We had bought a Groupon for Meat House in Brookline and Alex went and got some of their House Marinated chicken (which is delicious by the way). So we let them marinate with a few onions and made kabobs. Usually, Alex would probably add some squash and peppers to the skewers, but I am notoriously picky when it comes to veggies and he didn’t want to waste food. Alex also told me he didn’t want to have only meat for dinner because, with my impending move to NYC, there was a chance I would never eat vegetables again. And in light of the Lunar New Year, I should make something that my parents made.

After a phone call home (where my parents actually laughed when I said I was trying to cook – thanks, guys) and a trip to Super 88 down the block, I was ready to take a stab at my favorite childhood veggie – Baby Bok Choy. I bought a small bag of them when I was at Super 88, since it was just Alex and I for dinner.

Alex helped me heat the grill out on the balcony and while I waited, I skewered the chicken and cut up the greens so they would be ready for cooking. I learned from a few of my other Culinarily Challenged experiences that getting everything ready beforehand was a much better way to approach things than to try and multi-task in the heat of the moment. I’m not quite at the stage where I can multi-task and stay calm and collected about it when cooking. I figure that will come with time and then I’ll become more efficient at cooking.

After skewering the chicken, I began to cut and wash my veggies. It’s not absolutely necessary to cut the ends off of the Bok Choy, but I personally like having them as individual pieces of vegetables, rather than a whole stalk. I ran it under the sink and took a wok out. I don’t think it’s necessary to use the wok; if you have a frying pan and a cover for it that you can find, I’m sure it would work too. As with all things cooking, I wouldn’t take my word for it, though. It was about this time that Alex went to put the chicken on the small grill that we have.

While he was tending to the chicken, I started on the Bok Choy. Things I used:

• Baby Bok Choy
• Olive Oil
• Fish Sauce
• 1 tsp Chicken Boullion
• 2 – 3 cloves of garlic (depending on how much you like garlic. We love garlic.)
• 1/4 cup of water

And that’s it! It’s super easy to make, which is probably why I was so successful at it on the first try.

I heated up the wok on medium and put in a bit of olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Then, I dropped in the chopped up garlic. I dumped all the Bok Choy in shortly after the familiar sizzling sound could be heard from the garlic cooking in the oil.

The hardest part, for me, was telling when it was ready for the next step. I carefully turned the veggies over so that the garlic was evenly spread out. I used a wooden spoon, but I probably should’ve used tongs for easier maneuvering.

I waited until the leaves started to shrink and the Bok Choy was no longer looking as though it would overflow from the pan, which took about 2 – 3 minutes. At that time, I added in the 1/4 cup of water and put the lid on over it. This is where the steaming part of the cooking process comes in. Again, I wish I could tell you exactly how long I left it in there, but if I had to estimate, I would say it was another 2 – 3 minutes.

Once I took the lid off, I immediately added in the Chicken Boullion, stirring it in and turning the heat down to Low. I didn’t want too much more of the water of evaporate.

Side Note: I don’t know what they put in Chicken Boullion, but it is absolutely magical.

I added in a pinch of salt and then the Fish Sauce – to taste. It depends on how you like it so I would recommend taking a small taste of the sauce that all of these ingredients plus the water make up. I personally love the taste of Fish Sauce so I put a lot in there, but for those of you who are new to Asian foods, you might want to go easy on it for the first time. I took it off the burner after another minute on the heat and served it up with the chicken and rice that Alex had been helping me make in parallel with this.

This is what our finished meal looked like:

And the best part of this whole thing? It was absolutely delicious! Alex’s chicken came out with a bit of char on them, which is just the way I like BBQ’d meats. The rice wasn’t overcooked. Of course, these two things are attributed to Alex’s talents; like I’ve said in the past, he is the reason I haven’t lived solely off of pasta and ramen for the past four years. But the Bok Choy? I did that! I haven’t been prouder of a dish in a long time – and I know. I know. It’s a really easy dish to make. But a girl can have her moments, okay?

One of the things I love about this recipe, though, is that it is applicable to several different kinds of Asian veggies. I made it again last night with Alex’s favorite Asian veggie – Yu Choy - and I under cooked it a bit, but otherwise, still delicious!

