Cooking vs. following recipes

   There are entirely too many leftovers in my icebox that I refuse to put back into my mouth.
I should've known better. I gave her a shot years ago, and although she is spirited and fun to watch, she really just cooks the same things over and over and over.
You guessed it.
   Rachael Ray.
   I've already slapped myself on the wrist, or on the tongue rather, so don't bother.
I should've known. All the warning signs were there.
"A Box of frozen spinach, a package of cream cheese and a can of something or other.."
   This food Vixen gets me almost every time. She uses buzz words like "Buffalo" and I am tempted to give her another chance every time.
   The lesson learned this week is not to trust anyone who Buffalo-styles, BLT-styles and Ranch-styles everything they cook. This is not cooking. This is heating up processed foods. And this is not the mission I started back when Jamie and I first met.

   However, I do feel that we all learn from our negative experiences, so here we go:
   We began with Ranch-Style Chicken Succotash. (no link- not going there.)
Chicken thighs go into the pot and brown for a bit. We add some veggies-potatoes, lima beans, corn, etc... and it all looks like it's going to be a decent meal. Then we add in a package of ranch and an 8 oz. block of cream cheese. This takes the mostly healthy meal and makes it the overly-creamiest, harsh tasting concoction I have ever seen in a stew pot. The worst part? Her instructions for cooking the chicken left it completely undercooked. We had blood running amongst the vegetables.
   My instincts while cooking it were to completely cook the chicken before setting it aside, but Miss Ray is a professional, no? I also had this conversation with myself later on before adding that cream cheese mess. The veggies looked so good, but then I relied on someone's "expertise" as a television personality instead of my own wisdom as a cook.
   Thank God we had some leftovers in the fridge, or I'd have gone to bed hungry.
Lesson #1: Don't ruin a perfectly good meal with processed foods. Don't overdo it. Keep it simple. Too many ingredients can be too much for the taste buds.

The next meal took over two hours to prepare and it was perfectly tolerable, but not tasteful enough to tempt me. (I'm reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time, forgive the wording.) Ha ha.
 Manicotti on Valentine's Day.
I've never made it, but had it growing up, so I gave it a go.
It was basically a turkey/frozen spinach stuffed manicotti with a tomato sauce on bottom and topped with a cream sauce.
   I should have used a tomato sauce for the entire thing... And how sad that I wasted the last of my delicious home made tomato base on This. I should've used a can of tomato as she suggested. The cream sauce had no flavor with the exception of the, yes, Nutmeg she said to add in.
   A little backstory: I have used her suggestion to add a bit of cinnamon to my enchiladas in the past. "It gives it a little something extra." Yes, it does. A little something too much, Rachael.
   So I add in this nutmeg, and if the bland frozen spinach, ground turkey and cream sauce isn't bad enough. Now the only flavor of the entire dish is Nutmeg.
We each ate one or two before giving up the idea that we'd grow to like it and ended up dining on the chocolate covered strawberries Brandon brought home.
   Lesson #2: Taste your food, even if you're following a recipe. And also, never add cinnamon to enchiladas or nutmeg to manicotti.

Now- to rise from the ashes of Saturday morning, easy, ranch-style-this-and-that- cooking shows.