My Experiments With Cooking

I am not the world's greatest cook. In fact, I don't think you could even count me among the numbers of cooks in this world. Yeah, I can cook to survive; I can cook to ensure I won't go hungry for days. But, I would be running to the other end of the earth if you asked me to cook for somebody else.
It is because I've never tried my hand at cooking. I can make great stuff out of the ready-to-cook packages- noodles, pasta, dosa mix, uttapa mix, soups....but, you give me the core ingredients and tell me to conjure up the same yummy dish out of them, you are talking absolute rubbish! So, yesterday when my mother requested me to cook a vegetable because she was going to get late, yeah, I spent a moment doubting my skills.
I did not really have a choice, and I wanted to give it a shot. So I tried any way. This is not one of those stories where the underdog goes on to beat the world champion, alright. I put in way too many spices, and try as much as I could, I couldn't match the taste with the salt. End Result: Melon with a hot spicy taste, which made want to resort to water every single time, and I had a hard time trying to figure out when the vegetable showed signs of having gotten cooked properly. Oh yeah, and in between I also had to battle the demons of burning, because I took a thin-based pan, and I don't have a very good idea about the intensity of our stove.
My brother declared before hand that he did not 'want to take the risk of tasting the food you cook'. Wow! That's some encouragement right?! My poor dad was the unfortunate 'guinea pig' (my brother's term) to taste my not very well made vegetable. As is the case with good parents, he told it was good. He did not take another helping, and, even if he had, I would personally have made him put it all back.
Today's attempt was much better. For one, I was better prepared with the procedure of doing things. And I got all my spices content right. I did end up putting a little water ( and cabbage doesn't need any water to get cooked, as my mother explained later) because of which the dish became a little soggy. But, today I was happy with the the end result. My mom did not tell my brother that I'd made the vegetable. And he liked it! Its not just the words, he finished half of it. Phew! If he thought that my mom had made that, then it's a huge compliment to me :-) We're planning to tell him after dinner that the maker is none other than his sister. Hahaha!!!
Deciding to make the vegetable today was a just a small attempt at making my mom feel relaxed on her birthday. I think it kinda worked :-)
Happy Birthday Mom! I wish I could make everything easy for you every single day...Have a long and wonderful life...Thank you for being there always :-) :-) :-)