October 24th, 2014

Harriet Van Horne: "Cooking is like love: it should be entered into with abandon or not at all."

So after work I had drinks and grabbed a bite to eat with a couple friends.  We went to Common Grounds.  I'd never been there but it was pretty good!  This week we continued our process of watching every movie that has ever won an Oscars for best picture in history.  Unfortunately, Netflix doesn't have Cavalcade (1933) so we skipped over it for now.  We watched It Happened One Night (1934) which was pretty good, you have to love Clark Gable! Tonight, we watched another Clark Gable movie, Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). For those of you who didn't know that was based on a true story and if you haven't seen it, I'd definitely give it a shot! 

Okay let's get down to business!  It's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our twelfth Mystery Bag Challenge!  It's Damon's turn to pick the mandatory ingredients and my turn to cook.

Recap: The rules are simple; whoever is cooking has to make dinner using each of the mystery food items that the other has put into the mystery bag.  We can also use other items that we have in the fridge and pantry, but MUST use some of each item from the mystery bag, and MUST be ready to plate-up dinner before 1 hour has passed after seeing the ingredients for the first time.  Last week we agreed to turn it up a notch and start thinking more outside the box for the mandatory ingredients we'd be picking for the other!

And here's what I ended up with for tonight!

Okay this is completely another Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot!?!?!?! moment for me.  He gave me ground turkey, canned diced potatoes, canned diced tomatoes, and Tabasco sauce W.T.F?  I mean, what am I supposed to make with that!

Again, you might be thinking that this isn't a big challenge but I felt no creativity flowing whatsoever.  I had an idea or two but nothing to kick it up a notch.  I thought I could pretty easily make a stew with it, I even thought about making spaghetti and serving it over fried potatoes instead of noodle but that just sounded weird in the moment.

So, I literally paced around the kitchen for almost twenty minutes, the longest either of us has ever taken to at least get going on something, even if we hadn't figured out what we were doing 100%.  I was screwed.

Sadly, I had to do it.  I had to call "uncle".  Once I did, Damon told me the ideas he had thought up when he was deciding on my ingredients.  Wouldn't you know it, my husband, the breakfast hater, came up with breakfast ideas!  I LOOOOVE breakfast food but tend to shy away from making it, along with soups, because my wonderful husband doesn't like them, and he gives me breakfast ideas.... I'm not bitter or anything :-)  Just disappointed in myself for not coming up with an idea on my own.  I will also just mention that I don't typically think of ground turkey meat for breakfast and I don't think many other people do either!

Anyway, while he was telling me his thoughts I went ahead and got some oil going because I wanted to test the canned potatoes to see if they would actually fry or if they would just get mushy and nasty.  Turns out, if you get the oil just right and don't overcrowd the pan, those suckers will fry up quite nicely!   

I actually thought that was the can of potatoes..... Oh well... 

So, Damon was thinking of doing a breakfast burrito or a quiche. My time is dwindling quick so no time for a quiche but I thought I could pull off a frittata easy enough.  I start browning up the turkey and season it with Tabasco sauce and start getting my other things together.

I went with some peppers to give it a kind of southwest flavor, thanks for the Tabasco sauce honey!  I throw the veg into the turkey and stir fry it a bit and then take the pan off the heat and start stirring in my eggs.

Okay, I'm doing great on time and add the drained dice tomato, give it another stir, and I put the pan back on the heat.  To ensure that my fritata is going to cook through I stir it around a couple minutes, even it out and top it with cheese, salt, and pepper and then throw it in the oven to finish.  Then I get my canned potato in the dutch oven (filled with piping hot oil).

Check out that muscle.... Damon and I have been lifting weights, yeah bitch!!!  Sorry, my mind is wandering.... Okay, with about seven minutes left, I begin my plating.  I spread a spoonful of plain Greek yogurt across the plate and sprinkle a little tabasco sauce around.  I Pull my pan out of the oven and let it rest a minute while I finish pulling my potato from the oil.  I cut squares out of the fritata and place them on slightly on top of each other.  Put a dollop of plain Greek yougurt in the middle, sprinkle a little shredded cheese and top with some banana peppers.  Then a small pile of fried diced potato on the side.  With three minutes to spare......

I was really worried when I started the challenge, and I am kinda mad at myself for not coming up with something brilliant on my own, but it is what it is.  In the end, the flavors all went together really well and it was a pretty tasty dish!

A reminder of our scoring system...  

being done on time = 0-1 point

dish presentation = 0-2 points

dish creativity / originality = 0-3 points

dish flavor = 0-3 points

portion size = 0-1 point. 

We did our scoring and in the end, I ended up with an average of 8.5 points.  Damon and I both counted myself off for creativity!  

Damon = 51.5, Christina = 50.5, and that keeps Damon in the lead!

Next week is Damon's turn to cook and my turn to turn up the heat on this challenge!

