The Photo Shoot
Adel offered to help me with food styling and taking pictures. I know she will do a great job, but the reality is that most of the photos on the blog are from friends of their home-cooking, so there isn’t a chance to do a proper photo shoot.
The Food Story
What makes the photos special is the story behind each one. Often the lighting is not the best, and that’s because usually lighting in the kitchen isn’t the best. But the kitchen is often the scene of all the efforts a young mother or wife makes to create tasty food and lasting family memories. Not all efforts are successful at first. Elena, who is Homskil’s culinary course developer, said that the first time she cooked for her family, no one wanted to eat. Fortunately, that didn’t stop her, and was probably the motivation for her to become professionally trained in culinary arts.
A Mother’s Heart
Ferninda sent several WhatsApp messages asking for guidance this week. She had made her cooking plan. She would cook on a Friday when her husband wouldn’t be in the kitchen to make her nervous. (He cooks well.) She had to plan her time well. She works and studies at the same time and has two young sons who likes to have Mommy’s attention. The boys usually like to be part of the action in the kitchen! She is learning that cooking requires a lot of planning and some knowledge of food science and food safety. She had the following principles in mind:
- ensure that food is fresh and safe to eat,
- ensure that food is cooked properly
- ensure that cooked food is kept safely in the fridge (check the number of days cooked food can be kept).
Fortunately, there is reliable information readily available on the internet from food safety agencies. When in doubt, take the time to check.
Ferninda’s cooking on Friday took three hours. She cooked enough for several meals as she had planned to freeze some of the food. She was observing if she could make cooking on Fridays a weekly routine. She had a message for me: “Thank you for the encouragement!!!”. It meant that I had a small part in her story.
If you are interested in what Ferninda cooked, she cooked tuna patties and tomato, carrots and apple soup for Friday, and plum sauce pork and a Vietnamese minced pork dish for the weekend.
The plum sauce pork dish has been quite popular with readers, the recipe is available in an earlier blog post. Ferninda is planning to try plum sauce chicken next time.
Festive Feb
February has been a festive month. Apart from the Lunar New Year, there have been many birthday celebrations. Somehow people never seem to run out of ideas for cakes.
The Noodle Symbol
As for food, ee-fu noodles are easy to cook and always a hit! They are good for birthdays and New Year as they symbolise longevity.
Have a great week ahead.
By Chayo, HomSkil Editor 1, 20 February 2022
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