I am a mom who is still clueluess on cooking

Hi kayedanda, i can understand even i am a bad cook, well in proper words i am not a cook. I love to eat like you, So like you even i have two to three books but was never able to cook as i wished. At the end when i met with my boyfriend. i warned him that i cant cook, if its ok with you to cook after marraiage.. he said i think you will be able to cook.. yes i know how to cook but i dont know which vegitable taste good with what.. clue less. the food which i cook is not tasty and even the animals will not like it.. i confess that i dont know how to cook.. but i can eat better, So dont worry, we both will enjoy eating.

How cute your baby is! Don't worry about cooking. You can have a maid who will cook for you and your family. About the baby, you should also not worry about him? or her? Baby appreciates any food even its tasteless as long as it does not taste like ampalaya LOL.

Don't feel bad, my mom couldn't cook either. of course she could do the basics but any real meals were left up to my father. He was a pretty good cook. I don't really cook much myself. Part of it is because I am such a picky eater but I also really never took the time to learn. Fortunately my wife can cook and doesn't mind doing it otherwise we would be a fast food family.

I really don't how how it's called but try my method of allowing the pork to simmer in soy sauce and spices for about 10-15 minutes and you will realize that the food will taste better ;O)

Maybe you shouldn't close your mind to the thought that you can't cook. Try experimenting with simple viands. Try this at home: Cut about half a kilogram of pork into small portions; separate the fat from the lean meat. Cut a kilogram of potatoes and half a kilogram of carrots into portions similar to the pork. Be sure to soak the pealed and cut potatoes in cold water to prevent them from turning brown. Mince a piece of onion and about three to five pieces garlic. Put a pan over a slow fire, then add about one tablespoon of oil. When it is hot or you can see bubbles slowly add the fat from the meat. Stir for a while then cover; continue cooking on slow fire. Stir for about five minutes and check if they turned from white to brownish. Be sure that you are cooking on slow fire to prevent the food from burning. When these became brown, gently push them to the side of the pan, leaving the center with the oil in it. Add garlic and a while later the onion. Stir until they turn brownish or when the air smells of these spices. Add the lean meat and stir along with the fat that you set aside at the edges of the pan. Sprinkle a bit of ground pepper and add about 3 tablespoons of soy sauce. Stir the mixture and cover, be sure that the fire is still low. Allow this to cook slowly for 5 minutes. Stir and check if the meat is burnt; usually at this stage the meat will produce some water and it will not burn; but it is better to check. Allow another 5 or 10 minutes before you add around 5 cups of water. you can estimate the amount of water depending on your family's preference for soup. Increase the level of your fire and allow the food to boil. Once it has boiled check if the meat is tender. If so, add the potatoes. After 8 minutes, add the carrots. Allow to boil. You can add one tablespoon of cornstarch here or spaghetti sauce; tomato sauce is nice but spaghetti sauce tastes better. Check if the potatoes and carrots are cooked. Taste the food and add salt to your liking. Some people might recommend adding MSG here but I don't. You can add some if you like or I prefer the mix from Maggi or Knorr Meaty Seasoning. You're done. Don't trouble yourself much with recreating the food from the cookbooks. I love cooking and has been blessed to cook without a guide and without having to taste my cooking and still have the best results. But when I use cookbooks I just can't seem to get the taste or the look presented there. That would be doubly hard for you, I guess. So don't worry. And feel free to ask for advice or other cooking tips and recipe ;O)

Wow, would you believe that I didn't know how to cook a long time ago? XD The first lessons I learned were how to boil water, how to cook rice, and how to cook sunny side up. My attempts at boiling water sometimes backfire back then, I left it at the stove too long that the water already dried up and the kitchen has this funny steel-smelling smell. @.@;; I had 2 incidents like these. My mom was understandably furious because it's like I was zoning out too much back then. My first attempt at cooking rice came out very bad...it was uncooked and inedible. I forgot to add little amounts of water when it's about to cook, so it came out too dry. Then when I became too vigorous with adding water, it turned out too much like Jollibee rice. XD people in the Philippines KNOW that kind of consistency. The first dish I attempted to make outside the usual canned goods formula was sinigang. I made it when my cousin came over to spend his summer with us, and it turned out quite good. Probably all my long years in the kitchen watching my mom cook it actually impressed upon my stubborn brain, LOL. XD when I was really eager to learn to cook, I just watched what my mom does in the kitchen. My brothers perfected the art of canned goods cooking, they make corned beef and Purefoods sisig to die for, and I could only try to attempt their recipes, but it always fails me. XD But then, my imaginative mind took over, so what my brothers usually do - cooking it straight out of the can - I tried to experiment with a lot of things added into the corned beef, like sauteed garlic and tomatoes and onions to go with it, or in the case of canned tuna, I add the same sauteed tomatoes, onions and garlic formula as well. When my mom became addicted to collecting McCormick spices, I also added them in what I was cooking. I check what the spices are best for, of course. I have my own versions of my mom's cooking down pat - the pork chops I boil with a bit of vinegar and soy sauce, it always comes out like it's pork steak, and my version of giniling - spicy and a little oily, because that's what my brother loves best, LOL. My sinigang is what my dad hates the most of all nowadays cause I mash the gabi in the soup base so it comes out thick and more delicious. Cooking isn't exactly about making something so that it turns out exactly that way, at least in my opinion. There are a lot of cookbooks with different takes on different recipes, if you noticed - it's because the author decided to inject their own take on the recipes included within. So it comes off as an apple pie for example in one cookbook turn out a different apple pie in another, because of some added twist, that the recipes only become similar to each other, and not exactly alike. It's why people choose McDonald's over Jollibee, or why people opt for certain Chinese takeout in one restaurant over the other - it's their take on the tried and tested recipes that made their patrons who love that kind of take to always go back to the same restaurants. Cooking is about showing the person you love another side of you, which you really tried very hard to make. But of course, if you can't seem to be good at one particular dish, you could try reinventing it. Remember the sinigang we made in the office kitchen a long time ago? We just used the canned salmon, I think, then we added some onions and sinigang soup mix, and it turned out really great. I loved that. XD as my mom used to say, coming from my lola who also is a good cook, you could do anything you want with what you're supposed to cook, the ingredients can't complain. So experiment, if you love eating out at restaurants, you could also get good ideas from how they prepared the food you loved to eat there and make variations for it. :D don't be afraid of what the cookbooks tell you, it's the experimenting that made up all those cookbooks in teh first place. ;)

I taugh my sons to cook when they were small. And they were very good at it, so now my one son does most of the cooking at home. My Daughter in law is not great at it. So why not let the one who does it best do it. But at any point you feel you want to learn, why not take a cooking class?

Hello Kayedanda, Well I watched my mother cooked so thats how I learned to cook and I have never followed a recipe books because I dcannot follow it and I just experiement and learn that way, it is quite simple but just let your hubby do the cooking, its a great excuse not to cook. Tamarafireheart.

TRY A cookbook for dummies or something. really there are cookbooks out there for people who cant cook. if that doesnt help.... here is a fun idea! get together your girlfriends who can cook and organise a cooking party. they teach you in that party how to make one specific dish and then you all eat it together. afterwards, you will be able to make at least that dish proparly. repeat this process untill you have a few dishes in your skills and then try again with something out of a cookbook. good luck! ps. in case you wonder... yes I am doing this with friends who can not cook

When i got married I only knew how to boil water, eventually we have to move out and live alone and so I really have to learn how to cook.. you'll learn eventually.