Week 8: Do Over

Recipes to Go: 507 433

Weeks to Go: 52 44

Recipes Made This Week:

Coconut Rhubarb Spice Cake

Tomato-Cucumber Mozzarella Salad

Gingered Chicken Dinner

Creamy Corn Salad

Spicy Sausage Wonton Stars

Pork 'n' Shrimp Spring Rolls

Mango Pork Stir-Fry

Peanut Butter Surprise Muffins

Motoring Munchies

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Artichoke Ham Puffs

Broiled Grapefruit

I had a conversation with someone in my ward a few weeks ago at a baby shower where I brought up my goal, as I am want to do, and she asked if I had had any dismal failures. I thought and said honestly, no because every recipe calls for normal ingredients and they are very easy to follow. Thus far, no problems.

But this week I've had to eat my words, and it hasn't always been tasty. The aftertaste is a little bitter.

I've had a lot of firsts this week. On Sunday, our Home Teachers came by for the first time. So I made dessert like I always do for Home Teachers, to encourage them to come by every month. I decided to make the Rhubarb Spice Cake. I was going to make it last week, but couldn't find any rhubarb. Well, I bought an abundance, chopped it, froze it, but left two stalks in the fridge for this week. So my inaugural rhubarb recipe might be the best cake ever. And I don't even like cake. I don't normally like coconut either, but it was sooo good on the top. Now I want to make this in cupcake form and take it to my Seminary class. I bet it would work for that . . .

Monday was the first day of Seminary, and I will blame that fact on the first food disaster of the week, the ginger chicken.

I didn't read the recipe in advance, like I should do the night before I cook, so I didn't read that I needed to marinate the chicken overnight. Well, that didn't affect the dish too much since half of the marinate is used to cook the rice in, but the problem was that we didn't have instant rice, and I didn't have time to cook rice first. Result - hard, chewy rice. Yuck. I definitely call a do-over with that next time I have cooked rice in the fridge.

Luckily the tomato cucumber mozzarella salad was really good.

Could have been the home-grown tomatoes, me thinks. It would have been better with fresh mozzarella, of course, but we make do.

Tuesday was the first time I've ever made food for a funeral. There was a big one in our ward and they asked everyone who could to make something. They asked on Sunday during our combined lesson on service-I couldn't say no. So I thought it would be a good opportunity to make one of the potluck recipes in the cookbook at full serving size. Sadly, I had to do some shopping to do this, so G was stuck in the car all morning, then we rushed home for nap time. I cooked during that and afterwards, back in the car to the church. Poor kid was stuck in the car for too long. And that's why I don't have a picture of the salad. Nor did I taste it, but it looked really good.

We fed the Missionaries on Tuesday as well. Which meant that poor G got home and didn't get any attention as I went straight back to work. I decided to have Asian night as a treat. It was my first time making Asian food besides curry, my first time working with Wonton Wrappers, and supposed to be my first time working with Bok Choy, but does any store in this entire county carry Bok Choy? No, they do not. And I had neither the time, nor G the patience to drive all the way to Blacksburg to pick up Bok Choy. Especially since I knew I was driving to Blacksburg on Wednesday to take my friend to her doctor's appointment.

So we made do. And can I just say, an hour should be plenty of time to put together 3 Asian recipes, but alas it is not. Shrimp and pork are deceptively difficult to prepare. If I had chopped veggies at my disposal and everything pre-measured in little cups, then maybe. But 2 people in the kitchen and the missionaries arriving an hour before we ate led to chaos. Due to that chaos, and having to keep so many instructions straight in my head simultaneously, I accidentally put in 1/4 cup red pepper flakes into the stir-fry instead of 1/4 teaspoon. Luckily no one minded a little heat. And luckily pepper flakes can only take the heat up so high. It was hot, but not unbearably so. The bad thing was just that the pepper flavor overwhelmed everything else. Which means the mango and the delicious pork were all but in vein. So, do-over number two.

Thursday I actually did make the Gingered Chicken Dinner again, and while the rice was better cooked, as you would imagine, marinating the chicken for 24 hours made it oddly juice and slightly rubbery, so the texture was all off and it seemed raw even though it wasn't. So I guess third time will be the charm for this one.

And Thursday morning, I took the peanut butter muffins to Seminary for a treat. The surprise? Well, I 4x-ed the recipe and it turned out really dry. So the surprise was that they weren't as tasty as I was expecting. Okay, so the real surprise is the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup baked into the muffin, which I will probably do differently next time, as well.

One of the few recipes that went well this week was the Motoring Munchies. Since we were driving to Kentucky to visit our family 6 hours away, I thought I'd take the time to make some travel mix.

