Disasters in the Kitchen: Sometimes Recipes Are Just Bad

When you try out a lot of new recipes like I do, you often run into some that are just bad. Like the one I made last night.

On my list of meals for February I listed sesame chicken with chow mien. I have had both these recipes for a very long time, and I have not made them for at least five years. When I was going through my recipes I found them and thought, "Well, these weren't great the first time I made them, but now I am a better cook, and I am sure it will turn out". Nope. It is just a case of bad recipes.

First off, the sesame chicken was a pain to flour, dip, and coat in sesame. It took me way longer then I wanted it too. After it cooked the chicken was dry (cooked too long), had little flavor, and the sesame seeds were chewy and overwhelming. No body liked it, even the baby.

The chow mien was not too bad to make, and I thought it would turn out awesome. However, it had way to much soy sauce in it, so it just tasted like salty soy sauce noodles.

I was so disappointed because it all sounded so good. So, here is my plea. Can someone give me a tried and true recipe for chow mien and possibly sesame chicken? Don't just give some random recipe you found online (that is what got me in trouble the first time), I want one that you have made, and that you know is good.

Until then, I will just have to make a run to Hibachi House or Panda Express to fulfill my chow mien needs.

Kitchen Disasters

We ordered new knives last week. Some of them came yesterday. They work awesome.

And this is what happens when you put cookies in the oven, and then go upsatirs and fold laundry.

And no, they are not supposed to be that color. Look at post below for actual color specifications.

Disasters in the Kitchen

Baking and cooking a lot often leads to a few disasters. This wouldn't be a true food blog without occasionally sharing some of these with you!

This wasn't exactly a disaster, but it turned out differently than I expected! We had a little party for our soon to be one-year-old little girl. It was the day after thanksgiving at my in-laws house, so I wanted to do something cute and fun, but not a lot of work. I found a great recipe for monkey cupcakes in a magazine and thought I would copy it. I did not use the cake directions from the actual recipe, I just used a basic cake mix instead and copied the "monkey face" directions. This is how it turned out.

Everyone insisted they were cute, but I just could not get over the fact that they scared me! It is like they are going to eat you before you eat them! They did taste really good though, so I guess that is all that matters!

If you want to attempt these scary monkey cupcakes, perhaps for your next Halloween party, here is how I did it

Scary Monkey Cupcakes
-Bake a basic chocolate cake mix, follow package directions, and make in muffin tins. Let cool completely before decorating.
-Frost cupcakes with any kind of chocolate frosting or glaze
-White frosting for eyes, topped with reeces pieces or m&m's
-For mouth use any kind of brown cookie. I used the keebler peanut butter chocolate cookies. The actual recipe has you use ginger snaps.
-For ears I used circle melting chocolates, but the recipe calls for mini oreos. (This was actually another disaster. I didn't realize it called for mini oreos and I bought big sized ones, which were way too big for the cupcakes. I raided my mother-in-laws pantry and found the melting chocolates which looked great and tasted good too!)

And remember, eat them before they eat you!