Definitely Better

I know it may not look like it, but this dish turned out waaayyyy better than that last little adventure.  I present to you the "Mighty Migas"!  And let me tell you it really was easy (all prepared in one simple skillet, thank God) and quite tasty.  It's a brunchy sort of tortilla, cheesy, eggy dish.  I must say, though, that I'm a little perplexed by chorizo.  I thought it was going to cook up like sausage but instead it seemed to virtually melt away as it was cooking which - having never cooked with it before - I don't know if that is supposed to happen or if I just got a lousy product.  The flavor was still great I thought.  (Erik didn't seem as impressed as I was.)  I did leave out the 1.) jalapeno peppers because I am, after all, feeding children and b.) the avocado because I'm just not a fan.  

So my hope is renewed.  Now if I could just find the money and time to make more frequent efforts perhaps I will be ready to entertain in the next year or so.  Who wants to be first?

Suh-wing annamisss . . .

It looks simple enough right? And while it was technically edible, the process was ultimately comedic . . . either that tragic. Here is what I learned. A recipe that takes more than one page is a little iffy to begin with. One that requires manning 3 pots at once is just way out of my league. In fact, I think I now have a 2 pot rule. More than that and it's a no go.

The name of the dish is "Crispy Parmigiano-Crusted Chicken on Summer Lemon Pasta". See? You want some don't you? I mean how enticing is that? I even watched Rachael make this one and she made it all seem sooo easy that even I could make it. That little kitchen mynx!

I should have known things would not go well when we had to go to 2 or maybe 3 different stores just to acquire all of the necessary ingredients. Speaking of which, what the hell is the difference between scallions, chives, and green onions? I'm sure I can look it up somewhere here on the interweb, but I am at a loss at the grocery store every time. The actual cooking started off alright, but in the end the chicken was dry, the vegetables burned andthe cheese overcooked into little lumps infused with parsley and garlic. I forgot to roll the lemons on the counter before squeezing so they would give up no juice and I completely forgot to add the baby spinach that Erik had to go to freaking Whole Foods to get! Aaarrrgghh!

Oh well, I guess we will toss that one and try something else another day. I will not surrender!

Culinary Idiocy

Two nights ago, for what I believe to be the first time in nearly 10 years of being part of the "Young" family, I made dinner for my mother-in-law.  As I may have mentioned on here a time or two before, cooking is not what you would call my forte but it is something I would really like to do better and over the past year have been making small gains in that area.  My husband suggested it, and I was doing a recipe that had already gone well for me just a few short weeks ago.  So here's my chance to impress the woman who grew up excelling in all things stereotypically feminine and has watched her son and grandchildren suffer through my fumblings.  

I must mention here, though, that my m-i-l and I have a great relationship.  She does not have an overbearing bone in her body and she is incredibly gracious when it comes to my domestic shortcomings to the point of never really even acknowledging them.  This was really more about me proving something to myself and making my husband proud.

So it's a shrimp dish.  We don't really eat seafood, but as it turned out, this recipe passed the Lenten test several weeks back which is why we even gave it a shot.  A fortunate thing since it's actually quite tasty.  I don't know why, but last time I had some prep time on my hands and thought to myself it might be nice to go ahead an remove the tails from the shrimp.  The only times I have ever eaten it have been fried and as shrimp cocktails in which cases the tails have always remained on.  But hey, I've got the time so what the heck.  This time around, however, there was a bit more pressure (from myself) to pull it together in a timely manner so I pulled off as many as I could without delaying the entire preparation of the meal and then just carried on thinking all would be fine and we could eat around or pull off the tails on an 'as needed' basis.  The recipe simply called for "peeled and deveined" which is what I had bought -- or so I thought.  It was as the little suckers were cooking that I noticed a sort of thin shell shriveling and pulling away from the meat on several of them.  I told myself quietly that it could be dealt with, but I think it was when I noticed some still had LEGS (!) that I started to panic just a little on the inside.  I did my best to continue my peeling efforts as they cooked, but I'm sure you can imagine how that went.  I quickly realized that I simply had to soldier on and hope for the best.  (Meanwhile, I discovered that - for reasons I have yet to figure out - the rice in the other pan was simply not going to cook all the way down.  Fabulous.)  In the end I sucked up my pride and served up the meal with a heaping side dish of "my apologies" and a pile of napkins.    True to her nature, my mother-in-law jumped in with a smile and peeled away and commented on how great the it tasted.  (Damn you Rachael Ray and your tasty flavor combinations that will draw me in yet again to give this recipe another shot at some point in the future.)

So, the lesson learned here?  Peel the freakin' shrimp, you idiot!  

I must be doing something right

If my family is willing to buy me new fancy pants cookware, I can only guess that means some of the meals over the past few months have been worthwhile. (Of course, according to my kids it's all thanks to Rachael Ray) Who would ever have thought this day would come where not only would I be cooking decent food, but that I would be thrilled to receive a spankin' new pan for my birthday.

Triple Onion Soup with Triple Cheese Toast

I adore French Onion soup, so I was anxious to try this one. At least until I read through the ingredients list and discovered leeks and shallots. I'm guessing I can find these things in produce, but outside of that I have no clue. Fortunately, Erik did the shopping that day and he was able to track them down.

