Jenny Garland

Let’s face it, the name “leek” isn’t that appealing. Sounds like “leak” or “eek” … neither of which is particularly appetizing.

Alas, I should not have judged Mr. Leek by his unfortunate name. For leeks, as it turns out are ABSOLUTELY fabulous.

I had a heck of a time finding them in the produce section this morning while trying to soothe a screaming baby on my hip. I thought I had grabbed them and then asked the produce man if the stuff I was holding were indeed leeks. He said “Nope. That’s bok choy.” Sigh. Thankfully, he showed me what they were:

They look like monstrous green onions.  Phyllis Grazer calls them “a kissing cousin of garlic and onion.” She’s right, although that’s a real creepy way to say it.

I cut ‘em up like this and rinsed them well because the suckers are sandy:

I have no clue if that’s how you’re really supposed to slice a leek, but it worked.

Why did I need leeks, you might ask? I needed them to make Pioneer Woman’s potato-leek pizza. It has homemade crust, bacon, red potatoes, mozzarella, goat cheese, and leeks. What’s not to love?

Let me tell you, it was so, so gooooooood. And you *know* I am not a savvy cook. Need I remind you of this?

I am a little obsessed right now with Ree’s cookbook (thanks for a super Christmas present, sis!). I made her olive cheese bread and enchiladas last week and amazingly, I didn’t screw ‘em up. They were yum-o. If you’re looking for easy, tasty recipes with step-by-step pictures for the culinary challenged like moi, this book is for you!

If you haven’t tried a leek yet, go get you some! And if you have tried them, do you have a recipe you’d like to share? I wanna get leeky with it.

Cricut and I have been prepping materials for our McKinney Marthas get together next week. Anyone have a guess what the craft is?

I’ll have a tutorial up for the mystery craft next Friday.

PS – I was going to write the tutorial for the stocking tonight but I’m too lazy (grin). I’ll have that next week for ya too

Brad was gone all week for work (San Francisco – tough life, right?) and the girls and I ate dinner at home two nights. One night we had sandwiches (clearly, they were turkey with American cheese, being the culinary expert I am). And tonight I made the most disgusting, inedible, all around nasty pot roast. Kate said “This is not so yummy.” Sweet girl. It was so, so much worse than “not so yummy.” My drive to cook well is diminishing at a rapid pace.

On a completely unrelated note, do any of you peeps do Zumba? I take yoga and kickboxing classes at my gym. Occasionally I’ll take a step class if I feel like being embarrassed by my inability to face to the right direction Back to Zumba. The yoga teacher I love teaches Zumba and she says you don’t have to be *ahem* uber coordinated to get an awesome workout and keep up. Is this true? Or should I stick with inner peace on one day and kicking the crud out of someone the next?

Okay, gotta go watch Project Runway and Real Housewives… OMG, friends, Orange County’s back on tonight!! Weeee hoooo!!

xoxo,

So tonight’s dinner. Yeah. About that. This is how it went:

Bleh. I made three things: London Broil, popovers, and a salad with homemade Caesar dressing.

Let’s start with the steak. Okay, seriously. Where did I go wrong? The recipe said to broil my tenderized flank steak 4 inches from heat for 5 minutes. Then, I was supposed to turn the steak over and broil for another 3-5 minutes. I did 5 minutes on the first side and 4 minutes on the second side. I even measured to make sure the broiler pan thingy was 4 inches from the heat.  The steak was a rubbery mess. Edible? Kinda, sorta. Tasty? No. It tasted like a steak you would get at the Sizzler that was under the heat lamp all day. I snapped pictures but it turns out poorly cooked steaks are really gross to look at so I’m not going to make you suffer.

That’s okay though, because I still had opportunity to shine with the popovers, right? Here’s what my cookbook told me my popovers should look like:

Cute, right? I was feeling really optimistic as I put them in the oven, looking like this:

My optimism dwindled as I took them out of the oven looking like this:

You think that’s funkified? Wait until you see what they looked like after I popped them out of the ramekins:

What in the world? How is that even possible? My poor, pathetic, tumorish popovers They tasted good but were so fugly.

Finally, my salad. I used Dole’s Sassy Baby Blend:

I added tomato, orange bell pepper, croutons, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. So far so good. Enter homemade Caesar dressing. The recipe called for one tin of anchovies. I’ve never made Caesar dressing before so I didn’t think anything of it. Um, one tin of anchovies is way too much. After eating the salad, I smell like a fish died inside me. Not kidding.

Overall… solid effort, miserable results. I gave myself a C- because I think trying counts for something, right? We’re having leftovers tomorrow (wow, everyone is so excited about that in my house as you can imagine) and Thursday I’m going to try roasting a chicken. God help me.

Hi bloggy friends! I missed you last week What have you all been up to?

Brad and I spent all week soaking up the sun in Mexico. It was our first trip just the two of us since our honeymoon 5 years ago. It was heaven. Thank you Nana for watching the girls!!

Now it’s back to reality! Kate (3) is starting preschool for the first time this year. She will go on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9am-2pm. I think she will absolutely adore it after an adjustment period. My sweet girl is like her mama in that it takes her a while to get used to new situations and open up. We went to meet her teachers this morning and they seemed to put her jitters at ease. I’ll let you know how our first day on Wednesday goes.

On an unrelated note, I have decided that I need to learn how to cook. I really suck at it. I’m not being modest. I’m terrible. Like rubbery steak, chewy steamed vegetables bad. Puhlease help a girl out! I have some decent cookbooks (namely Martha Stewart’s Cooking School) that I think I’m going to try working my way through. If you have a favorite recipe you’d like to share, I would love to try it and feature it here. Send me an email with the recipe and I’ll give it a whirl! We’re not picky eaters at all. I’m just looking for mostly healthy dinner recipes. I’m so tired of dried out baked chicken and salad.

I’ll be back tomorrow to announce the winners of the postcard giveaway (you can enter until midnight tonight) and to share a new giveaway