Aye Matey!!

I love International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Although it was more fun when I had co-workers around me and we'd spend the day going "arrrrrrrrgh" like ten year olds.

Sigh.

Just today, I was talking with someone at work about cooking, specificly about how things don't always work out, but at least you can say you tried. Little did I know...

The trotters did not work out. But at least I tried.

As I was making them on Sunday, they made the house smell pretty darned good.

Simmered them for a couple hours, shredded the meat, removed the fat from the skin, chopped up the skin, and made the mixture. Rolled it tightly in some foil and placed it in the fridge to wait for today. Yeah, no pictures of the process. I really have to remember to start taking more pictures of the interesting steps.

Anywhooooo....

Started with the Sauce Gribiche... basicly fancy-dancy mayo sauce. Seemed to be going well, I was doing it all by hand. Sauce looked great, then I turned my back for about two minutes, and the sauce totally broke apart. Ok, I suck, in to the mini Cuisinart... whirl whurl and it was happy again.

Unrolled the trotters, and my first couple slices went great, and then it went to shit. Just totally tearing apart. I know I need my knives sharpened, but it was not holding together at all.

On to the coating and frying... they coated fine with the mustard and breadcrumbs, and I tossed them in the hot pan and then in the oven. Turned them after four minutes, and another four minutes in the oven.

Took them out to plate, and it all went.... um.. what's worse than going to shit? I swear, I just looked at the things and they fell apart. The trotter carnage.....

Just an unhappy mess. And frankly, they also tasted awful. Too much shallot, and the shallot was too raw for my taste.

Yeah. Dinner ended up being Burger King.

As a side, I did do the Heirloom Tomato Tart with Niçoise Olive Tapenade, Mixed Field Greens, and Basil Vinaigrette and based off those instructions within the blog and not going all fancy-dancy (just roasted the tomato first, then threw it on some store bought puff pastry. Those were at least damned tasty, even with a simplified prep.

So... sometimes, every recipe is not a success. It happens. This one was so non-success that I know it won't be tried again. Oh well!!!