Tess and Dylan came to pick up James. James took Lenny and I took Dakota out on leashes to meet Dylan. After a bit of growling and posturing Lenny and Dylan looked like they would love to get off-leash and romp together. Dakota did excellent for him but as expected, not as friendly as Lenny. If I was holding Dakota he stayed in the vicinity but barked. When James tried taking Dakota next to Dylan he simply wanted to get to me as fast as his short little stocky legs could carry him. No surprise.
Dakota barked and barked and barked and barked, "That's my Lenny, leave him alone, he's my friend not yours, you can't have him. Lenny stop being nice. Lenny pay attention to me. Lenny I'm getting sort of scared and nervous. Lenny come inside with me. See Dylan, Lenny is mine not yours; we're inside and you're not. Ha"
At least that's what it sounded like he was saying to me :)
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John wanted to know if I was practicing to be the next Iron Chef with all my cooking and reading cooking blogs. Hmmmmm not seeing that as my goal but it sounds better than just trying to have a purpose in this family - a purpose that I'm not very good at so I'm trying hard to improve my skills. Ya, think I'll go with the Iron Chef theory. Much more interesting.
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| It looks good....but that's about it. |
Last night's dinner of Broccoli Beef was a total disappointment. I opened the bag of broccoli and it was bad. I was genuinely surprised...but when I remembered I bought it at Fred Meyer my surprise disappeared. I bought it unwillingly as I no longer buy anything from the produce or butcher sections of FM. I was there to pick up my medicine (have to move those to another store) and only needed broccoli; nothing else. I thought, "how bad could it be?" I should of known better when I went to the produce section and there was no fresh broccoli to be found. They had a sign saying sorry for the poorly stocked produce shelves but inclement weather was effecting their deliveries. I bought a bag of pre-cut and pre-cleaned broccoli knowing I shouldn't but being too lazy to make another choice.
Luckily I had fresh crisp snow peas (from Safeway) that would be a good substitute for the bad broccoli. As a matter of fact, they were the only good thing about the meal because they weren't marinated with the beef mixture. I'm not sure which flavor or combo of flavors was unpleasant but they certainly ruined a perfectly good flank steak.
Although in fairness to the recipe the meat marinated about 3 extra hours due to phone calls I had to take. Also, the cornstarch in the recipe made the marinade too thick to even stir - not wanting any more sodium in the marinade I added a splash of red wine and then some additional water when the wine wasn't enough.Because the reviews were so good I might try this recipe one more time following the steps exactly but I find it hard to believe my minimal changes could have made that much of a difference so I might not.
The one thing I am enjoying about all this cooking and experimenting is the confidence I am gaining in my cooking - no, make that in my decision making. I have never been a recipe follower preferring to create from scratch or from what's on hand or from what I'm in the mood for. That can be an expensive way to cook as you end up at the store daily. These days I need to start with a menu plan and recipes so that I can control costs and save on the grocery bill as well as the dining out bill. I find I still can't leave a recipe alone. I have to tweak it to my tastes. I use what's on hand and for the most part the end result is the better for it. That's fun and satisfying. I pencil notes on my recipes when I make changes and I also give them a rating after the family has weighed in on the tastiness - or lack thereof. This makes it easy to recreate the good ones and never again cook the blechy ones :)
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