You have roasted barley, an orange bell pepper and a well-stocked pantry. What are you making?
This is a hard mode challenge.
this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2026
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Dude's only posted this twice and is mad people are asking questions for something that hasn't caught on yet.
If you want people to play your game, you have to explain the rules sometimes, and if you're going to dish out rudeness, people aren't going to play with you.
I had a great idea for it but seeing how you treated people asking about how this works put me off.
So clearly you don't understand one of the core principles of cooking- presentation.
Yeah, it's genuinely amazing how badly OP has managed to destroy a fun premise by just being unbelievably toxic.
exactly! I mean, define "well stocked".
to me, a well stocked pantry has soups, canned meats, and other "meal ready" items.
at that point the two main ingredients just become ingredients.
It's a challenge, not a competition. It doesn't need formal rules. Fun, not a contract.
Challenge: “do something with a well stocked pantry”
What’s the challenge?
Don’t be so vague. If you know cooking… then uh… “a well stocked pantry” = anything…
Any rules or explanation at all would be nice, though. In all the time you've spent being uppity to people asking genuine questions, you could have explained what you consider to be a well-stocked pantry a dozen times over.
Use the ingredients shown. Use other things you might have to make that possible. The more detailed the rules the less fun it is.
That sounds like better instructions.
I don't have a pantry nor really grew up with one, so my idea of one is that huge one from The Shining
Pantry: The collective term for the things in your kitchen shelves, cabinets, fridge, freezer and and spice rack.
Why are you saying “anything and everything”… without recognizing how lame your challenge is by saying “anything and everything” ?
Because I'm not saying anything and everything. I'm saying stuff you generally have.
No you’re not!
“The collective term for the things in your kitchen shelves, cabinets, fridge, freezer and and spice rack.” Your words! That’s everything in the house man!
You literally cited anything and everything and later spelled that out. Look, just stop this shit and rephrase the question!
It’s not hard to say “okay make biscuits, but without buttermilk”…
Versus “make anything from your pantry, cupboards, shelves, spice rack, home or storage…but without buttermilk”
Can you not understand the difference? I could make a steak with your question, it’s not a challenge by the very nature of your own words.
Also do you not get a vibe from the sheer failure of a challenge this is? How many good recipes have you got in the comments, compared to folks reacting with… “what the fuck is so weird with this?”
"You literally cited anything and everything"
I used phrases like "a well stocked pantry." "Things you might have on hand." And the contents of your kitchen.
At no time did I explicitly or implicitly state everything or anything.
This isn't about the excepts. This is about the featured ingredients plus whatever you happen to normally have around. Do you normally have buttermilk? Is buttermilk easy enough for you to get? Use it. This isn't "cook a specific thing without some key ingredient." This is use what's here with the regular stuff you keep around.
You want steak? How would you make steak with barley? That's the challenge.
I got more people actually telling what they would make than people complaining.
Quick scan of the starting comment threads Number of people that offered up what they would make: 17 Number of others with questions/complaints: 6 One question about the cutting board. One question about the color of the pepper.
It seems the majority had no trouble.
Dude please stop.
Everyone can see through this and it’s getting tiring…
How would I make steak without barley? Are you seriously asking this with a straight face? You are not making sense, stop now as you sound horrible.
You want to make a better cooking challenge then take a step back and think. Stop unleashing on the internet like this…
I’m sorry you feel this way but please understand all this could be avoided if you just expressed yourself better.
All this shit you’re currently trying to argue, you didn’t before and you aren’t properly now.
Just stop for your own sake…
The challenge to use the barley. I didn't ask how to make it without barley did I? That's you.
I think the issue that people, including myself, are having, is that it's undefined in such a way that is simultaneously too open-ended and also too restricted. Different people have wildly different pantry stocks and wildly different expectations for what is conventionally expected or keep on hand.
This is all extra so, when the question is for a fucking bell pepper and some barley. You could be anything from a farmer, to a chef, to a crazy person who doesn't have black pepper and only eats canned hamburgers and pisses in bottles.
You need to realize that the notion of this question is deeply flawed, and that you can maybe try to compromise by just allowing everybody chef-show type freedom where as long as they use and feature these ingredients, or like just go rule-of-cool and let it breathe.
This all being said, I truly don't care, I'm just trying to interpret where the top level comment may be coming from, because I've thought about these challenges before and held off because I know people can be difficult.
