tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13745835297446347902024-03-19T14:22:35.580-07:00But We Suck at CookingA blog dedicated to cooking fiascosAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04054066837939730147noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-79322289477348189512011-11-16T10:35:00.001-08:002011-11-16T10:42:49.129-08:00AHEM!Just as a reminder. Sometimes we suck at cooking. In the last two weeks, I have:<br /><br />- Badly cut my finger right before a dinner party while chopping things. (And then our guests arrived, and then the coat rack fell off the wall, and then my bandage fell off, and then the chicken was dry...)<br />- Tried to boil water. But forgot to put water in the pan.<br />- Tried to make coffee. But forgot the filter.<br />- Made some squash go on fire. Fortunately, we don't have a smoke alarm in our apartment in der Schweiz?<br />- Made some food that kind of sucked.<br />- Bought a carrot at the market and said "ein Karotte!" and was corrected with "einE Karotte." That's less a cooking fail and more a stupid-German-with-their-gendered-nouns-fail<br /><br />WE CAN'T WIN EVERYTHING. HAPPY PRETHANKSGIVING WEEK.Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13136638436169226052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-5318506950553846982011-01-02T19:22:00.000-08:002011-01-02T19:31:05.777-08:00Peanut Butter Chocolate Awful<div>Trying to rush a cake, never a good idea:</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5304485814_c0f03e0365.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 500px; height: 375px;" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5304485814_c0f03e0365.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5304485814_c0f03e0365.jpg"></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>At least it tasted good.</div>Melaniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14908529827645907128noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-5036362311021838612010-01-05T12:20:00.000-08:002010-01-05T12:28:03.180-08:00Updates and DisastersWhen I make a pie, there are often lots of pie crust scraps left over. My mom always used to take these, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and then bake them up. Quite tasty. I recently<a href="http://ppod.wordpress.com/2009/12/29/baking-pies-like-one-does/"> made a pie</a> (it turned out great, forunately) and I decided to bake up the pie crust scraps "just like mom used to make them".<div><br /></div><div>Except that I forgot about them in the oven.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2543/4226687878_707b690c8d.jpg"><img style="margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px; height: 500px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2543/4226687878_707b690c8d.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>FAIL. I think my mom had to throw away the baking sheet!</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04054066837939730147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-82804521318709582042009-12-06T19:56:00.001-08:002009-12-06T19:58:25.215-08:00HELLOHey anyone who still reads this! butisuckatcooking.com no longer exists. If you ever have a suck story to tell, you will now need to go to butisuckatcooking.blogspot.com<br /><br />Oh, and a little while ago I left the oven on for half the day.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09208707730103348151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-10346786582514200022009-01-24T14:10:00.000-08:002009-01-24T14:17:38.035-08:00Powdered SugarThis isn't so much of a cooking disaster, but more of a long term fail on my part. The problem is powdered sugar. Specifically, I have this mental dysfunction such that whenever I walk into a grocery store, I suddenly find myself thinking "Hmm... I think we are out of powdered sugar. I better get some more."<br /><br />Never mind the fact that I had that same thought last week and we have plenty of powdered sugar as result. This process continues until we have 3-4 pounds of the stuff stock-piled in the pantry and Amy is threatening to start sifting the stuff into my laptop if I don't stop.<br /><br />And the thing is, I hardly ever use powdered sugar in the first place. It's not like flour and regular sugar, where I can reliably go through a bag in a couple weeks. I use powdered sugar a couple of times in a YEAR.<br /><br />I don't know if there is a cure for this disease. But if you need to borrow some powdered sugar, let me know.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04054066837939730147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-38137792535120411032009-01-18T17:08:00.000-08:002009-01-18T17:19:10.997-08:00Roasted Brussel Sprouts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3514/3207540633_34cc116497_m.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 180px; height: 240px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3514/3207540633_34cc116497_m.