You Win Some, You Lose Some

We had a night of winners, losers and also-rans.

And an unexpected winner.

In my quest to make my way through the mountain of recipes I want to try from the

Food Network magazine I hosted a FNM Extravaganza! last night.

First the surprise of the night, Fried pickle chips!

Yep, you saw that right. They were in the June issue and looked just

quirky enough that I felt the need to try them.

They are really crunchy, being coated in crushed pretzels helps.

Even my 80 somethings Mom and Aunt liked them. Go figure!

Next came a Cornucopia of Kababs!

The July / August issue has one of those fun "50" pull out sections.

Now, let me say that I do love FNM but please,

can they list more obscure ingredients???

Last time they had me searching the internet for "Japanese spice."

Yes. it does exist and for 15 bucks you can be the proud owner of some as well.

Or, you can have mine cause you know what? The recipe called for a whopping 1 tablespoon and I now have an entire jar of the stuff sitting on my shelf.

And the recipe wasn't good enough to replicate.

This time they called for an Asian Pear. Huh?

I scoured the market for it with no luck so I came home and

Googled it!

Genius! I was able to determine the texture and relative flavor of it

and how it is usually used in cooking.

I was making the Korean Beef (#2) if you're interested.

This elusive pear was part of the marinade and I determined that

in this application the good old fashioned American pear in my fridge would suffice.

And it did! As did my substitution of flank steak for the

boneless short ribs (good luck finding those).

Did the chicken liver (#28) for my aunt.

Yeah, still not a fan of chicken liver, my aunt thought they were good.

And then did the sausage and pepper skewers from the April issue.

I thought doing sausage, or in my case, bratwurst, as a kebab sounded

like a fun new way to serve brats.

They get coated with a pesto sauce as they cooked and it turned out really good.

Now for my loser.

The Israeli Tomato Salad from the July issue.

It all sounded like good flavors but the dill was overpowering

and the overall flavor was just kind of flat.

My mom took it home. She is going to try a adding a little vinegar and sugar.

Hm, go mom!

OK, well moral to this adventure,

I had a dud in the mix but nobody went home hungry.

We all tried something out of the box and liked it.

Didn't have to call Dominos.

Oh, and have your mother bring along a chocolate cake from Portillo's

'cause if all else fails,

Let Them Eat Cake!