adulting 101
Sunday, 25 February 2018
The Little Victories of a Beginner Cook
Two months ago I wrote about my struggles as a beginner cook and while some of them are still valid (hello, amount of side dishes!), I know I've made some progress since then. I'm slowly venturing into more complicated recipes (still have a long path to walk) and finding a new joy in baking despite the setback of my mixer arriving with the wrong wands so I had to beat the egg whites with my arms only. So today I'm going to tell you about my little victories as someone who recently started cooking.
New recipes
You know when you try a new recipe for the first time and somehow it ends up being edible and even tastes good? Yes, I have been surprising myself with my ability to not mess up recipes or, at least, still making them edible.
My specialty dish
I thought I would need a bit more experience in the cooking art to have a speciality dish (and maybe I do). However, my spaghetti/tagliatelle alla carbonara has been pretty popular. It's what I always cook when we have people over, mostly because it's an easy one and there's barely anything that can go wrong. I'm still not being able to figure out the right quantity of pasta/rice but I've recently been given an utensil that should help me with that (shout out for tupperware!).
People enjoying the food
When I try a new recipe or present my "specialty dish" and people give you compliments (or just eat peaceful without making remarks) makes me really happy. Of course, I am still not 100% sure they're just being polite when trying to assure me it's good but my own tastebuds tell me it's edible so that's something.
Not burn anything
I was never someone who burned my food a lot (I think it only happened once with rice because I got distracted while it was cooking and I was still able to save the majority of it). Still, being able to produce food without it being burned is an accomplishment one shouldn't overlook.
Perfect omelet
A while ago, if someone asked me if I could make omelets I would reply I could do amazing scrambled eggs. Turns out my fear of burning the eggs was preventing me of being able to cook a decent omelet. I am still working on the shape of my pancakes but my omelets now are a perfect 10/10 as I'm already able to turn them properly!
What about you? Any new accomplishments you felt really happy when you started cooking?
New recipes
You know when you try a new recipe for the first time and somehow it ends up being edible and even tastes good? Yes, I have been surprising myself with my ability to not mess up recipes or, at least, still making them edible.
My specialty dish
I thought I would need a bit more experience in the cooking art to have a speciality dish (and maybe I do). However, my spaghetti/tagliatelle alla carbonara has been pretty popular. It's what I always cook when we have people over, mostly because it's an easy one and there's barely anything that can go wrong. I'm still not being able to figure out the right quantity of pasta/rice but I've recently been given an utensil that should help me with that (shout out for tupperware!).
People enjoying the food
When I try a new recipe or present my "specialty dish" and people give you compliments (or just eat peaceful without making remarks) makes me really happy. Of course, I am still not 100% sure they're just being polite when trying to assure me it's good but my own tastebuds tell me it's edible so that's something.
Not burn anything
I was never someone who burned my food a lot (I think it only happened once with rice because I got distracted while it was cooking and I was still able to save the majority of it). Still, being able to produce food without it being burned is an accomplishment one shouldn't overlook.
Perfect omelet
A while ago, if someone asked me if I could make omelets I would reply I could do amazing scrambled eggs. Turns out my fear of burning the eggs was preventing me of being able to cook a decent omelet. I am still working on the shape of my pancakes but my omelets now are a perfect 10/10 as I'm already able to turn them properly!
What about you? Any new accomplishments you felt really happy when you started cooking?
Sunday, 7 January 2018
The Family Is Growing (Or Dos and Don'ts When You Get A Cat)
I have been living with the boyfriend for a while now and we had always agreed that once we moved we'd do this since it was something we'd always been looking forward to: we'd go to an animal shelter and get a cat. So we did that. We visited a couple of places to choose (or get chosed by) a cat and there were a lot of internet searches and cat pictures involved in this process. And we eventually fell in love with a little orange one from Amor ao Gato (Cat Love, in English), a small association which helps street cats in Odivelas finding a home, a city and a municipality in Lisbon Metropolitan Area. We were told he was three months old, had been found in a box in the trash and was still a bit scared. We decided to bring him home with us after looking at his pretty little pink snout. We then entered a discussion, going back and forth throwing names, always somehow movie related. This lasted a few days until we reached a final name for him: Simba.
And thus, an alternative title for this post: Dos and Don'ts When You Get A Cat. It's possible this is only the first part of a series of posts. Noobies as we were, we forgot pretty much everything we'd previously read. So here's a few tricks of things we wished we could have done differently or things we've learned so far, hoping to help some beginner cat owners out there:
1) Before you let your new cat out make sure you have covered all the holes your house has. This includes the space between the stove, the machines, the fridge and SPECIALLY that hole you don't even know you have behind the bidet. Yep, he decided to hide inside that.
