Double the failure, double the frustration.

I am not usually one to start something, like a blog for instance...and not keep up on it. The lack of posts is due to the fact that my last two ventures were garbage, and into the garbage disposal they went after choking enough bites down to curb the hunger.

Complete disaster #1 - Steamed clams in beer cream sauce over pasta.
Sounds good doesn't it? Well, it was not good. Not good at all. The story started out with Chris and I at dinner at Anthony's Woodfire Grill. We had steamed clams in beer as a starter. It was soooo yummy. We both foolishly decided it would be a grand idea to recreate it at home over pasta. I asked the server for the ingredients and figured that I could just wing the cooking (mistake one). The server said that they were made with a stout beer, check. Cream, check. Butter, check. Clams, check. It sounded simple enough.

I will just cut to the chase because even retelling the tale is getting me agitated. The sauce was bitter. So bitter that it was baaaaaarely edible. Translation: It was all we had for dinner, it was late and I couldn't see myself cooking something else. Chris said he liked it, which, HAD to be a big fat lie. I honestly don't mind being told something is not good because if the audience doesn't like it - chances are I already know it's garbage. I think it all went wrong when I reduced the beer too much. Now, I am not a beer drinker and especially not stout. It was just the grossest thing. I mainly had salad and some clams, which were cooked quite well considering.... What is the lesson I learned? I learned to always have and follow a recipe with new dishes. I did something that I NEVER, and I mean NEVER do in the kitchen (perfection disorder, hello?) and that is "wing it" with something new. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Moving on to complete disaster #2 - Chicken Biryani (an Indian chicken and rice dish)
At least this one was edible. It just didn't taste good.
I love Indian food. I have this Indian market in Shoreline that I go to called "Indian Sweets and Spices" and they have all kinds of fixins for yummy authentic Indian cuisine. I really should have known better than to buy a "complete spice mix". I never do that. I always like to make the spice mix myself from a recipe. That affliction is part control freak and part addicted to cooking. The spice mix was highly recommended by my friendly store guy and the picture looked good.

I followed the directions to a T! Is there any other way to follow directions?

The resulting dish was bland but yet, spicy. Weird huh? I thought so. It just didn't taste good. I added some cumin and more yogurt to see if that would help but it just didn't . We ate some because, as previously stated there was no backup dinner plan. The rest? Garbage. Buh, bye it went. Next time, I go with my instinct and make the spice mix from scratch - as I knew I should.

Lesson learned.