Success is MINE!

Last night I cooked my first meal. Here was the menu:

To start
The Ultimate Chicken Wings with Curry-Lime Butter
found on page 16 of Tyler's Ultimate
These are wings that are baked then tossed with, surprise surprise, curry and lime and butter.

Main dish
Baked Rigatoni With Eggplant And Pork Sausage
found on page 162 of Tyler's Ultimate
Again this is pretty self explanatory.

Dessert
Strawberry-Lemon Puddings
found on page 81 of Dinner At My Place
This recipe had me at hello. I really like the tangy goodness of any lemon or lime dessert. Mmmm.

Here's how the meal really went:

To start
NOTHING
My teeny-tiny town is severely ill-equipped for this kind of cooking. I spent two and a half frustrating hours combing the shelves of the two grocery stores in town. A friend made a good observation, "Ummm, isn't that your first clue? The TWO grocery stores?". Yeah, I guess I should be a little less surprised by this. But really, no chicken wings? That's not an exotic ingredient by any means. The curry paste was there, but I'm still not sure if it's the right kind. He asks for Thai curry paste and there was anything there BUT Thai curry paste. So I guessed.

Moving on.

Main Dish
Baked Rigatoni With Eggplant and Pork Sausage
This actually went well. Who needs a starter anyway? I found all the ingredients and it was relatively easy to make. The eggplant was a bit scary though. I'm not too familiar with eggplant so I decided to get some history on it. Here's what I found.

The Eggplant is also known as the Aubergine. It's more common name came from early European varieties that were smaller and white. Botanically it's a fruit but it's used as a vegetable in cooking. Eggplant originated in India and was introduced into Asian kitchens about 3AD. In 11AD it was introduced into Europe where superstitious people believed it induced insanity, even giving it the nickname "Mad Apple". They thought this because it's in the same family as the deadly nightshade. Eggplant is a close relative of the tomato, potato, and pepper. In 16th century Spain, the people there had great respect for the fruit/veg because it was thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac. Those silly Spaniards named it the "Love Apple" (only in Spain, right?). Thomas Jefferson introduced it into the States from a friend from France. It started out as a table ornament until about 1950 when it became more popular as a food. Eggplant is also a popular with vegetarians as a meat substitute because like tofu, it is bland in taste and soaks up the flavors around it. Eat up!

I have to admit, I'm not a fan. It's okay, but I'm not going to get to excited about dishes that include eggplant. I asked my family to rate the dish and here's what they said.

Luke: 1.5 thumbs up. "It's sooo good except for the squishy eggnog thingy. I love it though!"

Katie: 2 thumbs up. "Yummmy!"

Emily: 2 thumbs down (rude). "I don't like anything....can I have a brownie?"

Ryan: 2 thumbs way up. He had no comment at this time, but did go back for seconds. And thirds later that night!

Me: 1.5 thumbs up. I agree with Luke. The rest of the food was really good, but the eggplant wasn't my fav.

Oh yeah. Here's what it looked like:
I even included a picture of the recipe. Looks the same, right? Yay me! We will definitely have this meal again. Moving on...

Dessert
NOTHING
Again, the 2 grocery stores didn't have what I needed. They didn't have lemons. Really? Wow. I was super annoyed. The recipe also called for store bought lemon curd and store bought pound cake, you know, to make my life easier. These ingredients did not make my life easier, thank you very much. Anyone who I asked hadn't even heard of lemon curd. When I got home, I decided to make my own variation of this recipe because how hard could it be?

Well, here's how hard. The cake I made didn't cook all the way through because I just assumed it was done. Oops. I just popped it back into the oven and it finished cooking. But not in time for dessert. The lemon curd that I made took too long to cool too so I think we'll try for this dessert again tonight.

All in all, Day 1 was a success. We have yummy leftovers for lunch today too!

Did I mention Ryan's parents are coming for dinner tonight? No pressure or anything....not the best time to try new recipes. Wish me luck....