I cooked dinner today. Personally I don't think it turned out very well, because it was my first time planning a full meal. I also didn't allocate enough time, and so became flustered; I attribute this to someone's stupid comment ("the stuff u making so far is quite easy what, doesnt require much cooking"), swimming with HWMNBN and most importantly, his hiding in the room for the first hour talking to jailbait while I slaved over the stove.

Menu:
1) Patat frites (Dutch fries)
2) Honey Teriyaki Pork Chops
3) Ratatouille
4) Stuffed courgettes

1) I soaked them in iced water for too long because I was doing other things; thus they became too weak and fell apart when frying. During the two fryings, I was too afraid of cremating them and also for some reason having the fire look the same didn't turn out fries which tasted the same as last week (next time I must rely more on instinct and how they look as they fry). After dinner I fried up another batch - half for the Cock (since he likes Vile Fries - he'll be touched we went to such lengths to annoy him) and half to eat. Apart from one or two fries being undercooked (insufficient heat in the first frying), they were very much better.

My brother-in-law and HWMNBN said the first batch of fries were good, but I think they were more like British chips like Patat (ie Yucky). What can I say, I have high standards for frites!

I was also too tired to take out the fritesaus and curry-ketchup. If I'd had more time, I'd have tried making my own fritesaus and curry-ketchup, but then NTUC Fairprice has a horrible selection - I couldn't find any dijon mustard (and so couldn't attempt the former). Oh well, maybe next time.

2) You might notice that the recipe calls for chicken. The stupid NTUC didn't have non-Halal chicken, so I got pissed off and bought lean Sakura pork instead.

Something went wrong when I was cooking the rice and I was too flustered/tired to fix it, so there wasn't any nice thick sauce. The chops were also too thick and so were undercooked (HWMNBN pan-fried them, heh). Other than that they tasted alright, though they smelled better when being cooked than they tasted (isn't that always the case?)

[HWMNBN: I told Gabriel to slice it thinner - but we were expected to broil it at the time rather than pan-fry. I also REPEATEDLY told him that it wasn't going to cook properly and i think I did my best under the circumstances, without reducing it to charred hydrocarbons. Also the sauce turned out okay plus my trick of tenderising it which he had NOT considered.

Also my response to him when he was surprised at the practical advice I offered, all of which turned out well (tendering meat, adding more spice provencale) "A lack of inclination to do something does not indicate a lack of ability."]

3) As usual I forgot to put salt. Damn. Somehow, though, it tasted good. Maybe the herbs provencale did the trick. This was also the dish that took up the lion's share of the time because of all the cutting.

4) Bacon is good. It'd have been nicer with pine nuts and breadcrumbs (apparently we've the latter but I didn't think of asking my mother). The egg really makes a difference (when I made stuffed peppers I didn't have any).


God, I'm exhausted.

Everytime I want to buy Florida's Natural, my brother-in-law complains. Today after dinner, he looked in the fridge, saw none and said I should've bought some. This also after I SMSed him saying that NTUC's "everyday low price" was $6.70 for the big tetrapak and he didn't reply (we only buy it or Tropicana when they're on offer). Bloody hell.