Recipe 5: Sweet Braised Beef Brisket with Garlic

WARNING: If you have high blood pressure, hypertension, are at risk for heart attack, salt-related migraines, or have sensitive stomachs or even taste buds, proceed with caution.

Recipes are a scary thing for me. When I see one, I relate to something I have knowledge about...which is bad because I often set myself up for disappointment.   When I read the recipe for the sweet braised beef brisket with garlic, it reminded me of sliced beef sandwiches from Sonny's or Oakwood. Yum!!!  I purchased a brisket (I had to ask what the heck it was and where to find it) and I followed the recipe through and through. It should have registered right away when I had to braise it with three cups of chicken broth. I let it cook away for two hours, soaking up alllll that broth (ok, not really all).  When it finished, I sliced it up, piled it up on garlic toast, doused it with barbecue sauce and the first few bites were delicious. And, yes, that's all we could eat. My family and I tried to eat the sandwiches, but the salt was killing us. It was one of the most salty foods I've ever eaten. My sweet hubby reminded me that I can always try again.  ::sigh:: 

**Edit: I later discovered that broth and stock are not the same thing. Oops...yeah. SMH.

All was not in vain though. It was a good learning experience: I minced garlic for the first time and I reallllly enjoyed cooking!! I loved the smells and the prep. It was one of the first times I felt confident in the kitchen and I didn't think I was going to truly eff-up our food...

...I did burn a potholder in the making though.  Now I have to bake more brownies because we're all dying for something sweet...along with a dose of Rolaids.

Recipe 4: Cornbread

It was Boston Market night in our house tonight. Hubby has been working to perfect his recipe for a chicken carver sandwich and I added mac and cheese and my yummy mashed potatoes. I also decided to try Mark's recipe for from-scratch cornbread, pictured at the right.

It looks a little wonky because when I poured the batter into the pan, some of the olive oil spilled into the batter. Other than it not looking totally pleasing, it was good!
I'll be honest though...I'm a southern girl and I love my sweet sugar. I like my sweet tea so sweet it locks your jaw and I love my cornbread so sweet it seems like dessert. The recipe called for a tablespoon of sugar plus more for sweet bread. I put in a total of three tablespoons. Yeah, not even close to sweet. For regular cornbread, it's good. To sweeten it up, I whipped up some honey butter, slathered it on the sides of the bread, and voila! Much, much better.

Well, I call this one a success. I just need to find out how much sugar to add...or invest in a good jar of honey!

Recipe 3: Cheesy Roasted Chicken Cutlets w/Bread Crumbs

Yes, I'll admit. It's been a while since my last post. Life is always crazy when we head back to school, our schedules have been back to wacko, and our toddler's been sick. This lead to Hubby cooking dinner, or us relying on fast food. Definitely not the way we prefer, but it is what it is. So, when I found out my evening was open, I took the opportunity to cook.

We do our grocery shopping once a month. It's been our routine since our newlywed days and is what fiscally works best for our family. Well, it's two days until we go shopping and it seems like we're just about out of every ingredient, no matter how creative we get. So, this evening when I flipped through Mark's cookbook, I had to be very judicious about what I chose.  This lead me to the recipe I tried tonight: Cheesy Roasted Chicken Cutlets w/Bread Crumbs.  Being that we were out of bread crumbs (yes, that too), I had to make my own using some hamburger buns (not Mark's recommendation, for sure!) and Italian seasoning I added on a whim. Overall, it didn't turn out too bad. I loved it, but it wasn't the favorite by the family.  I made my yummy mashed potatoes with chicken gravy and some green beans (and yes, I forgot to add water to the frozen beans, haha!), but something was still missing. Later on, it hit me that this recipe needs some kind of sauce...like a cheesy or creamy sauce to slather on top. Au Gratin potaotes would have been yummy, but I a) didn't have the ingredients and b)had only one box, which isn't enough to feed all four of us.  I also wished I could have made corn bread, but when you've got one oven, that's all you can do.  So, while I will retry this recipe, I'm now on the hunt to figure out what to do. Any suggestions?

Tomorrow's looking like it might be open as well...maybe I'll give something else a shot :)