2) Let the new cat out of the transporter where his space will be (where the food and sand box are) so he knows where everything is.
3) And close the door of said space so he doesn't bolt to an unknown hole you haven't covered yet.
4) If you ignored all the previous steps and the cat ends up in an unknown hole don't try to make him come out of it because he'll get even more scared. He'll eventually grow hungry and tired of being hidden, he'll know where his food is. When the cat finally comes out, quickly do step 3 and then 1.
5) Keep the door closed and spend time with the new cat so he gets used to you and his new space.
6) Be patient on this part of the process. Don't give up. It's a new situation, most likely stressful to the cat so be patient with him. Let him set his own flow.
7) After the cat is more used to you, you can let him explore the house a little bit more, opening one room at the time. Leave the problematic rooms with potential hiding spots for last (such as the kitchen and the bathrooms).
8) Make sure you ALWAYS have your windows closed. And if you have to open it, make sure the cat is not inside the room and then close the door.
9) Don't buy any noisy toys because after a while you'll get tired of getting up in the middle of the night to put it out of reach. Aluminium foil balls work just fine, honestly.
10) Don't switch the cat's food all of a sudden. If they're used to a certain brand of food, start mixing the new food you want to give him with the old one and go from there so he doesn't get gastro-intestinal problems.
As I previously said, Simba was very scared when he first arrived home but we've seen him get more confident every day to the point he sleeps at my feet, joined us on the sofa and decides to join us at the table when we're having dinner (we weren't too thrilled about this last one). We laugh when he decides he's a dog trapped in a cat's body and starts to meow at us whenver we arrive home so we give him food or when he decides to chase his own tail. We took him to the vet last week, who confirmed his age (he's around 4 months now) and behaved so well, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was expecting him to bolt to a dark corner once I let him out of the transporter but he stayed very still and cooperated very well.
We're still trying to make him respond when we call him. We've been calling him whenever we feed or pet him but still with no success. Do cat experts have any tips for this? Or any tips at all, to be honest, as we're open to every kind of useful tip.
All in all, it's been a great expercience so far and we're very happy we gave him a home. Don't buy a pet, adopt one!
And thus, an alternative title for this post: Dos and Don'ts When You Get A Cat. It's possible this is only the first part of a series of posts. Noobies as we were, we forgot pretty much everything we'd previously read. So here's a few tricks of things we wished we could have done differently or things we've learned so far, hoping to help some beginner cat owners out there:
1) Before you let your new cat out make sure you have covered all the holes your house has. This includes the space between the stove, the machines, the fridge and SPECIALLY that hole you don't even know you have behind the bidet. Yep, he decided to hide inside that.
2) Let the new cat out of the transporter where his space will be (where the food and sand box are) so he knows where everything is.
3) And close the door of said space so he doesn't bolt to an unknown hole you haven't covered yet.
4) If you ignored all the previous steps and the cat ends up in an unknown hole don't try to make him come out of it because he'll get even more scared. He'll eventually grow hungry and tired of being hidden, he'll know where his food is. When the cat finally comes out, quickly do step 3 and then 1.
5) Keep the door closed and spend time with the new cat so he gets used to you and his new space.
6) Be patient on this part of the process. Don't give up. It's a new situation, most likely stressful to the cat so be patient with him. Let him set his own flow.
7) After the cat is more used to you, you can let him explore the house a little bit more, opening one room at the time. Leave the problematic rooms with potential hiding spots for last (such as the kitchen and the bathrooms).
8) Make sure you ALWAYS have your windows closed. And if you have to open it, make sure the cat is not inside the room and then close the door.
9) Don't buy any noisy toys because after a while you'll get tired of getting up in the middle of the night to put it out of reach. Aluminium foil balls work just fine, honestly.
10) Don't switch the cat's food all of a sudden. If they're used to a certain brand of food, start mixing the new food you want to give him with the old one and go from there so he doesn't get gastro-intestinal problems.
As I previously said, Simba was very scared when he first arrived home but we've seen him get more confident every day to the point he sleeps at my feet, joined us on the sofa and decides to join us at the table when we're having dinner (we weren't too thrilled about this last one). We laugh when he decides he's a dog trapped in a cat's body and starts to meow at us whenver we arrive home so we give him food or when he decides to chase his own tail. We took him to the vet last week, who confirmed his age (he's around 4 months now) and behaved so well, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was expecting him to bolt to a dark corner once I let him out of the transporter but he stayed very still and cooperated very well.
