The most romantic Valentines Day dinner any four people can have.

After spending the weekend down south with the parentals, I decided to ask my mother dearest for a couple of basic recipes so that I could cook a kick-ass dinner. Betty Crocker gave me an awesome recipe for a chicken dish, which she has made me on many occasions, so I had faith that I could cook a champion dinner for the day of love.

Got back to our humble abode and discovered that I was missing the most core ingredient: chicken. Shopping with K followed, which lead to a decision not to compromise on quality ice cream. It also lead to a wild goose chase to find strawberries. There were some very concerned people in Garden City that day when they saw K and I speed in and out of four different shops trying to find strawberries.

First I made the marinade, which I had to make twice due to a calculator error. Preparing the chicken was quite interesting, especially since numbers had increased to four, so deciding on what pieces to cook was a tough one.

With the chicken marinaded and in the oven, next was the salad. I decided to actually put effort into chopping the ingredients so it looked half decent. Made my own dressing too. Impressive, I know.

After basting the chicken a few times it was time to finally do the challenging part of the dish: the rice. Now, I know that most people would say "Rice as the most challenging component, get outta town!" I was outta town. I had never cooked rice without Betty Crocker by my side to guide me (which basically means me giving up and letting her take over.) I turned to my faithful house mates who, to my surprise, had both only ever cooked rice in a rice cooker. Henrietta (our amazing hen egg timer, who I wanted to call Henry, but this led to protest that you can't have a chicken called Henry) had started to cluck, so the chicken was done. Nerves set in. I glanced at the back of the packet on the rice about how to cook it and began to cook the rice how I thought would work.

Should of read the packet. I mean, the rice wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I wanted to serve when the rest of the dish had gone so well.

Next was dessert. It consisted of my cutting the only strawberries I could find in Garden City, adding sugar, leaving in fridge for half an hour. Then serving with vanilla ice cream that was too expensive for us to afford but we got anyway. Twas delightful.

Helpful hints:

1. Mothers have excellent advice and knowledge that will never cease to amaze me.
2. Know your rice and how to cook it.
3. Never, under any circumstances, go for cheap ice cream. You will regret it

9.5/10 for fail on rice cooking.
D
P.S- Yes, I know that it is late. Good blogging takes time.

If we could cook as well as we could bake...god we'd be good!

Seeing as the sole banana left in the fruit bowl had gone soft and was only good for cooking, we decided to test out our baking skills. As the only actual thing we had to bake with was the banana, D and I tripped off down to our local Coles to buy some baking materials (including a cake tin and muffin pans). $120.88 later, we've got baking materials but still haven't decided what to cook for dinner. More on that later.

First up, cupcakes. Lemon cupcakes. That's right, culinary geniuses, we are. Take a basic cupcake recipe, add lemon rind to the mixture, and add lemon juice to the icing. Done. Oh, and be prepared for a fair amount of whisking with a fork when your kitchen is lacking a whisk. We had to take turns; our arms kept getting sore.

So, our first baking effort seemed to be a success. Unwilling to taste-test them ourselves, we kindly offered one to our lovely painter, Phil...

Cue tense silence as Phil takes the first bite of his cupcake.

AND 10/10! That's right guys, he could "not fault them". Perfect, I believe was the adjective used. Smug smiles all round.

Next up - banana and raspberry muffins. Notice how healthy all our recipes are? I've cooked these muffins several times before, but as blueberry/banana or mixed berry/banana. First time using just raspberries. I figure I'm blaming D if anything goes wrong, she's the one who suggested the raspberries.

More of the exhausting whisking of butter and sugar and eggs et cetera. Even Mum came in and gave us a hand with the whisking. Note to selves: invest in a whisk.

Once these were done, we again decided to taste-test them with Phil. TEN OUT OF TEN. AGAIN! In case you missed the first time...

So, we figure we can bake. Pretty darn good.

However, just one pointer:

1. Invest in a whisk for your kitchen if you decide to do some baking. No, really.

10/10

B