They say 13 is an unlucky number, so unlucky that in fact many buildings skip from the 12th floor to the 14th floor on the hopes that the folks on the so-called 14th floor are not clever enough to know that they really do live on the 13th floor, it’s just been mislabeled. Until today, I thought this was only a silly superstition…
Perhaps you are wondering what any of this has to do with the Me n’ Martha project? Well, it’s day 13 of the project and a most unlucky day indeed for me – for today was my first EPIC FAIL! Today I faced my culinary kryptonite – the johnnycake!
It all started innocently enough, as I turned to page 119 of the Northeast section and said “Johnnycakes! That sounds like a nice, simple idea for breakfast, and I had them when I was in the Caribbean years ago and liked them a lot. Let’s try that today.”
It all sounded so simple at the time. I toasted the corn meal, boiled the water, added some milk and heated my skillet and I was good to go…until I actually ladled on the johnnycake batter, that’s where it all went horribly, horribly wrong.
Here’s the main problem, I couldn’t turn them! By the time they were browned the were stuck to the skillet like glue, and if I tried too soon they turned to mush! I tried many times over, burning my wrists in the process, but I didn’t even care, what’s a few second degree burns in the name of my beloved Martha project? I thought they would function in a similar manner that pancakes do, but they don’t, because you can turn pancakes – you can’t turn these babies!!! If somebody out there knows what I was doing wrong please let me know so that I can try this again and get it right!
Finally, after going through the entire batter, I had to give up in despair. Surabaya, Johnnycakes, is it really the end? Now that doesn’t mean I didn’t eat it – oh, I ate it and I even seasoned it with the salt of my own tears! The odd concoction I came up with tasted a little like a porridge, and I put some crumbled bacon and maple syrup over it – not bad, but not johnnycakes.
Of course I considered trying something else and not posting about it…what if one day Martha reads this and knows that I mangled her johnnycake recipe beyond all recognition…how will she ever respect me then? But I figured that it’s only right to be honest and to let anyone reading this know that hey, we all make mistakes sometimes, but you don’t just throw in the apron, you keep on keeping on…here’s hoping Day 14 will be better and I can once again make Martha proud! (Go to the link below to hear The Divine Miss M sing about my pain…)
