Cooking FAIL

I'm not a big fan of pork but we had a pork shoulder in the freezer and I needed to cook it up asap (it's been in there for a while). So I started looking for a good crock pot recipe. I came across a lot of them but nothing that sounded appealing to me. Then I found one from a blog and it sounded better than any of the others I'd seen so I decided to try it out. All the ingredients sounded good to me and I had them all on hand. As I was throwing them all in the crock pot I got a whiff of the apple cider vinegar (which I have never used before) and almost gagged. Guh-ross. I thought for a second I may have just ruined the pork, then thought maybe it would cook out and wouldn't be so strong after 10 hours in the crock pot.

I should have listened to my first instinct.

It was totally disgusting. I was so disappointed. I'm never ever ever using apple cider vinegar again. I couldn't even eat the pork. Hubbs and the kids wouldn't eat it either. My MIL said she liked it so at least it's not going to waste. I think she was just being nice though!

Total fail. I should just stick to chicken and beef.

Day 5 - Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes

Yesterday was day five - Sour Cream Pancakes.

Total disappointment for me. Hubbs was so excited for a new, exciting take on pancakes. He ended up disappointed too. I'm not even sure why these sounded good to us because thinking about it now, sour cream and pancakes don't sound good together at all. Anyway, I made these for breakfast yesterday and they were too 'mushy' for me. Hubbs said they weren't fluffy enough, Kenna ate them up pretty fast, but that girl will eat anything. And Gavin, well he doesn't really like to try new things and when he heard me say I didn't like them, he wasn't about to try them.

As for today, I'm taking a break. After everyone in my house gobbled up the Blueberry Crumb Cake, they begged me to make another one, and I did yesterday, that one did not last long, and they're asking for another one already! I'm telling you, you have to try that stuff... It's so good! Plus, Granny Mam (my wonderful grandma) is visiting, so we're going to make a big pot of fried spaghetti, and enjoy some delicious comfort food tonight. I'll be back with a new recipe review tomorrow.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend :)

Day 3 - French Breakfast Puffs

It's day three of my 'try a new recipe every day' week & this time I chose Ree Drummond's French Breakfast Puffs.

I'll be honest, I was a little afraid of how these were going to turn out. The recipe calls for shortening, which I never use, hence why I didn't have any on hand and chose to substitute with butter. I was afraid they weren't going to be 'fluffy' enough. I was wrong, again. They turned out great! And were SO easy to make. I love that I can freeze them so I'll have some on hand for those mornings where I don't have time to make breakfast. & did I mention the kids love these? They're coated in cinnamon sugar... Of course the kids love them! And you will too so go make a batch!

Day 2 - Potato Skins

Today was my second day of trying new recipes. I went with one I thought was going to be easy peesy. It wasn't as easy as I thought. I tried Ree's Potato Skins. Potato Skins are one of Hubbs favorite foods, I've never made them, and the recipe seemed so easy. So I gave it a try...

This isn't the best picture but I had to get one fast before everyone ate all the skins!

Yuuummy. They were very delish. However, scooping out the potato while trying to keep the skin in tact is a little more difficult than it sounds. You should still try it though. It was all worth it.

I searched Ree's website and couldn't find this recipe but it is in her cook book if you want to give it a try.

Cooking

Let me start by saying I have a passion for cooking. I am not the best at it, but I love learning new tips & tricks and trying new recipes. My Mother in law has two bookshelves in the kitchen both stuffed full of nothing but cookbooks. & I love flipping through the books and finding something new to try for dinner. Sometimes I make a delicious meal, and other times it ends up going in the trash because no one can stand to eat it (yes, that has happened a few times). Nonetheless, I enjoy making a nice home cooked meal for my family and all of us sitting around the dinner table eating it up; so the rewards outweigh the occasional embarrassments.

With all that being said, I was laying in bed Friday night, flipping through the channels. Enjoying a moment to watch whatever I want on TV because it is Shark Week and my husband has had our TV on the Discovery Channel all. week. long.

I found Julie & Julia on one of the movie channels. I had heard of this movie before but never watched any of it so I decided to watch the first few minutes and see what it was all about. Once I started watching, I couldn't stop. & I found it quite inspiring. When the movie was over, I came downstairs, logged into blogger, and somehow stumbled across this blog. What a coincidence, right? After reading her blog I started looking for the cookbook she's using and finally found Ree Drummond's site. I browsed through some of her recipes and decided I need her cookbook! Her recipes sound so yummy!!! And I want to try all of them. I immediately ordered the book on amazon and then went back to her site to find a recipe to try right away.

Don't get your hopes up ;) I will not be working my way through the whole book and blogging about every recipe I make... That is too much work. But one of the tasks on my 101 in 1001 list is to try a new recipe every day for a week... I will be using her recipes, and I started that task today...

I made her Blueberry Crumb Cake. & Oh my gosh. It was deeeelicious. Hubbs tore into it and the kids gobbled it up real fast. It will definitely be added to my collection of recipes. Yum yum! Also, my book came today! Now its time to go find something to try tomorrow :)

Monday - Blueberry Crumb Cake
Tuesday - Potato Skins
Wednesday - French Breakfast Puffs
Thursday - Chicken Fried Steak
Friday - Sour Cream Pancakes


PS... Did you realize today is 8.9.10