Great Idea FAIL

After a long day at the beach, BD, myself, and HD (HD is our new roommate and coincidently, BD’s brother) had our first joint venture in the kitchen. HD had a really lovely beef tenderloin that he marinated all day and later grilled; BD did a crab and shrimp scampi; and I contributed Au Gratin Potatoes. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves that night. I can’t think of a better way to savor the last few hours of a weekend than with some really great food.

I was attempting to create a recipe to post for the Au Gratin Potatoes that night. While they were good, they weren't a knock out just yet. So rather than posting a recipe that I know I will be tweaking, I’m going to hold off for now. It will be worth the wait – I promise. In the meantime, here is a picture of them.



Believe it or not, we had a pretty decent amount of steak leftover. Therefore we planned on making steak sandwiches on Monday night for dinner. BD and I had come across a horseradish cheddar cheese a couple of weeks ago and had been trying to come up with a dish to use it in. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The plan was to take the steaks and top them with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, and the cheese on some French bread. It sounded awesome, and it could have been awesome….but it was a bust.

I’m posting this because one thing I’ve noticed with several food blogs is that everything is always perfect. That is not always the case in my kitchen – I screw up plenty. Plus, one of the purposes of starting this blog is to further expand my culinary talents, knowledge, and interests. How can I do that without trial and error?

So. Why did I think this sandwich was a bust? I honestly, blame two things: 1- not enough ingredients, and 2- the bread. I don’t know how I always do this but when it comes to caramelizing onions or sautéing mushrooms, I always underestimate how small the shrink. I need to remind myself that it’s sneaky like spinach. You may THINK you have a whole mess of it, but you really don’t. Also, BD wanted to go easy on the cheese. He was afraid the horseradish would overpower everything. In the end, I couldn’t taste the cheese at all. As for the bread, it just wasn’t the right choice. Perhaps if we had toasted it first it might have worked better.


Even though this sandwich overall was not a winner, it did have some good points. The onions, mushrooms, and steak all worked together….but how could they not? So with a little more tweaking this one may eventually be a winner.

Kitten ^..^