Nom Nom NO!

I cook dinner for my family whenever I happen to not be at work. I recently joined chow.com which is a great little site containing tons of recipes and member questions and food pairings. From this site and a few googled links I have been making Main dishes and desserts for about two weeks.

Last night was German potato dumpling night. Dumpling fail on my part. I had to adjust the recipe to begin with considering what I had in the house and substitutions I thought that could be made (using premade mashed potatoes instead of mashing my own). Don't get me wrong, its not that I was adverse to making my own mashies, we just had a container of store bought ones heading on its way out in the freshness department. Given that the mashies weren't just plain potatoes, they already had "seasoning" in them, it said so on the package, I wasn't able to form actual dumplings. So after I made the filling I was stuck with mashed potatoes with flour and eggs and meat and veggies looking at each other longingly with no attractive way to unite them.

THWOCK - in they all went into a casserole dish (Kass-ah-roll) which is French for "ew". I baked the potato concoction and poured homemade gravy on top when I served it. It wasn't bad. Honestly the flavors were all there, just ugly.

I have come to the conclusion that I do not particularly like those groups of seasonings. Like Rosemary. The herb smells pleasant enough, but its not something I'm going to go out of my way for.

I have decided that I like sharper flavors. I know I'm not explaining it correctly, but I like a flavor that hits the tongue and stands out. Perhaps there were just too many things going on in last nights dinner. Too many flavors that left the eaters underwhelmed. The meal before that was Apricot ginger chicken over rice. That was different and clean. There wasn't a ton of things going on to confuse the palate. The next meal I plan on making is Greek Tilapia which is baked in the oven with feta cheese, tomatoes, and other seasonings. I'm looking forward to this, I have yet to cook fish.

Maybe I'll start remarking upon my kitchen adventures...