Orange County Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
I made dinner last night and it was a 75% fail
The steamed brocolli was easy.
I made bruschetta too, easy, tasty.
The chicken marsala, however, was gross. I don't like the taste of marsala wine, apparently, or, I put too much. I also didn't have cream, so I used soymilk instead, with some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter mixed in. The mushrooms in it were good though.
I really wish I were one of those people that could throw a dish together and have it be really great.
Any cooking fails or wins lately?
Re: I made dinner last night and it was a 75% fail
dude, substitution FAIL.
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/makeyourowningredients/r/Heavy_Cream_Sub.htm
Sorry! It's hard to cut back on eating out when cooking doesn't come easy.
I am not sure soy milk was a wise choice as a substitute for cream.
uh yeaaah...total substitution fail. and did you make sure all the alcohol cooked off/the wine reduced enough? although the hubs doesn't like chicken marsala usually because it's too sweet for him, so despite the substitution, you still may not have liked it.
I think this was your problem right here.
Soymilk + marsala wine + fake butter =
The marsala was super sweet. H said it tasted like syrup, like he was eating chicken pancakes.
=/
This is why I eat out a lot.
Don't give up! Learning how to cook takes trial and error. You should try the recipe again. Next time use real cream and a little less wine. I think it's easiest to follow recipes as written the first few times before you start trying to get creative with them.
Although soymilk and wine should probably never be mixed together.
I agree with SL - keep trying! but make sure and stick to recipes, at least until you get the hang of it.
I am also a big fan of epicurious.com and myrecipes.com for healthier things. I usually read reviews to see what other people say.
Yikes! Soymilk + Margarine+Wine =
But don't give up on cooking though it takes practice like most other things in life. H and I cut way back on eating out in 09 and it was pretty easy, we just had to make a few adjustments.
Before I go to the grocery store for the week I sit down and get 4-5 recipes for dinner. I skip Fridays because that is usually our eat out day and we usually have another eat out day on the weekend. Then I make my list based off of the recipes so I have everything when I need it. I usually make dinner for 4 so that H and I have lunch for the next day. We really did save a ton of money by doing this.
Hope this helps.
Poor 10yt! The only reason I'm considered a somewhat decent cook is that I follow recipes to the letter and almost never substitute. I'm not a chef, I'm not creative, so I just make highly-rated recipes and they usually come out okay.
Try browsing sites like www.allrecipes.com - they have lots of easy recipes and good ratings. And I always have success with making pasta-based dishes or stews, soups, etc. I make a lot of things with leftovers in mind so I can take them to lunch or have a quick dinner the next day.
Like pp said, the best thing to do is think of recipes you want to make the base your grocery list off those meals. I always buy bulk chicken, ground turkey, etc, from Costco so those are on-hand.
Don't give up!
What sucks is that there are too many recipes out there. And I get frustrated and overwhelmed. It makes me just want to either experiment, and I don't know why I bother, or, just make chicken adobo and rice which I never fuckup.
Sigh.
I really am trying to cook more though, even when H is gone. I feel like I need a detox from the month of December with all that eating out.
Limit your sources. Pick just one website or magazine and start there, searching by level of ease.
Another thing that really helped me was watching instructional cooking shows. I didn't watch them for the actual recipes being prepared, but instead watched so that I could pick up techniques and terminology. That in turn made it easier to decipher recipes. I know you don't have cable, but do you get PBS on your tv? They air cooking shows on the weekends.
This! I'd say 85% of what I make is from Cooking Light and over the past few years, I've only had one or two real losers. Fairly healthy, mostly easy to make and most importantly, the food tastes good!
I agree. I PPH Cooking Light. I have made probably 30 recipes out there and only 1 I didn't like, and it wasn't the flavor, it was the way I shredded my cabbage in the food processor. It looked like slop...tasted good though. You can't go wrong with their recipes and as stated above, once you have a handful of recipes, you learn what you can switch out here and there.
Also, if I'm not sure what I can substitute for something, I google it and it usually brings up a good selection of what you can and can't switch out.
oooh good call thank you!
I just got a CL subscription!
this. another cooking light fan. when i first started cooking at home a lot, i used their site/magazines and real simple's recipes only.
there are some really good cooking shows on pbs.
I had a cooking win in Costa Rica. At our chalet, we had to cook for ourselves. I made shrimp stir-fry with broccoli and carrots one night and lemon-orange chicken with spinach and potatoes another night. Both tasted decent.
In my defense, the chicken was ok enough that H and I ate it for dinner one night, I brought it for lunch the next day, and I have it for lunch today so it isn't completely horrible (almost though).