Puff Pastry Triangles

It was a lazy Sunday when I didn't know what to make for lunch. Kevin had some leftovers to eat and I didn't want to eat instant noodles again. I love instant noodles, but two days straight was a bit much. I'm not a student anymore. So I poked around the freezer and fridge and found a lot of leftovers; half a pack of puff pastry, leftover steak stir-fry, a few mushrooms, some cheese (cheddar, mozza, and feta). So I decided...why not have a meal of hors d'oeuvres. I've had more than my fair share of hors d'oeuvres at wedding cocktails before.

• Puff pastry (defrosted)
• cheese
• leftover steak or chicken cut into bite size strips
• mushroom

1. Preheat oven 400F
2. Cut puff pastry sheet into 9 squares, more if you want your hors d'oeuvres smaller.
3. Place meat, cheese, mushroom in the center
4. Fold the square diagonally and press on the edges. You can use an egg wash on the edge if you want to.
5. Bake until golden brown.

This is fool proof, unless you leave it in the oven and burn it to a crisp. You can mix up ingredients any way you want it. I actually had some chicken and dill as well. I ended up like the mushroom, mozza, and dill combo a lot. I also loved how crispy burned cheese that oozed out of the pastry. Yums!!! The options are endless.

Lahmajoun (Armenian Pizza)

Lahmacun or Lahmajoun is an Arabic dish consisting of a round, thin piece of dough topped with minced meat (most commonly beef and lamb). Lahmacun is often served sprinkled with lemon juice and wrapped around vegetables- including pickles, tomatoes, peppers, onions, lettuce, and parsley or cilantro.

I first heard about lahmajoun from Judy's blog. I didn't really think about it until I was browsing a recipe website and their featured recipe of the day was Lahmajoun (Armenian Pizza), so I decided to give it a try. This was my first time having a Lahmajoun (term used lightly, since I'm sure it's not authentic at all)

1 pound lean ground lamb
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 (14.5 ounce) can peeled and diced tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
4 pita breads, or fluffy tortillas

1. Place ground lamb in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and break into small pieces until mostly browned. Drain any excess grease. Add the onion, green pepper, and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent. Stir in diced tomatoes and tomato paste, then season with parsley, basil, mint, cumin, and if using, cayenne. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover, and refrigerate overnight to blend the flavors.
2. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Distribute the lamb mixture evenly over the tortillas, and spread out to the edges. Place the tortillas onto a baking sheet.
3. Bake for about 20 minutes in the preheated oven. These can be served hot or cold. Cut into small wedges.

I usually use ground beef, or pork if my grocery store doesn't have ground beef. Kevin really likes this and I've already made this 3 times. I like it too, however, it's not the best recipe to bring to lunch unless you're work has a toaster oven. Soggy pita is not yummy. This is best served the same night you make it. The pita is crispy and yummy.

Sheperd's Pie (aka Poor Man's Pie)

The last time I had sheperds pie was quite possibly 10 years ago when I was in high school. The idea of making sheperds pie came from Kevin. Sometimes when I put together the weeks menu I will ask him what he wants to eat. And he asked for sheperds pie. I've never made it from scratch before, so I wasn't exactly sure how to make it. For the longest time I seriously thought the dish calls for cream of corn and not just sweet corn bits. So I looked online for my answer...it's just regular corn, but most of the recipes I found had carrots and peas in it, which I found weird. So I decided to make it with just corn. I didn't think I needed a recipe, so I didn't bother writing anything down. Here's what I did:




Ground beef
1 can of sweet corn bits
3-4 medium yellow potatoes
milk
butter
Mrs. Dash seasoning
garlic powder
salt and pepper
Worcestshire sauce
soy sauce

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Boil potatoes until tender. Mash with butter and milk until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Brown the beef on medium-high heat. Add the last 5 ingredients or use whatever seasoning you want...
4. Add corn into the meat mixture.
5. Assemble the pie. Meat mixture with corn and mashed potatoes on top.
6. Broil until the top is browned.