I think I’ll chalk this one up to a Greatest Hits contender. Happy Year of the Dragon!

To give you all a quick update on what’s going on: I left my company back in December and, after a rough stint at a different company, I have found myself riding the Funemployment train. It kind of sucked at first, but it’s actually not going too badly at all. I believe I am on Day 9. I’ve really had the chance to re-evaluate what is important to me in both my personal life and my career, I’ve been able to do errands that have been sitting on my to-do list for the past 3 months. Not to mention, my blasting of my resume across the entire freaking country (or so it seems) has finally paid off. I had several phone interviews last week, and some in-persons this week!

Anyhow, people keep telling me that things happen for a reason, and perhaps I am finally starting to believe it. Mostly, my pride is hurt. But on the bright side, my boyfriend’s apartment’s kitchen constantly has clean dishes, the trash is consistently taken out, and my kitty is getting more love in a day than he bargained for. Oh, I also won some money when my boyfriend took me on a 1-night getaway to Foxwoods last week. All in all, barring the car accident I got into earlier tonight due to an unfortunate run-in with my worst road enemy, Black Ice, things haven’t been all that bad. (I am fine, a little whiplash, a lot terrified to drive again, but I’ll get over it. My car, on the other hand? Meh.) In fact, some would argue that I am enjoying this time off a tad too much.

But the way I see it, there’s no point in dwelling over something negative ; no use in crying over spilt milk – even if it feels like several gallons of spilt milk ; What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger ; Take lemons and make lemondrops. I know, I know, lemonade, but I think I need something more than just that.

But really, the moral of this story? Shit happens.

So here’s to shit happening – here is to Melody cooking again.

I began to experience more homemade baked goods as I discovered boutique bakeries and talented friends and extended family. On a rare day off last week, I decided it was time that I try too.

I was extremely apprehensive about this initiative. I had never baked outside the comfort zone of the boxed mix before, and precision is key when it comes to baking – or at least that’s what I’ve heard. Still, I decided it was time that I faced my baking fears and try something, seasonal perhaps. After perusing FoodGawker, I made the executive decision: Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes.

The pumpkin pie cupcake recipe from The Baker Chick sounded like exactly what I wanted. It is the gooey, custardy center of a pumpkin pie, in the form of a cupcake. No crust. Many have called me crazy for this, but to be honest, the crust is just not my favorite part of a pie. I will eat it, of course, and I will enjoy it. But the center is the best part to me. I call it my texture/consistency OCD.

For this recipe, I preheated the oven to 350 F  and lined my cupcake tin with foil liners. While I waited for the oven to heat up, I mixed these ingredients up in a large bowl.

• 1 – 15oz can of Pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup of half-and-half

• 2/3 cup of flour
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice

As a side note, this was the first time I’d ever used a whisk. Crazy, I know. I had always just used a mixer or a wooden spoon, or even a spatula if I had to. But I gave in, finally, and bought a whisk. It made it much easier for me, and I’m not sure why. I’m just glad I have it now!

I hurried over to the stove and grabbed an oven mitt before carefully opening the door of the oven. The spicy, pumpkin smell of fall wafted out through the kitchen and a part of me breathed a sigh of relief. I pulled the muffins out of the oven and set them on the stove to cool down. Now, came the waiting. I didn’t want to take one too soon because if it was still too hot, the (hopefully) custardy, gooey cupcake would just stick straight onto the paper. I didn’t have any cooking spray on hand, and had forgotten the ingredient at the store, so I just took my chances.

After another 20 minutes of waiting, I finally took one from the tray. I was nervous. They smelled good, they looked decent, so I really only had one way to find out if they tasted good. I unwrapped the cupcake and, true to my predictions, parts of the cupcake stuck to it. Still, it wasn’t nearly as much as I had anticipated. I took a bite and…well, it wasn’t half bad.

I stopped at a recipe that sounded easy to make, incorporated ground beef, and looked delicious: Spaghetti with mushroom sauce and ground beef. I was later told that this was, basically, American Chop Suey. I didn’t have spaghetti to use, so I resorted to what I did have in the cupboard: elbow macaroni. Yes. A 9-year old’s dream.