We're still trying to make him respond when we call him. We've been calling him whenever we feed or pet him but still with no success. Do cat experts have any tips for this? Or any tips at all, to be honest, as we're open to every kind of useful tip.
All in all, it's been a great expercience so far and we're very happy we gave him a home. Don't buy a pet, adopt one!
You can follow my Simba's adventures on Instagram, I'll be sure to keep it updated.
You can also find me @ | | | | |
You can also find me @ | | | | |
Sunday, 10 December 2017
The Struggles of a Beginner Cook
With my moving out the necessity to cook arose so, in case it's not clear by the title, the beginner cook is me. Even though the parents still send food everytime they see us, just in case we're starving ourselves with our inability to cook for ourselves we have managed to cook sometimes. And by "we have managed" I meant myself. The boyfriend doesn't cook but we've established before that I cook and he cleans everything afterwards and so far we've both been keeping our end of the deal.
I have not cooked much but I'm slowly learning and enjoying it. So far, I've been able to produce carrot rice, tuna rice, spaguetti, mashed potatoes from the scratch (and that made me spend almost one hour in the kitchen - never again), spaguetti alla carbonara, fish fingers (still working on that because the frying pan is not leveled enough for them to be evenly cooked) and sausages (the last ones were so much better than my first attempt as this last time I managed to cook them evenly!). I'm obviously not including the pizza or lasagna that I put in the microwave.
I feel like this is a part one of a long series of posts but so far these are my main issues with cooking:
The amount of pasta/rice
I honestly never know how much I should cook. A one time meal always turns into three meals for two. On one hand, it it sort of handy because I only have to cook once and then we have meals for later but on the other hand, one does get tired of eating the same thing. So I would like to be able to handle the quantities much better. I keep thinking I have the right amount and then it turns out I could have invited the whole family for dinner instead!
The heated oil
I am scared of this one! I managed to burn myself when making fish fingers because of the oil and now I'm scared for life! I've been wanting to make fries for a while now but since I don't own one of those sort of nets where one can put the potatoes and deep them in the burning oil, I'll have to find a solution. If anyone knows how to do it properly in a frying pan, please do let me know.
The amount of salt
Contrary to the pasta and rice issue, instead of overcooking, I usually don't put enough salt and this is because I'm always afraid it'll get too salty so I choose to not take that risk and underdo it instead.
Omelets and pancakes
Everytime I've tried cooking omelets or pancakes, so far, they've turned into scrambled eggs and a crazy shaped crepe instead. I've never managed to turn them to the other side properly so again, if you have any tricks please do share them with me. I've tried waiting for the bubbles to appear on the pancakes but even when the dough is full of little bubbles and I try to turn them they get misshapen.
The oven
The oven itself was a challenge to me, only solved yesterday evening with a higher level adult help (with this I mean the boyfriend's father came in our rescue). I tried everything to light up the oven, pressing two buttons at the same time, rotating the wheel to one side and then the other side, you name it. I even had a group chat with my friends and they weren't able to figure it out. In the end, apparently, this oven only releases the gas and needs an external fire to turn on so guess who has two thumbs and is going to buy the biggest lighter she finds in order to not get burnt? (It's this girl right here)
And this concludes my first set of struggles that I'm currently facing. I will ask again: if you know any tricks for these please do share your wisdom with me!
I have not cooked much but I'm slowly learning and enjoying it. So far, I've been able to produce carrot rice, tuna rice, spaguetti, mashed potatoes from the scratch (and that made me spend almost one hour in the kitchen - never again), spaguetti alla carbonara, fish fingers (still working on that because the frying pan is not leveled enough for them to be evenly cooked) and sausages (the last ones were so much better than my first attempt as this last time I managed to cook them evenly!). I'm obviously not including the pizza or lasagna that I put in the microwave.
I feel like this is a part one of a long series of posts but so far these are my main issues with cooking:
The amount of pasta/rice
I honestly never know how much I should cook. A one time meal always turns into three meals for two. On one hand, it it sort of handy because I only have to cook once and then we have meals for later but on the other hand, one does get tired of eating the same thing. So I would like to be able to handle the quantities much better. I keep thinking I have the right amount and then it turns out I could have invited the whole family for dinner instead!
The heated oil
I am scared of this one! I managed to burn myself when making fish fingers because of the oil and now I'm scared for life! I've been wanting to make fries for a while now but since I don't own one of those sort of nets where one can put the potatoes and deep them in the burning oil, I'll have to find a solution. If anyone knows how to do it properly in a frying pan, please do let me know.