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />When removing a pan of brussel sprouts from the oven, do not accidentally grab the rack and tilt backwards. If you do so, the pan of brussel sprouts will slide towards the back of the oven and flip over. If you're lucky (like me), a few delicious, roasted brussel sprouts will remain in the pan for future consumption.<br /><br />Ironically, this happened about 2 minutes after I told Tommy how his awesome wife had made an awesome dinner. Roasted brussel sprouts -- fail (although the ones we were able to eat were excellent). Corn bread muffins -- pass. BBQ ribs -- pass.Penneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002144518443726048noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-83204073954775209032009-01-08T17:04:00.000-08:002009-01-09T05:35:20.525-08:00Doomed Macaroons<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXjojdSN3NmKVsnF_GEAjJO79GJcr5ayOPGfzZG6RxxRbFP_7FeNN1m0ReSwNmarsJHMU9XVUWNDNTCuMrE80FBVKEL77ulPD4TWsrcGqMWano075BrlahIIV8BMbBf4c7dIRsZ166rj0/s1600-h/macaroons.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXjojdSN3NmKVsnF_GEAjJO79GJcr5ayOPGfzZG6RxxRbFP_7FeNN1m0ReSwNmarsJHMU9XVUWNDNTCuMrE80FBVKEL77ulPD4TWsrcGqMWano075BrlahIIV8BMbBf4c7dIRsZ166rj0/s400/macaroons.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289093807376889298" border="0" /></a><br />After a few weeks of sustaining ourselves on sugary cookies and large amounts of alcohol, we decided to institute a "health week" of sorts. I've was searching on the internet for creative recipes that are still healthy when I came across this one for Coconut Macaroons that seemed pretty straight forward and sans all the fatty (read: delicious) ingredients. It also only made four macaroons - so snacking on the remainder of a two dozen batch for the next week wouldn't be an option. And, of course, in the picture they were quite attractive.<br /><br />My Mistakes, in Order:<br />1. Thinking that a tasty AND healthy version of macaroons exists<br />2. Not greasing the pan<br />3. Obviously something went WAY wrong with the chocolate drizzle. Im guessing we need to use the double boiler method instead of the microwave method.<br />4. Serving these ugly little wads of coconut and chocolate anyway. Even with only four in the recipe, we still had leftovers - and they went in the trash!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-81421488548859161832008-12-03T15:49:00.001-08:002009-01-22T15:04:31.216-08:00CaramelIt's been a while since anyone has sucked at cooking, but as we find ourselves in the middle of the holiday season, opportunities abound for kitchen disaster. I am no exception.<br /><br />I made a ton of food for Thanksgiving (four types of gravy!) and most of it turned out just fine. Except for the Cranberry Pecan Tart.<br /><br />Usually I am a pie man, but I figured I'd try to broaden my horizons this year beyond the standard Karo syrup pecan pie recipe (classic though it may be). I found a recipe for a Cranberry Pecan Tart in an old issue of Cooks Illustrated, so I decided to give it a shot. The recipe requires you to caramelize some sugar. I remember making caramel corn all by myself back in middle school, so I figured how hard could it be?<br /><br />Hard. Solid, crysalized-sugar stalagmites hard, to be specific. Caramel fail.<br /><br />In fact, it took me three tries to make this recipe. On the first shot, I wasn't really paying attention and the next thing I know my pan of slow bubbling caramel sugar had turned into concrete-hard crystalized sugar rock candy. That was on Thanksgiving day and seeing as how I was running late and already had enough food to feed a small army, I vowed to try another day.<br /><br />On the second shot, I did a little better, but I still had crystalized sugar problems:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferris/3081226022/" title="Bad Caramel by slackrat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3294/3081226022_4064cdfde1_m.jpg" alt="Bad Caramel" height="240" width="180" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferris/3081226398/" title="Bad Caramel by slackrat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3028/3081226398_e3e1e55625_m.jpg" alt="Bad Caramel" height="240" width="180" /></a><br /><br />On the third shot, I was extra careful and got the desired result:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferris/3081226244/" title="Good Caramel by slackrat, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3022/3081226244_3985a1e395_m.jpg" alt="Good Caramel" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><br />It remains to be seen if the finished product actually tastes good, as it's still in the oven. However, I can offer the following advice:<br /><br /><ul><li>It's a good idea to stir your water and sugar together pretty well before you start, but also be sure wipe any stray sugar crystals down from the sides of the pot.