The dish came out good, but a bit bland. When Kevin first saw the finished product, he said it looked like the sherperd's pie from a box. I'll take it as a compliment. He ate it without complaint. Also a good sign. I, on the other hand, am used to mixing it with ketchup. In highschool, everyone ate their sherperd's pie with ketchup. I've gotten used to it and it doesn't taste right without it. Perhaps next time i'll use more spices in the groung meat to give it some flavour.

Stuffed Peppers with Feta

Buying fresh vegetables is expensive, especially peppers. Green peppers are usually oh-kay...normal price at $2.99/lbs. Sometimes our local loblaws sell old peppers at 50%...some dont look too bad. They're usually starting to get wrinkly. They come a pbag of 4-5 and Kev and I always look for them. And sometimes we buy them even if we don't need peppers in the dishes on our weekly menu (every weekend, my homework is to make up the week's menu and grocery list). Last week, we looked in the fridge and found 4 peppers looking quite sad...they were in their last day or two. So we decided to make stuffed peppers. I've made stuffed peppers before. I can't remember what recipe I used, possibly from Kraft, and it was not very good. So I looked up a recipe on allrecipes.com and found a vegetarian stuffed pepper with feta cheese. Since Kevin likes to have meat, i added meat to the recipe.



1 cup water
1/2 cup uncooked Arborio rice
2 green bell peppers, halved and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
ground beef

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in the rice. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Place the peppers cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Roast 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until tender and skin starts to brown.
4. While the peppers are roasting, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the ground beef, onions, basil, Mrs Dash, salt, and pepper in oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato, and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon in the cooked rice, and stir until heated through.
5. Remove from heat, mix in the feta cheese, and spoon the mixture into the pepper halves.
   Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
   

These were yummy. I would put more feta next time. I love it. For a cheaper version, you can also use any other cheese you have...like mozza or cheddar. I think i'd like this even more if it was red or yellow peppers. We each had one whole stuffed pepper and were quite full. We liked it so much we made it again about a week later, with 50% off red peppers! Yums!

Sweet Potato Poutine

Ahh Poutine! The ultimate comfort food. I've made poutine at home before, but I must admit that it wasn't from scratch. I used cubed mozza, frozen fries, and canned gravy. Sacrilege!!! I know. This is my very first time making everything from scratch...well...except the cheese curds. Those are store bought. lol

I got the idea to make poutine with sweet potato from Kevin at Closet Cooking. I get a lot of cooking ideas from him. He's very talented. For this recipe, I bought 2 huge sweet potatoes and I never knew how much sweet potatoes shrink when they cook... I also had a hard time cutting beautiful sweet potato wedges, so I had weird shapes. Wedges, strings, half moons...it was a circus of sweet potatoes. And sweet potatoes, especially the large variety, are extremely hard to cut. Kev saw how much trouble I was having and asked if i needed help. It didn't take him long to abandon me with the unfinished task.

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

• sweet potatoes (cut into wedges lengthwise)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven at 375F. Toss the sweet potato wedges in the oil, salt and pepper to coat.
2. Place the wedges on a baking sheet.
3. Bake until golden brown and tender, about 20-30 minutes.

For the Gravy:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.
2. Mix in the flour to make a roux.
3. Mix in the beef broth and simmer until thick and smooth.
4. Mix in the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
   

Assemble: Place the sweet potato wedges in a bowl and top with the cheese curd, add gravy on top to melt cheese a bit.

Kev wasn't a huge fan of this because he's not a big fan of sweet potato. I love it. I kept tasting the gravy while it was simmering and I just kept adding pepper into it. The sauce ended up being spicy, which is a not a bad thing. The simple gravy recipe is also good with roast chicken.

Bibimbap

I had my first Bibimbap not too long ago. It's kind of silly, but the first time i ever heard of it was at a Korean fast food counter in downtown called Kimchi. I was meeting my friend Wynn for lunch and she told me that Bibimbap was very good. So I tried it. Like most Korean dishes, I loved it. Bibimbap is a popular Korean dish. The word literally means "stirred/mixed rice". Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with sautéed and seasoned vegetables and gochujang (Korean red pepper paste). A raw or fried egg and sliced meat (usually beef) are common additions. The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating. It can be served either cold or hot. We ate our lukewarm.