I have accepted the fact that I can not do what Rachael Ray does in 30 minutes, which is how long every recipe in this book is supposed to take including all the slicing and dicing. Whatever. I began chopping at 5:00. I believe we sat down to eat around 6:45.

What Rachael fails to take into consideration is how many times the 4 year old will stand outside your 2nd floor apartment window calling out "mo-om!" or how many times the baby will drop his plug out of his mouth and begin wailing in distress.

I did not get off to a good start when I thought it would be fine to just go ahead and drop the butter into the soup pot first. As my butter began to burn, I realized that she actually had a reason for telling me to put the olive oil in first and then "add" the butter. Point taken.

And then there were the leeks. I have begun to allow additional time to look up further info on the internet and this was one of those times. The instructions said simply to cut into "half moons", wash, and drain. Huh???? I tried to find pictures or further instruction online but to no avail. I will say this in hindsight. It would be fine without the silly leeks. Double onion is just fine with me.

Oh yeah, the prep time was also extended when I realized that my crusty bread purchased a few days ago had become far too crusty and my husband had eaten most of it anyway, so I had to place a quick call to him at work that he would be dashing out to the store for more bread as soon as he got home.

So overall, not what one would call smooth, but it did taste pretty good even with the 2 extra cups of broth I added. I won't even go into that.

Just thought I'd share a little bit of the comic stylings of Heather in the kitchen. Believe it or not, I'm making progress.

My new friend . . . and future enemy

Since being on maternity leave (not vacation as some of my co-workers believe) I have indulged a bit in one of my guilty pleasures. Daytime TV. I believe it was with my first child that I discovered "Trading Spaces" and with my second there was my afternoon getaway with Samantha Brown on "Great Hotels". Now we are back to basic cable so my options have been a bit limited. But I decided to give this little Rachael Ray gal a go and see what the big deal was and if she could help at all with my, ummmm, disorder. Well, I was sucked in enough to track down one of her cookbooks at the library and let me tell you, it has been quite a good time. I have prepared a meal for my family at least twice and sometimes 3 times a week. Even had friends over to join us. Erik has even taken seconds of a few things, which is one of my measures of true success.

I think what I like is that Rachael comes the closest to presenting a recipe in a manner that doesn't make me start twitching before it's all done. She does throw in random ingredients that I have no idea what they actually are, much less where to find them. (I have yet to locate a can of smoked paprika anywhere.) She also tends to rather high end ingredients. I think I've made 3 recipes with Gruyere cheese, which I do love, but it does not come cheap. The good news is that our grocery budget has recently been expanded - I may do a separate post about that - but it is a temporary situation. Eventually, the carriage will turn back into a pumpkin and I won't be able to afford her anymore, which means I will have no option but to hate her.

But until then, we're eatin' gooooood!

A new record

I actually prepared an evening meal for my family 3 nights in a row. AAANND, they were all edible. Didn't have to order emergency pizza or anything. One of the recipes was even worth saving for future use. You may laugh, but for me that is pure success. There may be a homemaker in me yet.

Another debacle in the kitchen

It sounded good on paper. Cozy Cheese Strata. Not so appetizing in real life, though, huh? The good news is that I think I have found the common denominator on these two recent disasters. I'm pretty sure it is a combination of doubling and eggs. The recipes I am working from are either for 6 people or 2 . . . basically too much or too little for us. So what I was trying to do was take the recipe for 2 and double it. Seems simple enough, right? Sure, until you actually compare the recipes and see that the difference in the eggs is 1 small egg for the 2 person and 1 large egg for the 6 person. Come on! Now, what I want to know is this. Does anyone out there shop at a grocery store that actually offers small eggs? All I have ever seen are things like large, extra large, jumbo, stuff like that. Not fair, I tell you. Not fair!

I did have one dish turn out alright last week (read: fully cooked), but it still wasn't really . . . . "right". I'll keep trying, though. Quincy said something about lasagna last week. Maybe we'll give that a shot sometime soon. I'm pretty sure there are no eggs, so what's the worst that can happen?

Don't answer that.

You thought I was kidding, didn't you?

"Honey, what are we having for dinner?"

"Ummmm . . . vomit?"

Seriously, I have problems in the kitchen. This one went wrong on several different levels, but believe it or not, we still actually ate some of it. Quincy even said he liked it, but that child (thankfully) will eat just about anything. The dogs and the garbage disposal got what was left. I think Aslan was pooping corn for about 3-4 days after.

Oh yeah. This is gonna be fun.

My "other" journey

Anyone who has known me for more than, say . . . ohhh . . a 24 hour period, probably knows that I am a far cry from a domestic goddess. Perhaps domestic pauper would be a little more accurate. However, I have found myself once again, with this strange desire inside of me to become profecient in the kitchen. (I'm also trying to keep my home tidier and in better order, but one lofty goal at a time here folks.) This isn't my first attempt, but for whatever reason, I seem to have more resolve this time around so we'll see how it goes. I actually stuck my toes in this water back at the end of spring, got discouraged during the summer, but now I'm back. In an effort to perhaps up the entertainment factor of my blog for my 3 readers, I thought I'd document my, err, odyssey? So far this week has seen 2 culinary travesties and 1 meal that we didn't throw away, which for me is a moderate success. So stay tuned kids, you never know what the future may hold . . . .

By the way, if I make it to Arkansas next month, my mom said she could teach me to knit. Could be interesting . . .