This was made with good individual ingredients that combined really well together. Surprisingly so. It was a big hit, which was good because it made a ridiculously large amount. We used our biggest bowl and practically begged Johnny's sister to take some off our hands. Luckily it is good, so she was happy to oblige.

Apparently, all I was lacking this week was a sou chef because the breakfast-for-dinner we made on Saturday was back to the ridiculously delicious standards I've come to expect. The Lemon Ricotta Pancakes were a lot like crapes and rhubarb makes an excellent syrup.

Don't worry, my plate was never this empty again.

The Artichoke Ham Puffs might be the greatest gravy ever invented.

Sorry the picture is so far away. I was really hungry, so I didn't spend much time photographing.

And the Broiled Grapefruit is the only way to eat grapefruit. Plus it just looks so nice.

Three recipes was not nearly the disaster from earlier in the week with someone helping who was a) competent, which G is not, and b) able to devote their full attention to cooking, rather than watching children, which Johnny is not. So extra thanks go out to the men that night for keeping all those hungry kids out of the kitchen temporarily.

And apparently I was also terrible at taking pictures this week, could have sworn I got a few of those . . . oh well. I'm sorry.

Switch Master

I swear, his arms get longer every day.

This is his new favorite activity.

Climb to the second stair

Switch on the light

Check to make sure it's on

Success!

Yeah, I'm cool.

First Day

Sorry there's not any pictures with this post, but I thought I'd report on how the first day of early morning seminary teaching went.

It was great. I'll hopefully have 10 students. There were 7 the first day and 9 today, and we have one new convert we're trying to convince to come. And we will figure out how to be a successful class together. Right now we're working on asking the right questions and getting discussions going. They are a naturally quiet group and the early morning part doesn't help. Plus they're a bit awkward as you might expect from a small co-ed group of teenagers.

However, when I look at them I see all their potential and it motivates me to keep doing better. I keep praying that my learning curve will be short and steep so we can get to the good stuff early on.

I can keep using all the prayers I can get. And I'm not above bribing them with food . . . maybe next week.

Week 7: Italian Week

Recipes to Go: 507 445

Weeks to Go: 52 45

Recipes Made This Week:

Creamy Baked Macaroni

Microwave Lasagna

Meatball Calzones

Chocolate-Hazelnut Brownie Bites

Sugared Peanuts

Pull-Apart Bacon Bread

Salmon with Spinach Sauce

This was the first week that Johnny has lamented that he won't be able to eat something again for a whole year. And it was this, the Creamy Baked Macaroni.

This is what mac 'n' cheese should always be. It was so easy. The recipe said 20 mins. to put together and 25 to cook, but we were eating a little over 35 mins from when I started. And I almost didn't have leftovers for Johnny's lunch, but I managed to control myself. Apparently, lunch time the next day was when Johnny realize that he might not enjoy the deliciousness again for awhile. So this is ending up on my go-to meal list.

I was a bit worried about cooking everything in the microwave, but the recipe was right, you would never know. This lasagna was wonderful. And I was lucky that my microwave can fit a 11x13" pan and still rotate since I didn't have the slightly smaller pan the recipe called for. This is a great recipe for those ridiculously hot summer days where the thought of turning on the stove sends you into heat stroke. My kitchen stayed cool, but my dinner was hot. And delicious. Sorry, no picture, but if you've seen a lasagna before, than you know what this looked like.

The meatball calzones were yummy because I used the leftover meat from the Cabbage Rolls, our favorite recipe thus far, to make meatballs that I used in this. I think it might have been easier to put the whole thing together if I had stuck my pie crust in the refrigerator for awhile

first, but it still tasted great, even if it looks odd.

That's why you get two pictures. Cause it looks more tasty here:

There was a deal at one of our grocery stores last week where you got a free jar of peanuts if you bought two coke products that were on sale. So we thought we could use some carbonation to help us get rid of our excess of ice cream using the float method. While this helped a little, it didn't help that they were out of peanuts at the store. So being my mother's child, I asked for a rain check. I went this week to get my free peanuts and it's a good thing I got my rain check from the person I did because they put up a little stink about it as I was checking out. Don't worry, I got my peanuts and used them for this:

I'm not a fan of peanuts, so I did actually taste this, but I was told they were tasty. People at Game Night seemed to like them.

I also made Chocolate-Hazelnut Brownie Bites, only I had to use walnuts instead of hazelnuts. The Nutella as the frosting covered that up pretty well, I think.

These were a little too nutty for my taste, but they were good. And now I might make them without the nuts and just use the Nutella as frosting, cause that's a genius idea.

