November 21st, 2014

Lewis Black: "All food is comfort food.  Maybe I just like to chew."

So we're still on our process of watching every movie that has ever won an Oscars for best picture.  We watched Hamlet (1948) and I love Shakespeare but my God that movie was pretty slow.  Probably worse to read though I'm sure.  Next we watched All the Kings Men (1949), I know they made a remake and I remember liking it but again, this movie was pretty slow!  Still they are classics and Oscar winners, you should give them a try! 

Oh and it was a particularly cloudy day today... I say cloudy because we live at about 2,000 feet elevation, so this stuff isn't fog, it's actual clouds!

Okay let's get down to business!  It's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our fifteenth Mystery Bag Challenge!  It's my turn to pick the mandatory ingredients and Damon's turn to cook.  I had a few drinks last night and pulled my protein, little smokies, from the deep freeze.  I didn't think through anything, I just pulled them so I wouldn't forget to get something out in the morning.  Today was my last day of work before I go on vacation for a full week so I've been a little all over the place!

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.  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 Damon ended up with for tonight!

Little smokies, shredded cheese, green onion, and Serrano peppers. I thought I was totally screwing him with the protein so I felt like I should go a little easier on him with the additional ingredients. Maybe I'm crazy but little smokies aren't usually a main dish so I didn't want to be too hard on him.

I look down and start typing and by the time I look back up again, Damon has all kinds of stuff out of the fridge and pantry.  Green beans, Feta cheese, half & half (which we basically use for any milk source), salsa, Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, flour, butter, and pasta, oh my! 

Okay, Damon seems to have made up his mind pretty quickly!  He's going with a penne pasta, cheese, peppers, and little smokie casserole, topped with toasted bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.  On the side he's doing a green bean dish with red onion and pepper flake, and he is going to serve all of that with a toasted croissant on the side.  I cannot wait!!  My first thought was making school cafeteria food upscale; tell me you remember getting the macaroni and cheese with little smokies on top, I thought they were awesome but maybe that's just me. Macaroni and cheese has to be my absolute favorite food!

 

Damon is making his cheese sauce from scratch, using butter, flour, half and half, and shredded cheese. he's got his pasta in to boil, his pepper diced for the cheese sauce and his little smokies chopped! 

Damon is doing awesome, I'm starting to smell the smokies and the cheese and he's still got over twenty minutes to go.  Now he's pacing the floor about his plating, how to make a casserole look nice on a plate.......

Damon has just over fifteen minutes to go, his base sauce is almost to a boil so he's taking it off the heat and is adding in his cheese and diced peppers.  It's coming together nicely, cheese, cheese, cheese, and more cheese, what could possibly go wrong?  The pasta is done and he's getting ready to put everything in the baking dish.  The penne pasta, the little smokies, the cheese sauce all get mixed together and put into the casserole dish, then he tops it off with panko bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and just a touch of some left over feta cheese crumbles, and throws it in the oven. He's finishing off his green beans, which he added some bacon bits to and he's prepping his plates.  He checks the oven and decides to go from 450 degrees to hi broil to get some brown on top of his casserole.  He pulls the casserole out at just over six minutes to let it rest and set-up a minute.  He puts his crusants into the toaster and he's got four minutes to go! 

And there it is, my dinner served to me with the timer going off!

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 a perfect 10 points.  Damon did great, everything tasted great and looked great too!  I so want seconds but turkey day is coming up so I need to do my dieting beforehand!

Damon = 70.5, Christina = 60.5, and that puts Damon back in the lead, damn.....

Now that were done with dinner, we're off to watch one more best picture movie, All About Eve (1950).  This ones got Betty Davis, so I'm expecting a little more out of it, here's hoping!!  I'm so glad I'm on vacation and so happy that in a few days it's Thanksgiving, bring me the turkey, the stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade (by me) rolls and biscuits, and most importantly, the pumpkin pie!  I cannot wait!!!

Next week I think we'll take a little break since we will likely be in food coma's from Thanksgiving!

November 14th, 2014

Edward De Bono: "Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way."

This week we continued our process of watching every movie that has ever won an Oscars for best picture in history.  We watched Going My Way (1944) and The Lost Weekend (1945), which was basically about this guy who is dealing with PTSD, from his service in World War 2, and his drunken weekend.  Movies around this time are pretty slow but most of them have still been pretty good movies.  

Okay let's get down to business!  It's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our fourteenth Mystery Bag Challenge!  It's Damon's turn to pick the mandatory ingredients and my turn to cook.  I can tell you, I'm a little nervous after last time I cooked!

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.  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!