</li><br /><li>Apply lots of heat to your best pan to make sure the sugar cooks hot and evenly.</li><br /><li>Do not stir at all until your sugar reaches 300º / light golden color. Even then, only gently swishing of the pot is advised, no actual stiring.</li><br /><li>When you are boiling the sugar, if you can see lots of sugar crystals forming on the top of the bubbles of the boiling water, you have already failed.</li></ul>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04054066837939730147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-55350201772723405942008-10-06T10:20:00.000-07:002008-10-06T10:31:49.539-07:00Three Pie Crusts, One Sad AfternoonOn Saturday, I decided that I wanted to make a pie for a cookout Martin and I were going to on Sunday. What inspired me was a video of Martha Stewart making pate brisee. "Easy!" she said in the video. "Use that food processor, make that pie crust!"<br /><br />"I have a food processor,"I thought. "And I like pie!" Surely these two would combine together. However, to echo the sentiments of my mother after she attempted a Martha recipe and spectacularly failed, "Well. Shit."<br /><br />(I apologize to all G-rated viewers for my mother's eloquence).<br /><br />I faithfully followed the "cold rules!" rule of pie crust making and stuck everything in the freezer, to get it nice and chilled. My water was iced. Heck, my salt was iced.<br /><br />I halved the recipe, because I wanted a pre-baked shell for a cream pie. I stuck it all in my 3-cup food processor, pressed pulse and woah! Why am I covered with flour? Oh, right, I forgot to cover the feed tube.<br /><br />I forge on. I should have taken that for the sign it was and run. I added a bit of water, pulsed and coarse-meal sized pieces stuck together when pinched. I took it out and tried to form it into a disk. It would not. :( So I put it all back in the food processor and added yet more water. And now ... it's sticky. That's bad. But I was mad. I didn't care. I formed my disc and stuck it in the fridge overnight.<br /><br />Rolling it out wasn't so hard. Baking it, easy peasy. Eating it? Not so great. It tasted wonderful and had some awesome flavor going for it - a stick of butter will do that. But it was crispy and definitely not flaky the way I wanted. <br /><br />So I decided to try again but this time, using a whole new recipe. I don't know why I decided I had to shake things up, but I did. My favorite blog used this recipe. Surely it would work for me!<br /><br />Because I'm getting depressed all over again, thinking of the three pie crusts I made yesterday, I will summarize:<br /><br />Made an all-shortening crust instead of all butter. Destroyed the second crust when it baked wrong in the oven (shriveled up and collapsed). Rolled out a third crust, which collapsed when I attempted to move it to the pie plate. Burst into tears. Martin made me re-roll out the third crust again, even though I just knew (KNEW!) it would not work. It worked. Damn him for being right all the time. Made a chocolate cream filling, which did not taste so good. So, in the end, I had two ruined pie crusts and one decent pie crust filled with an overly-sweet chocolate filling. It was not a good Sunday morning.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-32878110491311649242008-08-15T19:11:00.000-07:002008-08-15T19:26:44.987-07:00Not So Fast!Just when you thought it was safe to <a href="http://butisuckatcooking.com/2008/08/winners.html">get back in the kitchen</a>...<br /><br />After watching the cupcake episode of Good Eats, I decided to try my hand at Alton's <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/good-eats/chiffon-cupcakes-recipe/">chiffon cupcakes</a>. Sure, the recipe called for separating five eggs, but what's so hard about that? I've made angel food the required separating a full dozen. I jumped right in.<br /><br />About nine eggs later, I had finally managed to separate five egg whites from their yolks without any contamination. I guess it could have been worse, but man I sucked at separating eggs today. This used up all the eggs I had, btw.<br /><br />A little annoyed, I proceeded with recipe and immediately proceeded to whip the eggs whites with the 5 oz of sugar... but OH CRAP that was the egg yolks I was supposed to combine with the sugar. Fail.<br /><br />At this point, I'm out of eggs, but I don't give up so easily. I race down to the grocery, grab a fresh dozen eggs, and race back home. Where are my keys? I don't have my keys. Ok no biggie. We keep a spare hidden by the door. Where is the spare? OH CRAP it's not there. Ok I'll just call Amy but wait Amy left her cell phone at home today. In fact, I could probably hear it ringing through the locked door as I try to call her.