WFMW - Following Recipes

This week's suggested theme for We Are THAT Family's 'Works for Me Wednesday' was to describe something that does NOT work for you. This past week, something that does not seem to work for me is following recipes to the 't'.

I am obsessed with corn. It's kind of strange, but one of my favorite summer foods and summer flavors is good old corn on the cob. I came across this really great recipe from Bon Appetit (I do read other magazines... I swear!) called Roasted Corn with Manchego and Lime

This recipe is truly fabulous in every aspect that isn't actually written in the recipe itself. While I was lucky enough to have corn in the refrigerator, I was unsure where exactly I was going to get Manchego cheese, aside from taking a long trip up to the cheese shop where my boyfriend lives. And... They closed at 6:00. Oops.

As I googled substitutions for Manchego cheese, I had found that Manchego is actually a spanish sheep's milk cheese. If there was nothing else I learned from watching Rachael Ray daily at 10:00 everyday this spring, it was that anything with the word 'Pecorino' is a sheep's cheese. Pecorino Romano would be a perfect substitute and, even better, I knew I had it in the fridge.

When I came home from the store with my two limes, I got cooking. It went something like this..

'Oven preheated, check.'
'Corn ready to go, check.'
'Limes zested, check.'
'Now let me get out that cheese! UGHHHHH. Parmigiano reggiano???'

It would have to work.


As I worked further and further through the recipe, already substituting 1/2 green bell pepper sliced really, super thin for the two jalapenos the recipe called for (my boyfriend HATES peppers), I noticed one other thing I did not seem to have. Chives. How could I not remember the chives?

My only reasonable substitution was mint! Straight out of the garden! And while I know the sweeter flavor profile I have created was not exactly what Bon Appetit had in mind for this recipe, the out come for me personally was nothing short of fabulous.


So did we get all that?

1/2 green bell pepper in place of 2 jalapenos

Parmigiano reggiano in place of manchego

mint instead of chives

While I did enjoy my own incidental version of this recipe, I know I would love to try making the real version just to compare. If I were you, I would do the same. Not to mention... you might consider actually reading the recipe before making it unlike this doofus here (points finger at herself).