The amount of salt
Contrary to the pasta and rice issue, instead of overcooking, I usually don't put enough salt and this is because I'm always afraid it'll get too salty so I choose to not take that risk and underdo it instead.
Omelets and pancakes
Everytime I've tried cooking omelets or pancakes, so far, they've turned into scrambled eggs and a crazy shaped crepe instead. I've never managed to turn them to the other side properly so again, if you have any tricks please do share them with me. I've tried waiting for the bubbles to appear on the pancakes but even when the dough is full of little bubbles and I try to turn them they get misshapen.
The oven
The oven itself was a challenge to me, only solved yesterday evening with a higher level adult help (with this I mean the boyfriend's father came in our rescue). I tried everything to light up the oven, pressing two buttons at the same time, rotating the wheel to one side and then the other side, you name it. I even had a group chat with my friends and they weren't able to figure it out. In the end, apparently, this oven only releases the gas and needs an external fire to turn on so guess who has two thumbs and is going to buy the biggest lighter she finds in order to not get burnt? (It's this girl right here)
And this concludes my first set of struggles that I'm currently facing. I will ask again: if you know any tricks for these please do share your wisdom with me!
Sunday, 26 November 2017
On the Dishcloths Problematic
There's something common to all Portuguese grandmothers. I'm not entirely sure if it's worldwide but I'm certain it's nationwide. I believe all grandmothers have this wardrobe or trunk (in case of my own grandmother it's actually both) full of a variety of dishclothes, all in different shapes and forms. And they also spend a lot of time embroading around regular dishcloths so they added something and made them personal, with a little bit of them. I say dishcloths but this is also appliable to tablecloths, kitchen handles, cooking aprons, among many other possible things that can be "improved" with crochet. Basically any kind of cloth you can think of, I'm sure Portuguese grandmothers have at least 20 of these (and I'm being generous) with personal embroidery, and I'm not even counting with the festive ones - don't let me start on those!
"So what's the problem with that?", you may ask. That's a valid point. And I wouldn't mention this otherwise but here's the dishcloth problematic: once you move out your grandmother will make you bring half of their collection to your new house (and, again, I'm being generous when I say half of it). Since they spent half of their elderlyhood doing that crochet needlework with your moving out in mind, let me tell you how bad you'll feel when you see customized "I love you, granddaughter" on dishcloths and not bring it home with you. Now this creates a new problem: you will have to get either a wardrobe or a trunk to put all your dishcloths in (because if you're unlucky your partner will also have their fair share of dishcloths made by their grandmother) since they won't fit all in the kitchen drawers designated for that effect.
I have a friend who's currently moving out as well and she is having the exact same problem which leads me to believe this is typical of all grandmothers in Portugal, despite the small sample that I have for this study. Her problem is also aggravated because it's not only her grandmother contributing to her evergrowing dishcloths collection, but also her aunts and their neighbours. I, for one, have already three kitchen drawers full of them and had to put the remaining ones in a wardrobe. And I really hope my grandmothers don't give me more on this upcoming Christmas, I'm not sure where I'll find space to put them.
Okay. So you get a lot of dishcloths in your house and you actually have space for those without buying a special piece of furniture for them. You're a lucky one! But now there's another problem: it doesn't stop here. Now your family has a reason to give you any kind of cloth they can think of so you'll eventually run out of space.
"So what's the solution?" you ask again. And now we got to the point I'd like to discuss here. What do you think the solution for this big nation (possible world) wide scourge? We need to change our grandmother's mentalities. We need to make them see we don't need drawers full of them, a couple is more than enough. I'm open to suggestions on how to do this because telling them is clearly useless - believe me, I've tried several times already and the only thing I accomplished was a "you'll find space to put them somewhere".
"So what's the problem with that?", you may ask. That's a valid point. And I wouldn't mention this otherwise but here's the dishcloth problematic: once you move out your grandmother will make you bring half of their collection to your new house (and, again, I'm being generous when I say half of it). Since they spent half of their elderlyhood doing that crochet needlework with your moving out in mind, let me tell you how bad you'll feel when you see customized "I love you, granddaughter" on dishcloths and not bring it home with you. Now this creates a new problem: you will have to get either a wardrobe or a trunk to put all your dishcloths in (because if you're unlucky your partner will also have their fair share of dishcloths made by their grandmother) since they won't fit all in the kitchen drawers designated for that effect.
I have a friend who's currently moving out as well and she is having the exact same problem which leads me to believe this is typical of all grandmothers in Portugal, despite the small sample that I have for this study. Her problem is also aggravated because it's not only her grandmother contributing to her evergrowing dishcloths collection, but also her aunts and their neighbours. I, for one, have already three kitchen drawers full of them and had to put the remaining ones in a wardrobe. And I really hope my grandmothers don't give me more on this upcoming Christmas, I'm not sure where I'll find space to put them.
