So right now Jonathan and I are in Cork, which if you don't know is a city in the south of Ireland where my parents' house is. We are looking after my little sister Erika as my mom, my sister Emma and my brother Stefano are all in Italy at a conference in honour of my father. One of my biggest challenges this week is having to cook a meal everyday for Erika, Jonathan and me. I'll admit, I'm the possibly the worst cook in the world and when we're at home we normally either eat out or Jonathan and I will get separate and far too expensive pre-packaged meals. Terrible, right?
The big problem I have with cooking is also that Jonathan and I have very different tastes. I grew up eating pretty much only Italian food - so I am used to lots of pasta, olive oil, garlic and I prefer mostly vegetarian meals. Jonathan on the other hand, is 100% Irish and favours a more traditional Irish dinner with lots of meat and potatoes. He hates garlic, any kind of oil/butter and is not a fan of pasta. See my dilemma??
I want to change, I really do - so this week I have made a conscious effort and am sticking to the plan of cooking a proper meal every single evening. Erika is used to my mom's delicious home-made food and I don't have the heart to put her through anything pre-packaged! So this pretty much forces me to finally learn to cook!
Here's the low-down on the last few days...
Jonathan cooked the frozen chicken Kievs...a bit of a fail, I know but it was late and we had just driven all the way from Dublin so none of us were in the mood for cooking. Still though, it could have been worse!
I started to attempt making penne with pancetta and tomato sauce (something my parents make a lot but I can never recreate), when I was opening the packet of pancetta and a recipe caught my eye. So I ended up making the pasta with pancetta, mushrooms, onion, parmesan and cream. A bit too heavy and I picked out all the pancetta but hey, Jonathan appreciated the meat.
We ate leftovers from Day 2. I had overcalculated and made far too much.
(Today) I cooked again! I made penne with home made sun-blushed tomato pesto...sounds fancy, right?! I thought so too but it turned out to be SO easy and really good! Even Jonathan liked it which is weird because like I said, he's not a big fan of pasta.
Buon Appetito!
xoxo
Anna
