Friday, January 17, 2014

you win some, you lose some

So we are halfway through January and so far we have been able to stick to our meal plan for the month.  There have been some winners, some losers, and some we need to try again.  Wednesday night I made Colorado Chicken Chili, it was a new recipe I have been wanting to try and so I finally broke it down and made it.  It smelled good, it tasted good, it just didn't look good.  I didn't want to say anything while we were eating because I didn't want to gross anyone out, turns out I wasn't the only one who thought the chili looked like vomit.  The next afternoon, Jeff and I were talking about leftovers and he informed me that he would NOT being eating the chili leftovers and did not want to try again with that recipe.  He told me he almost gagged when cleaning up after dinner because that soup looked so digusting.  I then confessed that I came to that same conclusion while eating dinner, we had a good laugh about it and have crossed that meal off our to try list.  Not only was the soup a loser, but the homemade roll recipe that I tried to make a half portion was a flop too, I learned a half an egg makes a big difference. 
Tonight, was a we need to try it again meal, not a total loser, but not really a winner either.  I tried a crockpot teriyaki pork tenderloin recipe that I found on pinterest, the flavor of the tenderloin was really good, the meat was just overcooked and it was more shredded, chewy, dry pork bbq, then a nice tender, juicy, pork tenderloin.  The pork received thumbs up from the family on flavor, but next time I need to use a different cooking method.  We also tried quinoa tonight, it was a loser, but we aren't giving up on the grain itself.  I overcooked it as well, I started cooking it an hour before it was dinner time.  I had just finished reading a book and glanced at the time on my Kindle.  It said it was 5:50, I panicked and ran to the kitchen and started preparing the quinoa.  Then I realized when I was setting the timer, it was only 4:50, the quinoa was already in hot water so I continued to prepare it, by the time it was actually close to 6, it was cold and I had to reheat it which dried it out.  It wasn't terrible, we are definitely going to try it again, but maybe a recipe with a little less rosemary.  
So I came to some conclusions this week.  I am afraid of failure, even failure when it comes to cooking dinner.  I like to play it safe.  I cooked one dinner that none of us liked and we all survived, no one was upset, it was adventure and we have something to laugh about.  I kind of failed again tonight.  Pizza of one variation or another (take-out, frozen, or homemade) is our usual Friday night meal.  I tried something new and different tonight and though it wasn't as good as pizza would have been, it was not a total disaster.   The food wasn't the best I ever, but it was food, it satisfied our hunger and made for an interesting dinner: we all had to try something new, try the broccoli, try the meat and vote on whether we wanted it again. 
I have really enjoyed trying new recipes this month and making some dinners that I haven't in months.  I really hope I can continue the variety and trying new things in the coming months, I like the variation and not playing it safe with sloppy joes on Tuesday, pizza on Friday, pork chops on Thursday, etc.  Change is good, failure is NOT final and dinner will be better tomorrow.

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