I blame the recipe...

Today I am back with another failed recipe. I'm wondering if I should stop integrating these tales into my blog...

I was perusing Pinterest the other day (user name hea12...find me!), and I came across this recipe for "Crispy Edamame." Healthy? Yes. Tasty? Absolutely not. Let me tell you how I made it and why you never should!

I followed the instructions perfectly, the only exception being that I added a bit more parmesan than asked for (they ask for 1/4 cup, I added about 1/3). I also cooked the edamame for about 40 minutes as oppose to the suggested 15. 15 minutes equates to mushy, watery edamame. Yum!

So after many taste tests, hoping that the edamame would in fact become crispy as the recipe name claims, I finally pulled the baking dish out—why does the recipe require these be cooked in a baking dish? Seems wrong—and plated the darn things.

These appear slightly crispy, but let me tell you, they aren't. They manage to be hard and mushy, undercooked and overcooked. Gross. Dan and I ate about 3 each and I tossed the rest.

The lesson here? If cooking up some frozen edamame to make a healthy and delicious snack sounds too good to be true, well, it probably is.

Onward and upward to triumph over more recipes!

Til next time.

Thanksgiving Fail

The other day, while surfing foodnetwork.com and trying to create a dinner menu, I became excited by the fact that Thanksgiving is only a mere 10 days away. So excited, in fact, that I decided to cook (with Dan's help) a mini-Thanksgiving meal.

Oh boy...

Although salad may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think TG, I find it to be a necessary dish among all the butter laden ones on the table. This salad is refreshing and easy. All you need is spinach, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and a vinaigrette of your choice.

Number one reason for eating Thanksgiving dinner? Candied yams. Amazingly enough, yams are a pretty health starch, full of potassium and higher in protein than most root vegetables. These health benefits are only slightly hindered by the addition of brown sugar, butter, and marshmallows (a no-fat food!). Dan is not a fan of these, however I look forward to them every year, so they had to be part of our pre-thanksgiving thanksgiving meal. But these yams...they just weren't quite right. Normally I would be able to make an entire meal of these. Not this time.

So here is where all really fell apart. Herb roasted turkey breast. Sounds easy enough. According to Rachael Ray (whom I will never trust again), all we needed was skin-on turkey breast, fresh herbs—oregano, rosemary, thyme, parsley—lemon, salt, and pepper. This turkey was the worst. Ever. It may have turned me off to turkey for life. The texture was bizarre and beyond explanation. And as Dan succinctly said "I'm not sure how this turkey manages to be overly-herbed and under flavored simultaneously, but it does."

Long story short, Dan felt especially disappointed by "Thanksgiving," so he ended up where all failed meals do: McDonalds. I stole a few fries.

That concludes the tale of Thanksgiving Fail. The next time I feel like recreating a meal that only happens once a year, I won't. I guess that means I won't be making any St. Patrick's Day corned beef. Oh well!

Til next time. 

tis the season for soup

Image Courtesy of recipe.com

I rarely repeat recipes. This could be because I tend to question the time and effort put in for minimal or less than exciting food results, or it could simply be that I don't own a recipe box which leads to me misplacing any and all paper recipes that pass through my kitchen. 

Whatever the case may be, it's unlikely that I will cook something multiple times. However, an exception has been made, and it has been made with this soup. 

This Tortellini Florentine soup is perfect for cold fall days, and since yesterday was one of the coldest days we have experienced this fall, I decided to make it again (second time in a week!). 

You'll Need:

1  9-oz pkg. of fresh cheese tortellini

2 or 3  14-oz cans of chicken broth

1  10-oz container of refrigerated light Alfredo sauce

2 cups of roasted chicken

1/2 cup of sun dried tomatoes strips (oil packed, then drained)

3 cups of fresh baby spinach

1-oz Parmesan cheese to top

This recipe takes about 20 minutes to make and many of the ingredients needed can be bought already prepared, such as a rotisserie chicken from the deli. 

After making this two times, I have some tips. 

1. Buy extra chicken broth. You may need it either the night you prepare the soup, or the day after to give it more, well...broth!
2. Under cook the tortellini. As you will see in the recipe, you must pre-cook the tortellini. I suggest cooking it for about 5-minutes which leaves it feeling slightly underdone. You will be happy you did after it goes back into the soup. 
3. Salt the soup at the end. I would only add salt after every last ingredient has been incorporated as some of the ingredients are salty on their own, which brings up the sodium level quite a bit. 

So, if you are also not a lover of labor intensive kitchen sessions, then this soup is for you. It's a satisfying and delicious dish for anytime of year, but it's especially perfect for fall. 

Til next time.