One thing you probably won't see me post too much of on here is recipes. Not because I don't like to cook, but because I never follow a recipe. I learned to cook from my grandma so every measurement is eyed, and a pinch is literally a pinch. Even now when I call her to get a recipe, she tells me it's a little bit of this, and a little bit of that : )
We all had a nasty virus/cold this weekend, and yesterday was not a big cooking day for me! We had leftover pizza for lunch, and since Fat Dad had a benefit to go to, we had elbow noodles with butter and dry ranch dressing. The kids and I could eat this for every meal, and it's usually our go to whenever Fat Dad isn't going to be joining us for dinner. You can ask my mom, the only thing I've ever wanted to eat is noodles with butter so I guess at 30, I am a little more sophisticated by adding some kind of seasoning to it!
Fat Dad is the total opposite. He wants every meal to have at least 3 courses and he would prefer two of them to be meat! Ok, maybe not quite that bad, but you get the point.
So today, after the grilled cheeses we had for lunch, I knew dinner would have to be a little more impressive. We were all snuggled up around the Bears game, and I also did not want to miss the opening Sunday of Football either. We are big football fans in this house so today was a pretty big day for us. Especially for me since I've had to work 9-5ish every Sunday for the past at least 5 years. Last year, I totally gave up, and didn't even watch Sports Center to try to pretend like I knew what was happening.
Since tacos were on my meal plan for last night, but obviously didn't happen I figured we could have them tonight instead, but I didn't really want to slave away in the kitchen and miss all the NFL action. Then the light bulb went off... you have a slow cooker... use it!!! I cut up my onion, seasoned my beef, and returned to snuggling on the couch.
After the Bears huge win, I went back to my tacos. I was out of my store bought seasoning, but remembered a pin I had seen on Pinterest to make your own taco seasoning. I didn't pin it because I didn't think I would need it, and it called for Mexican oregano, and maybe a couple other seasonings not already in my arsenal, but I did remember the main ingredients, since I was too lazy to go to the store, I thought I would give it a try.
Everything was going great! I was shaking away, chili powder, some paprika, pepper, some Worcestershire sauce, cumin, and what I thought was going to be a little shake of crushed red pepper. I have wondered before why there is a spoon side to the crushed red pepper. I remember thinking who would ever need that much??? To avoid the mistake, I usually leave the shaking side open a little. Well, for some reason I closed both sides, and after two shakes, realized my mistake!
All of my "work" wasted. I tried pinching some off, but there was A LOT of crushed red pepper. My only other solution was to try to rinse it off. I really hated to do this because all of the flavor that had been simmering into my meat would be washed down the drain, but I couldn't waste the meat either. Rinsing worked alright but there was still so much of it. I was seeing that the pepper floated so I put a bowl under my colander my meat sunk while all of the pepper washed right down the drain.
Dinner was saved! I would have taken pictures, but I was in panic mode! On a side note, I really liked the homemade taco seasoning, and now I am wishing I would have actually pinned that recipe. Oh, well!
What's your biggest dinner disaster??? What sport rules your family's heart, and what colors do you bleed???
