Friday, August 24, 2012

Dinner in the Summer Time/ Falling Behind

Oh my goodness it is Friday already and I am still working on Wednesday.
  My kitchen looks like a bomb hit it so hard it will never get clean. I pushed my self all day to get in there and get it done but every time I go in there I get another idea and make an even bigger mess. 
    It always takes me a week or so to readjust and get back on schedule when I get back from fest. I am not alone in that respect most of my friends are totally out of sync this week.
 That being said lets talk about my day in the kitchen on Wednesday. I wanted to get caught up on faceless recipes on the Allrecipe web site, so I vowed I would spend my day cooking. I started with a chocolate cake recipe that had no face and mixed reviews. The ingredients list is what attracted me and the reviews convinced me I wanted to try this. I was looking for a cup cake recipe and the reviews on this cake said that there was not enough batter to fill a 9 by 13 cake pan and the cake came out flat. I thought that would be perfect for cupcakes instead of cake. The ingredient that sold me was the sour milk. I had 2 quarts of sour milk that I was hating the idea of throwing away.( Note to self never try making pudding with sour milk) I remember Mom always saying that sour milk was very good for baking so I decided to take the recipe for a ride. The cup cakes were very easy to make and much harder to photograph. I think I spent as much time taking pictures as I did making the cup cakes. For that reason I will be posting too many pictures of the cup cakes.

 A few of my favorite shots. If you look close you will see a pink pig stamp on the photos. My new way of rating recipes. 3 pigs is the best, 2 okay I will do this again, 1 not worth repeating but not horrible, 0 pigs is horrible. Every one uses the 5 star system and I wanted something different and fun. 
Hazels chocolate Cake
 The cup cakes were light and airy while they were warm but as they cooled they became dry. A tall tall glass of milk is required when eating them. I frosted them with what else but another faceless recipe,for a cream cheese frosting with chocolate.
A very easy recipe to put together with good flavor. Just not as creamy as I like a frosting to be. By day 2 the texture was a little rubbery for lack of a better word.
Healthier Cream Cheese Frosting

Once the cup cakes were done I went to the garden for my green tomatoes and a few peppers that were ready to be picked. I read all the recipes I wanted to use for dinner and worked out my plan of attack. Making an entire dinner from recipes I never used before was fun but it did need planning to get everything done and ready together. 
 When it was time to start dinner I put my blinders on so as not to be distracted and went to work. First I made the marinade for the pork chops, then I lined the counter with enough bowls to serve a small country. Well really only 6 bowls but in my small kitchen it looks like a lot more. I made the 2 different bread crumb mixtures that I needed for the pork and tomatoes. I chopped all the vegetables and herbs I needed for the rice and preheated the oven. All my prep work done and the chops marinated it was time to cook. I started the rice,using my bowl system I breaded the chops and put them in the oven. Once my rice came to a boil I added the vegetables and topped with the veggie steamer filled with Brussels sprouts and lime zest covered that and left it all to simmer. Then I got to making what I had been looking forward to most of all. Fried Green Tomatoes. I used the left over marinade to make a gravy for the chop and dinner was done. 
Octoberfest Pork Chops
I enjoyed the marinade and the gravy it made but this recipe has flaws and I won't use it as written again.
Flavorful Rice
 I liked this recipe a lot. I cut down the amount of rice because the recipe as written is way to much for us. This was very easy and as the title says it has a lot of flavor. It will go with just about any dinner you plan. It is rice with an attitude.
Fried Green Tomatoes
My favorite recipe of the dinner. I only gave this dish 2 pigs but I waffled on 3. The taste is yummy. the breading is crispy and just slightly sweet. If I had made this recipe as written I would have never known how good the breading was. It would have all fallen off during the cooking. The recipe does not call for an egg or milk dip. I used the 3 bowl method flour,egg, and then the breading. I wanted more when dinner was done,but you know it. There were no left over fried tomatoes.
  There you have it that was my day on Wednesday, baking, cooking, and making a mess. A whole lot of recipes got faces and we ate well.
         

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