My fiancé likes to cook and well, I don’t have any sort of relationship with the kitchen. I knew I had to learn or figure out basic meals soon because our future and survival would depend on it (haha!). So, to expedite my learning process, he took the opportunity to teach me some pasta dishes these past two weekends.

I must admit I was reluctant to cook but when we started, I realized it wasn’t as bad as I had imagined. My fiancé’s siblings joined us making it a team effort and turning it into a fun activity. We put on some 90’s music and cooked away!

I think my trauma for cooking stemmed from two events when I was in grade school. There was a time  I cut myself while chopping followed by a really unforgettable encounter with raw, uncleaned fish. I only got over these two memorable instances because the last two family cooking weekends have masked the past. I think I’m more open to learning more recipes now and I can start building a new relationship with the kitchen and cooking.

For those wondering what we cooked, or what I learned to cook, we did two kinds of pasta dishes: truffle cream mushroom pasta and pesto shrimp pasta. Let me share with you my fiancé’s invented dishes. I say ‘invented’ because he cooks without exact measurements and just adjusts ingredients based on his judgment of taste.

Here’s a picture of our first dish, the truffle cream mushroom pasta. It’s basically aldente pasta mixed  into rich, creamy sauce with truffle oil, two kinds of mushroom, and a few cubes of mozzarella to give the sauce some stretch.

The second dish, pesto shrimp pasta, was made from fresh basil, nuts, olive oil and parmesian cheese finely mixed together. The shrimp was cooked with the pesto mixture and then the noodles were mixed in.

So far, so good. We’ve received good reviews for both dishes from both sides of the family. I’m looking forward to more family cooking weekends. Must add more dishes to my list!