Stuff that I have made…

I love trying out new recipes. I am not a good cook by any means, I just love preparing food when I feel like it. The feeling comes and goes. :) When I am in the chef mode (usually when I am craving for something), I google for new recipes to try. However, they always turn out just blah… by blah, I don’t mean that they don’t taste good. They just don’t turn out perfect. For some reason, there is always something wrong with it. Not sure why, something always turns out not so right. Thankfully I have a very loyal cheerleader. ;) This personal cheerleader always supports and cheers me on each time they don't turn out as good as I want. By support, I don’t mean just moral support. This wonderful cheerleader also helps in the kitchen a lot (often got dragged). =)

Here are some of the recipes that I have tried (these are the ones that I remembered):

1. Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake – This one didn’t turn out as “cheesecakey” as I would like it to be. Nonetheless, the personal cheerleader said it’s good. I would probably not try this recipe again since I don’t like the taste too much.
2. Red Velvet Cupcakes – I had 2 problems with this one. First, I didn’t have enough red food coloring. So cupcake turned out a brownish color. Secondly, the cupcake liners that I used were too thin. I used 2 kinds of liners. One I got from the regular grocery store, with foil liner (thicker), the other was from Michaels, colorful and pretty (paper thin). So the batch that I used the foil liner, turned out good. The other batch that I used the paperliners from Michaels got burned! I guess I need to double line the paperliner with foil in the future. Oooops…! I even made cream cheese frosting to go with these cupcakes.
3. Pumpkin Cheesecake – Pulled it out from the oven too soon. Probably need another 5-10 min in the oven. Cheesecake was too soft and creamy but edible. The hubs and I are still working on finishing it. :) We made the crust for the first time. I usually use store bought crust. The crust turned out pretty good. John did a good job pressing down the crumbs on the springfoam pan (under my close supervision).
4. Chocolate Chip Cookies -  Craving for some choc chip cookies. I burned 2 of the 6 batches I made. The unburned ones are very good. I love it! And of course, the something “wrong” with this one is the burned batches that I made.
5. Chocolate Chip Banana Bread- Left it in the oven a tad too long. The side was burned but the center was good. 
6. Lemon Yogurt Cupcakes – Poured too much lemon extract. I blamed it on the hubs. He over poured it. Cupcakes also tasted too sweet for my taste.
7. Teriyaki Chicken – No recipe. I cheated. Bought a store bought teriyaki sauce jar. Marinated chicken meat overnight. This was a easy peasy no fuss dinner. Came home from work, pop the marinated chicken in the oven. With hubs basting the chicken every 15 min or so… about 45 min later- voila! Dinner’s ready! This is a simple dinner menu if you are too tired to prepare dinner after a long and stressful day at work. Even John can do it!
8. Roast Chicken -  Roasted a whole chicken for the first time! Don’t know what I was thinking. John cleaned the chicken, pulling out chicken parts and rinsing it in and out because I was too “irked” to do it. Then John stuffed the chicken with celery leaves, onions and lemon because, again, I was too “irked” by it. We didn’t tie the chicken legs together because we did not have the twine. The chicken roasted for about 1 hour and 45 min. The chicken tasted very good. Very juicy and moist. However, I don’t think I (we) will try roasting a whole chicken again. First, I don’t like dealing with chicken cleaning part. Second, you can get a whole roasted chicken from Costco for $5 bucks. Not worth the work and wait.

As you can see, the bread is burned on the side. Poor bread.   too soft

 

Got the sauce from Trader Joes. The success behind these wonderful and easy preparation teriyaki chicken.

I don’t have all the pictures because sometimes I forgot to take pictures of them. Since these are the most recent that I have made, I managed to get pictures for my blog. Next time, I’ll be sure to remember to take pictures of them. It’s a shame I don’t have picture of the roast chicken. Because it did look very pretty. The skin was browned just perfect. Oh well… next time. Next time.

This weekend, I am going to attempt to make Pineapple Roll using Lily’s recipe. The only thing I’m worried about is rolling the dough since I have not rolled out dough before. John said he would help roll out the dough. How can I refuse such a generous offer right? I decided to give it a try. So we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and got ourselves a new rolling pin! We’ll see how this turns out!