Personally.... I'd probably see if I could deep fry or roast the barley to get it sweet, soft, and crispy, and spice it with like a light butter coating, and then mix that with slices of the bell pepper for finger food or a snack. Though, I've never had barley like that, so I don't know what it tastes like or if it's bitter or what cooking it would do, that's just my instinct. Maybe try to find a dip that would synergize them. Probably try to avoid ranch though, that's overdone and basic af
I want to encourage people to cook. I want them to think about what they stock to cook with. I intentionally left what's in the pantry open exactly because there is so much variation. I keep emergency goat cheese on hand. Others keep nori. What do they have or normally have that they can use to make a meal out of the featured ingredients.
I don't want to have an endless list of restrictions. I don't want to tell people what they should have in their kitchen. That removes all the fun. It's people, their foods, the featured ingredients, their imagination.
Okay. So what's in there?
Duh everything in your kitchen! What don’t you understand?
thinking
No competition. No rules. No contracts. Just fun.
If you'd like, I can create a list of ideas for more games.
no guidelines? great!
I'll just make a steak and baked potato with steamed broccoli.
the best challenges have zero guidelines.
Then why are you being a jerk to people? If there's no rules but people ask for clarification about things that doesn't mean you should be rude to them. You can do better than that.
The rules are at the bare minimum. 17 people had no problem with the concept. 6 people did decided they needed more rules. Despite the complaints about a lack of rigid and formalized rules that sounds like a success. I responded to rudeness with rudeness using the tit for tat rules of game theory. I can only do as good as I can do. It's a tautological certainty.
Nah man people just ask a simple question and you serve cunt. They aren't even being rude. Social interactions aren't beholden to game theory and rudeness doesn't have anything to do with that.
You're floundering trying to justify being an asshole, and the ratio seems to agree.
If you can't do better then do us a favor and go away.
The first person to respond negatively said they would make steak without the barley that is the required ingredient because if they had a well stocked pantry they wouldn't bother with the barley.
Does that set the stage for you to understand where things went south?
Things went with with your reaction to that and other people.
No, the problem is definitely with your communication.
All this time, you had the rule that you have to use barley. But instead of communicating that, you only wrote that you HAVE barley.
Having something doesn't mean that you are required to use it. I have rice, it doesn't mean I have to use it in my next meal.
If somebody makes a steak from the pantry without barley, they have not followed your hidden intention, but they have followed your instructions.
So... it just seemed like your challenge was "tell me a food you like" in an unnecessary roundabout way.
There is pedantic and then there is abusing language. The context was clear to nearly everyone except those operating in bad faith.
Wrong!
If dozens of people tell you you're doing it wrong, then it's time to take a critical look at your actions, instead of just accusing everybody else of doing it wrong.
Not being able to process criticism without immediately getting defensive will make your life more difficult than it needs to be.
Then again, it is a skill that some people simply do not have. You might be literally unable to "defeat the ego" and have absolutely no doubt about your actions, even after so many people gave you feedback, people like that exist.
Good thing there weren't dozens. Not even a dozen.
It's a challenge. Not a contract. I can't accommodate those who want more regulation on their life. I can't believe you have spent this many days obsessing over this. I processed the criticism and determined that I'm okay with the idea that some people can't figure out how to do a basic cooking challenge without detailed instructions. I'm under no obligation to cave to criticism that is inconsequential. Nothing of value is on the line here.
This is a cooking group. Not my group. Anyone that feels there should be a cooking challenge filled with exacting rules is free to create one with their exact preferred wording.
You can try to insult my ego all you want. Let's see if that projection works out for you. I spent about 30 years having a narcissist tell me how much ego destroys people. Eventually their ego and whatever else was still in their body was silenced and everyone they knew found peace.
"Good thing there weren't dozens." You will NOT realize that you are engaging in the very pedantry you judged just one comment ago, will you?
"this many days" If 1 is many to you, you have to realize that you got so, so many criticisms for your communication.
"I processed the criticism and determined that I'm okay with the idea that some people can't figure out [...]" In meme format, "No, it must be the children who are wrong". There's nothing inconsequential about multiple people giving you the very same feedback.
"Nothing of value is on the line here" - like I said, it's about your future (communication is also important in social life, love life, career, etc), so I wouldn't say nothing. If you like to make these challenges, people have even given you some valuable feedback how to fix the bugs, but if you decide not to, meh; there's enough content on the internet.
I was not insulting your ego, but the part about living in with narcissist fits. Because then you're used to everything slightly negative being an attack that you have to defend yourself against, where you can't lose even an inch of ground. And by protecting everything that is part of yourself like that, you deny yourself improvement. Because improvement is by definition change. If you are unwilling to change, it means you are unwilling to improve, and that is your personal decision alone to make.
Take this and improve yourself with it, or not - but let me be clear that a further defense is not gonna add any value. It's like with a poster, or a joke; even if you explained it well somewhere else, it doesn't make the original thing better.