Bean Sprouts, blanched or stir-fried in sesame oil

cucumber, julienned and tossed in seseame oil

carrots, julienned, blanched or stir-fried in sesame oil

Spinach, stir-fried in sesame oil

1 egg

white rice

gochujang sauce

Beef bulgogi

1. Cook rice as directed. Prepare hard boiled egg
2. Blanch or stir-fry in sesame oil the carrots, bean sprouts, and spinach.
3. Toss cucumber in sesame oil.
4. Place each vegetable in their own corner over rice.
5. Cook beef, and place on a corner of bowl
6. Remove shell from hard-boiled egg, cut in half and place in the middle of the bowl of rice.
7. Mix with Gochujang sauce.

This dish required a bit of preparation. Cook time took no time at all. The part I hated most was to julienne the carrots. Is there a shortcut way to do this? I hate it. I ate my bibimbap with a side of Kimchi. Since I know Kev might not like the spiciness of gochujang, I simply boiled the reserved marinade from the beef and added a dash of sesame oil. I think he liked it. When he saw what I had made for Sunday lunch, he just said "ohhh...Fancy!" I'd make this again. It's a great way to get rid of leftovers, especially veggies that are only a day or two away from going bad.

Méchant Boeuf

Clockwise: Grilled Salmon with Pesto and Grilled Vegetables, Tatare Trio (Beef, Tuna, Salmon), Peacan Pie, Méchant Burger with Fries.

Between Jan 15-31 2009, Montreal had their 2nd Annual Happening Gourmand event. This is a great opportunity to try out restaurants. Eight restaurants in the Old Port would have a 3 course meal at a discounted fixed price. For example, at Restaurant Vieux-Port (yummy steak place), I had garlic snails, filet mignon medallions, and crème brulée for $22. I kept forgetting my camera. Fortunetly, Rachelle brought her camera when we went to Méchant Boeuf. I was expecially excited to try Méchant Boeuf because of their famous Méchant Burger. They call it the best burger in the city.

Before I start talking about the food, I'd like to mention the frustration Rachelle and I went through to make a reservation at this place. They have an incredibly frustrating system. For starters, I have to mention that this restaurant does not open during lunch time. It opens at 5pm every day. When I called the restaurant during my lunch hour at work, I was greeted by their voice messaging system. It advised me that they normally take reservations through the system, with the exception of the Happening Gourmand event. In this case, they told callers to call back at 2pm. So at 2pm, I called...It either gave me a busy signal or the voice messaging system would pick up...I called on and off until 3pm. At one point, I was looking on their website and they had a different number. So I tried calling it and someone picked up. I soon realized that I was talking to the front desk of hotel Nelligan, which is connected to Méchant Boeuf. She kept transferring my call back to the voice messaging system. After my third time calling, I asked the woman at hotel Nelligan what the deal was. And she told me that the restaurant only opens at 5pm, but that normally someone is there starting at 3pm. Apparently not that day. So I got Rachelle to call after 5pm.

She called after 5pm and she didn't have any luck either, so she left our reservation with the front desk of hotel Nelligan. Someone at Méchant Boeuf finally called Rachelle back to confirm the reservation, only to call back the next day to say they had 3 services at night and that our 6pm reservation would have to be moved to 5:45pm. We finally arrived at 6:15.

At least when we got there, we were seated right away. The waiters there are hubba-hubba! lol after a long week, Rachelle and I decided to reward ourselves with an extra apetizer. The tartare trio look good on the menu, and even better in our mouth. Rachelle knows my weakness with tartare. We started out 3 course meal with the onion soup. It was very good, but the smell of the cheese attack us when it got to our table. For the main course, Rachelle had the salmon (the only thing she could have, she doesn't eat meat, but she chose this restaurant). She told me the salmon was good, but I think she prefers it extra well-done...blech. I order the mechant burger and I have to admit that it was one of the best burgers I have ever had...and i'm not a big burger fan. The meat pattie was huge, thick, and juicy. I would definitely recommend it. However, the fries were a disappointment. They are what Rachelle and I call "La Belle Province fries". The pecan pie was mediocre. I guess I'm not a huge fan of pecan pie afterall. The service was pretty good. The waiters were attentive, but we did have to ask for a water refill.

