As is my nature, it finally came to me that with all the good food that I have shown on this site, I should also show some of the things I’ve either eaten, or made, and for some reason, they just didn’t work out.
I’ve written about the Speckled Butter Beans, Yellow Eye Beans & October Beans elsewhere. I bought all three of these beans at Cara’s Corner at the WNC Farmers’ Market. I had never heard of them, nor tried them. All three were a disappointment. The Yellow Eye Beans were reminiscent of Black Eyed Peas in flavor but just weren’t as flavorful. The Speckled Butter Beans turned out too salty and the October Beans ended up reminding me of Pintos. No reason to fix October Beans when I could buy canned Pintos.
Several years ago when I was passing through Macon, Georgia I stopped in a “Ole Times Country Buffet” for lunch. One of the items I tried were called “Zipper” Peas (or that is what the waitress thought their name was). These peas were extremely good flavored for my first helping, but the second helping not so much. Don’t know why.
I made a lentil soup last night. It was a vegetarian version with fennel & Rosemary, but just wasn’t tasty to me. It was much better with the Spicy Chili Crisp.
I included a picture of one of the “To Be the One” pizzas that I had at “Sticks-n-Stones” in Greensboro, North Carolina. But if you look at it closely you should note the large uneven crust that circles the sauce. I’ve had great pizzas there, but this was one of a few that failed, and I think that Elvis may have left the building. A shame!
I tried Burrata and it just didn’t float my boat. But then Mozzarella isn’t anything to write home about either.
There is a picture of a Mexican Salad in a glass cup. It had all the things that I like, like corn, black olives, sour cream, lettuce, tomato & Bell pepper. Why oh why didn’t it work? I don’t know. But, maybe with the right sauce this might be a winner.
I was looking online and saw a picture that captivated my interest from the first moment. I was attracted to the seared scallops, the bacon bits, and the bright green garden peas. I think I had tracked down the cookbook that the photo came from and had bought it in the first 15 minutes. I even found the recipe online and had fixed it before the book arrived. The original recipe called for Mint, but I would prefer Tarragon. *I’ve also shown my version and there is hope. I added a red cabbage & corn side, a polenta waffle and some grape tomatoes. The cabbage & corn needed something, maybe vinegar & mayo, with sweetener.
The mustard sauce shown above included some flour with the yellow mustard. This didn’t work, but sometime later, I left out the flour, and may have added sweetener & even horseradish and it worked on steamed cabbage.
I had left over rotisserie chicken and tried the Fireside Stew. Just a basic stew, but not special. *The one good thing I got from this was that the chef mentioned in a video to keep all the scraps of onion, carrots & celery to add to the homemade chicken stock. I’ve been freezing these and may make some more stock at home in a week or so.
Things that do work:
Steamed Cabbage with mustard sauce.
Steamed Cabbage with Asian flavoring.
Nice Thought
The following images were from three different days of pizza at Sticks-n-Stones Pizza in Greensboro, North Carolina. These were all their Margherita Style pizzas which they call “To Be The One.” I also added Jalapeno peppers (not pickled).
Two of the three had really good flavor, but the first one shown was lackluster. One sign of the poor pizza was the irregularity of the outside crust. Look at that. Why would I want all that barren crust? I think if you were to determine the ratio of sauce to barren crust at least a third, if not more of the bad pizza had no sauce. I don’t want to pay for pizza and just get crust. The other thing might be less noticeable. I think they used cheddar cheese, or some yellow/orange cheese on the poor pizza. *Unfortunately, the last two pizzas I have had at Sticks-n-Stones have been nothing to write home about. And, since I have had a bunch of really good pizzas. The kind I said as I was eating them, “Now that’s a really good pizza,” I know a good pizza from a poor one.
Bill Gibson, II 