My cooking was definitely not one of the many reasons that Adam married me. I’ve never
really been much of a cook at all. It wasn’t that my mom didn’t teach me, but it was the
fact that cooking didn’t always fit into my lifestyle. During college I lived
in the dorms my freshman year and then the sorority house for the remainder of
my time in Manhattan. I lived on my own while in Omaha and Wichita, but to be completely
honest, cooking for one is often times more work than it is worth. Like many Americans, I always
found myself sticking to the quick and easy recipes or the take-out that was
just a short car ride away.
Since
getting married and moving to Luanda, I have started the process of
experimenting in the kitchen and have taught myself a lot about cooking. Not
having the temptation of fast food restaurants has also pushed me to dust off
the ole apron. It hasn’t been easy considering cooking in Luanda and
cooking in the States are two completely different tasks.
For
example, our oven isn’t nearly as fancy as those that you can find in the
States. And when I say fancy, I mean we don’t have a dial or a button that we can
use to set the temperature. We have a gas oven that I light the flame in the bottom of it with a match. And instead of having a temperature dial, we have a
dial to control the size of the flame. I find myself monitoring the cooking
process extremely closely because a timer just won’t do the trick here.
Besides the
fact that our appliances are far from being high tech, we also don’t have many of the
same foods or ingredients on our grocery store shelves. Finding a specific item
or a complete recipe at the grocery store can be somewhat challenging. I’ve taken
the trial and error process to a whole new level here but have managed to come
up with some tasty treats.
And lets
not forget the absence of some of my favorite things. Growing up during the
Ranch obsession era, it has been really hard for me to adapt to a non-salad
dressing society. I have used the Internet to find a few simple homemade salad
dressing recipes that don’t require very many ingredients, just a little bit
more work in the kitchen. One of our favorite recipes that I found on TLC’s
cooking website is the Ginger Ponzu Sauce. It includes:
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon of peeled and crushed fresh ginger
When combined with a plate of fresh greens and mandarin
oranges, it is absolutely delicious! And although none of the recipes will ever
compare to Ranch, I can’t complain because they still add a burst of
flavor to my greens while being extra friendly to my waistline.
Salad
dressing isn’t the only item I’ve learned how to make. Adam often brings home
fresh fruits and vegetables, some of which I have never made or even heard of
before moving here. One week he brought me home a bag of homegrown sweet
potatoes. An extensive Google search taught me how to make a very delicious
batch of homemade sweet potato mashed potatoes. Each your heart out folks!
I am
certainly not the best cook in the kitchen, but I have slowly started to find
my way around it. It is probably a good thing that I didn’t come here as an
expert chef because I’m sure I would have been extremely disappointed and
frustrated with the differences between Luanda and the States. Instead, I’ve
learned on what I have available to me. And based on what I’ve learned, I don’t
think that Adam and I will starve anytime soon.
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