Sunday, December 7, 2008

A Good Idea in Theory...

With all of the cookie madness this weekend, there wasn't a whole lot of time for other cooking. We also haven't been really great in the past few weeks about sticking to the menu that I write out every week. I allowed myself to be sweet-talked into ordering a pizza one tiring night (not that it took a lot of arm-twisting!) So the pork chops that we were supposed to have got pushed back. And well, they needed to be eaten.


Here's a good idea: When you have an insanely busy day ahead of you in the kitchen, drag out your crockpot. By the time you realize that you are simply too exhausted to cook dinner, dinner will already be ready!


Here's a good idea gone wrong.....attempting any kind of slow cooker recipe and having to make several substitutions and expecting it to go well. We settled on quasi-German cuisine tonight. The recipe was called Alsatian Pork with Sauerkraut. I like sauerkraut on hot dogs, so this sounded intriguing. Except---I subbed smoked pork with pork chops and russet potatoes for red bliss. And it called for one cup of "fruity white wine, like Reisling." Nope--finished the wine last night! It went on to say that you could substitute apple juice for a non-alcoholic version. No apple juice to be had, in a house with a toddler! I did have some white cranberry-peach cocktail, so I threw that in. It smelled pretty good while it was cooking. It was not. Dry pork, hard potatoes and the juice? Well, sauerkraut is SOUR, and peachy juice doesn't bring anything other than sin to the party. And no, not the good kind. Blech! It all went out in the trash, I wouldn't even let the dog have any!

Know what makes a good, quick back-up dinner? Brian's cheesesteaks!

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