This is one of my favorite things to do --cooking. I love to cook because I love to eat but I hate the clean-up after. So anytime I can get a one-pot meal going, that would be the best. I just throw in everything into a pot --the meat, vegetables, seasonings, flavoring, with water or with stock, and then boil it, simmer it, saute it, bake it or broil it, I don't care, for as long as I don't have to wash a dozen of cooking pots and wares after.
But my husband is of a different specie when it comes to cooking. He also loves to cook and he is truly a blessing when he volunteers to cook for us especially after a long day at work. He is the "traditional" Filipino cook where he makes a single dish with two or three separate pans and pots. First, he boils the meat in a nice sauce and then sauté it. Or, he simmers the fish in vinegar then fries it after. That's one of the ways with Filipino cooking. We sometimes call it "double murder" for the obvious reason that even after when it's cooked for the first time, we cook it again the second time. Boil then fry, bake then sauté, sear then broil, get it? Of course, needless to say, it's very tasty food. I love it, and with no doubt, Filipino cuisine is one of my favorites. Do I need to say why?
And yet, can you begin to imagine the clean-up after such an adventure in the kitchen? Yes, it's a small disaster. I love my husband so much and I tell him all the time that he is a blessing to me especially when he helps out in the kitchen, but I beg him to please stay away from frying oil and too many pots and pans! Yet surely, some habits are just too hard to break.
Then there's my son. He is a whole different story all together. He loves my cooking for as long as I don't put any kind of vegetables in it. But with one-pot cooking, that's almost never going to happen. One of the reasons why we don't eat out a lot, aside from the fact that everything is just getting ridiculously expensive out there, is the one fact that my son picks on his food, specifically on the vegetables. So at least, if I cook and if we eat at home, he doesn't have any choice but to sit down and eat whatever is served on the table and for him to finish with a clean plate. Oh I forgot, of course he has a choice --he can also go to bed hungry if he doesn't want to eat my one-pot meals.
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. We love him, because he first loved us." -1 John 4:9-10, 14-15, 19
One-pot meals also kinda remind me of God's love. Everything is included in His love --His grace and mercy, His forgiveness and healing, His compassion and guidance, His salvation, and with it comes eternal life. We can accept His "one-pot" love but it's a choice. He doesn't force us to eat our "vegetables" although He sure knows it's good for us. He has given us the choice to sit at His table and partake of His "one-pot meal" but He has also given us a choice to leave if we choose to. It's up to us. He never made us to be like robots. He wants us to love Him back, to accept Him, and to enjoy His offering of love and salvation through our own personal decision and choice.
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| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
And yet, can you begin to imagine the clean-up after such an adventure in the kitchen? Yes, it's a small disaster. I love my husband so much and I tell him all the time that he is a blessing to me especially when he helps out in the kitchen, but I beg him to please stay away from frying oil and too many pots and pans! Yet surely, some habits are just too hard to break.
Then there's my son. He is a whole different story all together. He loves my cooking for as long as I don't put any kind of vegetables in it. But with one-pot cooking, that's almost never going to happen. One of the reasons why we don't eat out a lot, aside from the fact that everything is just getting ridiculously expensive out there, is the one fact that my son picks on his food, specifically on the vegetables. So at least, if I cook and if we eat at home, he doesn't have any choice but to sit down and eat whatever is served on the table and for him to finish with a clean plate. Oh I forgot, of course he has a choice --he can also go to bed hungry if he doesn't want to eat my one-pot meals.
 |
| © Copyright, MMD Images, 2011 |
One-pot meals also kinda remind me of God's love. Everything is included in His love --His grace and mercy, His forgiveness and healing, His compassion and guidance, His salvation, and with it comes eternal life. We can accept His "one-pot" love but it's a choice. He doesn't force us to eat our "vegetables" although He sure knows it's good for us. He has given us the choice to sit at His table and partake of His "one-pot meal" but He has also given us a choice to leave if we choose to. It's up to us. He never made us to be like robots. He wants us to love Him back, to accept Him, and to enjoy His offering of love and salvation through our own personal decision and choice.
I don't know anything at all about Filipino cuisine, but it sounds very tasty! In Britain, we have our own (perhaps slightly bland) cuisine, although perfectly cooked fish and chips is a treat to behold! But we also have many other cuisines like Indian, Italian, Mexican, Spanish and even Caribbean. Indian food is really BIG in the UK; we just love our curries; hot ones, spicy ones, creamy ones, vegetable ones, sweet ones, savoury ones, meat ones, fish ones, prawn ones, and so on! And then you have all the breads and pickles and chutneys and rice dishes that go with it too. A real treat!
ReplyDeleteOne of the one pot dishes I do is a prawn biryani, which is a kind of curry which the Indians 'borrowed' off the Persians. It's really nice, and my own recipe.
Cooking for me is a way of relaxing and being creative at the same time; I don't wash the dishes afterwards either!
I like Indian food myself though it's not very popular in the Philippines. Yum!! That's all I can say. =) You should also post some of your cooking adventures on your blog. I'd love to see that!
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