Hamburger meat, shredded cheese, red onion, and siracha (a very spicy Asian hot sauce), I open my bag and don't really know what to go for.  I had a couple of ideas (because I was looking through a cookbook earlier in the evening and that's not cheating, I was just looking for inspiration) but I'm worried about going one way because of the cheese and the other because of the siracha.  Hmmmmmm....

I decide that I want to use potatoes as my side dish, so I  get those cut and decide to marinate them a little in the siracha, add some seasoning salt, and some canola oil, and let them sit a minute.  

Okay, what in the world to do next.  One of my first ideas was to make some little meatball sliders with white gravy but I was too much in my head, worrying about using two starches, whether or not it would be enough food, if I could even make a white gravy from scratch (because I never have).  Anyway, after all of that, I decide to go for it.  I put my meat into a bowl, dice up some red onion, add Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, and an egg, and mix it all up.

I get my meatballs formed and throw them into a hot skillet to brown them before I put them into the oven to finish cooking.  Next I throw my potatoes into the oven to roast.

 

Next up, I start my gravy.  I paid attention last time we made something that started with a roux, so I was hopeful it would turn out ok.  For those of you who don't know what a roux is, it's equal parts flour and butter, the basis of any kind of gravy, sauce, or dip that you want to make.  I was going for a classic white gravy so I added milk (otherwise known in french cooking as a bechamel sauce or the white sauce), brought it to a simmer and it wasn't as thick as I wanted it to be but, not bad for my first time making gravy from scratch!

Everything is looking pretty good and I throw the meatballs into the oven to finish cooking and turn the heat up on the potatoes just a bit because I'd like them a little crispier than they've gotten so far. 

My time is running out and I start getting my plates together, toast my bread, trim the crust and cut them into four pieces.  I pull out my roasted potatoes and get them on the plate and begin assembling my meatball sliders.  Damon gives me a four minute warning and I start to hustle.  I'm going to present Damon with his dinner and he get's busy watching what I'm doing that he didn't count me down and the timer goes off!  I realize I didn't put my cheese on top of the potatoes (a mandatory ingredient), so I grab the cheese, put them on top of the potatoes on his plate and give it to him. 

We agreed to not count me off on the time because Damon got sidetracked and didn't count me down like we usually do for each other.  Anyway, I provided ranch for dipping the potatoes as well as some extra gravy, which after it set a minute started to thicken up to where I wanted it, yea me!!!

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 a perfect 10 points.  Damon was impressed and I was just happy I was able to think of something!

Damon = 60.5, Christina = 60.5, and that puts us at a tie!!!

Now that were done with dinner, we're off for one more best picture movie, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).  You guessed it, another after war, PTSD, unable to deal with regular life after coming back from the war movie.  Still, I'd have to say it's one of the better movies we've watched so far.

Next week is Damon's turn to cook and my turn to pick what he has to cook!  Until next time.....

November 7th, 2014

Masaharu Morimoto: "Don't be afraid to do whatever you want. Cooking doesn't have to have rules."

So we had a super busy week, going out of town for a weekend is like not getting a weekend at all, so we are happy it's Friday!!!  This week we continued our process of watching every movie that has ever won an Oscars for best picture in history.  We watched How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Mrs. Miniver (1942), we're around the start of WWII so a lot of these movies are based around the war, at any rate, both were pretty good.  Mrs. Miniver actually has the guy that played Clarence from It's a Wonderful Life (the best Christmas movie of all time!).   

Okay let's get down to business!  It's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our thirteenth 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.  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 Damon ended up with for tonight!

 

Damon didn't looked pretty scared (before the photo op), he got chicken breast, corn tortillas, canned corn, and sweet Bavarian mustard.  I thought I was being a little too easy on him since I thought up a couple things to do with everything but the mustard was my last minute addition. Still, I think that could be used as some kind of sauce for any of my ideas.

He's ten minutes down and he thinks he's going to go for a baked chicken taquito with a corn and pepper relish/salad on the side and of course some dipping sauces.  He's starting out by cleaning and slicing up the chicken and tossing them with some canola oil, lemon juice, and spices (cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder) to marinade for a minute.  He's got the oven pre-heating, a skillet warming and begins to cut up his onions and sweet peppers.

I don't think I brought Damon to calling uncle, DAMN!!!!! I knew I was being too easy on him!  Twenty minutes down he changes his plans for the corn and now he thinks he might puree the corn, peppers, and onion with a little salt and cayenne pepper, along with the sweet mustard and use that as the dipping sauce.

Damon Has just under thirty minutes and he's got his chicken cooking, his puree done to his satisfaction, and is now pacing the floor about something....That's just how Damon rolls in the kitchen, I think he's got this on lock!  The chicken looks and smells good!!

