When I do anything remotely close to domestication, I always remember the debate me and my mom had when i was in college. It goes like this:

My Mom: When you get married, you need to know how to cook, do laundry. You have to serve your husband:
Me: Mom, You're not paying tens and thousands of money for my tuition fee just for a man to treat me like a maid. I'm going to marry a man who will not require me to do those things!
My Mom: Bahala ka.

She said those last words with a smirk as if she know something I didn't. Well, Mother truly knows what's best because now I understand what she truly means. Learning some household skills doesn't mean I'm cowering to my husband. Every household chores I do is actually an act of love for my family. It took me becoming a wife and mother to learn that. Good one, mom! You got me there.

So here I am learning more and more about how I can serve my family and bring smiles to faces with the little things I do for them at home. One of which definitely learning a lot of dishes to cook for my husband.


#BetterMe Moms invited me to their Recipe Swap Event. I admit, I feel like I don't belong to that kind of gathering but I summoned the courage because I really wanted to learn new dishes. I was already running out meals to cook for the family. When I got there, I saw a very familiar ingredient that we use frequently in our dishes at home. It's the Lee Kum Kee Panda Oyster Sauce. I'm sure everyone of you has one in your kitchen and our home is no different. Ron's favorite dish, my Mom's Pork Chop Marinade has Oyster Sauce as one its main ingredient! My favorite Thai Dish, Thai Basil Chicken, has oyster sauce in it. Oh was I glad to see it on the counter of the fabulous Marlade Kitchen because I know I could probably cook the recipes they will be showing us!


And guess who were the mom's who generously shared and prepared their recipes for us!





Oh, god, I love Thai! And it was soooo easy to make. So easy that I immediately cooked it at home! Naturally with the Lee Kum Kee Oystere Sauce. Even Claud likes this dish! The woman with Suzi there who helped all the moms cook is Karen Mejia, she conducts cooking classes and has recently opened a new restaurant. She's also my gradeschool classmate and the last time I saw her was when we were in sixth grade.




Another gorgeous mom, Michelle Aventajado, shared her meal, this time using Salmon as protein. I love Salmon but I have to admit that this would something we would only cook during special occasions. Ang mahal kaya ng good quality salmon! To I'm definitely bookmarking this for one of our many happy occasions at home.

This dish is definitely super easy to make. Just make sure to get fresh salmon to fully get the flavor of this lovely fish.




Dear mom friend, Michelle Lim, cooked a very familiar dish and im sure you also ahve your own version of this. Tofu Saute! I can't believe I used to hate tofu when i was little. Now I can't get enough of it. Michelles verison with tomatoes definitely gives an added flavor. Ang sarap! I recreated it at home with pork in it and the husband loves it! And he hates tofu ha? Not anymore. After cooking this dish, R ate with so much gusto my heart swelled with pride. Aww!





Eliza definitely brought the character to the whole Recipe Swap event. I love how brutally honest she was when she was cooking and talking about her recipe. She shared that most of the time, with a very busy schedule, demanding work and son, one just really needs to wing it at the kitchen. One tip I took to heart is that if we don't know how to cook well, we should cook with the best ingredients because for sure the food will turn out great. And by that she meant cook with the Lee Kum Kee Panda Oyste Sauce which has more oyster extract.

Here she is adding Lee Kum Kee Panda Oyster Sauce to her Zenmayang Schucai dish. :)





I admit I dont eat a lot of asparagus. I actually dont like a lot of vegetable but this one is pretty tasty. It paired well with the Salmon

I was so inspired that I also gave a new twist to my Buttered Garlic Shrimp!