What's cooking

Welcome to a sneak peek of what will be a new portion of the blog.

Tips: All kinds from food, horses, husbands etc.

I am much more than the owner of Star , I do lots of things not all things well, but I can cook and make rad jewelry.
Alright let's roll....

Take my word for it, fresh ground pepper from peppercorns will change your life.
Once you have it you'll never go back to the pepper dust from a shaker.
I put a bunch in my Magic Bullet and Viola! It's Magic! I keep it on the counter, when I run out I grind some more.

Sunday Dinner: Lasagna
This was my feeble attempt to to try another persons recipe instead of the one in my head.
This was not as good as I had hoped. We are still eating it, but not with the lustful joy of my lasagna rolls with bechamel sauce via JP's brain.

It called for the cook to make her own marinara/meat sauce. This was also not a well thought out recipe as it didn't call for it to simmer and reduce for hours as a traditional marina would.
Also it called for cottage cheese instead of Ricotta. BLECH.. Never again. Cottage cheese is for the yummy pineapple and Lime Jell-o Salad my mom makes. Nothing ELSE...
I layered it as usual but was too generous and thus another fatal mistake. The fresh Spinach, don't do this either the thawed out and squeezed frozen is way better. This is too chewy and left a funky taste.
So that was not as good as it could have been and I sure hate wasting good cheese.
Never go cheap on cheese, fresh herbs, or meat. The sauce can be from a 99 cent can of Hunts and Store brand noodles no one will ever know the difference.
IF you make it at home and with love, it's a good thing.

Ok, so lame attempt number two yesterday. Fried Pies. I thought this would be fun. It wasn't, not at all. My dough was perfect , little balls of flakiness fantasy that could rival Martha any day of the week.

The filling was pure heaven, the quintessential mixture of apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and brown sugar. If nothing else it made my house smell fantastic with SP daydreaming that I have finally turned into the domestic goddess he has longed for.
I cooked down the apples to make the "filling" If I had stopped here I would have not had the nightmares when I went to bed. Jus'sayin.. The agony of pie defeat is a cruel one.
Load a little bit of heaven on a perfect circle of perfect dough and plop into hot oil at the perfect temp. SP was frothing at the mouth in anticipation.
These were the only two that turned out, The others were under cooked or burnt. Notice the big chunks of apple? HUGE Mistake. They poke holes in the dough when you are folding the pie dough over. The apples must be teeny tiny, not mushy but smaller than the size of large marbles.
FYI, they cook FAST. If you don't have ALL your little pies ready to go before you start to fry you are screwed. Otherwise it's just chaos like Lucy Ricardo in the candy factory.

But boy were they good ! This will not be attempted again until I have a better thermometer and a deeper fry pan. I am not defeated from my yesterdays disasters, I will prevail.
Next? A new twist on the everyday chicken.
Imagine, tropical islands, sunshine and a little taste of paradise.