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Sunday, January 16, 2011

AVM: An End In Sight

When I told Thatboy I was picking up Animal, Vegetable, Miracle again, Thatboy was less than pleased. He hasn't been impressed with most of the recipes, and although he's a good sport, it doesn't mean he's quiet about it.

"Just a couple more recipes" I promised. And with that, I bring you the end of Animal Vegetable Miracle recipes. Unfortunately Thatboy was right and more of these were bad then were good. Maybe that's what happens when you get into winter recipes. Because although Kingsolver raves about how easy it is to eat in the winter, it could be because they were so desperate they would have eaten ANYTHING. And so I leave you with the good, the okay, and the bad.

First, the good:


Vegetarian Chili (recipe can be found at animalvegetablemiracle.com)

"It's chili!" I said. "You can't mess up chili!" But Thatboy disagreed. I was happy to prove him wrong. I did tweak the recipe a bit, using fresh peppers instead of frozen, and canned tomatoes with chili peppers to give it some kick. But overall? Someone and I'm not going to mention names, but someone went back for seconds.

The okay:


Braised Winter Squash (recipe can be found at animalvegetablemiracle.com)
I really liked this at first. The vinegar, the apple cider, and it couldn't be easier to make. Unfortunately that sweetness from the cider gets a little overpowering after the first few bites.

And the bad:


Sweet Potato Quesadilla (recipe can be found at animalvegetablemiracle.com)
- I had SUCH high hopes for this. Even the clerk at Trader Joes thought it sounded delicious. (Seriously, why can't we get fresh tortillas at the Farmer's Market? We're less than an hour from Mexico!) Brie, sweet potato, flour tortillas. Unfortunately they were a total miss.


Butternut Bean Soup (recipe can be found at animalvegetablemiracle.com)
This one killed me. KILLED ME. I was planning on using it to enter Branny's Souper Bowl. Because I love butternut soup! But then I read the recipe and thought. Okay, it's bean soup in a butternut bowl. I could do that. Still soup. DO YOU SEE THAT PICTURE? That is not soup! That is beans. Beans in a squash. Not soup. Under no definition of soup would you find the above dish. And so I am BEGGING you readers. Pick up where I left off and make a soup and submit it to Branny's souper bowl. Do it for me. Do it for Branny. Do it to show Ms. Kingsolver and her family what soup should look like.

4 comments:

  1. IC you are all about experimentation and with that copmes the good, bad and the ugly. I am sure we all have many recipes that simply don't make it to the blog.

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  2. Lol @ the last recipe. Definitely not soup. Not even rachel ray's "stoup."
    I read A, V, M, too. THe recipes looked good to me as well - sounds like it is a good thing that I had to return the book to the library before I gave any of the recipes a 2nd thought.
    Thanks for the plea for the souper bowl. Maybe your donation was multiplied by the failure!

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  3. Whoa. These definitely all sound so incredibly promising! I don't understand!

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  4. I love that you are persevering through your goal set over a year ago to get to completion. That is more than admirable. I am like that, too. I said I would, and it is driving me crazy that I didn't and I must. Then, you start again and begin to remember why you dwindled. In this case: bad recipes. That's what it seems to be. Great ideas, and bad instructions? Anyway - take that learning, and turn it around to your palate. The ideas in each dish DO look promising. A lot of hard work invested here. Good for you! (and the butternut squash soup really does look pathetic...but is a really fun idea!)
    :)
    Valerie

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