Day five

Did not get to post last night, I was ready for bed when dinner was over. Not that dinner was hard work, I was just worn out. Dinner was Smoky Tomato Chicken with Mediterranean couscous.

It was a basic recipe onions, garlic, and tomatoes. It was also the first recipe that I made during this experiment that did not include about a pound of butter. Actually it did not any butter in it. Come to think of it maybe that is why it was not one of my favorite.

I read that I should always use a meat thermometer when I cook meat. That way I can constantly check the temp. The meat will not be over cooked or undercooked. The chicken last night was cooked perfect, nice and moist. The smoky tomato was well executed and the couscous was perfect, but as a whole I did not care for the flavors together.

My family really liked the dish though, so maybe I was just not feeling it. This recipe goes into the unsure pile. So far it is a lonely pile with this being the only recipe in it so far.

On a side note I am going to start doing only vegetarian/ seafood for the next month, starting Monday. If you have a recipe that falls into this category please forward it to me. Thank you

Day four

Dish of the day...
Chipotle honey tangerine glazed chicken, ease of dish... HARD!
Just typing that was hard work. Four hours into prep I was ready to give up. Most of the issues that I encountered while making this dish had to do with executing things I had never before attempted. Peeling a ginger root is not like peeling a potato. Once the ginger was peeled it needed to be minced, for most mincing would be easy. Well I am not like most. I have never before minced anything. Add to that I needed 1/4 cup of minced ginger root and that is were most of my time went.

This recipe also required me to squeeze tangerines. The cook book says it will only take 4-5 tangerines to make one cup of juice. I think everyone of our tangerines must have been the runts of their litters, because it took 8 to give me one cup. Add to all that finely chopped Thyme, cilantro, parsley and basil. Marinate the chicken breasts in that, turning and re marinating every 30 min for FOUR hours.

I hated this dish by this point, but I was only up to the part where it is marinated and I could begin to cook. Well not quite, I still had to create the Chipotle honey tangerine glaze. This was an hour process. Again I needed tangerine juice, but this time I needed 2 cups of it, 14 tangerines later (that is all the rest I had). Boil with honey, and soy sauce, reduce for 45 min, stirring constantly. Add chipotle and tangerine peel and boil for 5 more min.

Grill chicken until almost done, for final few minutes remove from heat, glaze thouroly with chipotle honey tangerine glaze and cook for 2 min on each side. I really hate it by now. I am tired of this dish and have not even had one bite of it.

Oh, and make rice for the side dish, make sure to stir that so the bottom does not burn and keep kids entertained with games and chatter.

Long story short, Kids liked it, Rougeh and I loved it. It was labor intensive, but worth every bite.

I have no Idea what I will be making tomorrow. I need to get to bed and relax after today's cooking.

Day Three

Today I attempted one of my favorite dishes to eat. It is called Macaroni Beshemel. It is a tasty concoction of cream, butter, meat and pasta. I have eaten it hundreds of times and finally I had the opportunity to watch a friend make it. It looked basic enough when I was watching her do it. I took two pages of notes on her recipe. She has been making it for so long she no longer uses a recipe.

We had some visitors over on Saturday so I chose to make it for them. It took about twice as long to make as my friend took. The end result was very tasty. It does not look the way it should really. I am not sure what needs to be changed in my version, maybe I needed to make the Beshemel sauce thinner. I know I needed more salt and pepper, but for first try, Darn good.

The kids are loving this new cooking. They enjoy rating it daily. The Macaroni got a 9. So far Benjamin likes Day one the best, and day two and three are tied at second. Jasmine likes Day three the best, then second and finally day one. I think the issue with Jasmine was that I combined green beans with the pork. She is not a big fan of vegetables. Any Ideas on how to make her like them more?

Tomorrow will me Chipotle honey tangerine glazed chicken.

Day Two

I know the picture is side ways, I cannot figure out how to make it straight. I would love if someone could tell me how to fix my pictures. Thankfully this did not effect the taste.

So today was Fettuccine Calabrese.

I made my own sausage, or rather I dissected pre-made sausage and re-constituted it prior to cooking. Soaked it in a bath of butter. Butter makes everything better.

Add to that golden brown mushrooms, also bathed in butter and garlic, white wine and heavy cream and I do no see how this could have gone wrong. I was not let down, this was a marvel of magnificence.

Tomorrow I am going to stray from the cookbook that thusly has been WONDERFUL, even though it is only two days. I am going to attempt an authentic Egyptian dish. It is called Macaroni Beshemel. Basically it is penne pasta, beef and heavy cream all baked together. I have only seen this made before and never attempted on my own.

Day one

SUCCESS. Caramelized apples over Pecan Pork, with sides of Roasted Garlic Couscous and blanched green beans. The kids loved it and so did Rougeh and I.

Tomorrows dish Fettuccine Calabrese. Wish me luck

New blog forum for my daily cooking.

I was using my family blog for daily cooking and decided to change it over to its own site. That way people who do not want to read about my cooking and just want to have updates on my family and kids can have that. Hope this goes well. If anyone has a recipe that they think I should try out I am very open to it. Please post it to me I will add it to items on my list to make.