In general, a good place to eat. I will most probably be going back for the burger, since Kevin wants to try it out now. But I don't think i'll be going back regularly, especially if I have so much trouble making a reservation.

Méchant Boeuf/ 124 St-Paul West/ 514.788.4020
http://mechantboeuf.com/

Beef Quesadilla

When it comes to cooking dinner, it's hard not to fall into a rut. You find a recipe you like and you make it over and over again, until you're so sick of it. I always try to have something new and if we like it, i put in the "vault". Kev's not much of an experimental eater, but he's been better. He now doesn't care what I make, as long as it's edible and not too weird. We usually do groceries during the weekend and we try to buy all the stuff we need for the entire week. So we have to decide what we want to eat over the week so we don't do 10 runs to the grocery store. Last week, Kev came up with the idea of making quesadilla. The only Mexican food we've ever made ourselves was fajitas, and I was getting so sick of the fajita seasoning mix you put in the meat. Sometimes, it give sme bad heartburn, so i wanted to stay away from it.



Most quesadilla recipes were for cheese quesadilla, but we wanted ground beef in it.





Tortilla
Ground beef
1 green pepper
salsa
Cheddar cheese
sour cream/ cream cheese
salt & pepper to taste

1. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper or foil (shiny side down). Preheat oven to 350F.


2. In a skillet, cook the ground beef and green peppers, drain. Add salt & pepper. Mix in Salsa.


3. Place one tortilla on the baking sheet, spread sour cream/cream cheese. Add a bit of cheese, then the beef mixture, and some more cheese. Drizzle water on a second tortilla and place second tortilla on top to make a tortilla "sandwich". Repeat with other tortillas.


4. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes. Let it cool for 5 min. Cut into 4 pieces and serve with guacomole.
   

We ran into several problems. We used foil on our baking sheets, but Kevin didn't know that the shiny side fo the foil should go down. So we had trouble removing the quesadilla. The tortillas were really stuck on the foil...the tortilla would break and the filling would spill out. We also did not let the quesadilla cool before tryign to remove them from the baking sheets. So the tortilla was probably too hot and soft to be moved. Our first quesadilla was a bit of a mess. But after it cooled, they were easy to handle and I was able to put them in our lunch boxes without making a mess. I'd make this again...and no heartburn.

Le Boeuf Gourmand

For our two-year anniversary as a couple, Kev and I wanted to eat out, but didn't know where to go. Our original plan was to eat somewhere in the old port and then rent a horse drawn carriage for a tour. That didn't end up happening, because by then, Montreal had its first snow fall with freezing rain. Since Kevin would be out bowlingwith his co-workers for their x'mas party, he asked me to look for a restaurant near the plateau. So I did. I found this French bistro that looked affordable and had pretty good reviews, but the earlier reviews were horrible. We figured that maybe they changed chefs or something because all the new reviews were great. Their specialty is the Steak-Frites. The Steak-frites is served with either soup or a fresh salad for $18.90. The steak is thinly sliced. The feature that stands out most about Le Boeuf Gourmand's steak frite is the revolutionary top secret sauce they use. They claim it is made with 18 ingredients.


Quickly after ordering, a hot tray was put on our table. I had read reviews, so I knew what it was for. They don't put your entire 8oz of steak on your plate. Only half is on the plate and the other half is on a plate placed on the hot tray, where a candle is supposed to keep the rest of your steak warm (it didn't).



