Like Stone Soup

I was watching a cooking show a couple weeks ago where one of the challenges was to create a dish using vending machine purchases. I wondered what the frick one could create out of Andy Capp Hot Fries, beef jerky, peanuts and Butterfingers (can you tell what I buy from vending machines). So I watched as these "chefs" bought certain vending machine goodies (and by the way, I'm sure the producers stocked the vending machines with certain items of cookable flavor) and brainstormed their expertise about what could be created from MSG laden fried mish mash.

However, what I didn't anticipate was the fact that these vending machine goodies were just going to be part of the recipe. They were also given meats, vegetables, seasoning, and other kitchen pantry items. In effect, the vending machine items were just going to be incorporated into a real dish.

I automatically thought of the fairy tale about stone soup. Not sure if anyone is familiar with this story, but an old lady with a bare cupboard cons the other towns people into giving her all the ingredients for soup. She tells them that she could make a delicious meal out of water and a stone. While she stirs this concoction, she says things like "hmm, I need some carrots, I need some celery...." and these items were added to the pot by unsuspecting townspeople who scurried to find these indredients.

Well, these cooks started out with preserved mish mash, but then they added some meat, a vegetable, some seasoning...until they ending up with a five star plate of food.

It didn't turn out to be the vending machine delicacy that I had imagined could have been created.