COOKING WITH TOTA

I did it, I cooked dinner last night. I could hear the laughters coming from Qaptain Qwerty all the way from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. In case you did not already know from reading my blog that I do not cook. I don't have any recipes, Vietnamese nor Chinese dishes. I enjoy eating the good food my Mom prepares but was never interested in cooking. My Mom said to me one time that without cooking skills, no one would marry me if we were in Viet Nam. I responded, "That was why we came to America."
Where we live, there are many restaurants along Main street, most of them are fast food. I would call to place an order, then either CP or I would pick up dinner on our way home from work. There is a favorite Mexican family restaurant where we usually ordered bistek zacatecano (strips of steak covered with tomatillo sauce served with tortillas) and combination plate with tamale, flauta, burrito and enchilada. We also order walleye sandwiches or BBQ ribs from other restaurants or pizza delivery.
We are trying to cut down on the expenditure of take out dinners, but I am so sick of salad, canned soups or cereal. We already packed sandwiches for lunch. One of my goals this year is to eat healthy, definitely no more fast food. So cooking a decent dinner would be the appropriate answer. Except for the bell peppers that I had to cut up into little pieces, other ingredients were just open the bags or container and place in the skillet. I also have to cut the sausage and the kielbasa. Surprisingly the bowties pasta turned out just right. I cooked enough for next day lunch and probably two more dinners. I plan to make fried rice this weekend.
Note to Qaptain Qwerty, make sure Mom is sitting down so she won't faint in disbelief when you tell her that I cooked dinner. I am sure she would never believe from looking at these photos that I actually cooked a decent meal. She probably thinks I did it with lot of help from CP.

The broccoli and cauliflower were raw. I was too hungry to wait so I decided to cook them the next day. I love mushrooms, shredded carrots (has to be shredded), bean sprouts, any kind of bell pepper, green, yellow and red.

This rice cooker (photo below) was a gift from my brother, TL, after I got married and moved to Michigan. The joke was that it was so easy that even someone like me who was (still am) so domestically challenged could cook a decent pot of rice. My mom showed me how to wash the rice, add the right amount of water, press the button and when the rice was cooked, the button popped up, that was all there was to know. Well, I must admit there were a few times the rice was either half cooked (not enough water) or really mushy (too much water). It must be the wrong kind of rice!