impromptu cooking session.

“Spontaniety is the KEY” is what i always like to say when you have no definite plans and you just want to go w/ the flow. so yesterday night (August 21 Saturday), i did something spontaneous w/ Jihannee and it involved COOKING! yeaaaaahhhh!!!

tonight’s impromptu menu:

appetizer: Cream Cheese & Tomato Garlic on Crunchy Wheat Bread Bites

main course: Spinach Pasta w/ Tomato Basil Sauce & Tuna

i originally did not want to cook as we had only 1 helper but who needs a helper when you have Miss JGT herself to do all the dirty work? so then started w/ the spices. Jihannee asked our helper for onions and garlic then she did the chopping while i did the picture taking. at that time i also started grilling wheat bread cut into smaller pieces for our appetizer.

chop chop chop

next up we prepared for the actual cooking part of the night. we had wanted to use the nice stove inside the house but i had never tried using it so i didn’t know how to light the fire on the stove. we had to ask assistance from the helper so we could cook in the kusina instead. here are some of the ingredients we used. i bought these from the supermarket a few days ago because i wanted to make the tuna pasta recipe when our other helper, the one who knew how to cook, arrived. but since Jihannee offered to be the one to cook, hala sige go. why not choc nut?? our ingredients for the pasta included the following: San Remo Spinach Pasta and Century Tuna Tuna Flakes in Oil (i got the Lite version because i guess its less fattening). and for the sauce we had this ready made kind from Full Circle which said ORGANIC. basta organic go gyud dayon kay that must be healthy right? this one’s in Tomato Basil flavor.

ingredients

we got just enough pasta for the 2 of us then cooked it in boiling water. we timed it to cook for 5 minutes but i think we ended up cooking it for a total of 7 minutes. Jihanee and i tried the pasta over and over again to see if it was already “al dente”. and after trying it for a few times we already felt quite full from eating the raw spinach pasta. haha!

al-dente!

while the pasta was cooking Jihannee also made the sauce on the other stove. at first i thought we could just cook the pasta then microwave the sauce from the bottle, microwave the tuna, and mix them all together. i didn’t know we had to actually COOK the sauce! haha! ignorante ko or what?! good thing Jihannee actually went to cooking school last year to learn a few recipes. so here she used the oil from the Tuna to sautee the garlic and onions then added the tuna, then later on the sauce. by this time i realized that i really do need to face my fear of cooking. i got jealous because Jihannee handled that sauce pan like a pro, adjusted the fire, and all that. she didn’t get scared of getting paso by the oil jumping around the pan. ako the whole time i tried to stay away from it. hahaha! hadlukan! but promise, i WILL TRY to do the dirty work na next time. i can’t be afraid of this forever. here are step by step photos of how the sauce was made.

yummy sauce!

by this time i also went back to the kitchen to finish preparing our appetizer. our ingredients included: wheat bread, cream cheese & bottled Tomato & Garlic dip from Bravo. i had the wheat bread cut into 4 pieces then grilled them on the George Foreman grill extra long because i wanted them really crunchy. this turned to be so incredibly yummy. like it belongs in the menu of some posh italian restaurant. hahaha! i love this kaayo!

appetizer!

when the pasta and the sauce was done, Jihannee prepared the cheese. at first we thought we couldn’t find the grater so we had our helper cut up small bits of cheese. after looking harder i found it in one of the drawers in the kitchen. i guess this just goes to show i really do not know my way around our kitchen. heck, i can’t even turn on the frickin’ stove! LOSER! hahaha! :p here’s Jihannee grating the cheese. Eden cheese ra ni kay this is all i found. next time i’ll buy Parmesan Cheese.

hala sige jan i-grate jud na pag ayo!

with all the preparations done, we were finally ready to eat. Chef Jihannee was so starved but first we took photos of our lovely dinner. we found some Red Wine too so i had that for my drink. unsa naman ni fine dining?! hahaha! :p

feeling bruschetta. haha!

aren't you hungry yet?

fine dining it is!

in the middle of all the preparations, i got a text from Karen asking me where i was at this beautiful Saturday night. i immediately called her back to invite her and John over to help us eat the dinner we so lovingly prepared. so they came bringing w/ them a bag of super yummy Kopi Roti buns which we ate for dessert. here we are enjoying our meal. isn’t food just extra delicious if all your hard work  went into the preparation?

friends & food = best combination ever!

we’re so happy that Karen & John liked what we cooked! these 2 have very high standards when it comes to food. their only comment was that we needed to add a bit of salt and pepper but the other than that, it was pretty good na. ayeeeeee!!! success!!! hahaha! :p thank you so much Karen & John for dropping by and appreciating the food! we should do this again next time!

later after our guests left, i proceeded to do what i originally planned to do for my Saturday night at home: to groom my baby loves. as i’ve been previously saying, our other helper went away for a few days so all my palanggas hair are so unruly already. i couldn’t stand looking at them like that. so i got all the tools and started working on Choco. Jihanee apparently didn’t want to go home yet so at least i had an extra hand in the grooming. here she is w/ her masterpiece our baby Barney. he’s so gwapo na after Tita Jihannee did his hair. yay!!! thank you Tita Jihan!!!!

Barney my handsome Boy

what an incredibly fun Saturday night this turned out to be. Spontaniety is indeed the key! i am now more inspired to learn cooking myself and to prepare more healthy meals. weeeee! happy new mickiego! hahaha! :p

thank you so much JGT for helping me out w/ the cooking, w/ the doggies, and just for being great company. ’till our next cooking session!

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