Cooking 101

So last night was my turn to cook dinner for scrabble night and one of my friends also enlisted me to teach her how to cook. Something I've never taught someone before. I'm not sure how I managed to cook two dinners in one night, but I definitely feel like superwoman at the moment. Although, many other women can achieve 10 times what I did in one night.

Dinner 1 (for my friend):
Beef cubes (I think it was beef) on a bed of potatoes, green peppers, onion and garlic with a tomato sauce.
Carrots and Zucchini in tomato sauce (my usual...I'm not sure what to make as a side dish dish)
My mom's rice - (which i absolutely love)
Salad with tomatoes, green peppers, corn, and beans in a ranch dressing
Fruit Salad with a pineapple and mango sauce (my mom taught me this one, too. The pineapple keeps the fruit from turning brown and the mango juice gives a yummy creamy sauce).

Due to time constraint, I don't feel like I was able to teach my friend much, but I did try to give her some cooking tips. I hope she tries cooking again. Once you start doing it you get the hang of it and start experimenting. I was impressed with the amount of effort she put in.

My mom taught me to cook by giving me direction and forcing me to do it myself and I guess it worked well for me. But anyone whose been with me in the kitchen when I'm in charge of the cooking knows that I take complete control and tend to give orders sometimes. Or if I don't want to take time to explain something I just do it myself. Sometimes, I focus so much on what I'm doing that I don't even realize someone's talking to me. Maybe if I started to cook earlier and didn't feel so pressed for time I would behave differently or maybe I'm just a control freak.

The beef looked so good. It's a dish I'll have to definitely try sometime. I hope dinner worked out well for you. I only wish I had the chance to have a bite of everything.

Dinner 2 (Scrabble Night)
Basil Tomato Pasta
Pesto Bread

Sorry guys I know you totally missed out on the other dinner, but I will try to make it up to you the next time I cook.


I'm tempted to make another dinner soon if I can enlist the help of a few friends and maybe once Dody is back. I probably owe him like a trillion dinners.