Gypsy Fail

I spent the entire weekend trying to decide if I wanted to post about my latest failure in the kitchen. You see, I've been super stressed lately about so many things that I just didn't think I should share something yucky with you guys. This morning I decided that since last week is over that I should just get it off my chest.

I tried a new recipe for something called a Gypsy Tart. Now, I had never heard of this pie or even seen pictures of it (the recipe on All Recipes didn't have any user pictures but had great reviews). There were so few ingredients and very simple instructions that I thought for sure this would be a winner. Boy was I wrong! I know it has nothing to do with the recipe and everything to do with me and my crummy oven (I found pictures via Yahoo! Image search). Not only did I manage to burn the top of my tart, but it wasn't even cooked all the way through. I now have a wiggly, jiggly, burnt pie chilling out in my fridge because I feel too guilty to throw it away and too nervous to actually eat it. I think tonight it will find a new home in the apartment dumpster though since she's taking up too much room on the top shelf of my poor fridge.

Macaron FAIL

So here is the FAIL I talked about last time I posted: macarons. Ever since the first time I checked out Tartelette's blog, I have been intrigued with the cookie. Two crispy shelled cookies encasing a creamy sweet center, sounds like a perfect cookie to me (especially if you make a chocolate version).

Mrs. Tartelette, being a sweet French lady, has several recipes posted on her blog, each with beautiful pictures of the delectable cookies that I so desperately had my heart set on. The recipe I used is here. I followed all of her directions to a tee...er...ok, except one. I did not pass the powdered sugar and pulverized almonds through a sieve (I had been in the kitchen literally all weekend making yummy snacks for the party and making meals for my sister and friend so we wouldn't have to lose precious time by going to get food).

Needless to say, I set the timer for recommended time and let the cookies do their magic. When the timer went off, I went to check. Seemed pretty wet to me still, so I added a couple of minutes and went about cleaning the kitchen. Ding! Checked again, still not done, two more minutes. The first batch cooked for almost 20 minutes before I finally pulled them out of the oven. As they sat cooling on my counter, they began to deflate. By the time the tray was completely cool, I took a spatula to the first cookie only to find that it still wasn't done. Where did I go wrong? Was it the one simple step I didn't follow out of lazi...uh...tiredness? Could it be the excessive humidity messing with the airiness of the egg whites? Was there something else I missed? I'm still intrigued by these yummy cookies, but I'll be waiting until the temperatures cool down again before attempting another go round. Maybe one of you might have a suggestion in the meantime???

Cheesecake: FAIL

So the cheesecake. *Sigh* I really tried to make something spectacular for you guys, but it just wasn't meant to be. As I said in my last post, I picked up all of the ingredients I needed so I could make my Nana's cheesecake.

Nana doesn't use a graham cracker crust, but I decided that I wanted to have one anyway. I turned to Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours cookbook for a simple graham crust and began preparing my cheesecake. Room temperature cream cheese? Check. Sour cream? Check. Melted butter? Check. Ricotta? Ch...oh crap. Back to the grocery store I went.

Finally having all of the ingredients (if only I had checked the recipe before work then that wouldn't have been an issue at all), I got to work. I put the first couple of ingredients in my blender. I cracked one egg, two...Jeeze! I dropped half an eggshell into the batter with the mixer running. I probably should have just thrown in the towel at this point, but no, I was determined to make this cheesecake even if it killed me. I fished out the egg shell hoping there wouldn't be too many pieces left.

Finally I had all of the ingredients in the mixing bowl. The crust had been precooked and cooled. I began to fill my 9-inch pan when I realized that by adding a crust I was going to have extra filling. Did I put the extra into a bowl and freeze it for later (perhaps mini cheesecake cups)? No! I poured all of it in my pan that would have been sufficient without the stupid crust.

The only thing I could do was pray that it wouldn't rise and cover the bottom of my oven. Sadly, that was not the case. I began to smell a slight burning scent in the air. "Shite!" I hollered. My yummy cheesecake was slowly oozing over the top of it's pan leaving burning drippings on the bottom of my oven. I threw a roasting pan on the shelf beneath it and comforted myself by playing The Sims 3.

Needless to say, after the cheesecake was finished cooking and had been chilled overnight, I was in no mood to even have a piece. I had one anyway so I could at least tell you that it still tasted good, but I just couldn't enjoy it. My cousin and her sweet babies seemed to like it quite a bit, but I won't be having another slice until the next time I get up the courage to make it. Below is the recipe. You can make it with or without crust as you see fit. Tomorrow, I'll have some pretty yummy potatoes to post about to make up for this. Enjoy!

Nana's Cheesecake

1lb Ricotta cheese

1lb Cream cheese, room temp.

1 1/2 cups Sugar

4 Eggs

2Tbl Lemon juice

3Tbl Flour

3Tbl Cornstarch (yet another thing I was out of, but didn't know it; I just subbed with extra flour)

1tsp Vanilla extract

1/2lb melted butter

1 pint Sour cream

1. Blend together in a medium bowl ricotta and cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and blend.
2. Blend one egg at a time until thoroughly incorporated into mixture.
3. Add lemon juice.
4. Sift flour and cornstarch into mixture (her recipe does not say to sift so I didn't, but I ended up with some funky chunks that were not egg shell, so I would do that next time).
5. Add vanilla and melted butter. Mix on medium until filling is smooth.
6. Pour filling into a 9-inch springform pan.
7. Bake at 325 degrees for and hour and ten minutes. Turn off heat and leave cake in the oven with the door open for another hour. Refrigerate until set.

Enchiladas: DOUBLE FAIL!

You know how there are meals you’ve eaten hundreds of times? You’ve watched your mom, sister, aunt, grandmother, whatever, make this meal dozens of times. You could list the ingredients from memory since you were seven years old. That’s how my mom’s beef enchiladas are; insanely easy to make with only four ingredients.

Since I’ve lived most of my life in the south, in one state or another, we ate lots of Mexican food. Who am I kidding? We still do! My mom could live off of Mexican food, and my dad has no taste buds left from all the spicy food he grew up eating (see my previous post). So being the genius that I am, I suggested we have enchiladas for my dad’s birthday, and hey, I’ll even do the cooking and we can have chicken enchiladas too (I needed something to post on my blog after all).

Saturday rolled around. I had the cake made, some fun cupcakes frosted, and all of the ingredients were waiting for me at my parents’ house. I cooked the ground beef and began assembling (my mom had cooked the chicken in the crock pot so it was already ready for me). My mom’s enchiladas are different. We don’t eat them rolled. I didn’t even know you were supposed to roll enchiladas until I was a teenager. We always ate them lasagna style (mixing Italian with Mexican, gotta love it).

I put the two pans side by side in the oven and waited for the ooey goodness to be ready. I had been complaining that the last few times we’d had enchiladas, they’d been runny. I used less enchilada sauce on the beef to try and combat this (I wanted good pictures for you guys after all). That was my downfall. The beef ones came out dry and just this side of burned. The chicken ones came out super runny (my mom had snuck in before I put it in the oven and added more of the chicken mixture). They still tasted good, but they were an epic fail.

Next time, I’ll just do like my mom does and deal with it being a bit runny (you hear that, Mom, I learned my lesson). I promise to have an actual recipe sometime this week. For now I’ll just tease you with the pictures of my failure (although I didn’t get any pictures of the end result).