I have a confession.
I’m not a very good cook.
I mean, I can follow a recipe well enough. Who can’t? But I’ve been stuck in this awful cooking rut for a long time now. It’s bad enough that I feel sorry for Jeremy, even though he’s pretty much the most patient person in the world about my culinary shortcomings.
Although he does get tired of tacos.
So last week I finally tackled a project I’ve been putting off for a while. As in, years.
I organized my giant mess of a cookbook. This is my homemade conglomeration of rip-the- yummy-looking-recipes-out-of-the-magazine, scrawled-on-bits-of-paper-as-they’re dictated-over-the-phone-mom-recipes, e-mailed-tips-from-the-vile-one (aka Heather) who of course is a culinary wonder, and yes, even the old tried-and-true few that I’ve acquired over the years but are still floating on a loose piece of paper instead of having a permanent home. It took a while but I got it all organized in my big falling-apart-at-the-seams binder. (You can’t win em all.)
While I was pasting and weeding out recipes that I seriously have no idea why I would save I decided that the easiest way to dig myself out of the gargantuan rut I’m in is to actually try some of those recipes I clipped to try “someday”.
So my new goal: Cook every single recipe in my binder. It may take a while, especially considering the amount of dessert recipes in there, but I guess it would be okay to skip a few of those.
I’m kind of hoping that I will keep myself accountable by posting about my successes (hopefully) and I’m sure, many failures.
Because even a failure may be better than having tacos…again. Just ask Jeremy.
Success #1 – Monte Cristo sandwiches.
I did not deep fry these, as the recipe called for, but cooking them on a griddle, like pancakes, worked just fine and cut out all that grease (gross). I thought they were just as good as the versionI tried once upon a time at the restaurant in Fairbanks. Yes, the restaurant in Fairbanks. Narrows it down doesn’t it? I’m ashamed to say that I absolutely cannot remember the name of the place. Danielle worked there for a while…you know, big place over off of….that road. Wow. I must have been gone a while. I could still drive there, though! ; )
And of course – Failure #1 – Brownie Pizza
Made this for family night cause I thought Susannah would get a kick out of it. She loves anything and everything that has to do with fruit, especially strawberries. Unfortunately I had the wrong size of pizza pan so the edges of the brownie were thinner than called for and burned. And for some reason the cream cheese mixture that glued the strawberries down made it mushy. Ick. Of course, that didn’t stop us from eating some. It actually wasn’t bad the first night. The leftovers went in the trash, though. Even the girls wouldn’t eat the soggy brownies. Can’t really blame them though. We won’t be trying this recipe again.
Ok,,, I totally love this post. But for us other “in a rut” moms and wives could you add the recipes (if it’s not too much work) with the pictures. I would love to try some of these. We have our faithful meals that we always make but I am getting tired of them as much as my kids are! Love you!
Sure will! I’ll work on adding the recipes later today. :)
One of those sentences seems to have a strong Dickens influence. Maybe what you read becomes how you write……
YEA FOR THE DICKENS INFLUENCE!!! HHAHAHAHA. Great post, Bek. I remember the time I decided to make at least ONE new recipe a week to add some zing to my meals. Then, remember the time when you took over cooking your specialties at least one night a week? THAT was great.
Then, of course, there was the culinary guru that kicked me out of the kitchen.
Now Ang cooks better than I do. Sorry Ang, that is meant to be a compliment. :)
seven gables?? why am i thinking danielle worked there? i know ronnie did….
No, it was that place over by the big truck dealership (Ford?).
Your talking about The Cookie Jar :) my favorite.
Want to know what’s really scary? The name doesn’t even sound familiar.
the cookie jar.darn,heidi beat to being a know-it-all.
I would like to disagree with one comment, I think you are an excellent cook.
You have never made anything I didn’t like and I can assure you that not anyone can follow a recipe. I have ample evidence for that.
Obviously you haven’t watched Ratatouille in a while, it is not a question of whether or not everyone can cook, it is a question of whether or not everyone should cook.
At the risk of sounding like a kiss up father in law I have to say that you are an excellent cook.
I really like your taco’s and the homemade Pizza is wonderful and I happen to know that Jeremy loves your cooking he has told me so many times.
AWWWWW! Papa Bear! What a great opportunity for you to reinforce your place at Bek’s dining room table! :)
The only thing you have ever cooked for me was delish! But then again you have always been the master of Mac n’ cheese!
I remember that! I had you over to my shoebox-sized apartment and gave you the 5-star treatment. :)
I have some great recipes I will have to send to you….I just did the same thing to my gigantic cookbook. It was SO much fun. I’m still working on it because I like the pictures of the food but not necessarily the magazine pages. So I am retyping them on the computer, printing them, and gluing the pictures onto them!