October 17th, 2014

George Bernard Shaw: "There is no love sincerer than the love of food."

This week we continued our process of watching every movie that has ever won an Oscars for best picture in history, and watching them all in order.  We watched All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) which was really slow for a war movie and like most war movies, it didn't have a very happy ending and that sucks!  Last night, we watched a western, Cimarron (1931). While it isn't going to be added to my list of favorite westerns, but it was okay.  Tonight we watched Grand Hotel (1932) which has to be my favorite of all the ones we've watched so far, it was just a little more upbeat, it had a better story line, and better acting.  

Anyway, It's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our eleventh Mystery Bag Challenge!  It's my turn to pick the mandatory ingredients and Damon's turn to cook.  We talked about it after completing ten challenges and decided that we would turn things up a notch.  We talked about various ways to do that, including doing some just awful things to each other such as on the TV show Cutthroat Kitchen but we decided that we might not be ready to go that far just yet.  So, instead we just decided that we were going to be a little more devious on what we give the other person and see how that goes.  We figured we had been a little easy on each other for the past 10 challenges, so we wanted to see if we could still make an awesome dish when we turned up the heat a bit. 

Recap: The rules are simple; whoever is cooking has to make dinner using each of the mystery food items that the other has put into the mystery bag.  We can also use other items that we have in the fridge and pantry, but MUST use some of each item from the mystery bag, and MUST be ready to plate-up dinner before 1 hour has passed after seeing the ingredients for the first time.

And here's what Damon ended up with for tonight!

 

Okay, so I gave him two pork cutlets, a green apple, balsamic vinegar, and honey!  

You're probably thinking that this isn't a big challenge but I know that Damon likes his meat and he doesn't think there needs to be any fruit associated with it, period.  I've been waiting to do this challenge to him and now I finally get to give him meat and fruit!

Damon expected to get something like this at some point so he wasn't totally surprised but he still has to figure out what in the world to do with the ingredients since he hasn't done this before.  

After a few minutes debating what he wanted to do, he cleans the fat off his pork, searches for some ingredients in the cabinet, and gets to work!

He decides that he's going to sear the pork and then throw it in the oven to pan roast while he gets started on his apple and begins thinking about presentation. 

Now he's got his pork finishing in the oven and he starts to making a glaze of some butter, honey, and cinnamon to poach his apples in.  

  

 

Doing great on time, he finishes up his apples, makes some mashed potatoes and is getting his plates ready for the big finale.

It turned out great, he made his mashed potatoes with adobo peppers, glazed the pork with a balsamic vinegar reduction, and added the yummy cinnamon sweet poached apples on top!  He had just under two minutes to spare, and his dish was delicious!

 

A reminder of our scoring system...  

being done on time = 0-1 point

dish presentation = 0-2 points

dish creativity / originality = 0-3 points

dish flavor = 0-3 points

portion size = 0-1 point. 

We did our scoring and in the end, he ended up with an average of 10 points, perfect score!  

Damon = 51.5, Christina = 42, and that puts him back in the lead!!

Next week is my turn to cook and his turn to turn up the heat on this challenge!

October 10th, 2014

Thomas Wolfe: "There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves."

Tonight we went on to the second best picture movie of all time, The Broadway Melody, 1929.  Musicals definitely aren't Damon's thing but there are quite a few that I enjoy. I'm not sure I will add this movie to that list but it wasn't horrible.  It seemed like all the actors were over-acting but overall it wasn't that bad.

Anyway, It's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our tenth Mystery Bag Challenge!  It's Damon's turn to pick the mandatory ingredients and my turn to cook.  Damon thought it was his turn to cook up until last night so he hadn't thought about it and he confessed when I got home tonight that he still had not decided on the ingredients.  I think I might be in for some trouble tonight! 

Recap: The rules are simple; whoever is cooking has to make dinner using each of the mystery food items that the other has put into the mystery bag.  We can also use other items that we have in the fridge and pantry, but MUST use some of each item from the mystery bag, and MUST be ready to plate-up dinner before 1 hour has passed after seeing the ingredients for the first time.

And here's what I ended up with for tonight!

Okay so he gave me a pound of ground beef, shredded cheese, a red onion, and yeah, a yellow onion too!  

Funny enough, During the movie, Damon had handed me a 1950-1960 New York Times Cookbook he had been thumbing through, and said maybe I should read this before my challenge, just to be funny.  I was like, really you found something out of here to inspire you?  He said he didn't he was just being funny, but I began thumbing through it and found all kinds of crazy recipes that called for bone marrow, or ox tail, or calf shins and I was really thinking Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot, nasty!  Because who the hell has this kind of shit in their house???  Anyway after about thirty minutes, I found something that I thought would be interesting and I kept that in my pocket thinking I might could use it on Damon on a future challenge.  Sure as shit, he gives me things that I could totally use to make the dish..... Hamburger Potato Roll.... Seriously, and the book said it was the most frequently asked for recipe by the New York Times from that time period?

