One day Mike asked me to make him a dessert for him to take to work for a luncheon. I asked him what other people were bringing to figure what to make. He came back with... You know the usual. Men...always great with giving you the details. I told him about this Turtle Cheesecake recipe I came a cross and thought it sounded good. So I went to the store and bought all the ingredients and got to work. I was making the cheesecake and tasting along the way I was really excited. It was easy to make and tasted very yummy. And than....all went to the hell.... You know when you read a recipe and something doesn't sound right about it....against my better judgement I decided to follow the recipe and here's what happened.
How did this happened you might ask? The recipe called for the cheesecake to bake for a certain amount of time until the center is set. Then take it out of the oven, let cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes than take the rim of the spring form pan off. That was the part of the recipe that didn't seem right to me. I've made a cheesecake a few times and didn't think that you would take the rim off that fast. But I was following the recipe. About two minutes after I took off the rim off is when the screaming started....OH @#$%, OH@#$%, is all my husband heard from the kitchen, so he came to find out what all the screaming was about. That's when he found me trying to put the rim back on and informed me that it was probably too late. I was like you think!!! Not really in the mood to hear the what were you thinking comments, especially from the non-baker in the family. I was so mad and upset. Since it was to late to make him something else to bring to work he ended up having to go to the store a buy something. I was able to save the cake, but he still didn't want to take it.
I told him I could cover it with whipped cream and caramel and no one would know. He said he we would just buy something. Which he did and when people asked why, he told them he dropped the cake I made. I told him he didn't have to do that, but that it was sweet of him.
As usually or I should say a daily occurrence...I need to figure out what to make for dinner. It just seems that they days go by so fast that I forget to think ahead. Before I know it it is close to dinner time and I have no clue what to make. Oh but today is different I had the brilliant idea to try and make Cuban Black Beans.
I have posted before that I have a million and one cookbooks. I really am trying to make recipes out of as many as I could (secretly to justify why I have so many and to justify why I need more). So I thought hey why not try the recipe from the Cuban cookbook I have. The reason for the title of this post is why mess with a good thing is because I have a completely amazing black bean recipe already. One that is from the best Cuban chef I know...Mike's grandmother or as we all like to call her Mama. Then again for some odd reason we never can make the beans like she does. We just let her make them when we really want them.
So I thought everything was going well because it smelled the way it always does. There are a couple of differences in the recipes but nothing major. Then I tasted the beans...yuck...bland...something is missing...oh my what I am going to do that won't totally kill them. I would wait for Mike to get home from work but that could be midnight at the rate he is working these days. I am hoping that Mike's grandparents come and stay with my in-laws over the summer. That way I can get Mama to give me a few Cuban cooking lessons!!!
Yesterday I decided to try and make something new for dinner. Every once in a while we will buy one of the already made chickens from the supermarket. At the A&P near here they make a couple of different flavors but the one we like the best is the Lemon Pepper Chicken. So I decided to find a recipe that I can make with cutlets and see if it close. I found a few at allrecipes.com and decided to try the one that uses actual lemons and not the lemon pepper spice (which I don't have and didn't want to buy).OH MY GOD it was so bad!! The recipe was written for one serving so I just increased it to the number of cutlets that I had. I saw the amount of pepper it now called for and thought....hmmm that does seem to be a lot of pepper. So I only used about half of the pepper because 1/4 cup of ground pepper is WAY TO MUCH....and about half of 1/4 cup is still WAY TO MUCH! I couldn't even eat it and I tried because I didn't want to waste it. Mike who loves to cover his food in pepper couldn't even eat it and he thought it was a lot of pepper on it. So if I decide to try and make this recipe again...only use a very small of pepper.
How did this happened you might ask? The recipe called for the cheesecake to bake for a certain amount of time until the center is set. Then take it out of the oven, let cool for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes than take the rim of the spring form pan off. That was the part of the recipe that didn't seem right to me. I've made a cheesecake a few times and didn't think that you would take the rim off that fast. But I was following the recipe. About two minutes after I took off the rim off is when the screaming started....OH @#$%, OH@#$%, is all my husband heard from the kitchen, so he came to find out what all the screaming was about. That's when he found me trying to put the rim back on and informed me that it was probably too late. I was like you think!!! Not really in the mood to hear the what were you thinking comments, especially from the non-baker in the family. I was so mad and upset. Since it was to late to make him something else to bring to work he ended up having to go to the store a buy something. I was able to save the cake, but he still didn't want to take it.
