This weekend I did a fair bit of cooking, but none of the dishes were anything to get excited about (except for the buttermilk chicken, but more on that later). I made strawberry lime hand pies, 2 different roasts that both ended up in a Shepherd's pie, a loaf of bread, and buttermilk and panko chicken tenders.

The pies weren't too bad, they were just missing something. I mixed about a cup of chopped strawberries with the juice and the zest of one lime and 2 tablespoons of sugar. I used some ginger crust my sister gave me. Next time I'll probably use more juice and zest.

The bread was very close to a complete loss. I don't know how much of it was my fault and how much of it is the recipe's fault. About a year ago I tried making bread for the first time. I used this same recipe and the bread came out of the oven smelling good and tasting like crap, not to mention it was shaped like a flat brick.

This time I felt like I was armed with a wider knowledge of baking (since I've been baking for about 2 weeks!) and I was going to use some buttermilk to give it some added flavor. Well, it came out slightly taller than a brick and was too dense to truly enjoy. But I decided to have a warm slice slathered with butter because I feel that even crappy bread can taste decent when you have a slice as soon as it comes out. Imagine a commercial where someone is having their first bite of something good...their eyes are closed and you can see pure joy when they finally taste it. That was me, until we get to the part where I tasted the bread. Why did it taste like it needed salt? I called my sister so I could complain about the recipe. I was explaining all this when I realized that the recipe had called for salt, I just forgot to add it. Oops.I had a large London broil that I wanted to use to make more steak sandwiches. I cut the roast in half and browned both pieces, then used 2 different cooking methods just to see what the results would be. One roast went into the slow cooker with some soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, a can of cream of mushroom soup, broth and onions. The second roast went into my Rachel Ray dutch oven with broth, onions and smothered in horseradish. The slow cooker roast had more flavor, but was tougher. The dutch oven roast didn't have much flavor, except for horseradish, and it was dry, but it was more tender than the slow cooker roast. To get the roasts ready for the Shepherd's pie, I chopped them into cubes and then simmered the cubes in a couple of cups of water with a little salt for a few hours.

While all that was simmering away I decided I'd make Shepherd's pie (notice how I didn't even know what I was going to do with this cubed steak broth mixture until it was done cooking). I added some leeks and carrots and while those cooked I started cooking the potatoes. Long story short, I have a Shepherd's pie I just pulled out of the fridge. I didn't take care with it so it looks a little (VERY) sad. But I know it tastes super good and I'm the only one eating it so it's ok.Now I'm super worn out and only have a few hours of weekend left. Maybe I'll try making something else before I head to bed. :)