Day Eighty Eight: Keen on Quinoa

A few years ago I (accidentally) discovered a grain-like food called Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah), which in addition to being gluten-free, is also crazy high in protein. It's also a good source of fiber, iron, magnesium, and all sorts of other nutrients one doesn't get enough of.  Where do I sign up?

Even though I've eaten quinoa many times since, I've never actually made anything with quinoa.  In fact, there has been a box of the stuff sitting in my pantry for a shocking amount of time.  Determined to use it,  I found Martha's Warm Quinoa, Spinach, and Shiitake Mushroom Salad and decided to use it as a side for a steak dinner.

Let me start by saying that this recipe is very easy.  This fact did not help me at all.  From the start, I completely wrecked every step:  I burned half the mushrooms in the broiler, smoking up the entire house and nearly setting the smoke detectors off.   My smoke detectors are something akin to an air-raid siren, which not only causes my children to panic, but also sends every dog in the neighborhood into frenzy.  To prevent the imminent cacophony,  I had to open up all the doors and windows to let out the smoke and subsequently let in every mosquito in town.  Then while taking the quinoa off the stove, I managed to burn my hand and had to walk around the rest of the night with a bag of ice strapped to it.  The resulting blister:

Somehow, the recipe turned out very well, despite being short a few (burned) mushrooms: 

Now, if you will excuse me, I'm off in search of mosquito spray and pain reliever...