You must be tired of reading things related to the coronavirus. I would never have imagined that I would experience such a thing in my lifetime. What did I do when SARS hit Canada in 2003?

It has been three weeks since I was ordered by my employer to work from home. I obviously have more time now, only going out to get groceries once a week and walks around the neighbourhood.

Since I have more time, that means I can cook more often. And I have been! I’ve been following many Bon Appetit’s Test Kitchen community (catching up on their Instagram stories) and watching many Youtube videos for inspiration.

During the first week, I baked a banana bread, topped it off with chocolate chips. It would be a breakfast and lasted me a week.

When I was last out, I went to Eataly to have lunch. I had the most incredible mushroom pizza. So when I went to do a grocery run, I bought mushrooms and tried to recreate the pizza but failed miserably. Nevertheless, I had a good focaccia pizza.

My mom and I were on a focaccia craze, so she asked me to make it again. We used what we had in the fridge; leftover basil, mushroom, hotdog, prosciutto and cheese.

Since my mom works in a meat wholesale factory, she stocked our freezer with meats. She bought a whole chicken and we ate half. We had lemon in the fridge, so we made lemon chicken with onions. Is that a thing?

As I mentioned earlier, I have been non-stop scrolling through Instagram to be inspired. And I certainly was after looking at Christina’s crispy garlic fried rice.  So I made my mom and I kimchi fried rice with fried garlic slices topped with shredded egg.

You know that half chicken that we didn’t use the other day? Well I had plans to make BA’s chicken noodle soup , after watching Molly make it on Youtube. And it was delish, of course! Even got compliments from my dad (he’s a hard critic).

One of my favourite recipes that I found off Youtube is Marion’s 15 minute laksa. It’s simple, easy and it’s perfect for a weekday dinner. My mom picked up a can of Trader Joe’s coconut milk last time she went to Chicago, so we decided to try it out. It doesn’t have enough coconut flavour, maybe it’s due to the fact that it’s reduced in fat?

Any noodles would work for this soup noodle dish (we had ramen), but after having leftover vermicelli noodles with the leftover broth, I’d always choose vermicelli from now and forever. The vermicelli soaks up all the flavour from the broth and talking about it makes my mouth water!

This was the most disappointing dish since staying home during quarantine. I semi followed this recipe. It was a failure as the paste wasn’t flavourful (maybe I tried to mimic Korean hot pepper flakes by using my own pepper flakes). Adding tofu really water downs the soup.

My mom made this authentic chicken clay pot rice. We each (three of us) had our own pot..cause why not…we have all the time in the world to wash the dishes.

Stayed tuned for the Part 2. I had a baking day and I’m really proud of my results!