Comments on: chopped vegetable, watermelon and feta salad

By: beth

beth — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:45:00 +0000

Meat. It always comes out burned, overdone, or disgustingly raw in the middle. I can turn heavens with vegetables, but really I don’t know what to do with a chunk of raw animal flesh. Eew. Might help if I were more inclined to eat the stuff – I’m mostly veggie; DH is the (non-cooking) carnivore.

Gravy. Unless it’s the “add-water-to-powder” in a packet stuff.

Biscuits. I live in the south. This is a source of shame here, to only be able to produce hockey pucks, in a land where the lakes never freeze solid enough for ice hockey anyway. sheesh.

BTW, rice: 2 cups (good quality) jasmine rice + 3 cups water in a pot. do not stir. bring to a low boil. reduce heat to lowest setting, cover, simmer 20 minutes. REMOVE FROM HEAT, LEAVE COVERED, AND LET REST 10 MINUTES before serving. this is the crucial step to good rice. same way you’d let a good roast rest after taking it out of the oven.

not that i know how to do THAT. heh.

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:44:02 +0000

Yeast breads used to terrify me. Just this week I started trying recipes, and so far, eh, okay. Facing my fears, though!

By: SusanL

SusanL — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:38:05 +0000

I know I’m a little late to this cooking phobia party (this is what happens with the “Surprise Me!” link)–but I just had to add–souffles scare me. I’ve tried to make them several times, and I’m convinced souffles are like a bad boyfriend: they make you really happy once or twice, but then continuously let you down THROUGH NO FAULT OF YOUR OWN. I went on a souffle bender a couple years back attempting to master the beats, and with no great consistent luck. Sigh. This salad looks delish, though.

By: B'ny from Mt. P

B'ny from Mt. P — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:53:44 +0000

I haven’t ready *every* comment here, but despite my love of guilty confessions, I’m going to redirect: has anyone made this salad? I might have committed the egregious error of over-mixing the dressing. It was runny and pooled in the veggies. There was also way more of it than the photos in the post seemed to show. But I wonder if I didn’t just over-mix, and the photos show the salad without the dressing. Either way, learn from my mistake, people. Don’t mix in the dressing, especially if you tend toward being overly obedient. I’d recommend tossing recipe slavery out the window and serving the vegetables with the dressing dolloped on top.

Thanks for a great recipe, Deb. I enjoyed giving watermelon a run with the serious vegetables.

By: Vanessa @ Tea and Pearls

Vanessa @ Tea and Pearls — Sun, 30 May 2010 04:49:57 +0000

I definitely surprise myself in the kitchen. I’m a pretty bold cook however even the boldest cooks get nervous. My fear is preparing my grandmother’s famous butter cookies without making a mess of the cookie press!

My cousin gave me the recipe so I’m going to make a second attempt around the holidays again. I’ll be sure to document it in my blog.

By: SaveMyPolarBear

SaveMyPolarBear — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:38:07 +0000

I want to be able to do a dinner party without sweating. Kind of an obvious castle-in-the-sky that everyone has, but seriously, what’s the tip to enjoying your dinner party and not panicking all the time?

By: Beth P

Beth P — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:24:07 +0000

I have never had any success melting sugar for caramel, it always turns out glue-y. It works for creme caramel because it winds up melting down in the oven, but for anything caramel topped? I’m out of luck

By: Sarah T

Sarah T — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:47:56 +0000

I’m still allowed to tell you my cooking fears, right? I’ll cook almost anything, but I’m afraid of all of those things where you have to add hot dairy to eggs. And yet, I acknowledge frozen custard as possibly the best thing ever to come from a freezer! Save me!

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:29:04 +0000

Frying. I have memories of my mom frying something (maybe chicken) in the kitchen, the oil splattered up and burnt a quarter size welt on her face. That will never happen to me. Thus, I don’t fry.

By: Amy

Amy — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 21:22:00 +0000

im afraid of getting burnt. fire is like my worst enemy. and burning oil? yyyyyikes!