The recipe itself was simple enough, and I think it did turn out okay, but I did struggle immensely with chopping vegetables. I am both clumsy and extremely slow when it comes to the combination of a vegetable, a knife, and a cutting board. What should have taken me about 5 – 10 minutes according to the book actually took me closer to 15 – 20 minutes. It could be due to the fact that I refused help when my boyfriend offered, or my lack of ability to conceptualize what “dicing” meant when it came to mushrooms. In the end, the important thing was, I got it done. It wasn’t done as prettily or as quickly as I had hoped, but I figured, “You win some, you lose some.”

The rest of the cooking went fairly smoothly.  The book’s recipe makes 6 servings, which is what I ended up doing. I could do the math, but I didn’t want to screw up just because I wanted to size the recipe down. The recipe calls for:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can condensed cream of tomato soup
• 4 oz. diced mushrooms, drained - I used about 4 – 6 fresh mushrooms, cut up
• 10 oz. spaghetti – I used elbow macaroni 
• 1 medium sized onion, diced
• Italian spices – I didn’t have a mix in a bottle of spices so I used a pinch of thyme, some arugula, garlic, and salt
• Hot sauce – I used a little bit of Sriracha 

I threw the onions and the ground beef into a saucepan and cooked it until the meat was brown and the onions were “tender.” To be honest, I couldn’t tell about the onions but I did figure if the meat was brown, the onions were done too since onions cook quickly. It took about 5 – 7 minutes for the meat to brown enough so that I was able to move on. I didn’t realize how much beef 1 pound actually was.

Once the meat was mostly brown, I added in the 2 cans of soup, and the mushrooms. I covered the pot and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling, I turned down the heat so that it would only “simmer” for 20 minutes. I had to Wikipedia that.

My first meal. All by myself.

I have to admit that it wasn’t that bad, and it was pretty easy to make, despite the whole Melody vs. Chopping Vegetables ordeal. I would like to call it a success, but it wasn’t completely. Chopping issues aside, I had put the leftovers, which were plentiful, from the meal into a container for lunch the following day. When I heated it up on Monday, it was just a tasty as it had been the night before, but my lactose intolerance kicked in. The creaminess of the warm, but not quite hot, sauce did not jive well with my stomach for the rest of the day.

That, however, is not a cooking blunder, and although I may not throw this into my hopefully developing “Greatest Hits” page, I am still going to chalk this particular meal up to be most successful.

The next challenge? Maybe I’ll try baking…

Then, I went to college.

What a wake up call that was. Eating at the Warren Towers dining hall every night wasn’t so bad – for September. But I very quickly realized how great I had it at home – eating non-MSG filled Chinese food, having my meals prepared with love by my father, feeling good after I ate rather than fat. Next year, I vowed, next year I will cook more.

Unfortunately, “next year” turned into “4 years later.” And here we are.

The pasta I made that was more than just a little "al dente." Whoops.

My second year, my boyfriend lived off-campus and liked to dabble in his new-found freedom from a dining plan. Turns out, he’s a pretty good cook. Between him and the West Campus Burger in the dining hall, I was all set. When Alex went out of town, I would eat out or go home for the weekend. My plan was so efficiently realized that my kitchen continued to stay filled with frozen dinners, leftovers from take out, and beer. I was, and probably still am, the epitome of college men everywhere.

Except, I’m a woman. I should know how to do things like cook an egg. I should know how to make pasta. I should know how to make rice – I’m a woman and I’m Asian! Unfortunately, that part of the woman/Asian gene seems to be recessive in me. Nothing ever comes out the way I want it to, I usually majorly screw something up, most of the time I forget an important ingredient. To put it simply, I am Culiniarily Challenged.

But now that both my boyfriend and I have graduated college, now that we each have kitchens we don’t have to fight with 14 people to use,  now that we have agreed that our eating out portion of the expense pie is far too large, I have decided that it might be time to grow up. It also helped when Alex went out of town for a week, I couldn’t go home, and I was determined not to eat out every night. Let’s just say, I’m lucky I neither starved nor injured myself trying to cook.

And who knows? Cooking might be fun.