Ha! I love kale chips!

Oh well, we can't all like everything huh?

I made a crock pot recipe someone here posted once long ago. And then unthinkingly reported back on it. Negatively. It was a method problem (crock pot ya know) not the ingredients but that person's feelings were really hurt anyway. :(

This thread could be fun, if
we talk general food....and not specific recipies. because If you want recipes...I have a bunch!
I could also mention a French Bordeaux that friends think is wonderful....but I am not impressed!

not impressed: Brandywine heirloom tomotoes

highly impressed: Conestoga heirlooms

kay

I eat anything that is put in front of me...

This can be a most useful topic.

If I report a recipe which didn't turn out great for me, and yet getting responses back that everyone else likes it, I may discover that I have made a mistake in the following of the recipe.

Or the original poster may say, "Sorry I forgot one thing in the recipe"

dcarch

I think if this thread goes in the right direction it can be interesting and not targeted to offend anyone. Tastes are so subjective...

My sister and I are always bringing some new "must try" product to one another's homes. Sometimes the receiver raves over it, and other times the giver gets 3/4 of the jar back with a "thanks....but, doesn't do it for me." Our feelings are not hurt, and very often we discover something new and wonderful.

Right off the top of my head, I am thinking of the herbs in a tube that were the subject of a recent post. Not that impressed.

I generally bake everything from scratch, but I did try some of the Barefoot Contessa mixes for cupcakes and cookies. Not bad, but not nearly as good as the ones made from her recipes using fresh ingredients, IMO. I love Ina, but I was not all that impressed with the box mixes.

amck wrote: I think if this thread goes in the right direction it can be interesting and not targeted to offend anyone.

It did not start out with the intention of offending anyone in my opinion. Rachelellen stated "if it(kale chips) was in GW, please, no offense to anyone."

That sums it up nicely. It could be an interesting thread without being harsh. I don't expect everyone to like every recipe that I make. And in the case of kale or any other vegetable....I buy anaheim chilies all the time and the "heat" factor varies greatly, depending where they are grown. Perhaps that is the case with the kale not tasting right.

Teresa

Shaun, I am truly sorry if I hurt your feelings, that was not my intention! Obviously, I thought they sounded wonderful or I wouldn't have tried making them. I honestly couldn't remember from whom I'd heard of them nor from where I got the original recipe. If I had, I would have included a message in your direction to this effect:

My one, true, junk food weakness is potato chips. The thought of satisfying that craving with something that had at least some food value was very attractive!

The recipe/concept was not at fault. The kale chips were crispy, light, and attractive. I just didn't like them. Well, I don't care for many foods that others enjoy, as do we all.

Linda, I like pumpkin seeds! BUT, I can only eat so many, and that isn't near as many as are included in your average pumpkin. They're like sunflower seeds in the shell...I'll eat a small handful and then the rest will sit in a jar in the pantry until they're stale or rancid.

This topic thread could be fun, if we all stipulate that different people enjoy different things.

I LOVE scrambled eggs, with a side of Japanese (short grain) rice and my home made kimchee. My oldest friend (with whom I was living many years ago) came downstairs just as I was sitting down in delicious anticipation to a plate of this, early one morning. His breakfast greeting? "Ooaagghh! WHAT is that STENCH???"

His wife was more kind, when she came down a few minutes later, simply wrinkling her nose a bit before going for the box of Raisin Bran, but I never did open a jar of kimchee around them again.

I love pumpkin seeds too. I haven't tried toasting and salting them myself. I get them at Fresh Market and they are teriffic.

I have made many recipe that people here have raved about and they were really delicious. I have made a few others that people here raved about and I had to throw them out. Those recipes that I hated shall be nameless. One time I made one and wrote about how awful it was and named it here before I thought about it. No one ever said anything but after I thought about it I really regretted saying anything because I'm sure I hurt the posters feelings which definitely was not my intention.

I guess it's great that we don't all like the same things. If we did there wouldn't be enough of those things to go around.

because I AM so picky, I seldom mention a recipe that I didn't care for because probably 90% of the world loves it and it's mostly just me that doesn't. I did like the kale chips, there are few vegetables that I'm not really fond of. I also truly love Sherry's spinach brownies but another member said that her guests refused to eat them and she had to throw them out.

