My Little Kitchen

It was only after we bought a refrigerator and a gas range that we declared our place to be livable. It has been six months since we moved in and our house still needs fixtures for the livingroom, bedroom and bathrooms… but my 2sqm kitchen is pretty much complete.

Tats and I have been married for four years but most of our wedding presents just saw the light of day and found their places in the kitchen like the non-stick pots and pans, electric grill, storage containers, spice rack etc. Cooking has become a task I actually enjoy doing even without househelp around. My culinary knowledge is very limited but I’m quite particular about certain stuff like having only freshly ground pepper (really, what’s the point when the aroma is lost), brown instead of refined sugar and whole wheat instead of white bread.

For a first time homemaker we have pretty decent meals especially when Riza joined our family. She’s a good babysitter and housekeeper but as a cook, she’s quite fantastic! After gorging on her exceptional takes on the classic tinola, nilaga, mechado, adobo, pochero, lumpia and arroz caldo, I just gave her instructions for curries, pastas, omelets and she often hit the bullseye. Riza’s sinaing na isda made by cooking fish over kamias and pork fat on hot coals for at least eight hours until the bones are soft enough to eat, is a much anticipated event which gets costly when we give to everybody asking for some… and so we’ve stopped making announcements and now share our prized treat in batches (in laws this week, friends next week etc).

Following our expanding guts, we started moving out of our comfort zones thus our “pacham” (pachamba = experimental) recipes that we can eat without rice like buffalo chicken wings, fajitas, salads and tortilla wraps. We’re on our first month now and it’s not at all torturous as I expected.

Big sistah, Anne, suggested I come up with a revolving 5-week menu for more efficient planning and budgeting – I did just that and it saves me time, money and tons of neurons. Food prepping has become fun that even Tats has taken to cooking once in a while.

I love my little kitchen not only because it’s where we whip up the food we take so much pleasure in, but also because of the nifty treasures I didn’t know I needed but now wonder how I ever got by without ‘em - gifts from friends who’ve been in the homemaking business longer than I have.