I thought I'd ask my sister but I never got around doing it; I thought that she may give light to the matter for she is also in the same predicament; she's also cooking for two.
How do you cook for two? I seem to have forgotten it already.
You would think that cooking for two is simple and maybe even exciting like it was before when there were just the two of you; reminiscing or even re-enacting candle-lit dinners in the past.
It's not that easy, anymore. You won't like all that fuss; besides, your palate is already so sensitive and discriminating; you won't eat just anything. More often than not, you already have in mind what you want to eat for the next meal. We become more picky as we age and sometimes eating is just a necessity. Besides I practically don't eat dinner anymore, unless we eat out or we have guests.
When my husband and I were both working I only worry about dinner since breakfast is a hurried coffee-and-a-sandwich-to-go; lunch is at work and dinner is sometimes taken in a restaurant. Therefore, more often than not that's the only meal I had to plan and prepare.
Moreover, I've been so used to cooking for my family of 5; three children with teenagers' appetites that necessitated me to cook in adequate proportions. Years later, when they became hard-working adults with practically no time to eat properly at the office except fast food, I had to compensate for that on weekends when our lunch was always a feast.
During those years when I went to the wet market a few blocks from our home, I bought practically a kilo of every veggie we like; a kilo or so of each fresh seafood of my choice that is available and adequate choice cuts of chicken, pork and beef. I only decide the menu for lunch and dinner at home as I go over my purchases.
You see, I'm not a stickler to a weekly or bi-weekly menu. I buy fresh seafood that's available and veggies that are in season. I don't bring a shopping list to the wet market either, that's only for the supermarket.
My old ways is the reason I was at a loss when all my children had left home; which incidentally coincided with my retirement. At first, I had a lot of left-overs, I didn't know what to do with them. I was also left with a lot of wilting veggies in my crisper, that was when I decided to do something about it.
Cooking for two is a real challenge; at first it wasn't easy to adjust my marketing and cooking habits. How do you cook two bowls of chicken soup anyway? You tell me, unless you make it from a package, just add water and boil. But I seldom use commercially prepared soups, I cook from scratch all the time. I also don't use mixes, I make my own.
Earlier on during this adjustment period, I prepared "asado", which consisted of marinating the beef overnight, brown in little oil, then simmer in its marinade for two hours until tender. Whenever I prepare this, I usually prepare a substantial amount every time to make it worth the effort. Anyway, I told myself, "this recipe can keep and I don't mind reheating it". Would you believe that it took us quite sometime to finish that usual portion? Our meals became a replay many times over. I even converted some as quesadilla filling, some I used for sandwich filling.
Learning from that experience, I became more conscious of portioning. When I go to the market nowadays, I remind myself to buy only what's good for two. When I buy the whole beef tenderloin, two thick medallions is enough, I marinate the rest and freeze; two pieces of a medium-size fish to fry, bake or broil is enough for a meal with a salad.
And oh yes, even salad needed adjustment. While one big head of romaine for Caesar salad earlier was hardly enough, now I just buy the baby ones; a small bunch is just right for us. When I cook pasta or noodles, a kilo would ready be way too much; I know now that even 1/4 kilo is more than adequate. I also learned to get smaller packages of other things, no need to go to S & R anymore ; I can't get chicken wings less than a kilo there anyway.
This situation has it's pluses though. Oftentimes my husband would pop in the kitchen and asks "what's for lunch?", and if he is not in the mood for that kind of food, he'll say: "let's eat out". We don't worry leaving anyone behind to eat alone, we can go at the spur of the moment. And when we also happen to be in the mall during mealtime, then I'm yet again spared in preparing another meal.
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