Seriously?... What’s the deal?

Ok. There is very definitely a problem here. I’ve been having a bit of disastrousness lately, and it’s rather discouraging. It seems everything I make is horribly falling apart.

First it was the waffles, and then my bread hasn’t been turning out quite right. I’ve made a few batches of cornbread that weren’t satisfactory. And I just tried a new cookie recipe that was a total flop. I can NOT figure it out, and it’s driving me nuts.

I have narrowed it down to 3 possible explanations:

 #1. I am trying too hard, and therefore overlooking simple things

#2. The weather and the altitude (rainy & wet, and I’m also at about 6000ft), and

#3. The flour I’m using isn’t very good.

I’d like to believe it’s not the first one; I want to think I’m slightly competent. The second one is plausible, but I’ve been at this elevation for 5 years, and the weather is an annual occurrence...I think I would’ve noticed before… that just leaves the flour. I did buy a very inexpensive 25lb bag of generic brand flour around the time all this started. It’s a little disappointing to think that I can’t buy inexpensive flour, but at the same time it would be great to know it’s not ME.

I once made some really delicious “chocolate crackle cookies” from a box mix I got from Costco. I’ve been searching for a “from scratch” recipe to duplicate them, but haven’t had much luck. So, I found this recipe that seemed like it would be great, and ended up with these disastrous cookies.

They tasted good, so I know they have potential, but they were like melted little blobs, sticky and shapeless.  I got the recipe out of a “Lion House” cookbook, so they should ideally be amazing. I’m posting the recipe, just in case someone else can bake without my inevitable curse. The picture in the book was way prettier than mine turned out.

Related Recipe:
Chocolate Crackle Cookies
Waffles with Blueberry Sauce
Wheat Bread
Cornbread

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Lumpy little pillows of Delicious

I am in LOVE!...with Basil.

A few weeks ago I purchased a sweet basil plant, when Walmart first put out their spring gardening displays. I know I probably didn’t get the best price on it because it was a brand new display, but I was excited to grasp onto spring. I’ve wanted to use basil for a while, but never had any reason to. With my aversion to sorting through my hoard of recipes I didn’t have any current recipes that use basil.

So, it’s just been sitting there…waiting…waiting for Mother Nature to say “come and play outside”. All the while, it’s been staring intently at me, taunting me with its existence.

Yesterday I picked off a leaf, and smelled it.

OH. MY. GOODNESS! I LOVEd it!

I couldn’t stop smelling it…until the dog ran up to me and snatched it out of my hand (weird-o dog).

I had already planned to experiment with some sort of ravioli for dinner, so once I smelled the basil I knew immediately it HAD to be in the ravioli.

And so it went, evolving from there.

Simple. Sweet. Satisfying.

This may or may not be an original recipe, but it was at least straight out of my head, without any written words to follow along. I used the leftover chicken from the sweet and sour chicken, and then cooked a few more chicken breasts on the stove, in olive oil.

This was my first attempt at raviolis, and they were horribly ugly…but in a cute, delicious sort of way. I made a bit of a mess at first, until I started to get the hang of it. I had to throw out the first few…my dough was too sticky and they sealed themselves to the counter. And I also tried to cook them all in the same pot, which was about twice as many as I should have cooked at one time.

Oh well, in the end, life is good.

AND! Everyone LOVED it! …weirdness continues to enjoy my life…

Related recipes:

Chicken and White cheese Basil Ravioli

Homemade Pasta (basic recipe)

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Who needs take-out? Not I, said the cat

I am not normally a big fan of frying foods at home. In fact, it’s taken nearly two days to recover from this one. I hate having grease splatter all over the place, and the smell of oil. But, that’s just me, I guess. Some people love it, and do it all the time.

At any rate, I LOVE this homemade Sweet and Sour Chicken. And so do my kids! And, of course, my honey loves it too. The savings are usually my favorite part about making take-out at home…but, for this recipe it actually tastes BETTER than our favorite local Chinese food place. The savings do increase my love for this recipe, as well. To feed my family our regular  take-out order we spend over $50. I roughly calculated the cost of this meal…same amount of food…and it was around $11. HUGE savings. Makes me smile.

As far as following a recipe, this one is pretty straight forward, and difficult to mess up (even for me). I did, however, make an exerted effort to follow EXACTLY, each step…I’m still bruised from my bout with the waffles.

