Tonight's cooking: C- (RL)

When I bought Personal Trainer: Cooking, I decided to try to make one meal a week. Then if I liked that meal and it worked out well, I could repeat it again while trying a new meal for the week. Soon enough I'd be able to cook all my dinners!

I missed doing last week's meal because my supermarket didn't have items I needed to make it (and I hadn't written down a backup meal). So this week was the first week, and I picked something that seemed easy enough: Roasted Chicken with Herbs. Seemed simple! Chicken + two herbs and garlic, cooked in a pan.

It was only once I got started that things seemed odd. You're not supposed to adjust a recipe until you can do it right as-is, and it never goes well when I start playing with things, so I followed it as exactly as I could even though it sounded odd. Six tablespoons of oil in the pan? Gah, that can't be good for you... but I did it. Handled raw chicken (ewwww), crushed garlic, tried to figure out how much a "sprig" of herb was, tossed it all in the pan. Then we got to the bigger issue: It said cook for 20 minutes. I was using the cut of chicken it said (chicken breast, not boneless), and these things were huge/thick. How the heck was it going to cook through in 20 minutes? Even though I think it's broken, I kept checking with my meat thermometer. Eventually, when it reached 50 minutes of cooking time, it seemed to be at the right temp, so I took it out.

Unfortunately it didn't taste very good. Not bad, just not too good. I suspect I don't like rosemary or sage, because it had some odd flavor I didn't really like. Mostly it was just generally tasteless though. It was semi-okay when I put a lot of salt on it (though I'd rather not do that). Positive thing: It sure was moist chicken!

Tonight's effort gets a C- instead of a D because it hasn't yet made me sick. (Yay maybe I got it cooked through!) Any food I cook that I can eat and doesn't make me sick gets a passing grade!

Does anyone know if veal is still a bad meat to eat? Cruel/evil/lock poor baby cows in a cage they can't move in? I was thinking about making Wiener Schnitzel next, looks easy enough, but it's made with veal.

Tonight's cooking: C- (RL)

When I bought Personal Trainer: Cooking, I decided to try to make one meal a week. Then if I liked that meal and it worked out well, I could repeat it again while trying a new meal for the week. Soon enough I'd be able to cook all my dinners!

I missed doing last week's meal because my supermarket didn't have items I needed to make it (and I hadn't written down a backup meal). So this week was the first week, and I picked something that seemed easy enough: Roasted Chicken with Herbs. Seemed simple! Chicken + two herbs and garlic, cooked in a pan.

It was only once I got started that things seemed odd. You're not supposed to adjust a recipe until you can do it right as-is, and it never goes well when I start playing with things, so I followed it as exactly as I could even though it sounded odd. Six tablespoons of oil in the pan? Gah, that can't be good for you... but I did it. Handled raw chicken (ewwww), crushed garlic, tried to figure out how much a "sprig" of herb was, tossed it all in the pan. Then we got to the bigger issue: It said cook for 20 minutes. I was using the cut of chicken it said (chicken breast, not boneless), and these things were huge/thick. How the heck was it going to cook through in 20 minutes? Even though I think it's broken, I kept checking with my meat thermometer. Eventually, when it reached 50 minutes of cooking time, it seemed to be at the right temp, so I took it out.

Unfortunately it didn't taste very good. Not bad, just not too good. I suspect I don't like rosemary or sage, because it had some odd flavor I didn't really like. Mostly it was just generally tasteless though. It was semi-okay when I put a lot of salt on it (though I'd rather not do that). Positive thing: It sure was moist chicken!

Tonight's effort gets a C- instead of a D because it hasn't yet made me sick. (Yay maybe I got it cooked through!) Any food I cook that I can eat and doesn't make me sick gets a passing grade!

Does anyone know if veal is still a bad meat to eat? Cruel/evil/lock poor baby cows in a cage they can't move in? I was thinking about making Wiener Schnitzel next, looks easy enough, but it's made with veal.