To each their own, I suppose. I did dehydrate some very thin slices of zucchini, and sprinkled some with onion salt, as instructed by a poster on another GW forum. She said they were "just like potato chips". Nuh uh! They were crispy and they were salty and they were good but they were absolutely nothing like a potato chip. I should have probably figured it out anyway, after all, it was zucchini and it tasted like zucchini, good but not potatoes...

Elery likes salsa or hot sauce with eggs, and the thought of eating salsa first thing in the morning turns my stomach. No way am I eating kimchee in the morning either, and I don't like pumpkin seeds.

Annie

Most of the time when this happens to me it's a recipe that:
a. I cut out of a magazine
and
b. Is a whole lot of work

And then I promptly throw the recipe away and forget all about it! So, I can't really name any specific recipes.

I've also had this happen when I have a really good recipe for something that I've been making for years and then I try a variation on it. Either I see a recipe somewhere that is almost identical but with some specific difference, or I get an "inspiration" of "HEY! Wouldn't THIS be good?". Usually, it's not! Inspiration = something ridiculous but WTH, it sounded like a good idea at the time!! LOL

Lesson from the above paragraph: Don't mess with perfection!

Pumpkin seeds are the one my incredibly picky son and I fight over. He wants them so badly, but I don't want to go to the effort. I can never say no to any food he'll actually eat. The effort it takes to clean and toast them is so not worth it to me, even if he does love them. Every Halloween he begs me to make them, eats what he wants, and then the rest go out.

I think, for me, I've learned to eat things I'm less than impressed with, it has to be in certain ways. For instance, I hate sauerkraut; the smell, the texture, etc. Unless it's October, we're in Nashville's Germantown community at the Oktoberfest festival (raising money for their church), the oompa band is playing and the kraut is on a brat that is sitting on a crusty bread, smothered in mustard... Then, there is nothing better than kraut! Or sweet potatoes and it's Thanksgiving....

Less than impressed? Radishes. They seem so bland. They don't even have the earthy flavor that beets have that I dislike. I can eat them, but I don't see what the big deal is. Beet and olives are my two nemesis and I have yet to find a way to eat them that I like. I'm curious as to whether or not a proper borscht would change my mind. May try that.

Texas sheet cake. For some reason, everyone seems to love it except me. And I love cake!

Sue

Rob, I adore beets, but borscht leaves me cold. Hee hee, yes, that was meant to be a funny. But then, as much of a soup fiend as I am, I just have never cared for sweet soups, and beets are so sweet!

I don't know that I've ever had Texas sheet cake...unless someone served it up at a church coffee hour and I ate it without knowing. But then, I'm not much of a cake person. My mother used to bake cakes and put a slice in our lunches when she was feeling particularly ambitious in the homemaker way, but she didn't frost them. Frosted cakes just seem too darned sweet to me.

Darn it Annie, now I'm going to have to try dehydrating some zucchini. I really do want to find a crunchy, salty snack to at least partially replace my chips. A while back, I got some vegetable chip thingys from Trader Joes, I think, and liked them very much...until I found out they were deep fried. Sort of defeats my purpose. Six times as expensive as potato chips, and not really a whit better for me!

I'm with Kay re Brandywine tomatoes. Like many disappointments, it may have resulted from Brandywines being overhyped. They just didn't live up to my high expectations.

Morels are another example of that. In addition to the perhaps unrealistically high expectation I had for morels, I may not have understood how to prepare them well. I figure all those morel fanciers can't be wrong. There must be a shortcoming on my part. I'll try them again, if I can find some.

I put pumpkin seeds on a par with sawdust.

Jim

:( We just had pumpkin seeds last night. Ground 1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds with 1 tablespoon ground chapolte & 1 tablespoon cumin, S&P. Used as a coating for a pork tenderloin on the grill that ended up in soft tacos w/a tommatillo sauce. Mmmm good.

/tricia

Jim, Brandywine don't do exceptionally well here either, it could be the coold nights or the long growing season, but I only get a couple ripe from one plant, not worth the effort here.

As for morels, you and me both. Dad loved the things, I don't care for them at all. I love to go forage for them, I just don't want to eat them!

Annie

Buttermilk pie.

Had never heard of it before I came to Texas.

Not sure what I expected when I tried it.
Something similar to cheese cake, maybe.
And I do love buttermilk.