And it went smoothly, and easy. The hardest part, for me, was cutting up all the chicken. It seems to take me forever to do that…but, that’s the same for me with any chicken recipe. So, if you are used to and comfortable with cutting up chicken this should be a breeze. Also, as I mentioned, it thoroughly greases up your kitchen. But, the leftovers are fantastic! So, make extras and avoid the mess later!

Thanks for stopping by…and happy Chicken-ing!

Related Recipe:

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Newest tips added:

Ceramic knives (just a word about them)
Comparing prices: the impossible

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Stupid-head Waffles of Death: it’s not you, it’s ME?

I am seriously ridiculous with following recipes. I cannot even believe myself sometimes. Do I really have to get WORSE, before I can get better?

Today was an ultimate low. There was a pretty brutal showdown between myself and this recipe; name calling and everything. In the end I learned that fighting is not the answer. Can’t we all just get along?

I literally ruined FOUR double-batches of waffles. That would technically be EIGHT batches! The worst part is that this is NOT a new recipe. It’s actually one that I’ve made a dozen times, and my family really loves it. My girl has been begging for it for 3 days. I kept putting it off, as life tends to get in the way sometimes. I finally made a super-duper unbreakable promise to her that we would have them for dinner tonight. So I absolutely could not give up. No way. I even had her help me mix up the first batch.

...an hour and a half later...I was dumping the 3^rd batch down the drain and starting over; one last time. I had to grit my teeth, take a deep breath, and FOCUS. I was going to do it right. That was it. There would be world peace, and everyone would dance in the streets.

I COULD NOT BELIEVE myself, when I screwed it up a fourth time. Impossible! I really was starting to believe I was hallucinating.

So. I did not win this battle. And I came away from it pretty bruised and beaten. But. As they say, the war's not over yet. There is a bit of sunshine in the end here, though. I did at least make them “look” pretty. And the kids didn’t know the difference. I think all they care about is the blueberry sauce anyway. I thought they tasted alright, too, but through the sweat and tears and blood and pain it was hard to enjoy the moment.

can you hear them laughing at me?

They may or may not have been delicious. I may never know. But, I do know, that the recipe is a good one…and I have lived to fight another day.

Here’s a play-by-play of tonight’s death-match:

Me vs Stupid-head-waffles-of-death-recipe

Round 1:

Recipe: beat eggs until light and fluffy. Then beat in rest of ingredients.

Me: separate eggs, beat whites until fluffy. Add ingredients one at a time; mix after each.

WRONG!...baking soda wouldn’t mix in. floating around in chunks. Also too runny. Didn’t even try it.

1 point for recipe

Round 2:

Recipe: same as above.

Me: separate eggs, beat whites. Remove whites from bowl. Add ingredients to clean bowl, one at a time; mix after each. Add whites last; fold in.

WRONG!...batter was super foamy. Waffles sizzled and deflated as cooked. Very eggy tasting.

2 points for recipe

Round 3:

Recipe: same as above (BOoooring)

Me: beat eggs until light and fluffy (don’t separate this time). Add rest of ingredients; mix after each.

WRONG!...batter was very runny. Dripped straight out of waffle maker.

3 points for recipe

Round 4:

Recipe: yep…same… AGAIN! (why mess with what’s working?)

Me: (feeling defeated and exhausted)…OK, fine! We’ll do it your way! (…but do I? No. Of course not) Add all dry ingredients to bowl. Lightly beat eggs with fork, in separate bowl. Add eggs and oil to dry. Mix…Forms a dough ball! Then add milk, slowly….

Wrong!Wrong!WRONG!....and the winner is: RECIPE!!!!

The last time I did figure a way to patch it up good enough to end the torture. The batter was way too thin and runny, so I added more flour to it. That helped to thicken it up, and keep it in the waffle maker, but it made the waffles slightly less flavorful, and more dense. They were adequate, just not to my standards.

The moral of the story is:

FOLLOW. THE. RECIPE!!!

So, I hope you can do what I could not.

Here’s a link to the recipe. GOOD LUCK! It’s a fighter…

(It’s actually a really easy, delicious recipe…I’m just insane)

Waffles with Blueberry Sauce

 

By the way, the blueberry sauce is amazing! And I didn’t screw it up. I also used the leftover cream cheese frosting from the cinnamon rolls. Sometimes I can be brilliant.

Related Recipes:
Waffles with Blueberry Sauce
Frosted Cinnamon Rolls (use the frosting for the waffles!)

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