Okay. So you get a lot of dishcloths in your house and you actually have space for those without buying a special piece of furniture for them. You're a lucky one! But now there's another problem: it doesn't stop here. Now your family has a reason to give you any kind of cloth they can think of so you'll eventually run out of space.
"So what's the solution?" you ask again. And now we got to the point I'd like to discuss here. What do you think the solution for this big nation (possible world) wide scourge? We need to change our grandmother's mentalities. We need to make them see we don't need drawers full of them, a couple is more than enough. I'm open to suggestions on how to do this because telling them is clearly useless - believe me, I've tried several times already and the only thing I accomplished was a "you'll find space to put them somewhere".
Sunday, 19 November 2017
5 Things You Can Never Have Too Much of At Home
Last week I finally had a big change in my life I was very much looking forward to: I moved in with the boyfriend. And that came with a lot of shopping and finding a lot of things were missing we wouldn't even consider at first. So we decided to keep a list on the fridge of things we discovered that we didn't have and couldn't forget to buy next time we went shopping (of course one has to remember to bring the list when one goes shopping). Unsurprisingly, the list grew bigger everytime we entered a new division, mostly the kitchen, because there are really so many things one never thinks one needs except when you actually need them. Here's five things we discovered we can never have too much of:
1 - Outlet extensions: Rather obvious, this one. However, we pretty much need an outlet extension for every outlet we have in the house. We bought three of these and we still need another one!
2 - Tupperwares: While I agree this one can be a trap we definitely don't have enough of these at the moment and I think you only have too much of them if you've bought 50! I feel like tupperwares come in so many shapes and sizes it's very easy to fill all the ones you have with something and, therefore, very easy to run out of them!
3 - Hangers: Trust me on this one. When you think you may have too many of this you'll find out you need more and that you're actually putting two or three things in the same hanger. The only exception is, of course, if you have a quite limited wardrobe space. In this case it may be easier for you to reach your limit amount of hangers but you'll see you wish you could have more.
4 - Clothespins: You not only use these for clothes but also to clip food packages like cookies and chips. Bascially everything and anything that is sold in packages and is not eaten or used immediately. You (and by you I mean me) can easily lose them or break them so having a good stock of them is essential, in my opinion!
5 - Bags: Either paper or plastic these are essencial in any home. Since they introduced the bag tax here in Portugal whenever you go grocery shopping if you forget a bag, you have two options: either you carry everything in your hands or you buy a big one. So whenever a store gives one out for free when you buy something you can bet I'm keeping it for later use! Now, you have to be selective about this one because you can quickly become burried in a miscellany of different bags so it's important to keep different sized and very resistent ones, throwing away the ones that don't make this cut or the ones that become too old and used.
And that's pretty much it! I hope this was somewhat helpful and if you have any suggestions please let me know, because I may need to actually add them to my fridge list!
1 - Outlet extensions: Rather obvious, this one. However, we pretty much need an outlet extension for every outlet we have in the house. We bought three of these and we still need another one!
2 - Tupperwares: While I agree this one can be a trap we definitely don't have enough of these at the moment and I think you only have too much of them if you've bought 50! I feel like tupperwares come in so many shapes and sizes it's very easy to fill all the ones you have with something and, therefore, very easy to run out of them!
3 - Hangers: Trust me on this one. When you think you may have too many of this you'll find out you need more and that you're actually putting two or three things in the same hanger. The only exception is, of course, if you have a quite limited wardrobe space. In this case it may be easier for you to reach your limit amount of hangers but you'll see you wish you could have more.
4 - Clothespins: You not only use these for clothes but also to clip food packages like cookies and chips. Bascially everything and anything that is sold in packages and is not eaten or used immediately. You (and by you I mean me) can easily lose them or break them so having a good stock of them is essential, in my opinion!
5 - Bags: Either paper or plastic these are essencial in any home. Since they introduced the bag tax here in Portugal whenever you go grocery shopping if you forget a bag, you have two options: either you carry everything in your hands or you buy a big one. So whenever a store gives one out for free when you buy something you can bet I'm keeping it for later use! Now, you have to be selective about this one because you can quickly become burried in a miscellany of different bags so it's important to keep different sized and very resistent ones, throwing away the ones that don't make this cut or the ones that become too old and used.
And that's pretty much it! I hope this was somewhat helpful and if you have any suggestions please let me know, because I may need to actually add them to my fridge list!
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