Real Simple... SO Simple

So it was a mixture of victory and mostly failure today. First on the victory, Simple Syrup! It's SO Simple! Best is I found the reciple in Real Simple magazine. This is one of my favorite magazines of all time. It suggests many simple ideas for cooking, decorating, keeping house, everything every month. Its just fantastic.

Anyways, this time they suggested adding mint and lime rinds to it then of course letting it go through a sieve. I then made a black tea and added it... okay. Then a green tea and added it... yum. Simply delicious.

Now, my other effort was a Rachael Ray recipe, Apple Cheddar Turnovers. It started out good, I mixed the water, sugar, and butter and it turned that light amber. I added the apples and they softened perfectly. But.. then..

Now to be honest, I didn't use the correct bread. I should have used regular white bread but I had lovely italian chicago style bread. I thought instead of folding it over I would make more of little pies then turnovers. However when I tried to use the rolling pin to press the cheddar in that didn't work. But I added the apples and the sauce then put another slice on top and added more cheddar on top of that slice. And then I followed the directions and put them in to cook for 20 minutes. It seemed a lot but I thought I would check on it at 10 and 15 minutes. They couldn't be that far off... After 10 minutes they were charred. So this time I will blame it on my lack of common sense and on the recipe both. However, once I rid the items of the char they did not taste too bad, and in the bites where I could taste the cheddar and sweet apple at the same time I could taste the possibilities. So I modified the recipe directions and may try it again.

Ooh, but success. I have the book Eating For Life filled with healthy person recipes. Some taste good, some taste like healthy recipes. So the Asian Beef Stir Fry. It was terribly dry and terribly boring. Mainly because to keep it healthy no oil was used in cooking it. The soy sauce was strong and actually gross. But, I added lime juice and it actually tasted good! Its not a recipe I will repeat unless I am looking to lose a little weight. But now it is actually palatable and even tasty.