Saturday morning we made Pull-Apart Bacon Bread. I don't have a sufficient sized pan, so I baked two batches. Which worked well as breakfast on Sunday.

Man, how does bacon just make everything better? And I never would have put mozzarella with bacon, but this was a great combination and very filling. It was breakfast and lunch for two days.

Our last experience with salmon was very fishy, so I was hesitant to use the rest of the fillets, but I won't any more with this recipe. It was supposed to be cooked in a pressure cooker, but I just baked it in a tent and it was so moist and tender. And the spinach sauce was like a relish and a nice complement to the lemon of the fish.

I think all my future fishes might be cooked this way. Lemon pepper, lemon slices, and go. Yum.

Motherhood

The last few weeks have been rough. But at the end of the day, this is my job:












And this is why it's hard to not think of him as my little baby, look at those chubby little legs.

Week 6: In which the eating continues

Recipes to Go: 507 451
Weeks to Go: 52 46

Recipes Made This Week:
Sparkling Ginger Lemonade
Two-Tone Yeast Bread
Orange Chicken with Sweet Potatoes
Fancy Bean Salad
Chocolate Glazed Almond Bars
Stromboli Sandwiches
Salsa for a Crowd
Pepperoni Spinach Quiche
Tossed Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Monday night we had dinner with some friends, so I didn't have to make anything. So I made some lemonade and baked some bread. What can I say, it's not a chore unless you have to do it. Plus, nothing smells as good as baking bread. Not even cookies, and I can't believe I'm saying that. I do love me some cookies . . . But the house smelled awesome. Plus, both were really yummy. And this bread is really easy to slice through. And we ate almost two loaves in a week.

Tuesday the missionaries came over for dinner and I made the Orange Chicken in the slow cooker and we ate it with the Fancy Bean Salad, which might become the new Tim Salad. It was tasty.
And I made dessert. Even though the almond bars were chocolate covered, they weren't my favorite. I guess bars without chocolate in them don't really count for me. I am a cookie girl and a chocoholic. But maybe by the year's end I'll have converted, well, expanded my dessert horizons at any rate.

Last week was a really tough one, but this one certainly started out better. Tuesday also brought my sweet old neighbor, the gardener of the street, with this. Nothing is as bad with roses as it would be without.

I didn't cook again until Friday when I made Stromboli Sandwiches. I think fresh Italian bread is something I will be picking up more often.
You get two pictures so you can see the yummyness inside. And also to make up for the fact that I don't have a picture of the salsa. But it was good, a little spicy, and it helped me learn that I don't really like coriander. So now I know I don't like rosemary, or coriander. Still like cilantro though, and they come from the same plant. Interesting. I got to use tomatoes from my very own garden for the salsa. I cannot express in words how totally awesome it is that I, Miss Brown Thumb, am actually eating things planted in soil that I actually touched. Cool.

Well, Saturday morning's breakfast was this beautiful quiche. It might be the best smelling thing I've cooked. The Captain really loved it. But he likes pepperoni.

And to go with all the leftovers we ate for dinner Saturday night, this beautiful salad that ended up being too salty.
It's fine I'll just cut down on the salt next time. At least I know how to fix that problem.

And on a happy note, I think my food photography is improving. This week's pictures look great, even if it is me saying it.

May's Dress

May was another crazy month because we closed on our new house and I was busy unpacking the rest of the month. I didn't even have time to think about sewing until Memorial Day weekend when I realized the month would end if I wasn't careful. So, time crunch being what it was, I dug in a few boxes in my sewing room, which at the time was also G's room since his was being painted, so consequently it was also one of the last rooms we unpacked . . . sometime in June . . . so finding supplies was more than half the battle on this one.

I wanted to make a dress I had already done. An easy pattern that I knew I could do in a few hours. After tracking down some fabric, I made this dress:

And because I cut and pinned some the night before, it only took me a few hours on Memorial Day to get it done. So I squeaked by on that one.

Things I Learned Making This Dress:

• I have an extremely supportive husband. He must like me in dresses cause he took G for as long as I needed, essentially giving up his day off to help me reach my goal. Love.
• I really love having a sewing room. Two months in a row of guerrilla sewing has made me appreciate have space devoted to me and my hobbies.
• Practice really does help. The pointed V neckline of this dress was so much easier and better looking than any other I've made.

Things I Had Never Done Before:

• Well, even though I'd made this pattern before, I had never put pockets in it before. I did have to do some fudging again with the layout, which I was also better at this time around.
• I think this was the first time I put in a zipper successfully without unpicking anything, ever.
• Also, this was the first time I got to sew in my new house, which was exciting and motivating to get my sewing room put together.