I’ve met a couple of kitchen disasters lately. Burnt porridge and omelette with one side cooked. I guess that’s just the way all who aspire great culinary skills, start.

After getting settled into my lovely kitchen, I shopped for the most basic pan (yes heavy based type for even cooking) and the most basic knives. Not to mention the help I’ve got from Mom, she passed down her steel pots and went shopping with me. Well, at least for now, the corningware cooks food and the slotted spoon picks up balls from the boiling water. You know, the 101s.

I’ve been practising with eggs. Omelettes. The first time I did it, I was on medium high heat and that totally blacked out one side of the egg leaving the other side watery, and uncooked. See below picture on left. Luckily for me, Chuck is always as understanding. Of whatever disaster that my kitchen has churned.

Today I did the ABC soup for lunch. Soup, I figured, was a tad easier than frying and braising. The ABC soup turned out to be great..! Yum… Chuck loves it and I’m already thinking of improvements for the next time I’m cooking this soup. See below picture on right.

Chuck has never heard of its name but matched it immediately to his mom’s “nameless” soup. Some say, ABC stands for the Vitamins you get from the soup. Vitamin A from the carrots and the list goes.. Some say, A for Anions B for Botatoes C for Carrots (haha!) and some say, it’s as simple (to do up) as ABC. Whatever version, I like mine!

While I’m constantly surfing the web for simple recipes, I keep the “storage of food” and “buying of ingredients” at the back of my head. I go to the hypermart once in a week to stock up and I focus on 2-3 main dishes to make a week. That, I think, will build up my recipe base in a while. It’s not easy, because you have to keep track of your kitchen inventory levels and make sure the food doesn’t go undetected (and eventually, forgotten) after weeks of hiding in the corner of the fridge.

My mom called today and wanted me to pick up a pumpkin dessert from her but I am unwell to do it. Since we’re on the topic of cooking, she volunteered to come over this weekend and take me to the nearby wet market! I’m so excited about this because once I know how to get the right cut of meat from the butcher, I’ll be like my mother or my grandmother, whipping out dish after dish in the kitchen!

Till then, I’ll stick to my easy-to-prepare blackcurrant tea and cheesecake.