A long list of mediocre recipes

I've been great about trying new recipes since I went on summer break, but I haven't had much luck with actually picking the recipes. You know, they sound great when you read them, but...

Anyway, here's the handful of duds from the past couple week:

Peanut Noodles: never a fave in my house (DH prefers sesame noodles and I prefer something with fewer carbs) but my tahini had gone bad and we were hungry. So I tried a new, very easy version. Perfectly edible, but not memorable.

Kale and Lentil Stew in the Slow Cooker: DH got me a slow cooker and recipe book a few years ago. The recipes I tried were all terrible, so we gave up after 5 or 6 tries. In the course of unpacking the basement recently we located the slow cooker, so I thought I'd give it another try. This recipe is the best thing I've made in it yet, but that isn't saying much.

Greek Salad: a rare dud from Smitten Kitchen. Part of the problem may be that, first, I don't like raw peppers, and second, I didn't have any fresh oregano.

Peppers stuffed with pesto avocado: see above about me not liking raw peppers.

Vegetarian Stuffed Mushrooms: I was so entranced by the stuffed mushrooms from Blue Apocalypse that I thought I'd try to extend that love to the vegetarian side of the family. Um, no.

White Bean and Fennel Dip: it sounded so lovely in the description... and wasn't actually bad the first time out, but was just nasty as leftovers.

Chicken Poached in Milk with Tarragon and Peas: going the other way, this was intensely boring the first day, but had perked up noticeably by day 2. Still not worth doing again.

Spaghetti with Garlic and Arugula from You're Doing it Wrong: Sounded so lovely, tasted so boring. I used three HUGE cloves of very fresh garlic, which actually may have been too subtle for the dish. A smaller, older, feistier garlic may have been more effective.

New recipe count: 37

Ten on Tuesday: 10 things I want to do with my summer

1) Read a lot
2) Catch up on TV viewing (like Body of Proof, which I haven't even started watching the 3rd season and now it's been cancelled!)
3) Keep trying new recipes
4) Catch up with family. We've got THREE (count 'em, three) different mini-reunions this summer, not counting the one at my aunt's funeral last week
5) Learn all about the math section of the ACT...
6)... and the SAT
7) Relearn calculus
8) Lose some weight
9) Knit something really different, like lace.
10) Finish knitting my first sweater.
11) Knit more mittens. Like these:

FO: more mittens

Just dropping in for a quick update. It's been a crazy month, what with the end of school and my aunt dying suddenly. I continued to push through trying to make mittens for ALL the people at the elementary school who were important in my sons' lives. Here are the next two pairs:

Yes, that's DROPS 110-39 (rav link) being done as fraternal twin mittens in pink and blue. My younger son was quite insistent. Yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash, knit on size 3 wooden needles.

And these are another mild variation on NHM #5(rav link) same brand of yarn, same needles, etc.