Recipe Freak…

I’ll admit, I have turned into a recipe freak.  I LOVE to scan cookbooks, cooking sites, and cooking blogs for new recipes.  I LOVE Pinterest for finding new recipes, and my new favorite is Punchfork.com.  You can type in ingredients you have on hand in the search bar, and tons of recipe suggestions will pop up in just a second.  I love the blogs and sites that let you pin their recipe pictures, because I can come back later and jot down the recipe.  Those are the only recipes I copy now, because I don’t always have the time to jot it down right when I see it.  There are many sites/blogs that do allow pinning, so I’m all set!

I usually use Punchfork for meal suggestions.  I’m not ever in a pinch wondering what to make for dinner, because I plan my meals two weeks at a time, and my menus are on my cooking software (which I have raved about on my blog several times).  I have found some great new recipes all over the internet, and cooking is so much fun now!  I really enjoy it…

This is what I am making tonight….only I’m tweaking the recipe a bit.

I never liked cabbage rolls as a kid.  I think I had them once, and thought “this is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever put in my mouth”, second only to a dish my mom served once called “Slum Gully”.  Don’t ask…

As I’ve gotten older, my taste buds have changed, and I like things I didn’t like as a child.  My husband brought home a big cabbage on Saturday, so I decided to give cabbage rolls a shot.

I like the cooking sites that have reviews on their recipes.  That is a great help to me, and I usually read them all.  I get ideas for tweaking the recipe, and can see things that didn’t work out with the original recipe.  This recipe was no exception.  There were hundreds of reviews on this recipe, so I didn’t read them all.  But the ones I read were a great help, and I think dinner will be good tonight!

This was supposed to be a crock pot, cook all day recipe, but many found that their cabbage rolls turned out dry, or dry in spots.  Many just baked theirs in a 9x13 at 350 for 90 minutes.  That’s what I’m doing.  Many doubled the sauce, added different spices, excluded some things that didn’t taste right, etc.  One person said that the rolls were too much prep, so she made hers into a casserole.  I agree.  I had to boil the cabbage to loosen the leaves, make the rice, make the filling, pull the leaves off the cabbage, and then I would have had to stuff the leaves and roll them.  I opted for the casserole version tonight as well.  It looked fanstastic going into the oven, and I can’t wait to try it. 

If you’re interested, I’ll post the recipe I used, and my tweaks!  I don’t have time right now, but I’ll be back….and I’ll let you know how dinner turned out!