Alright, he's down to about twenty-three minutes and he's filling his tortillas, after dreading them in oil (to help them crisp up when he throws them in the oven) but when he went to fold the first one it broke on him so on the next he tries no oil.  He's putting chicken, diced up pickled jalapeno, and shredded cheese inside them.

 

The tortillas were frozen and they are giving Damon some trouble. We don't usually care for corn tortillas so I don't know if this is why they are being finicky or if it's because we had them frozen? At any rate, he puts them in the oven with thirteen minutes to go. Damon starts cleaning up his station and figuring out his plating. 

And with only five seconds to spare, Damon presents me with my dinner.  

Damon did a great job, the enchilada/taquito was full of yummy chicken, cheese, and jalepeno and you can't go wrong there.  He topped them with plain Greek yogurt and diced jalepeno, and he served his corn puree as a side and also provided some smokey/hot salsa.

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 of 9 points.  While I thought everything tasted good on its own and some things tasted better than other things together, I wish the corn puree was a little more flavorful and was served hot instead of cold so I counted him off 1 point.

Damon = 60.5, Christina = 50.5, and that keeps Damon in the lead!

Now that were done with dinner, we're off for one more best movie, the classic 1942, Casablanca.  We've seen this before but it's a classic, a good movie, who doesn't love Humphrey Bogart, and we decided that we would watch all the movies in order (if we can help it) regardless of whether we'd seen them before or not.  If you haven't seen this one, you're crazy or just don't give a lick about classic movies in which case you're still crazy!

Next week is my turn to cook and Damon's turn to pick what I'm cooking!  Until next time.....

October 31st, 2014 - Happy Halloween

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "Where there is no imagination there is no horror."

This week we continued our process of watching every movie that has ever won an Oscars for best picture in history.  We watched The Life of Emile Zola (1937), skipping over The Great Ziegfeld (1936) because Netflix has a Long wait on it. Then we watched You Can't Take it With You (1938) which was pretty good but we're starting to realize that some of these old movies would be so much more entertaining if they picked up the pace a bit. Then we watched the classic, and also another great Clark Gable movie, Gone with the Wind (1939) and then Rebecca (1940).  If you have never seen any of these movies, you should definitely add it to you bucket list. They are not always what I would consider the best movies, but they are classics!

Today at work, I wore a sweatshirt and jeans, and people kept asking me what I was suppose to be (because Halloween is huge at my job) and I said I was a serial killer.....because they look just like everyone else.... A few people enjoyed it but I also got a few strange looks.  So anyway, since it's Halloween we decided to take a break from our mystery bag challenge to watch scary movies and eat junk food.  We started the evening off with making some frozen strawberry margaritas and had some chips and queso, yummy cheesy goodness!  We actually didn't make the queso, I found some white queso and jalapeno dip that Chili's makes (you can find it in the freezer section). 

We started off watching Poltergeist, a classic as far as horror movies goes.  It was funny to watch because of all the seventies clothes they were wearing, but still a great movie.  "Go into the light Carolann" somehow just made me think of Carol from The Walking Dead and "Look at the flowers, Lizzy".  Anyway.... I'm rambling.

So next we served up some chicken egg rolls, cream cheese wontons, and pot-stickers.  I don't know why we felt so Asian inspired after our Mexican start to the evening but who cares, it was all delicious!  Next we went on to another movie, not exactly one of our classics for All Hallow's Eve but we haven't seen it in a long time so we watched Red Dragon with Edward Norton and the awesome Anthony Hopkins.

It's getting late at this point but we squeezed in The Exorcist, one of our classic Halloween movies.  Unfortunately, we're heading to Tulsa this weekend and have a lot to do before we go so we didn't get to finish our scary movie marathon, Exorcist 3, The Shining, Halloween, etc. 

Anyway, tomorrow we have to mow, for the last time this year, YEA!!!!  Then we still have to pack and get ready for our trip. Damon is going down to help his brother erect a Quonset hut and I am going down to makeover my moms bedroom (I've been working on it forever so I know mom will be happy to finally have a brand new room!).

So we'll get back to our mystery bag challenge next week and my goal is to stump Damon like he stumped me last week!  Hmmm Maybe I will give him beer battered cod fillets, peanut butter, cottage cheese, and goldfish (the crackers, you freaks)?  LOL!  It's pretty easy to just name off four ingredients, not so easy to come up with four that will actually be edible when finished!

For those of you keeping track, Damon = 51.5, Christina = 50.5, we'll see what happens next week!

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