cookin' with cook

I like to think that I'm a good cook. It is a "hobby" (actually, necessity) that I only recently picked up, when D. and I were married almost two years ago. I started out only making my mom's tried and true recipes...and then I started living on the edge (watch out!) and trying new things. And then... I discovered what will change my life in the kitchen forever- cooking blogs. You know... such as (some of my favs) pioneer woman, or my kitchen cafe, or bakerella (well i'd be a billion pounds if i cooked off of her site all the time).
I just love my cooking blogs (ha)... I know someone has tried them...they even come with pictures so I know what is supposed to happen.

I've only had one major catastrophe with suggestions from my beloved blogs. I tried a crockpot version of chicken cordon blue = bad idea, just in case you were wondering. It turned out... gross. It is still, to date, the only meal we couldn't finish eating. And then there was the time I tried home-made frozen hot chocolate... it wasn't a catastrophe, just more of a let down.

But then there was dinner last night. It wasn't the cooking blog's fault...but it didn't quite turn out like it was supposed to. The recipe called for cooking sherry, which I didn't have. And quite frankly, I don't know what flavor it adds. So I did what I always do when I'm missing something, and looked up a substitution for it = bad idea. One suggestion was to try a little vinegar with sugar. Another said to try orange or pineapple juice. And well... I really didn't like the thought of adding vinegar, so I opted for the pineapple juice. Let's just say that pineapple juice and artichokes don't really blend flavors together very well. I took a bite and my entire body involuntarily shook. Not very yummy.
Needless to say, learn from my mistake, and don't ever (on any occasion) replace cooking sherry with pineapple juice.

Oh...and this deserves and explanation too.



No, I didn't make the bread from scratch. Though, one day, I will be a super woman who can do that.
I took the easy way out, and bought the frozen dough at wal-mart. It's great... you just take it right from the freezer and let it sit out. It thaws, and rises. All you have to do is stick it in the oven... but warning- you can let it rise a little too long. Instead of allowing it to rise just 1 inch over the pan, I let it go about 5 or 6 inches above it. And in a dumb brunette moment, I didn't think about the fact that the bread would rise a little bit more as it cooked. And well... this is what happened:



yea... I almost burned my kitchen down because the bread was right against the oven burner. Oops.