the kitchen is busy

a great long weekend for me:D

finally, i was able to explore & use for the first time, my oven & my kitchen aid mixer. woot woot!!! as always, being an ambitious amateur chef, i tried to make a lot of different 'not so simple' things from recipes i got from the net. i made bagel last saturday afternoon & sunday, i made pizza & biscotti.

good thing my dad is not here in manila 'cause if he learns that i used the oven & mixer for the first time without reading the manuals (as usual, i was too lazy to read & too excited to use the kitchen equipments) i'm sure to get some scolding from him. the only thing i made sure before using them was to learn what the electricity requirements are 'cause i don't want to end up breaking my precious kitchen tools.

the bagel & pizza which both required yeast didn't rise to almost double though. until now i'm still trying to figure out what i did wrong. maybe it has something to do with the ingredients or the temperature. i'm hoping to figure that out soon when i make my next attempt at baking.

for the bagel, i just made it plain. no flavor in it. the taste was ok & it smelled good. it was a little tough though.

for the pizza, since i like simple pizzas like margherita or just cheese pizza. i worked with what ingredients i had for toppings at home. the sauce i used was tomato sauce & paste. the first pizza i topped with some sliced tomatoes, basil leaves, cheese, olive oil & pepper, the second pizza i added some homemade shredded fish (which my mom made). since the crust didn't rise when i placed it to rest, i just tried to make it as thin as possible to achieve a crisp crust. my sister liked it & she said that it reminded her of pizza from italiannis. hearing such a compliment from my sister made me really happy & inspires me to try & bake more.

the biscotti i made was a simple cinnamon sugar biscotti. the mixture of cinnamon & sugar baking in the oven really smelled good. even after baking the whole house smelled of it.

i know i love cooking but the thing i discovered about myself was that i love baking. surprisingly, what i like to bake are not the usual stuffs like cakes or cookies. i love baking breads.

another long weekend ahead & i'm really looking forward to it. hopefully i'll be able to solve the mistake i made, try out some new recipe & maybe discover something more about myself.