meatballs. I think making soup is the hardest part of cooking, because it involves lots of spices and rules. You can’t just put it all in one place and cook it. It needs special techniques. This is my real problem in cooking.
I suddenly got confused, and nervous. It’s like you’re having a final exam on your face, and you don’t know what to do with the questions, since you didn’t study before. Exactly the same, because I never learn how to cook before either. I was like a child that got excited by something that she never knew before, and when it’s come the time she face the truth, she felt that she actually doesn’t like it, and move backward.
So there I was, feeling like the world spinning around me. I’m not ready for this. I just couldn’t do it. Not now. Maybe, not even in this lifetime.
As I tried to figure whether, I should runaway or make one very good reason of why-I-couldn’t-cook-this-evening, the light suddenly turned off. A BLACK OUT from the state’s electric company.
My mind was automatically ticking. This means, we couldn’t get any light and couldn’t watch the TV. The water supply would be stopped for a while too. Eh? The stopped water supply means, I can’t have any fresh water to clean the food materials and to watering the soup. Hooraaayyyy!!! HUA..HA..HA..HA..HA..HA.. The only thing to do next was putting a regretful face to report my condition to my hubby, and then I’ll be freed from the silly job of feeding my family.
Hue ..he..he.. I know it’s kind of tricky, but hell, I’d do anything as long as I didn’t have to cook today (naughty! naughty!)
As I did that, I felt like I’ve been saved, even though the face of my empathic innocent hubby made me feel a little bit guilty. Whatever!
Note: that evening, my mother in law came to visit our house. Below was our conversation:
Mother In Law : “What did you cook today, Sweetheart?”
Me : “Uhm… *nervous* We ate Bakmie Ayam for lunch?”
Mother in Law : “Ooh, *cynical* you can’t have too much of it, you know?
It’s not good for your health… bla… bla…bla…”
Me : “………”
So she finally start the advising things… That’s okay… I can bear it… As always, People’s words affect me nothing.
DAY 2 OF ‘COOK CAMPAIGN’
Weekdays, and I was so tired. We bought our food
DAY 3 OF ‘COOK CAMPAIGN’
Still bought our food
DAY 4 OF ‘COOK CAMPAIGN’
Even though we have put the food materials in our (new shiny) fridge, *ehm.. ehm… we broke our piggy bank to bought it* they still looked a little bit wither. I thought I have to do something. Something that I really don’t like. Cook the food now, before the materials rot.
I took a (very, very, very) deep breath. Now or never, I thought. So I prayed, and made my decision. I took the vegetables, and start slicing with pathetic expression onion, garlic, sausages, meatballs, tofu, and celery (I finally bought it this evening).
Then I put the pan on the stove, pour some oil, and wait for it to get hot.
Then the incident suddenly happened.
“BANG!!!” *LOUD sound of breaking glass*
Dear Allah, what else this time?
My hubby and my brother in law ran after me to the kitchen.
“What’s going on?” My hubby said.
“I don’t know,” I said. I truly did. Something breaking, from the shape and the color, I think it’s formerly a plate. The pieces of glasses shattered around the stove, but the strange thing was, they’re not as many as a breaking glass plate should be. Where did the rest of them go?
After some hard time tried to find where the other breaking glass, my hubby finally said, “Well, well, what’s this,?” while pointing his finger to the top of the stove, below the pan.
Then we found out, that somehow, I put a plate on the stove. I meant to put it there for a minute, while I cleaned my kitchen table (the plate was formerly there). After a while, I forgot about it, and PUT MY PAN RIGHT UPON IT, AND THEN TURN THE STOVE ON. Of course, the flame of the fire burns the pan, along with the glass plate under it. That’s why the plate torn apart into pieces and flew everywhere. DODOOOOLLLLL….. >:-o
It was such a scary moment. I couldn’t imagine what would happened next if the fire burnt the glass longer. I was so shocked that my hubby told me to calm down, and go to the other room. He and my brother in law then cleaned up the mess I made. The pieces of the glass ware so hot, that they melt the plastic that they used to carry them. They then used a box of carton instead.
Watching the hectic caused by my silliness, I sat down and wonder.
How did this happen to me, dear Allah?
Yesterday You turned off the light. I lost my hesitation to feed my family for four days, and when I have it back, You made me almost burn down the house.
Can’t You just let me cook without anything bad occurred?
My daydreaming stopped by the time my hubby and his brother finished cleaning up the kitchen. To honor their hard work, I went back there, starred at everything. Then I saw the chopped up tofu, and other things I put on the table. Then I think, “Never say Never, dhi. Just never”
So there I was. Stood by the kitchen. Continued my job. The fun thing was, my hubby came to help. He stirred the food, He sliced the meat, and he helped at everything that I thought the food made by both of us, instead of by my own.
Thirty minutes later, the food’s done. Then I feel it. The magical feeling of having something right finished well. The feeling of cooking your family dinner. The feeling of a great Chef *over confident J* I eventually screamed it aloud: “HUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA… My first Food” *ILY*
Hi.. hi.. So after waiting for four days, after (pretending) to blame PT PLN for the black out, after almost burning down the house, we’re finally had our dinner without have to buy from a strange chef. Healthier, fresher (uhm, it’s not actually fresher), cheaper, and of course, my hubby love it more (at least that’s what he told me) I was so happy that while other’s having their dinner, I was busied by taking pictures of my first food. I made it as a habit for my others next food. I took pictures of them since I was too proud of them. You can see one of it below this article later on. It looks great. I named it “Sayur Cap Cay a la the cutest naughty little duck (I lost the picture of Sayur Sawi Putih)” :-)))
AND IT TASTED SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!!!!!
I actually don’t want to brag it up here, but I my hubby LOVES it like crazy. That is the only thing that matters :-“) I now can proudly say:
Mission ’s Accomplished!
Wall anyway…, with this successful try out, maybe I’ll cook my family more often in the future. Maybe… 
Note:
As my hubby liked my food, he rushed to tell her mother about it when she came to visit us. Below was our conversation:
My Hubby : “Mom, Dhitta made us Sayur Sawi for yesterday’s dinner!”
*Proud*
Me : “Uhm, it’s not that great actually. I took the recipe from a
Book” *ashamed*
Mother in Law : *looked at me* You need a recipe only to cook Sayur
Sawi?”
Me : “…….” *Rolled eyes*
*****
My massage here would be? Cooking is actually fun, girls!!! Don’t be afraid to try it. You’ll enjoy the magic feeling of “making something out of you”. It’s really no hard, you can get the recipe from everywhere. Even they now sell instant spices to make it easier for you (he..he.. nasehat ga bener neh! Always use natural materials and spices, they’re healthier!)
I know you could be the greatest chef for your family…
But for your family only loh yaaaaa… Hwakakakakakakkkk… J Just kidding.
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Cook with love, and from your heart.. :-”)
How I looveee cooking… :-")
