Down the Drain; It Hurts.

Every now and again a recipe turns out...well, not as desirable as I thought it would be.  I typically rate most recipes as "Keep it in the Strainer", meaning that they were good and worth making again.

Perhaps you've noticed this trend?

I have rated a few as "Down the Drain" but recently I realized I have developed a habit of avoiding writing about the "Down the Drain" recipes that I've made.  I took pictures of them, created files in my picture folder for them, but every time I went to write about a failed recipe I'd look at the pictures and say, "Next time".

Today I've decided to give you an overview of the "Down the Drain" recipes I've been avoiding.  This will get me up to speed and then hopefully I've overcome the fear of writing about them and just do it.

Here we go.

Pioneer Woman's Beef Stew:

This was so not what I was dreaming about when I planned my weekly menu with beef stew on it.  In all honesty, it was a waste of perfectly wonderful beef chuck.  I cried as I ate, thinking of the delicious Hungarian goulash I could have made with that beef chuck instead.

I don't fault Pioneer Woman though.  There is, of course, the possibility that I did something wrong.

But I'm not so sure.

The liquid was far too watery and before serving it, when I realized it wasn't looking the way I thought it should, I seriously considered making my own roux to thicken it up.

Alas, I am one of those cooks who sticks to the recipe the first time through and I just couldn't bring myself to alter it.

"It has to be good!", I told myself.

Oh well.


Next?  We have one of my own creations: Chicken and Broccoli Risotto.

I boiled through a river of chicken broth to experience what making true risotto is like.  In a word it is boring.

In a separate skillet, I made some garlic chicken and reserved it for when the risotto was finished cooking.

I made way way way too much risotto.

The good thing about this one was that it was only bland.  I'm certain you are thinking that is a bad thing, but really it isn't.  I figured out how to cook risotto, so now I know I need to lessen the amount I make and just play with seasonings.

Translation: I'll save this one to try again in the summer when I have nothing better to do with my time.


This next one I wanted to be wonderful so badly.  I think of Meg Ryan standing in the midst of a pastel wonderland of flowers at the end of "You've Got Mail".  The song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" drifts in and she finally finds out that Tom Hanks has been her secret email buddy who she has grown to love.  She says to him, "I wanted it to be you.  I wanted it to be you so badly".

That's the emotions I had towards these Corn Dog Muffins.

The muffin was very much like corn bread, but definitely not like a corn dog.

This is important.

The muffins worked.  But they were not corn dog muffins.  And I was sorely disappointed.

Note: Please don't think I'm picking on Pioneer Woman recipes.  I love her recipes.  Let's face it though, in the midst of a bunch of winners you're bound to find a few losers floating around.


This final recipe is the most shameful, especially because it's all the way from last summer.  That's how long I've been hiding this atrocity from you.

Chocolate Chip Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies

The error that came in this recipe was that I fell susceptible to ridiculous Pinterest pictures.

Note: I do not have a Pinterest account.

Note to the note: I do not have a Pinterest account for the very reason that got me into this Reese's trouble.  I will see pictures of things I want to do and either succeed by following directions and become very very fat, or fail by not following directions and become very very sad.

The moral of this story is:

1. Don't go on Pinterest if you want to stay sane and thin
2. Recognize that making a cookie with a Reese's in the middle requires a lot more than buying the candy bar sized Reese's and plopping them into the center of your favorite cookie recipe.


Now for an encore to this mind blowing post, I'd like to leave you with this picture:

This, at one point in time, was how much sauce I had in my freezer.

Note: There are only two people living in my house.

Note to the note: Don't judge me.

Kabob'n Grill-less

Recipe: Mini Beef & Colorado Potato Kabobs

Source: Fun Summer Food, June/July 2003

Time: 1 hour (does not include marination time)

Ease: 4

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: 7

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer, but for ease's sake, forget about the kabobs! 

These past two weeks seem to be the weeks of marination.  I did not mean for them to be like this, but somehow it happened that way.  

I was so excited to try this recipe out because I had bought beef chuck to make stew with and then the cold season, well, never happened and I wanted to use my beef chuck in a seasonally appropriate way.

I have to warn you, just the pictures of these skewers have me salivating so much, I might have to break down and heat up some leftovers for myself.  And that never happens!

The great thing about this recipe is that the marinade for the beef is super simple and super easy to create on your own.  In essence, it is a balsamic vinegar marinade.  This mixture of balsamic vinegar, oil, and fresh herbs enhances the meat's already scrumptious flavor.  The recipes said to let the meat and veggies marinate several hours or overnight.  For starters, I'm very picky, so I marinated them separately.  Second, I did not want to marinate overnight.  I made the marinade in the morning and let it sit in the fridge for about eight hours.

A little secret, I did not use Colorado potatoes like the recipe said to.

Egads, I know!

However, I did bake my potatoes a little too long.  They ended up super soft when I went to thread them on the skewers.  So, I recommend baking your potatoes only about 30 minutes and then chopping them up to put onto the skewers.

I thought I had a pretty good system for loading the skewers, but it was also a pretty messy system too.

You be the judge.

Once the skewers were all set, and since my grill isn't up and running (my grill which I don't know how to use anyway) I broiled them for about ten minutes.

They were perfect.

The kabob thing and the mess it left is the reason that next time I would marinate the meat and then just fry the meat and veggies together in a skillet.  It'll turn out almost the same...just, without the kabob part.

They do look pretty though.