Decided on the first bite that it was absolutely the worst thing I have ever put in my mouth.
Made myself eat two more bites, just to be sure.
Have never tried it again since, and never will!
Why anyone would take someting as good and fine as buttermilk and purposely ruin it like that is beyond me.

But,as others have pointed out, we all have different tastes.
And THAT is a very good thing!

Rusty

I planted a Brandywine tomato plant a few years ago. It yielded exactly one tomato all season. It tasted pretty good, but it wasn't worth the space in my garden for that meager yield.

I tried Brandywine and a few other heirlooms. They were not worth the effort. A friend gave me 3 Cherokee Purple tomato plants this spring. Much to my surprise they are taking over my garden. Prolific does not begin to describe them. The tomatoes are huge and the heavy duty cages are bent like a pretzel. I'm sorry I did not take a picture of the 3lb 9oz tomato I picked last week. They are much like a Brandywine. I've given away some and the recepients have said they are the best tomato they have ever eaten.

Texas Sheet Cake - my second favorite cake in all of the world, and so easy to make.

I loooooove morels!! They have a very delicate taste and are best just floured and fried in butter.
Now I am going to show what a hick I am...seared ahi tuna...not impressed...but seared beef with the same choices of sauces and I'm in heaven!

Tricia,

I would most likely enjoy the dish you made with pumpkin seeds. What I don't like are the seeds that need to be tediously cracked, one by one. That or chewed up hull and all. Pepitas are fine and I plan, sometime in the future, to make chicken with pipian.

Jim

I love Texas Sheet Cake too! YUM!

What bugs me when reading recipe reviews at recipe sites that show the reviews and people can give so many stars. Well it drives me crazy when someone gives a recipe 1 star and procedes to tell of all the changes they made to the recipe. How can you say a recipe was bad when you didn't even follow the ingredients listed? That's just stupid and unfair too!

No Boil lasagna noodles. Just don't get it. They have neither a good texture or taste. I'll stick to the boiled ones.
Love heirloom tomatoes. They have much more flavor then the ones in the grocery store. The yield isn't as much as commercially grown. But the flavor is better. Nutella...that stuff is just nasty, lol. Be it on a sandwich or in a dessert. Yuck! NancyLouise

I was shaking my head in agreement when I read lowspark's post.

I am a sucker for food magazines and cannot resist the ones that tout "The Best Chocolate Cake Recipe Ever," or your search is over for the "Best Chili In The World."

More often than not I have to hunt down a bunch of ingredients for these recipes and spend the better part of the day going through various steps and stages to get through the recipe. Then...(drumroll) I get something that just isn't that impressive, given the time, effort & $$ it took to make.

Shucks. One year the Brandywines were the best tomatoes EVER and the next they were passable.

The last recipe I tried based on reviews (not here) was some sort of Pakistani lentil curry. It might have been good had I not put it in the compost bin halfway through cooking. It smelled very BAD. Technically, I was impressed. Such nicely scented ingredients combined into something so terrible.

"I'm sorry I did not take a picture of the 3lb 9oz tomato I picked last week."

At the grocery store price of $3.00 per pound that one tomato would cost $10.69. It's worth growing your own tomatoes! I've grown several good heirloom tomatoes. It's just that Brandywine was unimpressive, IMO. Lots of people like it though.

Rusty,

Funny you should mention Buttermilk Pie. I made it just yesterday for the first time. Two out of five of us liked it. But I had only a small slice and someone who didn't like it sent the rest home with a guest. :-( So the jury is still out so far as I'm concerned. Sounds like you were expecting something that tastes like buttermilk, which it doesn't.

Jim

nancylouise, send all your Nutella to me, I love the stuff. If I buy a jar of Nutella and a box of graham crackers I'll eat ONE.....every single night until the jar is gone!

Annie

I remember something like this:

A while back, there was a very attactive lady doing a cookinbg show on a British TV station. She was extremely popular because she was attractive.

Then viewer complains started to come in. No one seemed to be able to duplicate her recipes. They found out later that she really could not cook at all. They fired her.

dcarch

My grandmother made buttermilk pies. She also made vinegar pies. I don't remember ever tasting either of them.

