really, who follows recipes?

so! on wednesday night i ventured to make tofu parmigiana. after reading the reviews, i decided to freeze the tofu in the morning and then, when i was ready to use it, placed it in a bowl and poured boiling water over it. this was supposed to give it a more chicken-like, and less tofu-like, texture. the final product was still obviously softer than chicken, but it did give it a less tofu-like texture. so i would recommend doing that. i had to omit the parmesan from the breading since ours turned out to be moldy. after slightly patting dry the tofu i coated it with the breading, and it didn't stick perfectly so i sprayed with pam then coated again. this helped. i then tried to bake them (rather than fry) but i didn't have the time that it was going to take to get them crispy, so after a while i ended up just frying them with pam. for the red sauce, the recipe called for only 8 ounces of tomato sauce, but i ended up using the whole 15-ounce can, and i'm glad i did..that was just the right amount of sauce. i used a combination of fresh and block-style shredded mozzarella. for dad's, i knew his cheese wouldn't melt perfectly (seeing as that it's "veggie shreds"), so i gave it a sprinkle of olive oil. i think it helped! dad asked if it was regular cheese; it tasted a little better than that stuff normally does, and it looked a lot better/melted a lot better. i think the dish turned out great..salted just perfectly! i served it with steamed broccoli, cauliflower, and zucchini, and the leftover pasta from sunday. i really loved it. i think i'll have the last piece for lunch today.

then there was dessert. i found a recipe for gluten-free vanilla cupcakes. the recipe called for 4 eggs, but i only had one. yet i was determined to make the cupcakes. so, i looked up substitutes for eggs and found you could use 1/4 cup applesauce for each egg. so, i figured i would half the recipe, and i found a single-serving size of regular applesauce in the pantry--perfect! well, the all-to-familiar happened. i forgot to half the dry ingredients! and, to further complicate things, while adding the dry ingredients, i discovered i did not have enough GF flour. so, i found GF biscuit and baking mix. this was going to work! i combined the flour and mix. i also added additional baking powder, due to the loss of power from 3 eggs. then, i needed another container of applesauce since i now needed 3/4 cup rather than just 1/4. we only had mango peach or cinnamon. hmm...fruit, vanilla, and chocolate or cinnamon, vanilla, and chocolate? in the spirit of summer, i chose the mango peach. after mixing the batter, it seemed a little thick, so i kept adding lactose-free milk until it was the right consistency. boy, this was such a mish-mash of ingredients! but i was determined to make cupcakes and NOT got the grocery store! well, the cupcakes came out looking okay, but they quickly fell and had slight indents in their centers. i decided to make dark chocolate frosting to top them off. now i just had to wait nervously till mom and dad got home to taste-test them.

well, mission completed! they really like them, they were nice and moist. dad apparently couldn't get enough of them; when i woke up the next morning, half of the cupcakes were missing. now there are only 2 or 3 left. well, just goes to show that recipes are no more than general suggestions! ;)

other than that, haven't been cooking much this week. we had leftovers twice because our fridge was jam-packed full. i'll be on my own for dinner tonight since mom and dad will be having dinner with friends. mom brought home leftovers from bravo last night, so i think i might have to take care of those.

this morning i ventured to make pecan roulade. i'm making the dessert for mom and dad to take to dinner tonight. it's cooling right now, then i just have to frost and roll it up.

i work this afternoon and possibly tomorrow night. if i don't work tomorrow night, for dinner it is chicken fajitas with crunchy lime cabbage and avocados. yum!