Summer experiment

This summer I decided that I would throw myself into the kitchen and try 3 new recipes a week. I never loved cooking, just did it out of necessity. Now that I'm a stay at home mom, I have time to plan, prepare, and create meals. Turns out i really like cooking... and eating good food that came from my kitchen! My poor neighbors graciously came over to try my experiments every week. Devin was incredibly patient with me- never knowing if dinner was going to be delectable or a disaster. I learned a few things in the trenches:

1. When cooking from the ward cookbook, don't judge the quality of a recipe by how much I like the person.

2. When I don't know what an ingredient is, ask someone instead of guessing! Who knew that shallots aren't anything close to sugar snap peas (It looked like it would work from the picture in the cook book).

3. Plan on 10 or more extra minutes of prepare time. The cook book writers must have 4 hands!

4. It's not the smartest thing to substitute ingredients that I have never cooked with before. I had a first class disaster when I substituted curry powder instead of using curry paste. NOT the same thing apparently ;)

Pineapple Chicken Curry: one of my favorite meals (recipe from allrecipes.com)