Adventures in cooking

I thought it was time to do an update on some of my recent adventures in cooking. I'm considering making this a reoccurring topic series, as I've previously blogged about some of my endeavors into the fun world of culinary arts (well...let's not get crazy, I really don't have anything down to an art yet).
So far I've chronicled the making of pancakes, pasta, soup, pie, and stuffed shells. All of which turned out tasty, for the most part.
About a month ago, I foamed at the mouth while reading Pioneer Woman's recipe for dilly bread, I'd never had anything like it, but couldn't wait to give it a try. I gathered all the needed ingredients, and devoted an entire evening to preparing it. Unfortunately, no one warned me about the pungent smell of warm yeast...yuck!! As I was mixing the yeast with luke-warm water, (actually luke-warm anything grosses me out) I began to feel nauseous. Then I added the dill and other ingredients and was completely turned off even before I baked the bread. (When recounting these events to my mother her first comment was "ARE YOU PREGNANT?!?!?", no Mom, NO I assured her....just grossed out).
I stuck the bread in the oven the required amount of time, and was even more grossed out by the strong smell of the baking bread that quickly filled my house. I tried one tiny bite and felt my gag reflexes start to quiver.
No more for me.
Jameson tried it and he like it, even went back for a second piece.
But it wasn't for me.  

So I divided and packaged up the bread and shared it with the neighbors and my lovely sister, who both thoroughly enjoyed it. I was quite bothered that I didn't like the bread; I love dill and I LOVE bread...why didn't I like them together?? I suppose I was unable to move past the yucky yeast smell; I couldn't get it out of my head, and out of my nose. I won't be making this again for a while.

A few nights ago, I attempted my first batch of homemade macaroni and cheese- Yum! I love, love, love macaroni and cheese, but have never made any from scratch. I used a recipe from Pioneer Woman's cookbook. (shocker right??).
Making the cheese sauce was actually much easier than I'd expected, it still took me a bit, but that's baseline for me. However, I was quite dissapointed in the final result's ''cheesiness". The dish had great flavor, but really wasn't very creamy and cheesy. I know that recipes using Velveeta tend to be cheesier, but I was determined to find and learn a fresh, from-scratch recipe that I can use for years. I will attempt it again, and do some tweeking, but if I can't acheive that irresistible creamy texture, I may be in the market for a new recipe.
It did look really pretty on the plate though!!

Our salad, however, was fabulous!!!

Here's to more satisfying new ventures this week!!!