Thursday, November 3, 2016

Epic Kitchen Fail!!!!

I love cauliflower. And I love old things, hence the scale!!!



We've got a lovely bunch of cauliflower coming ripe from our experimental patch this year... And then I saw THIS RECIPE on facebook...

Cauliflower Hash Browns!!!!! You mince or grate the cauliflower (hello, Cuisinart!!!) and then mix deliciously wonderful stuff with it... after you salt it and then wring it out.... ??????



But, whatever.

I love cauliflower. How could seasoned cauliflower be bad???

Oh, darlings.... trust me. It can be very bad!!!!



Now some of the kids liked them. Dave ate some, but he was starving because I'm busy writing and he probably thought it smart to grab food as availability allows... I get it.



First, the whole house smelled like old cabbage after salting the minced cauliflower, then wringing it out. Or maybe old diapers would be a better analogy. Either one equated "Not Good"... I prefer brownies baking, thank you very much, but okay, moving on....

After you've mixed in the eggs and cheese and seasonings, you form the mix into hash-brown (McDonald's style) shapes and roast them on parchment paper...



Add more old cabbage smell to already stinky house.

When we took them out, they looked GOOD!!!! Roasted brown, not burnt, and they resembled hash browns.



They tasted nothing like hash browns.

They tasted like... old socks.

Really dirty ones.

They were not worth the time or the smell or the effort required.

I shoulda made cake!!!! Now cake is always a good choice!  I am not even going to share the recipe with you unless you clamor for it, because it was that bad....

But I'm sharing pics because pics are fun.

"Let them eat cake"... the internet professes that Marie Antoinette never uttered those words. I'm not sure how the internet knows that, because she lived a very long time ago... but in any case, I'm adopting that mantra today....

Let them eat cake.... and I hope you enjoy it!

Cute kid alert!!!
This was last Friday at my house: WHAT????



Who put that there?????



And there????



My dahlia!!!!!!

So that's how we entered the weekend, but today we're up in the 60's and hazy/sunny/cloudy... but warm!

And ready to move toward Thanksgiving and Veteran's Day and Christmas while staying on track for writing sweet books.

And speaking of sweet books.... Look at this from St. Martin's Press for $1.99 Can you believe that price???

Love it!  Available for that price for any e-reader! Amazon   AND  Barnes&Noble!!!!

Welcome to Heywood, Oregon where three lost women find healing, hope and love under the bright light of the town's old Star Inn this Christmas season.
Jed Taylor knows how to cowboy up on the range, and on the sales’ floor of his family’s rapidly growing western and ranch store in Central Washington, which is exactly where he would normally be a week before Christmas… but when he heard Mia O’Loughlin was planning a trip north, pregnant and alone, Jed’s promise to her late husband kicked in. More Grinch than grace, he boarded a plane and headed to the coast, determined that his best friend’s widow wouldn’t make the long trek alone.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this, widowed, pregnant and all alone on the West Coast.
E.R. nurse and Red Cross emergency responder Mia O’Loughlin had always taken life in full stride, but losing her deployed husband the week before she realized they were expecting their first child knocked her off-kilter. With Christmas and her due date approaching, all she can see is getting back home to Kittitas County for the birth of her child… their child… and seeing her failing Grandpa Joe one last time. Determined to do it on her own, she reluctantly allows Jed to accompany her, mostly because the gruff cowboy showed up and won’t take no for an answer.
But when a blizzard grinds their progress to a stop in Northern Oregon, the light from an old inn beckons them into a town hunkered down to ride out the unexpected storm. With the help of the inn’s wise and wonderful “angel,” Mia realizes the old white church has been turned into a shelter. She insists on leaving the inn to help those forced out of their homes and off the highway. As she and Jed improvise to provide comfort to others, they begin to see that facing this once-dreaded Christmas together could be the very best way of all.

9 comments:

  1. I just bought your book while laughing so hard about the stinky house!! LOLOL! I hate when that happens. I made broccoli recently and had to wonder if the stink was worth it. :) And, hey, tomorrow, my post will be talking about the smells of Thanksgiving! hahah And it won't include cauliflower. :)

    I can't wait to read this wonderful story!

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    1. Oh, Missy!!! I hope you love Silent Night, Star-lit Night! It was such a delight to write... snowbound, pregnant and yearning for a place to call home... :) So much Christmas!!!!!

      The smell... It was so bad. I'm not even exaggerating the littlest bit. I'm wincing, remembering!!!

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  2. I buy those big cauliflowers at Sam's. I wish I lived closer so I could buy a few from you!

    Looking at the recipe, I would have thought this would be so good! After all, roasted cauliflower is one of my favorite things. :)

    Maybe if the cauliflower was chopped instead of minced, and then forget the whole salting and wringing out step. Add the seasonings, some shredded cheddar (cause everything's bedda with chedda!) then bake it in a casserole dish. Then MAYBE it would turn out like a hashbrown/cauliflower casserole?

    But after this recipe fail, I wouldn't blame you if you were hesitant to try it!

    And this beautiful book is on my Kindle!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, I'm so glad it's on your kindle!!! YAY!!!!!

      And you know, a cauliflower cheese bake is wonderful! I love it! But this... oh my stars, it was the weirdest thing, Jan!!!

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  3. Oh! We have an old scale like that. I don't know why I love it so, but I do.

    I have been coveting your cauliflower based on the pictures you've been posting. So often the cauliflower you get at the store looks nasty. Or at least not so purely white.

    I'm sorry the recipe was a bust. Maybe cauliflower cupcakes next?


    Your story sounds wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Cate. I'm sending you hugs and virtual chicken soup as you recover!!!!!!

      I'm eating tomorrow's cauliflower RAW... with ranch dressing.

      Mmmmmmmm

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  4. Try cauliflower as a pizza base. It was really good.

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    Replies
    1. Rebecka, welcome to the cafe!!!!

      Pizza base....

      Rebecka.

      Do I dare???????

      How do you do it? Tell us!!! Pretty please!

      Delete
  5. Oh, that is hilarious! I have a friend who harasses me for not ever trying cauliflower mashed potatoes and other things that should be made from potatoes but... honestly... NO. Just no.

    I love your book cover. SO pretty!!

    ReplyDelete