We started the dinner off with the soup. Our choices were the Citrus Carrot soup or their cream of vegetable soup. She highly recommended the Citrus Carrot soup and told us that it was so popular that they had to make it all the time. So we took that...I quickly remembered that I'm not a big fan of citrus in my food. I can do citrus juice, just not in my food. Kevin did not seem to mind it. The steak-frites arrived warm, but not piping hot, which I couldn't quite understand, because we were the only table in the entire restaurant. The secret sauce was good, but is mainly butter. The hot tray failed to keep the rest of our steak from getting cold and the sauce congealed. The fries were okay, not the best i've had. But they were salty and satisfying. We decided to skip the dessert because I had bought some pastries to eat at home, which we didn't.


The bistro was too brightly lit. Kevin said he didn't think it was a very romantic place, and he is right. If they had dimmed the lights, we might have been able to stomach the utter cheesiness of the decor. The entire time we were there, we were the only customers.


It wasn't so bad, i've probably had much worse dinners in my life, however, I might not repeat this place. It was a bit of a disappointment for such an occasion.


Le Boeuf Gourmand/ 3666 St-Denis corner Cherrier/ 514.849.8910

Beef Stew

A few weeks ago, my boss told me I had a few more personal days left that i could take before they get cancelled out Jan 1st. So I decided to take a long weekend. While Kev was at work, I had time to think about what to make for dinner. We have this pack of stewing beef that Kev's parents had given us a while ago. We didn't quite know what to do with them. So I looked up online for a stew recipe. The recipe i found actually didn't even have the veggies in it. So I tweaked the recipe as I usually do and took some advice from reviews of this recipe. I've never made stew before and the only stew i've ever eaten is my mom's. That day, I had a lunch/shopping date with my friend Judy. So I didn't want to rush home to make this...knowing that stew takes a lot of simmering. So Kev's slow cooker from the 80s (from his parents') saves the day. This thing is so old that i'm sure it'll burn down the condo one day. lol The very first time Kev and I used it, we stayed home...just so we could watch it.

1lbs Stewing Beef
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup of beef broth
1 pack of onion soup mix
2-3 potatoes, cubed
1-2 Carrots, sliced or cubed
1 Onion, cubed
2 stalks of celery, chopped
salt & pepper
dried thyme
garlic powder
onion powder
cayenne pepper

***Please note that vegetables should be cut into big chunks as to not turn to vegetable mash in the slow cooker.

1. Brown meat, this is supposed to keep the juices in the beef when being slow cooked.


2. Put Potatoes, carrots, celery, and onions at the bottom of the slow cooker. Add the meat on top.


3. In a bowl, mix mushroom soup, beef broth, onion soup mix and pour it on top of everything in the slow cooker. Set on medium heat and cook for 6-8 hours.


4. Before serving sprinkle the spices and mix.

To begin, I just want to mention that i'm actually a bit fuzzy about how much beef broth I put in. since mushroom soup was a bunch of goop, I was afraid my mixture wasn't liquid enough, so I improvised and used beef broth to thin out the soup. I wouldn't recommend adding much more salt into it since the Onion soup mix gives it enough saltiness, but I think I added a little bit for taste. I served it on rice. Kev wasn't raving about, but asked me what I put it in. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. But I think he didn't mind the recipe. By now, you probably know that i always use the same old spices...i guess everyone has their base cooking style. My mom's is soy sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar. lol I'd also like to emphasize that it's important to put the veggies at the bottom so that the liquids will cook it properly. I didn't know because the recipe I used doesn't have veggies in it. So I had put it on top of the meat and after 6-8 hrs of cooking the veggies still weren't quite done. So I have to cook it on the stove top for an hour before Kev got home. And since the veggies are at the bottom, it would be wise to cut your veggies in big chunks so they don't disintegrate in the soup.

Note about the picture: I took the picture the day after our dinner...the stew is actually cold (right out of the fridge) in the pic. I simply forgot to take a picture of the stew and only remembered to do so when I wanted to write a post about it.

Philly Steak Sandwich

The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach…especially if meat is involved. To be quite honest, I’m more of a poultry kind of gal. Chicken, turkey, duck, quail…yummy. But ever since judyfoodie told me how to tenderize my meat with baking soda, I like cooking and eating beef a little more. One of the recipes Kev likes is the Philly Steak sandwich. I’ve never had an authentic Philly steak sandwich, so I’m not quite sure if this recipe I got online is anything close to the real thing. But it sure makes my man happy. The original recipe is here.