I couldn't find the history of them, but I suspect they were first written and made during a war period when items to make pies were in short supply. Most people had chickens and cows back then so they had eggs and milk. Perhaps they were written during the Civil War, World War I, or even during the Great Depression.

Tomatoes are cheap here. I bought 30 pounds of gorgeous red ripe tomatoes for seven dollars. Not a bad one in the bunch- I made roasted tomatoes. Went back the following week for more and they were then ten dollars, still a great deal.

It's definitely not worth it to me to grow tomatoes!

Sometimes I buy a semi gourmet thing like salmon cakes from Whole Foods (on my trip to the big town), all kinds of fresh breads from WF and dh and I both agreed my salmon patties are a whole lot better and their bread is remarkably mediocre.
The pizza slice I bought was excellent though.

"The last recipe I tried based on reviews (not here) was some sort of Pakistani lentil curry. It might have been good had I not put it in the compost bin halfway through cooking. It smelled very BAD. Technically, I was impressed. Such nicely scented ingredients combined into something so terrible."

AH HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Thanks for that laugh fori, I had a hard day at work and it was the refreshment I needed!

I've never had buttermilk pie...googled up a few recipes and it basically reads like a custard, with maybe a bit of tang because of the buttermilk.

Haven't tried vinegar pie, nor "shoofly" pie either.

I suspect beverlyal has the right of it...such desserts were likely invented when on hand ingredients were short and of narrow variety. But then, many things I enjoy now would probably never have made it into our food lexicon had someone, somewhere, somewhen, been very, very hungry.

beverlyal ... was your grandmother from the south? buttermilk, vinegar, chess (flavored with lemon and using cornmeal) and Tyler pies are very similar and all have southern roots ...
chess pie was probably brought over from England. Tyler pies (using sweet milk) seem to have been named for a freed slave born in Orange County Virginia shortly after the Civil War. (Edna Lewis, The Taste of Country Cooking)
Pecan pie and the Amish Shoo-Fly pie (with molasses) are close cousins.
I like Chess and Pecan .. never had the others, but they are all really too sweet for me to eat very often.

kay

hummus...I try, just don't 'like' it.

ML

So since I have lived in Iowa, people keep encouraging me to order breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches. I have been disappointed every time.

I just cannot describe a more boring bland sandwich. I don't get it, maybe you have to grow up eating them.

Not impressed at all.

Maybe this could be the basis for a freecycle for food! Annie, I'll send nutella and graham crackers in return for morels. And my pumpkins are starting to ripen, I'll trade the seeds for ???

Kay, yes my Grandmother was from the south. We're still here and have been for over two centuries now.

My Grandmother made Tomato Pies also. There has recently been a renewed interest in them since they have some pizza ingredients in them. I'm not a fan of Tomato Pies or pizza.

Sorry Annie, no Nutella to send but I'd gladly pack it up with the grahams if I did. My mom tried to get we kids to eat it when we were young. Didn't even like it then. Gives me the willies just thinking about it. lol I noticed on one of Giada's recent cooking shows she wasn't using Nutella anymore in her dessert recipe. It was a different brand. Has she had a falling out with the Nutella people?! NancyLouise

Bumblebeez's post regarding WF items that didn't impress reminded me of something else I'm not impressed with. Not so much cooking-related as food-related.

There have been a number of "restaurants" which are apparently wildly popular in their place of origin which have opened here in Houston and not made it. I put the word "restaurants" in quotes because they are either fast food or snacky items. Here's a list:

White Castle
Carvel
Krispy Kream
Steak & Shake

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. The story is pretty much the same every time. They open mulitple outlets in Houston. Everyone goes either because it's novel or because they have fond memories of it from back home (wherever they moved here from). They promptly shut down because after the novelty (or thrill of reliving your youth) wears off, the reality is that it just doesn't compare to the quality of food we already enjoy here.

Now whenever someone waxes nostalgic about some wonderful place that we don't have here, I generally take it with a grain of salt.

The reason they close is because they are not the same white castle Krispy Kreme and Carvel as they were when they built the reputation.
And Greenmulberry...every tenderloin sandwich isn't the same....some are good and some are awful1 Just like a hanburger. If the first hamburger you ever had was a MCDonalds, you may have never eaten another.

