Day 273: Cooking / Baking

I didn't know how to cook. I didn't want to learn how to cook. I moved out and lived on my own. At this point, it was to my advantage to cook. Eventhough I was living right by Davie St and there were many restaurants to choose from, it was nice to stay in sometimes and on top of that there were times I was too lazy to go out to get food. Since then I have learned to cook a little bit. It's been fun and adventurous. If I have to cook for myself, I have to plan on my menu for the rest of the week. I have to buy produce that can be used in a multitude of dishes. It doesn't make sense for me to buy something for one dish. I don't know when the next time I will be cooking that dish and that food will go bad and I will have to throw it away.

I dated a chef a few years back. It was a good experience because I learned alot about cooking. He had his own catering company. When he cooked, I would ask him about cooking techniques. It was kinda like free cooking lessons. Since we are not together anymore, I have to pay for cooking lessons. :P..

One of the items on my bucket list is to learn gourmet cooking. I am not sure when I will start that yet. I don't really like cooking for myself. I think it's more fun and satisfying when I cook for others. There have been a few potlucks where I brought a dish I made. One entree I made was actually pretty good. I have never made it before and I just made it up. It was like a pasta casserole. It was macoroni and cheese on the bottom layer. Then the next layer was green peppers, I think there was mushrooms too, and onions. Then it was salmon. It was topped off with cheese and baked in the oven. Last week I brought a dessert I just learned about. It was a Philipino fruit salad. It was super easy to make. It was pretty good. It is a mixture of cream, evoporated milk and fruit cocktail. I adjusted it a little bit and added jackfruit and toddy fruit.

In terms of baking, I used to make cupcakes. I thought it was delicious. But now I think it's too fattening. Buttercream topping is made mostly from sugar and butter. I need to watch my calories as I get older and globs of sugar and butter won't help. Every once in awhile I will make my signature cupcakes. They are mini cupcakes topped with chocolate and have letters on them. Some of you have seen them at a birthday party or at another occasion. Tonight I just did some more baking. Ok, it's not really baking. It was a non-bake raspberry cream pie. I went to Superstore to get the ingredients. Raspberries were super expensive. Blueberries were cheaper. It now became a blueberry cream pie. I couldn't fine creme fraise so I substituted it with dessert topping (like Cool Whip). It's in the fridge chilling now. We will see how it turns it out tomorrow.