<br /><br />It's actually pretty warm in Seattle today (90º... ok not that warm by NC standards, but whatever). Both me and the eggs are sweating at this point so I make an executive decision to break into the house. This involves diving head first through the bedroom window and basically doing a belly-flop onto the bed. I execute this about as gracefully as you might imagine.<br /><br />All this for cupcakes. They'd better be tasty.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04054066837939730147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-17825914961617236002008-08-14T21:34:00.001-07:002008-08-14T21:34:40.803-07:00winners?i guess we don't suck at cooking anymore?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-7038107853668287012008-06-30T19:52:00.000-07:002008-06-30T20:00:56.616-07:00Creamed SpinachI'd taken some veal out of the freezer, but it hadn't fully defrosted for dinner tonight, so I had to scramble to come up with something to make.<br /><br />I decided to reheat some leftovers and make some new veggie sides. My crisper was pretty empty - I missed the Farmer's Market in favor of Emily's bachelorette party. Martin and I had gone to the grocery store but only bought bare bones supplies, barely enough to last until Sunday, when I could replenish at the next Farmer's Market day.<br /><br />Based on that, I came up with creamed spinach and tomato gratin. Take a guess at which you think the disaster was. :)<br /><br />I picked <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_29422,00.html">this recipe</a> because it was the only decent looking one I found that did not call for heavy cream, which I didn't have on hand. Everything was going fine until I threw it all into the food processor.<br /><br />The line that says pulse until creamy? Yeah, it'll never become that. Instead, you'll get a weird, lumpy, grainy, watery green mixture. It's not appetizing at all. :)<br /><br />Thinking about it now, I think where I went wrong was adding chicken broth to the mixture. I spent a long time squeezing all the water out of the spinach, to make sure that it wouldn't make anything watery. But then I went and added the chicken broth, thereby undoing all my good.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-47811264992759399142008-06-29T14:20:00.000-07:002008-06-29T14:37:15.725-07:00Coconut Ice Cream?<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/unacentava/2621520679/" title="Mystery food by unacentava, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3017/2621520679_8955c032f8_m.jpg" alt="Mystery food" style="float: right;" height="180" width="240" /></a>Tommy and I had a bad culinary week last week. I wanted to make some more ice cream, so I chose coconut ice cream. I like coconut, both the flavor and the texture of the flakes. Tommy insisted on buying REAL coconuts and harvesting the coconut flakes and coconut cream from the REAL coconuts. Awesome. We proudly walked out of the grocery store with 3 REAL coconuts. When we got home, we drilled into one of the eyes to drain the liquid (is it called coconut milk at this point?). Then I baked them for about 10 minutes. Tommy took a hammer to them and we took off the bark and then the second layer of bark. The flesh went into the food processor. Finally, coconut flakes! I sweetened them up and proceeded to make the coconut ice cream using the coconut, heavy cream, half and half, and some sugar. The result? Flavorless white ice cream with tons of coconut flake (those were flavorless too). Oh, and the ice cream has this strange crystall-like texture that doesn't resemble ice cream at all.Penneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002144518443726048noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-59414014943694375062008-06-27T05:57:00.000-07:002008-06-28T06:58:46.067-07:00Pasta, green and clumpyIs it considered cooking if the only step involved is boiling salted water? Pasta's pretty easy but plain old pasta gets boring. I wanted something different. Maybe something wide, or squiggly. Whole Foods was not up to the challenge. They had gnocchi but I was not in a gnocchi mood. So I went with fresh pasta; I had seen it many times before and it always intrigued me. Store-bought fresh pasta? Then is it really fresh? It's more expensive, maybe it's better.<br /><br />Wrong.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tommyvernieri/2617598469/" title="Pasta Failed by tommy vernieri, on Flickr"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3169/2617598469_52e5e3c9b7_m.jpg" alt="Pasta Failed" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I was skeptical from the start. After all, it looked like one big green blob of spinach fettuccine, formed into a nice rectangular brick. It turns out that the impressive powers of boiling water had no hope of pulling those strands apart. I poked and prodded it for ten minutes and all I ended up with was clumps.Tommy Vernierihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03102924579936998106noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-54197393390633096672008-05-21T13:30:00.000-07:002008-05-21T14:00:37.137-07:00Cake!Our oven is sadly, out of order, which only intensifies my need for dishes that require an oven, like... cake. I knew, with the ingenuity that exists in the world, that someone had to have a recipe for some cake-like-creation that could be made either stovetop or in the microwave. <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easy-Microwave-Chocolate-Cake/Detail.aspx">Correct I was!