Week 13

This week is dedicated to our final event. Our theme was a Tour of American BBQ. Three separate entree teams crafted local BBQ recipes for a region of their choosing within the U.S. The team that I was a part of chose Memphis, Tennessee, and we decided to make a chili for event day. Ella Reid focused on the chili while I focused on the sides, which were southern-style green beans and a sweet cornbread.

Prep day was rough. We had some struggles. The main challenge that we came across were the red beans that we used for the chili. Even though we soaked them for 24 hours, they were still difficult to cook. Chef Mark insisted that we use raw, uncooked, fresh beans instead of canned, so we had a lot of trouble getting the beans soft enough to be acceptable in the eyes of most people. Crunchy beans was probably the worst of our worries, however.

The green beans did not turn out so great, largely because I was not allowed to use bacon to make them taste better, but I did my best to add seasoning. The corn bread was a great success. It was made entirely on event day minus the kits that I had made the previous day, and those muffins were moist and delicious. I also brushed on a honey butter sauce on top to add a little more moisture and flavor.

My AHA Moment

An observation that I’ve made about myself is that I always seem to be getting in my own way. Life is a struggle with yourself to be better than you were yesterday. In one way it’s extremely encouraging to know that I’m the one who is causing all of my own problems, because then I can work harder to fix them. In another way it’s extremely frustrating to make this kind of observation, because I am an extremely stubborn person to the point where it is difficult to make myself do things that I am disinclined to do. Of all of the events so far, this is the one that I felt the least prepared for. As Chef Mark often says, “will you be ready when the rubber meets the road?” I simply wasn’t ready. Everything ended up turning out okay, but I know that I am capable of producing better results than I produced this week.