Managing to Cook

I am not a kitchen person. My mother has resigned to this fact. My mother-in-law knew about my lack of culinary skills first thing. She, who loves to cook for her boys (husband and four boys), may expect her sons’ wives to be good cooks, too. I guess, she just had to accept me for that.

I cooked Chicken with Caramelized Apples. Of course, the recipe is straight out of a cookbook. With the cookbook on top of the counter and while my son was sleeping, I prepared the ingredients save for apple cider. I don’t know what it is. Pathetic?:-) From Wikipedia, I just learned that it is a “nonalcoholic beverage: a subcategory of apple juice traditionally made from early-harvest apples which have a lower sugar content and are more acidic”. Of course, I wouldn’t know that. And I wouldn’t know how to get that from any stores here in Seoul. Almost all products are in Korean characters. This city is so unfriendly to foreigners .

Good thing, I discovered Hyundai Department Store in Omokgyo by accident on one of my trips to the Seoul Immigration Office. That’s the only store I know which has an area for imported products (just a few but I was able to find some ingredients I needed). The area is outside the grocery store. In Lotte and the World Cup Stadium Mall, imported products are inside the grocery.

Anyway, I also substituted ‘heavy cream’ to Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. That’s the only cream I saw. I am yet to know what the counterpart is here for our Nestle Cream. So, without the apple cider and with the improvisation I made for the cream, I managed to cook “Chicken with Caramelized Apples”. Sounds nice! Did the nice name translate to good taste? I only had my baby to feed and to judge. So, did my son like it? He didn’t say so with words but he devoured it. Alright, I am exaggerating. But he ate a lot! But then, my son always eats a lot (LOL).

I think I did well this time. In fact, I would love to prepare it again when my husband returns from one of his business trips. It would be great to welcome him with home-cooked “gourmet” meal when he comes back.