Food Fail / Food Win

This Wednesday, I tried a couple of experiments in the kitchen. Both were rather spectacular, if I do say so myself, though in opposite ways…

In the afternoon, I struggled to find enough food for me to eat for lunch. We’d been away for the weekend and were out of some key items and low on good leftovers. Then I remembered that a week or so ago, I had bought some camote at the market. This is the Filipino version of a sweet potato. I bought them intending to try them out. I wanted to see how they differ from the American sweet potatoes I’m used to, so that I could decide how to use them in future dinners. I thought this would make a nice addition to my lunch, so I pulled them out. Apparently they had been in the refrigerator longer than I realized because only one of them was still good enough to cook. I tossed the others and cleaned off the one I planned to eat. Since I was figuring on eating the camote plain, I thought I would just microwave it like a baked potato. That works with both potatoes and American sweet potatoes, so I assumed it would work just fine. This is not true, as it turns out. It was a small camote, so I set the timer for only a few minutes. About 2 minutes in, I noticed the smell of the potato cooking and thought, “Oh good!” Then about 30 seconds before the end of the timer, I noticed the smell change… When I opened the microwave, smoke poured out, along with a strong smell like burnt popcorn. The camote was both blackened and whitened, completely charred. It was actually stuck to the microwave plate. Two days later, the smell is still lingering; I notice it again every time I open the microwave.  I bought new camote at the market yesterday. I still want to find out its taste and texture, but this time I shall do a little research before I try to cook one!

Not my macaroni and cheese, but mine looked similar! :)

Last weekend, I made a casserole that included a cheese sauce. When I had made the sauce and was pouring it into the baking dish, I tasted a bit of it and was immediately transported to my family’s kitchen in Wheaton. It tasted just like my mom’s homemade mac ‘n’ cheese! For me, macaroni and cheese is a serious comfort food. In the US, I always had a box or two of the store-bought stuff in the house. Since I generally want comfort food on days that I don’t want to put effort into dinner, I’ve never tried to make it from scratch. Here in Manila, I’ve just done without. Boxed mac ‘n’ cheese is only available at stores with lots of imports (which are all pretty far away from me, so I never shop there), and it’s quite expensive. But when I tasted that cheese sauce, I suddenly realized that I had another option! (Shocking, right?) I decided that I was definitely going to try to make my own mac ‘n’ cheese, and Wednesday turned out to be a good day for it. Seth was gone to Bible study all evening, so in the late afternoon, Kaitlyn played in the kitchen while I made us an early dinner. We were both hungry when it was ready. (As you may recall, some of my lunch plans didn’t work out so well…) And it was perfect! Kaitlyn hasn’t been a huge fan of pasta before, but she couldn’t put these in her mouth fast enough! This recipe may or may not actually taste like my mom’s recipe, but it sure tastes like my memory of her recipe, and that’s good enough for me. We shared it again yesterday and today; there’s only one more Kaitlyn-sized serving left. I don’t think Seth even got any! Which will now be my excuse to make it again soon. :)