A swing and a miss

Hello there, Bubble Friends! I hope your October is treating you well. It has FLOWN here. Mostly in a good "time flies" way. But also with a couple massive fails. I'm going to jump right in here with... Tales from the Kitchen. Bwahahaaaa. (Insert creepy Halloween voice here.)

Fail #1:
First a little history... I have some friends, Mr. & Mrs. O. Now once upon a time, when I first started cooking, I had them over for dinner and I fed them these horrible, tasteless, dry pork chops. Truly bad and I feel like I've come a loooooooong way since then. Like super-long. In fact, I would dare to say that pork chops are one of the best things in my repertoire nowadays.

So, with that back story in mind...
Mr. & Mrs. O came over a couple weeks ago. They brought the dog for a beagle-tastic play-fest. There was football watched by some (and ignored by others). Had some snacks. And, in retrospect, I should have stopped there. But, alas, no...

It started to get later in the day and I invited them to stay for dinner. I had some lovely, big, meaty drumsticks that I was going to bathe in an herby egg mix and then roll in crispy panko. They were to be delish!

Emphasis on WERE.

After their egg/panko bath, I seared them on the stove top. (Which in turn smoked up the entire house. I should have stopped right then. But once again, alas, no.) They had the prettiest sear on them and I stuck them in the oven.

For not long enough.

I served them. And they were raw.

So I stuck them BACK in the oven.

I served them again.

And they were still raw! Well, sorta.

Later, lemme tell ya, I dissected those drummies. And they were an anomaly of cooked. But not. The meat was just sorta bloody.

I don't think either the Mr. or the Mrs. enjoyed the sorta-raw, bloody chicken. (Oddly enough.) And I don't think the O's probably believe I'm remotely competent in the kitchen. If I was them, I'd avoid my kitchen and I at all cost. And - sad horns - rightfully so.

Sighhhh.

So 0 for 2 in the dinner department with the Os. And they've served us some absolutely fantastic meals. (Head slap of shame.)

I cross-my-heart promise to you, Bubbleland, that I took pics. I document both the ups and the downs, for like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of my tummy. But I can't find them anywhere! Which is a darn shame because while they were NOT truly edible, they were in fact quite pretty. Like plastic grapes that you accidentally eat.

Sidenote, my friend T said I should have brined the drummies. Next time, I'll try that. Because drumsticks and I have some unfinished business.

Moving on to...

FAIL #2:
Determined to both feed myself and get back on the horse, I decided to make some pasta. What's easier than pasta? Delicious and nutritious. (Well, unless you decide that you need to do something with some leftover cream and parmesan.) So I thought I'd make fettuccine alfredo. This recipe is super easy and quick.

Well, another massive fail was in store. I undercooked the pasta. What. A rookie mistake. It was crisp to the bite. And a waste of butter, cream, & cheese. Cardinal sins in the realm of the fridge.

But I took a pic just the same...

Right before it went in the trash

BUT redemption was on its way!

Last year, the River Arts Festival in Downtown Memphis was hands down my favorite festival of the year. The art is what I would define as "better" than some of the other festivals. It's 2 days and over a long stretch of Main so it's not crammed like a certain Midtown festival that I shan't mention by name. (But I will by initials – CY.)

This year did not let me down. And got mama her groove back. In the form of a pumpkin scone.

Why, hello, you

The morning of the festival, The Hubs left very early to go to a Titans game with his dad so I had the house to myself. Obviously, that calls for a ladies brunch. My friends, T & Bliz are excellent in the kitchen so we divided and conquered the menu. Bliz had the main event of CRABCAKE EGGS BENEDICT. Which I was so excited about, I mention here in all caps. I love crabcakes, eggs, and all things benedict! (Well, other than in a historical aspect.) My friend T brought her famous hash brown breakfast potatoes. And I provided real bacon (we're mostly turkey bacon around the house so the "real" deserves a mention) and pumpkin scones. I've never attempted a scone before but it turned out to be both easy and delicious. I had everything already except for the canned pumpkin (and aforementioned bacon) so there wasn't a lot to buy either.

– If you're interested, I mixed this and this recipe for the results. And, errrr, that's about as specific as I can remember because I didn't write down what I did.

So, eggs benedict... Have you ever poached an egg? I had not. I've made eggs over-easy a bazillion trillion times (seriously). But never tried a different appoach to eggs. (Heh.)

I'm a very visual person so I got Bliz to give me a tutorial. And being that I just upgraded to the iPhone 4S and can now take video, I documented the whole process.

– Later I will share about 20 videos of my animals. I never had video on my phone before and I am a woman obsessed.

With that, I present...

How to Poach an Egg
with my friend Bliz

Part I – Dropping the Egg in the water

Part II – Removing the Egg after Cooking

Thank you, Mrs. Bliz, for the tutorial! I feel confident that with her lesson and some practice, I will be a poacher. And, if you're into that sort of thing, I hope you will be too.

Here's the fabulous brunch that I described –

I feel like I took this picture backwards and the crabcakes should be in the front

And, as promised in the second video...

Beautiful, runny yolk

We brunched. (And discussed how expensive this fine meal that we had prepared would be in a restaurant.) And then we headed down to the festival! There was soooo much great stuff there. Some things, I feel confident I can rip-off, ahemmm, I mean, "reference" in my own pieces later. And one I couldn't live without...

Sorta a weird angle but it's muli-media
And will look terrif in our bathroom

I really love it. After getting home, I believe the Hubs thought I was crazy. But whatever. He didn't "get" the carburetor art I used to buy either. Our compromise? I don't put car parts on the walls and he lets me do whatever. As long as whatever is neither weird, disturbing, or used to be a vehicle.

It was a truly great day. So relaxing and easy and involved all my faves – food, friends, and art. Food, friends, and fun? Eh, that would have been been better with alliteration.

With my confidence restored, I went on a bender. I made a chicken divan casserole that I stuck in the freezer for next week, 2 meatloafs. Meatloaves? One of which I stuck in the freezer for later. And some chili for lunches. And I stuck half of it in the freezer.

– I'm trying something new. During the week, I have trouble getting dinner on the table at a decent hour. I'm trying to get ahead with some good, healthy freezer meals that just need to thaw. And then hopefully we'll eat before 8 or 9pm. I'll let you know how it goes.

The meatloaf turned out really great. I did half chuck half hot ground turkey sausage.

And yes, those are carrots that I tried to sneak in
If I try to sneak them in again, I think grating instead of chopping would be a better method of sneakiness

And my first attempt at chili

I slow cooked it all night and it turned out pretty well. Although a lot more beany and a lot less soupy than I expected. But that was probably because I slow cooked it all night.

Ok. Signing off now. My first attempt at cake pops to come. Have a great cool-weather weekend!!!