Meal # 24 Green Olive and Onion Sauced Steaks with Wild Mushroom Noodles

As I was planning this meal it did not bother me at all that I was preparing a Mediterrean dish with a Chinese side dish. It does get under my skin now talking about it. I must have broken a sacred cooking rule. Anyways neither where exceptional. The noodles with all different kinds of mushrooms where...mushroomy. I also while preparing this dish, didn't cut off the stems so they basically turned to rubber and I couldn't even CUT them off when it was chow time. I am mushroom ignorant and I guess I just learned lesson #1. The steak with green olives would have been so much better if I hadn't dumped so much hot sauce in it. I mean, you can't enjoy any food with your snot running into it. I didn't really eat mine and my poor husband's face was red for about an hour. I guess the main lesson I am learning is that sometimes, sometimes, you don't have to measure. But sometimes you do. How will I learn when I can and cannot dump things in? Rachel Ray makes it seem all to easy with her "twice around the pan" nonsense.

Nevermind Rachel... I take it back. You are awesome.

Tiff

Meal # 20 Thai Noodles with Veggies

I am so behind! I have been cooking up a storm but not sharing! So here is one I think I missed. I had been wanting to try a WOK recipe for a while now but to be honest that big ole metal bowl scares me. I put oil in it and it always gets so hot. I am not sure how to work that thing. So I started to heat up the wok and then turned around to cut up my veggies and then I turned around and it was smoking. ALREADY! I turned it down and threw in my veggies. Then I threw in my noodles from the Oriental Market (I am not even sure that I used the right kind). I also went willy nilly and threw in some Hoisin sauce, soy sauce and pretty much every oriental sauce in my house. Bad idea. It really didn't have any flavor and I poured soy sauce over my plate when it came time to eat. This was not very memorable but not terrible. I give it a 2 and Gabe a 3. Eh.

Maybe I am not cut out for oriental cooking. Back to the cookbooks.

Mush Shu Tiffany

Meal # 2 Garlic Parsley Biscuits

So my luck may have ran out on my meal #2. I had a crazy day Friday morning and was planning my meal for the evening the whole time. Would I try a souffle? Or the dreaded pickled pigs feet? Not ready for that. Mmmm. A tender steak medallion with mixed herbs? Oh the possibilities! .... Then I remembered we had a dinner meeting with our home group leaders from church and I had signed up to bring biscuits and corn. The MOST boring thing on the needs list (which I created) Granted, I chose these items a month ago when I was goalless and without any foresight to this challenge. I mulled these items over in my head until a thought popped in there, about 39 minutes later. I searched for a simple butter biscuit recipe and then I thought I would just add my own twist. I mean I have parsley listed 29 times! I can def. put some parsley in these things! What goes good with parsley? Garlic. Totes. So I grabbed all my ingredients, making sure that my eggs were room temperature and set out to making my biscuits. The directions said to knead then roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. I am horrible at guessing this with my naked eye. I was tempted to get the ruler out but I had my roommates lingering around possible watching my every move. I thought "I have the courage to not measure with a ruler that is in my school bag approximately 3 feet from me! I will use my eyes that have not led me astray for 28 years." So I guessed and used a rounded glass to create perfect little round biscuits. I watched them in the oven, waiting for them to become fluffy Crackle Barrel biscuits, but alas it was not so! My biscuits which in totally reality were only about 1/4 inch thick did not expand into their destined fluffiness. They rose a tiny bit but such a disappointment. I ate one hot out of the oven and tasted mostly the garlic and saw bits of green which only got stuck in my teeth. I did survey a couple of tough food critics but they were much too generous. All except my faithful Bri. She was honest with me. Her face said it all. So I am quickly humbled and will be sticking to someone else recipe from now on.

Stars
** Bri T
*** Joel C
*** Lauren S (who as just glad it didn't taste like peanut butter)

Overall self evaluation: * because now I have 13 hockey pucks in a ziplock. Tell me! How do you do it Crackle Barrel?

The Intern Tiffany