JBug's Kitchen Antics

Don't Do It!

Boy, lately I wonder if I've taken stupid pills instead of allergy medicine. Take last night's dinner for example.

Big Guy wasn't home again for dinner and since my main reason for cooking up a storm is the smile on his face, I decided it was pointless to fuss too much. My advice yesterday was so good I thought I'd take it and made a quiche using hashbrowns as a crust. The problem was I didn't have quite enough hashbrowns.

While the measly little crust was baking in the oven, I cooked up some bacon pieces, then put the quiche together with some grated Swiss cheese and nothing else. Yup, no onion, no spices, no salt and pepper, no nutmeg, no nothin'. Then I whipped up a couple of eggs, added some milk and shoved the whole thing in the oven. 

It was an over baked, tasteless piece of an excuse that can't even be called a quiche and a total waste of good bacon. The moral of the story is - anything worth doing is worth doing well, otherwise don't do it.

 A year ago - Multicultural Chicken Wings

Two year's ago - Grand

Salmon Chowder

You'll notice in the index to your right there's a section called "screw-ups". Well this one's going there although I can't take all of the blame. Obviously the person that developed this recipe from Coastal Living wasn't into the same type as chowder as we are but I suppose there's no accounting for taste is there.

This particular version is more about the broth than fish; in fact I thought the salmon went through on stilts, enough that I added some extra seafood in the form of shrimp and bay scallops to try and rescue the darn thing. As you check out the picture, please don't call me a liar. Most of the salmon went into this bowl...I kid you not. I even added parsley, tons of lemon pepper, and a little tarragon to try and pick up the flavor. All to no avail, and so I apologize.

As you know we work in real time here and this bowl of benign goop was what we actually had for dinner last night.I suppose we're allowed a fiasco every once in a while which is guaranteed to keep us humble. I have to say my favorite part of the whole thing was the gorgeous loaf of jalapeno cheese bread I happened to pick up at the last minute at my local Safeway for a mere $1.99. As for the big guy - well poor him. He's got the leftovers in his lunch box.

I refuse to post a recipe for you that needs so much tinkering, but one of these days I'll rework the darn thing and bring it back to you, new and improved. Meanwhile if you'd like to take on the challenge yourself, here's the link.

 

Lazy Day Casserole

If you're wanting to take a culinary trip back to the 50's, then hop on board. We did last night and if I learned anything, I came away from this adventure absolutely certain I don't want to go back. If this is any indication, they kinda' ate rather boring stuff way back then!

About the only thing this casserole has going for it is that it filled two empty tummies. It has exactly 5 ingredients in it - hamburger, onions, cream cheese, mushroom soup and ketchup...yup that's it and honestly I should have known better but thought it would be fun to have something simple. I ended up adding tomato sauce, tons of spices and as much hot sauce as it is possible to shake out of one bottle of the Louisiana version, and topped it with canned biscuits (yeah...me using canned biscuits???) but nothing could help. It was doomed from the start. 

The moral of the story is - who really wants to go back to the fifty's anyway? Black and white television, rotary dial phones, no computers - what did people do with themselves? I guess the fact the big guy and yours truly were both born in the 50's answers that question, doesn't it?

No recipe forthcoming for this one folks. I'm rather ashamed of myself.