May 22, 2010

For our first foray into Rachael Ray's cooking, we tried "Sirloin Burgers with Mushrooms, Swiss, and Balsamic Mayo," "Thick-Cut Onion Rings with Spicy Dipping Sauce," and "NY Egg Creams." We loved the onion rings! I had never actually tried onion rings before, but the homemade ones were awesome. It made our kitchen look like a category 3 hurricane had come through, and definitely took longer than 30 minutes. Still, it was a tasty meal.

My favorite part of the burgers was the balsamic mayo. Accuracy is shot on the first day of the project because my mom forgot to check how much mayo we had before shopping. So, when we ran out of mayo, we went to ranch dressing. Then, when we ran out of ranch dressing, we went to sour cream. It was good, regardless. It added a great tang to the burgers, says my dear mother.

You could say the egg creams were not our favorite. The mixture of chocolate syrup, half-and-half, and seltzer water ended up tasting like watery chocolate milk according to mom, and soda-fied, watered-down truffle centers according to me.

Sirloin burgers- 5 stars

Onion rings- 5 stars

Spicy dipping sauce- 4 stars

Egg creams- 2 stars

3 recipes down, 275 to go

Welcome!

Welcome to our cooking blog! The idea for this project came when we recently rented the movie "Julie and Julia." What an idea--cooking your way through an entire cookbook! Natalie and I were intrigued by it. But, could WE do something similar?

Reality check: I'm a mom of three teenage girls with a deployed husband, and I'll be starting an intense 2-year Dental Hygiene program in the fall! Natalie is a soon-to-be senior in high school, with commitments to marching band, winter guard, flute lessons, a part-time job, church activities, and helping her mom drive everyone around town. Would we REALLY have time or energy to do this?

Natalie was insistent. She even picked the book: "30 Minute Meals 2" by Rachael Ray. We've had it for years and have tried maybe one recipe. Plus, she reasoned, how time-consuming could it be if it's called "30 Minute Meals?" Hmmm, famous last words?

So the idea cemented into the following: We will fix all 278 recipes in the book before Natalie graduates high school on May 14, 2011. That's around 5 recipes a week. We've got each other's back: when she can't cook, I'll do it, and when I'm swamped, she'll do the cooking. We have some vacations coming up which will set us back a bit, but then we have Christmas break and Spring break which might help us make it up. I think it's lucky we've got a really understanding, helpful, and eternally hungry husband / dad. He'll be home in June, which will help things enormously.

The other rule we've shaken on this is that we must try every dish! So, that means Natalie will try every fish dish, even though she'd rather be run over by a train than eat fish. It also means that I will have to persevere in the face of the many spicy dishes in our future.

And one caveat: We are not alcohol drinkers; we won't cook with it. I've noticed that Rachael has quite a few "spirited" recipes, so we will be substituting. We'll have to do a little experimenting with that. And if there are jalapeños in the recipe, they'll probably be left out. Does that go against my rule about trying everything? Maybe, but I also don't want the food to sit untouched because no one will eat it. I'm still a mom, and the family still needs to be fed.

So, if you are reading this blog for accurate descriptions of Rachael Ray's recipes, you may be disappointed. Sorry. It is what it is, and we'll do the best we can.

So, sit back and enjoy the ride with us!