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.

La Mezzaluna in Princeton, NJ

We spent this past Saturday in downtown Princeton.  To my surprise, for dinner hubby wanted Italian food.

This is a groundbreaking experience for me.  I always want Italian food and usually I'm bringing hubby along kicking and screaming.  (Okay, not literally, but it's not his first choice.  Ever.)

Of the few choices available, we went with La Mezzaluna.

(P.S. Sorry about the quality of these photos.  This is what happens when you only have your phone to take pictures with).

It's not too much to look at on the outside, but I'm of the philosophy to never judge a book by its cover.

We started with mozzarella sticks.  The cheese was the perfect texture.  It was thick and not too stringy to bite into.  The sauce was sweet and didn't overpower, but paired well with the mozzarella.  

Hubby ordered the gnocchi.  It came with asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, caramelized onions, and garlic olive oil sauce.  I wonder if their gnocchi takes a long to make as mine did.  Theirs was delicious.  The sauce was outrageous although I had my apprehensions.  Sun dried tomatoes can be a good choice to add extra flavor to a dish so long as they are not over dried.  These sun dried tomatoes were flavorful and definitely not at all overly dried out.  

I ordered one of the daily specials.  It made me feel complete.

I'll admit it.  I feel bad when a waitress goes through a list of specials and I have no interest in any of them.

This one sounded like everything I wanted in life and I'll tell you why: four cheese sauce.  I didn't care about anything else, all I heard was four cheese sauce.

However, I got even more than I bargained for.  I'd never ordered a risotto dish before, and while I had an idea of what I was getting, I was more than thrilled with the overall meal.  Aside from the four cheese sauce that the chicken risotto (made with perfectly moist chicken) was coated in, it also came with asparagus.

I first fell in love with asparagus, wow, over 15 years ago on my first ever visit to Princeton with my mom.  Therefore it's very nostalgic for me to get something with asparagus when in Princeton.

I wish we could have stayed for dessert, but bellies were overly full and plans had already been made to go to the House of Cupcakes.

I would have loved to try their ricotta cheesecake or tiramisu.  Next time...for sure.