I will agree with the original poster on kale chips. I wanted to like them, really wanted my boys to even consider them, but my single attempt was not even good enough to consider a second. I'll be willing to try someone else's, but I'm going to eat my greens raw or soft cooked until proven otherwise (okra and green beans having already been proven otherwise, but I didn't cook those crispy ones).

I do like pumpkin seeds, but I don't like the bother of preparing them or eating them. I think I will skip the guilt over tossing them and give them to the critters -- why didn't I think of that before?

Texas Sheet Cake is an institution around here. My sons not only love it but they have made it many times. One end of school year my oldest made 10 cakes in a 3 day period to share with classmates in each class after their final exam was over. He's made them for girls and moms and made them swoon. This summer I made one and mailed it to him for his birthday. He told his dad that nothing makes a girl say "I love you" quite as easily as a really good chocolate cake. I think that cake will be a favorite or a long time yet. ;-)

Jim, you are probably right, I was expecting something with a buttermilk taste.
The pie was just way too cloyingly sweet for me.
As is Pecan pie.
But I do make a Bourbon Pecan pie that I can eat a small slice of.
And a Fudge pecan pie that I could eat the whole pie. :>)
So I rarely make it.

I don't like custard,
so I guess it's no surprise I didn't like the Buttermilk pie.
I've never ventured to taste a Chess pie.
The looks of it, along with the name,
are enough to discourage me.

Rusty

The reason they close is because they are not the same white castle Krispy Kreme and Carvel as they were when they built the reputation.

That may be, I can't say as I never tasted any of them in the original. I CAN attest to the fact that we already do have a very large number of excellent eateries which already covered those categories. Not to say I don't welcome new places! I love exploring new restaurants of any kind.

It's just that what we have here already is SO good, that it's going to take some kind of crazy goodness to succeed. For example, our local doughnut chain, Shipley's, is incomparable. Thus, it has a following. I'm sure their business dropped off temporarily when Krispie Kream came in with a huge splash. But in the long run, I just don't think Shipley's can be beat.

Sometimes it's a matter of doing your homework. What's more likely to succeed, a restaurant filling a niche which is currently either not being served or being poorly served, or a restaurant that wants to compete with a firmly established part of the local culture? Not hard to answer that question.

lowspark, I understand what you're saying. Red Lobster tried to come into New England with a big splash about 12-15 years ago. Well, it turned out to be a belly-flop.

Many RL locations closed. I know because I sold the parent company at the time, General Mills, the land to build a restaurant in NH. It was a Manchester site after I'd foreclosed a car dealership. There's a few left open around NE but they're basically a non-player in our seafood restaurant choices. They can't compete with our local traditional seafood places.

Most of the national chains are not in NE. We're a hard market to break.

I'm another who doesn't like Nutella. Lots of people here do, I'm just not one of them.

/tricia

White Castle never lived up to my memories of Krystal which made those little square hamburgers with onions in Atlanta where I grew up. Now Krystal offers their product frozen in grocery stores. Ugh and no thanks
Kay

We even got a Krispy Kreme in Grand Rapids. Lots of advertisement. I went there, got a hot glazed donut. Free, it was their Grand Opening.

What they have is a donut about half the size of Dunkin Donuts and not nearly as good.

I understand from nancy that she makes a pretty decent, exceptionally sweet and artery clogging bread pudding, though, with glazed Krispy Kremes instead of bread!

Not being in a place where I can get seafood, I'm no expert, but I still don't care much about Red Lobsster, it's all pre-made and frozen stuff, not all that good and expensive to boot.

Annie

In N Out burgers do much less for me than other people.

I don't know when Krispy Kreme and Krystal got started. Krystal was here in 1962 and probably long before and they are the same today. I know because every time I had to take my Mother to the doctor before she passed I had to take her there. I don't know how she kept eating those things. If I had not felt sorry for her because she had Alzheimers and was dying of emphasema I would have refused to taker her there.

Krispy Kreme has been here almost as far back as I can remember and they are the same as they always were except it seems to me like their doughnuts are smaller today. That's probably just me. I confess I use to like them. Now they are just sickly sweet to me and I want a doughnut that is less so. They do have a huge following here. We had a Mr. Doughnut at one time and Krispy Kreme put them out of business.

I first heard Nutella talked about here on this forum so I bought a jar just to taste. I had to throw it out after one taste.