I didn't remember the exact recipe from the cookbook or all the details but I did remember that it said it should bake for an hour.  Well, I only have an hour so I jump right on it, hoping I maybe could bake at a higher temp and get it done in time.  Potatoes go in to boil and I start cutting onion, I'm going to put the red in the roll and use the yellow with some green beans as a side dish.

I'm quickly realizing that I am so not going get this done in an hour but I'm already committed so here we go!  My potatoes are finally done, I should have used instant but that's not how I roll.  First, I use the lovely ricer we got as a wedding gift to mash the potatoes! 

Next I'm off to mixing them together with butter, milk, salt and pepper, and of course my shredded cheese!!!   
  

I have about twenty minutes left, so I mix the ground beef with bread cut into chunks, thyme, oregano, sage, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flake, onion, garlic, and one egg.  Next, I spread out some bread crumbs on some wax paper and put my meat mixture on top of it and flattened it out.  Check me out, I'm out of time and no room for being a sissy here, no gloves and I always use gloves to touch raw meat!!

Next, I spread a layer of the mashed potatoes on top of the meat and begin to roll.

Okay I'm just under 20 minutes and I finally get my roll into the oven and again, I am so not going to get this cooked on time!!!  At any rate, Damon and I are both convinced this is going to be a pretty bad ass dish!

So, now I have nothing to do but clean up my mess while the roll bakes, so Damon helps me with clean up and we just wait.  The timer goes off and my hour has passed...... DAMNNNNNNN!!!!  Oh well, I knew I wasn't going to make it but it's looking pretty good in the oven!

I ended up being over by thirty minutes which sucks but it was inevitable.  The roll was close to being done so I cooked up some green beans with minced onion, garlic, butter, and salt and pepper. Nothing left to do but plate up.

A reminder of our scoring system...  

being done on time = 0-1 point

dish presentation = 0-2 points

dish creativity / originality = 0-3 points

dish flavor = 0-3 points

portion size = 0-1 point. 

We did our scoring and in the end, I ended up with an average of 8.5 points!

Damon = 41.5, Christina = 42, and that puts me back in the lead but not by much!!

Next week is Damon's turn to cook and my turn to turn up the heat on this challenge!

October 3rd, 2014

Orson Welles: "Ask not what you can do for your country.  Ask what's for lunch."

Tonight we started our marathon of watching every movie that has ever won a Best Picture Oscar.  Of course, we started with the beginning, the very first movie to win the very first Best Picture Oscar was a movie called Wings in 1928.  It was a silent film and it was better than either of us expected but I have to admit, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open!  Not because the movie was so awful, I've just been exhausted the last couple of weeks.

Anyway, It's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our ninth Mystery Bag Challenge!  It's my turn to pick the mandatory ingredients and Damon's turn to cook.  

Recap: The rules are simple; whoever is cooking has to make dinner using each of the mystery food items that the other has put into the mystery bag.  We can also use other items that we have in the fridge and pantry, but MUST use some of each item from the mystery bag, and MUST be ready to plate-up dinner before 1 hour has passed after seeing the ingredients for the first time.

And here's what Damon ended up with for tonight!

I pulled a little trick on Damon, all I gave him was one item, his protein and I went with Smoked Sausage! This can be a good thing because you get to chose the rest of what you use or it could be a bad thing because that leaves you with soooo many options.  

Damon decides pretty quickly that he's going to do kabobs and so he gets out some wooden skewers got them soaking in water, so they wont catch on fire under the broiler, then he started cutting up his peppers and onions that are going on the skewers with the sausage pieces.

Next, Damon's on to working on his side dish, cutting vegetables and getting some rice cooking.

Damon's got his kabobs all prepped and ready to go into the oven on high heat and quickly finishes up his rice by adding some left over adobo sauce, diced tomato, and green onion.
  

With several minutes to spare, Damon plates up and serves my dinner.  How professional does that look!

It looks great and tastes great!! We finish our dinner and talk scoring.  Damon of course is harder on himself than I think he should be.  To me the roasted vegetables and the seared smoked sausage went great with the veggies from the rice!!

A reminder of our scoring system...  

being done on time = 0-1 point

dish presentation = 0-2 points

dish creativity / originality = 0-3 points

dish flavor = 0-3 points

portion size = 0-1 point. 

We did our scoring and in the end, Damon ended up with an average 9.5 points!

Damon = 41.5, Christina = 33.5, and that puts Damon back in the lead!!

Saturday we went to check out Lincoln's Apple Festival, the free apples and cider was worth the drive.  It was a much bigger event than we thought it would be.  It was pretty crowded but we had a good time.

Next week is my turn to cook!