Cat Mush
I dutifully followed a recipe for lemon cilantro
chicken. Let's just say it was a tad bit
lemon-y, and unfortunately, there was a
lot left over. The frugal part of me
couldn't throw it away. But something needed
to tame it's flavor. What to do?
Ah ha! I'd turn it into a Mexican chicken croc pot something. I was very proud of myself for creatively
adding ingredients that I had on-hand...the remaining carton of roasted red
pepper soup in the frig, a can of black beans, some frozen sweet corn. Mission accomplished. Quite tasty.
Not too lemon-y anymore.
Dinner time. Somewhere between the kitchen island (where we each serve up our plate) and mid-way through dinner, my creation was innocently named by our youngest child as "Cat Mush". Hmmm. I never thought of it that way. I guess it did kind of resemble our kitty's canned food. But it tasted good.
Unfortunately, the addition of ingredients to the croc pot to doctor up the lemon chicken resulted in a lot left over. I knew I couldn't serve "Cat Mush" again to my family. Recycle it into something "new"?
As dinnertime approached the next day, I secretly and very quickly laid out some tortillas, plopped some "cat mush" onto each one, rolled them up, placed them in a casserole dish, smothered them with a can of enchilada sauce and grated cheddar cheese, and popped them in the oven. Voila. Steaming hot enchiladas were brought out of the oven and placed on the island for serving. Mum was the word on the secret ingredient.
Whew, so far so good.... until the child who named it "Cat Mush" looked suspiciously at me from across the table. With an interrogating voice she exclaimed to what seemed like the world, "Is there cat mush in here?"
Dinner time. Somewhere between the kitchen island (where we each serve up our plate) and mid-way through dinner, my creation was innocently named by our youngest child as "Cat Mush". Hmmm. I never thought of it that way. I guess it did kind of resemble our kitty's canned food. But it tasted good.
Unfortunately, the addition of ingredients to the croc pot to doctor up the lemon chicken resulted in a lot left over. I knew I couldn't serve "Cat Mush" again to my family. Recycle it into something "new"?
As dinnertime approached the next day, I secretly and very quickly laid out some tortillas, plopped some "cat mush" onto each one, rolled them up, placed them in a casserole dish, smothered them with a can of enchilada sauce and grated cheddar cheese, and popped them in the oven. Voila. Steaming hot enchiladas were brought out of the oven and placed on the island for serving. Mum was the word on the secret ingredient.
Whew, so far so good.... until the child who named it "Cat Mush" looked suspiciously at me from across the table. With an interrogating voice she exclaimed to what seemed like the world, "Is there cat mush in here?"
Busted!
Lessons learned from experimenting with cooking without a
recipe:
Lesson 1: Always name my creation first (a desirable name- how
about "Mexican Pulled Chicken Stew") - before someone else beats me to
it with a less than desirable name like "Cat Mush".
Lesson 2: Don't get so caught up in the glory of my creation that I forget to pay attention to the appearance of it from a 3rd party's perspective.
Lesson 3: Use my cooking sense to adapt a recipe in the first place (I thought the recipe called for too much lemon juice but I dutifully followed it anyway).
Lesson 2: Don't get so caught up in the glory of my creation that I forget to pay attention to the appearance of it from a 3rd party's perspective.
Lesson 3: Use my cooking sense to adapt a recipe in the first place (I thought the recipe called for too much lemon juice but I dutifully followed it anyway).
Lesson 4: I'm ready to start delving deeper into how to cook without a cookbook.
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