</a> Chocolate cake! Before we even start, let's detail the pitfalls associated with this course of action:<ul><br /><li>Microwaved cake? Gross. Crazy times make crazy minds.<br /><li>Allrecipes? Why did I go there? I've never had a good recipe come from Allrecipes.<br /><li>It's worth repeating - cake in a microwave? Only Betty Crocker and her many preservatives seems to have found a way.<br /></ul>As you might expect, this was mostly nasty. While it had a vague chocolatey flavor and sweetness, it was dry in the middle and had a mostly chalky taste that was somehow reminiscent of baking sugar free goods, despite the real sugar I added.<br /><br />We fight on, looking for non-oveny desserts.Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13136638436169226052noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-90064244989180074672008-04-15T09:37:00.001-07:002008-04-15T09:39:11.245-07:00I just want to point outthat I haven't had a cooking disaster in almost a month! Go me!<br /><br />Nor has anyone else! Go everyone!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-47595050964102528722008-03-17T22:14:00.000-07:002008-03-17T22:22:46.100-07:00FoolAmy made a killer meal for St. Patrick's Day today, with a really tasty brisket and cabbage and the whole-nine-yard. She entrusted me with dessert. I made a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/rhubarbfool_70095.shtml">Rhubarb Fool</a>, which is apparently a traditional dessert from Ireland or something.<br /><br />I'll let my sister Elizabeth sum it up: "It tasted like luke-warm yogurt that had been sitting out for a while with a weird after taste." It kind of looked like vomit (dead baby vomit according to Amy... how do dead babies vomit in the first place?). Anyways, FAIL. No pictures... only memories.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04054066837939730147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-32919266105712353122008-03-17T20:35:00.000-07:002008-03-17T21:35:28.714-07:00Speaking of burning things...I tried to make chicken and dumplings tonight, but I think something on the bottom of the pot burned? I'm not sure what, but it made the entire pot of food taste sort of burny. It's a shame, because I think it had real potential otherwise.<br /><br />Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture, so I don't have proof. But trust me! It was pret-ty sucky.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-31162542907294945462008-03-16T07:24:00.001-07:002008-03-16T08:31:28.645-07:00Melted Melts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LstVifmagMGe5hUH4jt1egAexEB8ficEPxZRSmj-1d5bzivLVFmb25qy3rQPFP9cQpmrE-XJyiDal0dl8YwBUPCy8TqAcIS_6TOJuJ8bkNv0T0cAA2gkTu2BJr7LvA_jhniihUIy4AQ/s1600-h/IMG_3743.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LstVifmagMGe5hUH4jt1egAexEB8ficEPxZRSmj-1d5bzivLVFmb25qy3rQPFP9cQpmrE-XJyiDal0dl8YwBUPCy8TqAcIS_6TOJuJ8bkNv0T0cAA2gkTu2BJr7LvA_jhniihUIy4AQ/s400/IMG_3743.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5178345416281802546" border="0" /></a><br />Tuna melts with tomato and sharp cheddar on spinach torillas.... EXTRA crispy.<br /><br />It was all going good until I forgot to take them out from under the broiler.<br /><br />Hot damn.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-9522887207813511812008-03-04T17:43:00.001-08:002008-03-04T17:52:43.635-08:00oh dear, bojangles'though it was not actually my cooking, there was a food fiasco with which i am sure you can all commiserate. <br /><br />today, after a long day, i went to <a href="http://www.bojangles.com/">bojangles'</a> in search of some scrumptious comfort food. i bought the only appropriate meal, the cajun filet biscuit combo. and i have to say, i have never wanted to break down and cry so much as when i received this piece of cardboard chicken. <br /><br />not only did was my "chicken" cold and not cajun-y-delicious, but it was about 1/4th of an inch thick and hard. i do not mean lovely, crispy hard, i mean lose a tooth hard. seeing as how many of you are, in fact, huge bojangles' fans, i am sure you feel my pain.<br /><br />... and in my time zone, it is actually 8:52pm, not 5ish (since that is really important to this post).