Italian Chicken and Rice

I tried an Italian chicken and rice recipe I saved from a green bean can a few years ago. It wasn't that good. It called for it to simmer for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes it was still soupy. I ended up simmering it for an extra 45 minutes and it was still too runny. I decided to give up and eat it anyway.

I had every intention of making a sour cream pound cake and strawberry cream cheese bread. Needless to say I never go around to it. Everything I've eaten this week has been take out or from the freezer.

Cooking

This weekend I was all about the mango. I made a pineapple mango crumble from an old Vegetarian Times magazine and help Mr. Vegas make a pork mango stir fy that was served over rice.

The crumble served with vanilla ice cream. Fresh pineapple is a lot more work than canned, but it's so much better. It's worth the extra work.

Chicken parmesan I made for dinner last night.

Meh

Last night I attempted a Broccoli Cauliflower Gratin and a Banana Cake.

The gratin was a failure. It tasted too much like mayonnaise and was very greasy. I won't be trying that again.

I don't know what the difference between banana bread and banana cake is. The middle wasn't cook through. The recipe called for it to be cooked in a 9x9, but my 9x9 was otherwise engaged so I used a 2 quart pan. I think if the cake had spread out in the 9x9 it would have cooked all the way through in the middle. It's very sweet. It was good, but I already have a good banana bread recipe so I'm not sure I'll make this again.

Frosting

This was definitely a cooking thumbs down. I didn't like the strawberry frosting I bought for my cupcakes so I decided to try and make my own. I don't know where I went wrong in the recipe, but not only was my frosting not fluffy it tasted like chemical marshmallows. I don't think I'll be making my own frosting again.

Weekend Cooking

Over the weekend we made pretzels. It was from a kit, so no recipe. They were quite good and fun to make. I served them with chocolate, nacho cheese and mustard. They were a big hit. I'd like to find a soft pretzel recipe and try them from scratch.

Before cooking

After Cooking

I also made shrimp dip. I wanted crab dip, but I have 9 pounds of shrimp in my freezer so shrimp dip it was. You're probably wondering why I have 9 pounds of shrimp in my freezer. The local grocery store had a buy 1 get 2 free sale on their 3 pound bags of shrimp.

I'm going to spend the rest of the night looking up shrimp recipes.

Turtle Bread

I've never made bread before, but I want to try making Turtle Bread.

Apple Pie

I've had 3 fuji apples sitting on the counter forever. Last night I decided I should use them before they sprouted legs and ran off. I made an apple pie. I cut the recipe in half and as you can see it made a full pie. I also used a frozen pie shell instead of the crust in the recipe.

All American Apple Pie from allrecipes.com

Cooking

Last night I made a cake, it wasn't very good. It's red velvet cake with cherries added. The part with the cherries was pretty good, but the rest was, meh.Here are the Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes I made for Saturday night's dinner. I didn't have whole garlic so I roasted some minced for 7 minutes. I had to skip the chives or green onions. I swear I had chives in the cabinet. Too bad I killed my chive plant, I could have cut some off.

New Year's Day Dinner

My contribution to New Year's Day dinner at my parents house.....Bacon Cheddar Deviled Eggs.

Hedgehog Cupcakes

Cupcakes I made a long time ago.

Confetti Rice Salad

I made Confetti Rice Salad from the June issue of Vegetarian Times. I didn't really like it. It had lime juice in it and was very tangy. If I make it again I'll use less lime juice. It was very pretty and festive looking though.

Bananas and Bark

I made the Dark Chocolate and Pistachio Matzo Bark and the Roasted Bananas with Jamaican Allspice from the June issue of Vegetarian Times. I heavily modified the Matzo Bark recipe. I used roast peanuts instead of pistachios because I needed to use up the peanuts. Milk chocolate instead of dark because I don't like dark chocolate, and well, I had milk chocolate chips to use up. I also had to use crushed up Heath Bars instead of toffee chips since I couldn't find toffee chips. You wouldn't think it would be hard to find toffee chips, but after 3 stores I bought Heath Bars and put them in the food processor. I guess in the end they weren't anything like the recipe in Vegetarian Times. They were pretty good, I liked the combo of salty Matzos and sweet chocolate and toffee.

The bananas were really good. I served them with vanilla ice cream like the recipe suggested. They were very sweet, but the sugary allspice syrup it made was good on the ice cream. I'll definitely be making those again.

Goat Cheese Souffles

This time I tried the french section of Around the World in 350 Recipes. I made the Goat Cheese Souffles. They were good. I was afraid the soft cheese I used would be too garlicky and overpower them. It was actually quite mild. I'd like to make them again, but try different cheeses. They are little deflated in the pictures.

4th of July

Here is the pecan pie I made for the 4th of July. I made the whole thing from scratch. I've never made pie crust before. I used this pie crust recipe from allrecipes.com. The pie recipe is the recipe on the Karo syrup bottle.

The pie was good, especially the pie crust. It tasted kind of like a cookie. Although I liked the crust I don't think I'd make it again. It's so much easier to buy a frozen pie shell.

Last night's dinner was a beef and bean burrito and quick and easy dirty rice. By quick and easy dirty rice I mean leftover rice with salsa mixed in. It needed more salsa.

Egg Foo Yung

I decided to try Egg Foo Yung from Around the World in 350 Recipes for dinner tonight. It wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. The store bought egg roll kind of sucked. I should learn to leave Chinese food cooking to the Chinese, they do a much better job of it than I do. Next up I think I'll try the Goat's Cheese Souffle from the cook book.

Cooking

I made this Green Pea Dip from this month's issue of Vegetarian Times. It came out as more of a spread than a dip.

I also made Hearty Italian Lentil Soup again.

I spent the evening cooking. I made Hearty Italian Lentil Soup. I had meatballs, spaghetti sauce and some lentils to use up so this recipe was perfect. In the spirit of using up leftovers I made the last minute decision to dump in some green peas and green beans. The recipe is quite good. I like it with the green peas, but I'm not a big fan of the green beans. And for desert I made banana pudding.

I took a little break from knitting today. I'm still knitting like mad to get all my presents done before Christmas.

I did a little sewing. I need a zippered bag to carry in my purse so I whipped this up.

I also did a little cooking. I made orange banana bread and sausage balls.

Mountain Dew Cake

I tried the Mountain Dew Cake recipe that I found on allrecipes. The cake was good. If you like citrus type food I think you'll like the Mountain Dew Cake. I didn't care for the pineapple coconut topping it had. I think next time I'll just make the cake and bake it in my bundt cake pan.