My 2 year adventure, week 24: Beef and guinness stew/Black and tan brownies

Week 24:
I finally got my stitches out!!!!!!!!!! Okay, back to the recipes... The stew called for parsnips and turnips and I had never even seen a turnip or a parsnip let alone cooked with them. If you guys are like me, a parsnip looks like a white carrot and a turnip looks like a white beet. The recipe also called for 5 cups of onion. 5 CUPS!!! I successfully chopped 3 cups and then I couldn't stand it anymore. My dad had to do the last to cups because I was tearing up so much. Another strange thing the stew called for is raisins. Nobody ate one so I think they may have disintegrated... The stew took a total of 2 1/2 hours to cook and I burned the bottom of the pot soooo badly but it came off. My family gave the stew a 8/10.
The brownies turned out great they were double layered. The "tan" layer was like a basic cake batter but with brown sugar and pecans. The "black" layer was like a basic brownie mix but with guinness. The recipes seem to be following a trend... My parents gave the brownies a 8.75/10. It was a really good brownie recipe.

See you next time internet! Love Alexa :)    

My 2 year adventure, week 23: Maple-mustard pork chops with winter squash puree

Week 23:
So this is my recovery. My recovery from the awful time I had last week. My stitches were still in when I cooked this so I had to work my way around them. The pork chops were cooked by making a glaze and then while the pork chops are on the b-b-q you slowly brush on the glaze. The chops came out great though a lot lighter than in the original picture. The squash puree was good and very easy but squash is definitely not my favorite so I didn't really enjoy the puree. But I feel that my family was way too harsh in their rating. They gave it a 7.5/10. I would have rated the dish much higher. The pork chops were amazing. I ate two (sorry little bro). Anyway, stitches were really easy to ignore, I mean, it's not like I broke my arm, right?

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)   

My 2 year adventure, Week 22: Caramel apple oatmeal cookies/ Apricot ginger bellinis/ Halibut with caper salsa verde and asiago roasted fennel

Week 22:
Instead of doing this entry recipe entry by entry, I'm going to do it in the order I did the dishes. So I started with the caper salsa verde. It was a very simple salsa. Mostly basil with other elements such as the capers and some mustard. Once I finished that I moved on to the cookies. I didn't follow the recipe and I didn't put parchment paper on my pan I greased it instead and when the cookies came out of the oven the caramel had exploded all over the baking sheet and hardened. So I started scrubbing the pan to try and get the caramel off and there was this chunk of caramel that wouldn't come off so I did the stupidest thing imaginable. I took the sharpest knife in the kitchen and tried cutting the caramel off. Of course, the knife slipped and I cut myself. I ended spending two hours in the hospital so that I could get stitches in my finger. Yeah... I'm just glad our sharpest knife if very dull and that I cut my left hand instead of my right. When I got home of course I couldn't cook so I got to boss my dad around and I got him to finish the dishes for me. except I did get to do the bellinis because there wasn't any chopping involved. I didn't get to taste the bellinis but I tasted the apricot syrup before we added wine to it. The halibut dish ended up being a red snapper dish because there was no good halibut available and there wasn't any asiago cheese so I used Gruyere. The bellinis got a 9.5/10, the cookies got 7/10, and the halibut and fennel dish got an 8/10.

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)

MY 2 year adventure, week 21: Roast leg of lamb with a chile-garlic sauce/ Mixed cirtus green salad

Week 21:
Okay the lamb dish, once again, like the brown soda bread, I had to buy a giant container of sambal oelek ( a ground chile paste)because I only needed a tablespoon. I made a mistake while cooking my lamb because I didn't let the oven preheat completely before I put the lamb in the oven so the cooking time got all messed up and I had to pull out my thermometer to see the internal temperature. The sauce was great! You could pair it with pretty much anything and it would be delicious. The overall dish was one of the best so far and my family gave it a 9/10.
The salad was fine but the dressing that went with it was really good and really easy to remember. 1/2 cup of orange juice, 1/4 cup of honey, 1/4 cup canola oil, 2 tbsp champagne vinegar (I used white wine vinegar), 1 tsp poppy seeds. Just throw everything in a blender. The salad was okay. I just cracked open a bunch of canned fruit. My family gave it a 8/10.

See you next time internet! Love, Alexa :)