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-57742780679818153952008-03-03T18:47:00.000-08:002008-03-03T19:04:41.133-08:00FailI have been wanting to start experimenting with some healthier recipes, to see if there are any totally awesome ones. I decided my first attempt would be <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/healthy/nutritiousdishes/romantic/recipes/food/views/240811">Eggplant Cannelloni</a>, which is still not super-healthy, but at least has vegetables in it. So I wrote down the ingredients and headed to Trader Joe's (I don't usually go there, but a fancy dinner calls for fancy shopping, right?) When I arrived at Trader Joe's, I realized three things.<br /><br />1. Trader Joe's doesn't carry eggplant, or anything else I would ever need/want.<br />2. Are eggplants even in season? Do they have a season?<br />3. I have absolutely no idea what capers are (of course, I do now. I looked it up when I got home)<br /><br />Anyway, since I realized I am not yet educated enough to attempt such a fancy meal, I ended up buying the ingredients I could find and some frozen dinners, which I plan on making tonight. I'm not sure why I still bought a few of the ingredients. Now I have this random assortment of food in my apartment and nothing to do with it.<br /><br />A summary for Rachel:<br /><br />I decided I wanted to make Eggplant Cannelloni tonight, but I realized I didn't have any eggplant, garlic, shallots, capers, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, olives, parsley or oranges so I went to the grocery store. While I was there, I realized I'm dumb, so then I just bought a frozen dinner, and it was good.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-38517248688334581312008-02-27T19:26:00.000-08:002008-02-27T19:27:44.733-08:00Because I occasionally don't suckI made myself a REAL food blog. I'm all grown up.<br /><br />http://salchichatu.blogspot.com/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-5861843174307849792008-02-25T23:30:00.001-08:002008-02-25T23:31:32.973-08:00Note to SelfThe overwhelming taste of cloves in homemade chicken stock is not good. And now you've gone and wasted your chicken carcass on bad chicken stock.<br /><br />Fail. :(<br /><br />At least there's Emily's bbq to look forward to - yum!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-33544973174896209972008-02-25T18:23:00.000-08:002008-02-25T18:26:01.595-08:00What to do with my pork juiceSo, I made some Carolina BBQ last night through today, and it turned out pretty good, but now I have all the liquid that I cooked it in (plus juice from the pork) leftover, and I don't really know what to do about it.<br /><br />What do you guys do you with your leftover liquids?<br /><br />I normally put mine in a can or jar, but I don't think this will fit in any can or jar I have.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1374583529744634790.post-76939719358099511272008-02-22T18:27:00.000-08:002008-02-23T10:22:27.468-08:00So, you guys think you suck better than me?You do? YOU DO. INTERESTING.<br /><br />Melanie, Rachel, Brian. Maybe you've forgotten, or maybe you are unaware, of the one time I almost burnt down my apartment.<br /><br />It all started one lazy afternoon, when I was still living with Rachel in Cary. I decided to boil some water for pasta. While the water was boiling, I decided I should probably do some light cleaning. Then, I got a phone call from Amy Pyles! She wanted to eat dinner with me! How exciting. I WAS feeling quite hungry. Would she want to go now? I feel like I am forgetting something...but, it must not be TOO important! Let's go!<br /><br />Dinner with Amy was SO MUCH FUN. We went to Two Guys, I think, and I ordered lasagna, I think. I ate until I thought I might start oozing (poop), and still had leftovers for another meal. This was really turning into the perfect day. Can anyone think of anything more perfect than sleeping until 4 and then eating lasagna? I sure can't. Anyway......<br /><br />OH MY GOD I LEFT THE STOVE ON.<br /><br />I have been "boiling water" for over two hours. I rush to put my leftovers in a to-go box (what? Give up leftover lasagna for a potential fire? COME ON), pay, and drive quickly home, praying that my apartment is still there.<br /><br />Lucky for me, it is. I rush inside and the pot is glowing BRIGHT RED. ALL OVER. I run over and turn the stove off, move the pot off the burner, and - I am no pot anatomy expert but the metal insides of the pot have melted and are oozing out all over the stove top. EW! But..neat!<br /><br />It's true that I didn't ACTUALLY burn my apartment down, and everything turned out mostly okay, especially since the pot I ruined was Rachel's, not mine. But I'm pretty sure I win this round because general suckiness seems to be based on two things - the edibility of the result and the danger level of the situation. I almost burnt my apartment down AND I had nothing to show for it. Not even the water that I started with. NOTHING.<br /><br />The end.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4