Of Messes in Pots

 

I like to cook.  My dad was a great cook; my mom, not so much (I use past tense because my father passed away in January, but my mom is still with us).  My dad would throw things together and somehow, magically, they would taste terrific.

I have created recipes of my own over the years, but they always start out with an inspiration – a cookie that I really like (Oatmeal Cookies), but think can be improved or a slow cooker dish that’s tasty, but not as spicy as I’d like (Spicy Crock Pot Chili); a soup that’s good, but I think can be better (Carole’s Corn Chowder).

Anyway, last summer, our local grocery store had a terrific sale on fresh corn.  So, I bought 30 ears and Charlie shucked them, I blanched them and then froze the kernels for later use.  I did this because the end result was much less money than buying either canned or frozen corn (end cost was $0.35 per cup, so $0.70 for 2 cups compared to a 16 ounce bag of frozen corn over $1.50).

Of course, this now meant I had 30 ears of corn cobs.  Why not make corn cob soup, I asked myself?  I searched on-line for a recipe and couldn’t find one (this should have been my first clue!).

Nevertheless, I decided to just create a corn cob  soup recipe myself.  No sense in those babies going to waste!

I boiled the cobs for about two hours creating a dark yellow stock.  After removing the cobs (and finally throwing them away!), I started adding various things to the cob broth including chicken broth, chicken, rice and veggies.  Then, I threw in various spices and let it simmer for a while.  Voila’!  Dinner was ready.

I ladled this fabulous concoction into soup bowls and we took a bite.  Underwhelming!  The broth was too sweet!  The spices weren’t right!  The rice wasn’t the best starch to add.  I could go on…

We ate it anyway because we didn’t have a “backup plan” (it was edible; just not good!).  Later, I drained the broth and kept the chicken, rice, veggie mixture and froze it.  Maybe I’ll try to improve upon it at a later date or we’ll eat it anyway…

By the way, “messes in pots” is an idiom that means “of little value”.  While this experiment turned out to be rather pricey in both time and ingredients, since its taste was “of little value,” I won’t be recreating this failure any time soon!

So, here are some pictures of this misadventure…”of messes in pots” and messes in my kitchen!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, a few months later, I ran across this little gem of an article in a major magazine.  A recipe was NOT included – just this little blurb.  I’m sorry to say that I can’t credit the source because I don’t remember the magazine.  I cut this out, scanned it and filed it on my computer with no reference and I don’t want to guess the magazine and credit the wrong source!  Anyway, notice the reference to “small, sippable handheld portions”?  Think again before YOU go to the trouble!

Sorry, I’m not including a recipe either!  Don’t want to embarrass myself with tons of hateful comments!  Also, stay tuned for future failures…I figure I might as well share my failures along with my successes {grin}.  After all, some of them are pretty funny and we all need a good laugh now and then!

Tootles,

Related Posts:

(other Experiments Gone Array and other Anthologies)

• Strawberry Cake
• The Casa Bella Swedish Pancake Factory
• The Leprechaun Cake Wreck Caper
• Top 3 Reasons to Have Turkey for Thanksgiving