Dinner...impossible...

Recipes are simply following directions, right? So if you follow each step carefully using the right items, the end product should be very similar to the “picture perfect” photo that enticed you to the recipe in the first place…right? One would think. 

I am sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Tim to come home, blogging while waiting to see how exactly tonight’s dinner is going to turn out…This week I have been trying some new recipes, which have turned out pretty good, in my opinion. They included black bean/quinoa burgers with plantain chips, calzones, zucchini quinoa lasagna, vegetarian enchilada casserole (my favorite) and  vegetarian crock pot chili. I posted the link to the enchilada casserole below, in order to save space in the blog:

http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/enchiladacass.htm

Tonight…well…is baked tilapia with lemon-olive oil pasta. Ok, so back story:  the first time I went grocery shopping, I decided to buy a variety of meat for the freezer. I attempted a few dishes before Tim so kindly told me that he didn’t expect me to cook meat. Praise the Lord…that was music to my ears. So since then, I haven’t. But the freezer was filling up and part of the bulk was a package of tilapia…so I decided to try to get rid of it today. I began with the pasta. It was the suggested pairing for the fish and the reviews were, of course, just raving. I still thought it sounded a little weird…lemon and olive oil pasta…hmmm…oh well, I’ll give it a shot. It was pretty simple, boil the pasta, drain, (I’m doing fine up until this point) then with pot on high heat….add 1 cup reserved pasta water, olive oil, and heavy cream. This was where it got gross. The heated olive oil and cream reminded me of when I used to go with my Dad to Omaha, where he delivered milk to the dairy. After the milk was out of the tank, he would rinse out the milk tank with hot water, producing, in my opinion, a rather rancid smell. Hot milk has never been my thing. Trying to suppress  my nausea by again reading the "raving reviews", I added the grated parmesan and lemon juice as instructed. Nothing changed...it just got worse…plus it was very liquidy? At this point I’m thinking, ‘what on earth did I do wrong?!’. Um, well, I read the recipe several times, even out loud…nothing. I don’t get it. My only hope is that it will taste ok with the fish. 

Which is a whole different story. I don’t know if I have ever really dealt with raw fish before (aside from eating occasional sushi). When I was putting it on the baking sheet, it freaked me out…it felt so…aliveish?! I’m not here to push vegetarianism onto anyone else (that’s for each one to decide on their own), but this just reminds me how I’m just not cut out for this kind of thing. I’ll stick with my tofu and legumes…and hope my husband doesn’t go back on his kind words!

Dinner update: the fish did not turn out. The breading did not stick and the whole thing tasted like seawater. Gross. Bad cooking day. Drinking a glass of wine as I wait for my husband to get home…pulled out the sweet potato hummus in hopes that will  make things a little better…I guess this is all “part of the learning process”…my mother would laughingly say to me if she were here!

We have had a fun last few days. Saturday we went to the Scottish Christmas walk. Holymoly. I have never seen so many bagpipes, last name clans, dog clubs, kilts, and colonial military impersonators. Welcome to Virginia, people! It was fun, but it was 2 hours long, pretty much it was anyone with the last name, say, “McDougal”, would put on their Scottish gear, get together, and march in the parade with someone leading holding their last name sign. They were all so proud to be Scottish. So the dog clubs…I’m pretty sure every single dog breed had a “greater Washington DC” area club…it was quite interesting because there were some dog breeds I have never seen before, such as the Scottish Deerhound. 

Dinner update: Tim is currently “bagging” the pasta and fish in a plastic bag in order to dispose of it. Yes, it was that bad. He was sweet though, he tasted it and said..”Well…it’s not that bad…do you want me to eat it?” Haha…I told him no, and that he could make himself his favorite go-to food…eggs in bread. "You learn more from failure than success", he told me. <Humph....>

I suppose this is what I get for being too prideful of a few recipes from last week! :) But…I certainly cannot end this section on a bad note…I made a triple-berry-apple pie for Tim yesterday and he was a pretty happy husband. “Mmmmm…you really outdid yourself…this is the best thing you have made!” Oh wow, thanks…all I did was throw some fruit, sugar, and cornstarch in a pre-made crust and configured some sort of lattice on top! What I’m really hoping is that he will say the same thing about one of my dinner creations in the near future! :)

Sunday evening we went to the Completion Event at Bed Bath & Beyond, which is an evening where couples can go buy items still left on their registry at discounted prices. They give away door prizes…and I won a nice little Corningware lasagna dish! 

I hear there has been some snow in Kansas? We have not had a speck. It has actually been pretty nice here, in the mid-50s/low 60s, with some rain the last few days. 

Last week, I promised a sneak peek of our wedding photos. I know this post has tons of photos, so I've chosen 8 of them to share...out of 945 total! I plan to upload an album on Facebook when the CD of photos comes in the mail. I’ll post the link here as well.