• 1 pound beef sirloin, cut into thin 2 inch strips
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 bell pepper, julienned, whatever color you have
• Swiss cheese, sliced
• 4 hoagie rolls, split lengthwise or any type of bread
  

1. Place the beef in a large bowl. Mix baking soda in the meat to tenderize. Rinse meat with cold water after 20 minutes.


2. Mix meat with salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, and basil. Let it marinate overnight if you have time.


3. In a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Saute beef to desired doneness, and remove from pan. Saute the onion and green pepper.


4. Preheat oven on broiler setting.


5. Divide the meat between the bottoms of 4 rolls, layer with onion and green pepper, then top with sliced cheese. Place on cookie sheet, and broil until cheese is melted. Cover with tops of rolls, and serve.

I omitted dried thyme and dried marjoram from the original recipe just because I didn’t have any on hand. I know, we need a spice rack. I also omitted the oil. Since we use a non-stick skillet, I didn’t think oil was needed. This time I got a bit lazy and my beef strips were a bit too big. But other than that, it was yummy. The more cheese the better!

I promise i'll eventually start writing blogs that are not food related soon. I just haven't been quite inspired lately.

Macaroni and Beef strips experiment.

Last weekend in Ottawa, Kevin’s dad made us a yummy hamburger macaroni dish for lunch. It looked so simple, but it was good. So I suggested to Kevin that we make Beef Macaroni last night for dinner. It just seemed like a quick and simple dish, especially after a long day at work and then a workout at the gym. Kevin suggested we use beef strips instead of ground beef. I didn’t really care.

I’ve never tenderized my meat, because I don’t really know how besides super salting it. My dear friend, Judyfoodie, told me about using baking soda to tenderize my meat. I’ve never used baking soda for anything else besides deodorizing my fridge and garbage can. Lol So it seemed odd to use it on something I’m going to eat.

I normally follow recipes when I cook. I’m not a great cook. I can tweak a recipe to my taste, but I always need a base recipe…to lead me in the right direction. For this I had none. I debated on how to make this…soy sauce or beef broth…onion soup mix? I finally pretty much used whatever was on hand. (I did take a picture, but as I was taking the picture, Kevin said I was weird and that the food didn’t even look nice. So that kind of annoyed me, so I didn’t even upload the pic onto the computer.)

I didn’t use measurements…I just did, a bit of this and a bit of that…tasting it to see what I needed.

• 2-3 cups of Macaroni pasta (cook as directed)
• Beef strips
• Soy sauce
• Hoisin sauce
• Black pepper
• One onion
• Long green beans
• Minced garlic

While I minced the garlic and cut the onion and long green, I mixed baking soda into the meat and let it sit for about 10 minutes,. After that’s done, I rinsed the beef under cold water a few times. In the pan it goes with the garlic. I added the onions after a minute or two. Then added the green beans. Shake, shake, shake some soy sauce. When beef was cooked, I added the macaroni,. Mix it up. I tasted it and it was bland, but was afraid that using too much soy sauce would make it too salty. So I looked in the fridge and grabbed the hoisin sauce, since it has a sweet note to it…Squeeeeeze…mix it up some more. A bit of black pepper and it was done.

The verdict wasn’t that great. Lol I actually debated on writing a blog about it or not. But I decided that cooking is a learning experience. One of my first mistakes was that my long green beans were not cooked enough. Sure they had a crunch to it, but I’m pretty sure that the crunch meant it was raw. I’ve never cooked green beans before. So, lesson learned. Other than that, I thought that the macaroni came out okay. It didn’t taste like Kevin’s dad’s, but it was edible. Kevin, on the other hand, told me he didn’t like it. Anyway…besides the long beans being too uncooked, I kind of liked it. The beef strips were tender and not tough. Thanks Judyfoodie. J