Sometimes the details escape me...

I am not a detail person.  I rarely remember to read a recipe all the way through before I start.  Sometimes this works out, but most of the time it does not.  But details, arrrghh....  I would much prefer to get the general sense of a recipe and throw it all together.  I usually glaze over words like: emulsify, fold, whisk, etc.  And, any ingredients I am not familiar with, I tend to think as optional.   

Which once again got me into trouble this weekend.  I made a quinoa dish that Chad had tasted at a dinner and loved.  I swore I followed the directions (well, at least most of them).  Chad called me out on it.  So, we made it again for a cookout we were going to on Sunday and he watched over my shoulders (and helped too).  Apparently, scallions are an important ingredient, one should measure out lime juice, not just squeeze a couple into a recipe and cumin seeds are not the same thing as ground cumin. Oh yeah, and I had to actually toast the cumin seeds.  Seriously???  Yes, indeed, the quinoa was 100% better!!  I posted the recipe in an earlier post:

Quinoa recipe in this post:
http://vegginaroundblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/spring-time-cookout.html

The other night, not following the directions "exactly" did work out:
I had cabbage and broccoli from my Natures Garden Delivered box that I needed to use.  My children were "starving" and I was trying to think of something fast, vegan, gluten free and tasty that I could make.  I got onto my Wholefood app on my iphone and entered cabbage, broccoli, vegan and found this recipe.  Chinese-Style Longevity Noodles-

I altered the recipe a bit and did:

For the sauce:

1/4 c veggie broth

1TB gluten free, low sodium, organic tamari

1/2 tsp sesame oil

pinch of red pepper flakes

1/2 TB grapeseed oil

tsp of garlic and tsp of grated ginger

I used a box of quinoa spiral pasta (gluten free)

about 2 cups of chopped cabbage

2 cups of broccoli

1/2 cup toasted cashews

I mixed all the sauce ingredients together, and then heated the sauce in the skillet (I later read the recipe and this is not how I was suppose to do it) but it still worked!  Then I added the cabbage, broccoli and sauteed it all together.  When the pasta was cooked, I drained and added it in, then topped it off with the cashews.  I thought it was very tasty, it was easy to fix - vegan, and gluten free.  If it were just for me and Chad I would have added more red pepper, ginger and garlic to spice it up.  One girl liked it, the other absolutely did not.  Chad said he did want chicken in his (we unfortunately had no chicken in the house).

Just to share, two more culinary mistakes I made recently - "meyers" lemons are not the same thing as a regular old lemon, nor are "preserved" lemons.