Update: ATK's Pimento Cheese Featherbed Eggs

marilynfl

Moderator

well....

A few days ago I made this for my southern born & bred neighbors, cut out a slice and passed it along.
Here is my admittedly biased "I don't like cornbread to begin with" opinion:
  • The cornbread portion was overly peppery (both black pepper and cayenne pepper) and yet tasteless.
  • When the shallots and pimentos were added to the custard, they floated to the top. So regardless of how I tried to ladle the custard over the cornbread shards, these add-ins ended up on the top of the dish and not through-out.
  • I baked it the minimum time and the custard did not fully set. However, the grand daughter was waiting to take it home for their dinner and so I told her to add 10 more minutes cooking time. When I tasted my slice, there was NO CUSTARDY flavor.
  • I had added an extra ounce of cheese and it STILL MADE NO DIFFERENCE. Somehow this dish was devoid of flavor, like ATK forgot to add that into the ingredients.
  • It did look pretty
so my opinion: this is an overly-fussy preparation that does not justify its boring flavor.

But--I repeat--I am biased here, so allow me to post the verdict from an 83-year old, a 73-year old and a 21-year old (all born on the South Carolina shore): "Back to your strata. None of us were very impressed with it. It just did not have a distinct flavor. Now the brand of pimento cheese you sent was very good."

Ha! Vindicated!!


cornbread.jpg


By the way, this is the pimento cheese spread I passed along:
1729629021785.png
 
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Well, at least they gave you a real opinion. I get annoyed with people who don't like my commenting on my own creations. Anyone else?? They see it as my being overly-critical, or falsely-modest, or whatever. I try to explain that when I cook, everything is an experiment and if I eat it, I will analyze it, because that is where my interest lies. On the other hand, if I think it is outstanding, I will say so as well. It has nothing to do with who made it, but relates to my opinion of the success of the end product.

I wonder why my dinner guests have disappeared.
 
Absolutely. I have been hearing for decades that wives are intimidated and don't know what they could serve and ............. you know..........
 
marg, I agree with you 100%.

Have any of your friends told you they are afraid to invite you over for dinner because "I don't cook/bake as well as you do!"

Heck...order pizza...friendship is friendship

Yep - have heard it more than once. And my response is always - order pizza:)
 
marg, I agree with you 100%.

Have any of your friends told you they are afraid to invite you over for dinner because "I don't cook/bake as well as you do!"

Heck...order pizza...friendship is friendship
When Lisa and I go to San Diego to visit her family, I am usually asked to prepare a "family barbeque" on Sundays. All the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., come around, plus some dear family friends.

It broke my heart when I found out, after the fact, that my niece and her BF had prepared an authentic Guamanian dish, brought it to my FIL's house (her grandfather's) and were "too shy to put it out". I was told it was because "they were intimidated by all the good food you turn out when you barbeque and cook and bake on the holidays". (Her BF at the time was from Guam.)

I've known my sweet niece since she was born. She's 31 now, and was about 27 when this all took place. I hunted her down, apologized if I, in any way, had somehow been off-putting or overbearing when I prepared a meal. She assured me that wasn't the case, and I had done nothing wrong. They were just shy about their own cooking ability, and didn't feel confident enough to put it on the table.

Geeze. I assured her/them that I welcomed ALL contributions, and would have loved to try the food they made.
 
aw, that's just sad. I hope she will try again.

I made Malaysian beef rendang recently and the flavor profile was amazing. I added the leftovers to a bunch of sauteed veggie (onions, carrots, celery, sweet potato, yukon potato, peas) and made a filling for baked hand-held pie...a moveable feast. Southern neighbors weren't that crazy about the lemongrass flavor. So I thinned out (this is no lie) a canned sausage and gravy product they like and gave them a bowl of that to dip the hand pies in.

They liked it then.

When you are surrounded by 1,396,477,200 barbeque joints, a new taste on the taste buds is a thrill.
 
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