I am always in charge of the kitchen whenever we have special occasions at home like birthdays, a simple Thanksgiving feast, or a Christmas Eve’s feast. Not that we don’t celebrate Christmas, we just prepare more to welcome the new year so we give more consideration to the New Year’s eve feast and make it more special or most special of all the family’s feast every year. We, eerrr, I take food preparation and cooking seriously. No harm in believing that it will affect the next 365 days of our lives. Yes, we had fruits and more.
Over the years, I grew tired of cooking spaghetti in red sauce, having fried chicken, ham and bread. When I felt I needed a change, I switched to baked macaroni, spaghetti in white sauce, seafood pesto among others.
To end 2010, I prepared food that are close to our hearts being Filipinos. The set of menu I had in mind was a mixture of dishes we grew up with and dishes we’re familiar with but we thought we already forgot how they tasted. But one thing I knew of, members of the family even kids would like the food. Hmmmm… I wonder what did I cook that did not pass their taste buds.
If others had pasta in different sauces, we had pancit canton. Some might had ham, we had pork hamonado. Other might had fried chicken or turbo chicken, we had White Chicken. We also had Steamed Samaral. Puto, biko, leche flan, and gelatin revisited our table again after so many years of being absent. We also had Creamy Peaches Tiramisu! Yes, I prepared and cooked them all. I enjoy cooking. This time, my eldest nephew helped me out with the preparation part.
Before, we were buying puto and leche flan, this time I prepared them myself. It was my first time to cook puto and pork hamonado. I got the recipes from Atty. Connie’s website, HomeCookingRocks.com. I have known cooking biko by heart since I was a kid so it was too easy for me to prepare it.
I still need to work on the puto next time I cook. I want more pluffy puto. But at the looks of it, it was not bad after all. My little princess, Jaja, liked my pancit canton and puto. She said those were “delicious.”
I know it was not about the food. It was about the fulfillment of preparing and cooking food for people you love, for the people who will make the next 365 days of your life better and more enjoyable to live with.
I still have flour, baking powder, fresh milk, and eggs left. I want to cook another batch of puto and see if I can make it better this time.
