September 19th, 2014

W.C. Feilds: "Once, during prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water."

Tonight we started watching Flashpoint, an awesome show about Canada's SRU (Special Response Unit).  We caught a few episodes of it back when it was still on TV and thought it was pretty good so we thought we'd watch the whole show start to finish.  If you haven't seen it, you should give it a shot!

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

Recap: The rules are simple; whoever is cooking has to make dinner using each of the 4 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 thought I'd get a little creative tonight and switch things up so nothing was in Damon's bag except for four pieces of folded paper. As Damon opened the first paper, I appear from out of the dinning room with this....

And so on and so forth until he had all four of his pieces of paper and four trays of condiments, meat, cheese, and bread.  And I thought Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. last week? lol 

That's right, I gave Damon a wide assortment of cheeses, meats, breads, and condiments. I think he was impressed with the spread I gave him but also a little intimidated about what to make because he had so many options!  I told him beforehand that when he saw what he had he would be lead to a particular thing.  When we make sandwiches we usually don't do anything too fancy and if were talking lunch meats, it's almost always turkey.  But for a mystery bag challenge I had ramp it up, so I gave him a much wider assortment including, smoked ham, bacon, pastrami, and salami in addition to turkey.  I also gave him some cheeses we don't usually have on hand like provolone,  cheddar, and muenster.  I wanted him to  be free to make whatever kind of sandwich he wanted.  For the bread I also gave him some kinds that we don't normally have.  He got ciabatta rolls, English muffins, a loaf of French bread, and regular sandwich bread.

After processing the amount of choices he had, he started getting his thoughts together and pretty quickly decided on a bread, he went with the ciabatta rolls cut in half. Then he picked the cheese he wanted to use, muenster. Next he decided on the meats.  He went with bacon, smoked ham, pastrami, and salami. Lastly he picked his condiments, mayo, a sweet brown mustard, and sliced tomato.

So with his game plan in place, he starts cooking.  he butters his bread and puts them in the skillet to start toasting, puts some bacon on, and starts to cut vegetables.  He's got a plan and it's coming together nicely.  He can't believe it has taken him so long to make a sandwich but my sweetie always says he likes to take his time with his food, where I on the other hand cook it and cook it fast! lol.

 

 

Next he warms up all the meats he is putting on the sandwich in a skillet, and gets an egg boiling.

 

Damon is running out of time at this point and so he starts on his side dish, he went with a traditional Cesar salad that he tossed with dressing and then added a chopped up hard boiled egg.

  

Lastly, as the clock ticks down, Damon assembles his hot sandwich and puts it, open faced, under the broiler, for just a second or two until the cheese was nice and melted to almost runny.

With only minutes to spare, Damon plates up and serves me dinner.

Looks like it belongs in a restaurant right???  It was awesome, better than any sandwich I've ever made at home and it was so filling!  Damon knocked it out of the park with this one!

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 a perfect score, 10 points!

Damon = 32, Christina = 23.5, Damon's back in the lead!!

                                Next week is my turn to cook!

September 12th, 2014

Julia Child: "The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook."

Tonight we are starting on season nine of Criminal Minds. We'll wrap it up over the weekend and then we will have to wait until 10/1 for the tenth season to start, I so can't wait.  I'm already having withdrawals waiting for Walking Dead to come back on, and now we have to wait for Criminal Minds too!  I think I should just stop watching TV shows until they get cancelled and then I can binge watch all I want on Netflix!

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

Recap: The rules are simple; whoever is cooking has to make dinner using each of the 4 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!

A package of Jimmy Dean sausage links, home grown roma tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, and onion!  Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot? 

What do you think you could cook up with these four ingredients? 

After seeing what I had to work with, I decided to go Mexican. Initially I was of course thinking breakfast, because I LOVE to eat breakfast for dinner, but I thought that would be too predictable and not overly creative.  I mean, there's only so many ways you can make eggs and we've done them all. 

So after some debating with myself aloud, I just started working.  I got a pan ready to cook the sausage and started chopping up my vegetables.

Okay, at this point I have to pull the trigger and I finally decide to go with a kind of tostada/quesadilla kind of thing, stacked and full of yummy cheesy goodness!  I of course couldn't make just a simple quesadilla, I had to make it something different, and hopefully better!  I get my flour tortillas out and butter the cast iron skillet, turn on the oven, and start browning my tortillas one at a time and on both sides.  I pop them in the oven to keep them crisp until I get down to the last one.

I'm getting my cheese going on the bottom tortilla and let it start to melt and then begin adding the chopped up sausage, onions, jalapenos, and sweet peppers, then top that with a little more cheese.  Then I add on the second tortilla, and repeat with cheese and veggies.  My time is running out as I throw on the top tortilla and chop up some tomato to garnish my stacked sausage tostada. 

I need a side so what better than rice, but although I can make perfect white rice, I can't just make white rice tonight, tonight I have to be more creative than that.  I start with white rice and decide to add some smoked jalapeno peppers in adobo sauce and mix it all in.  Oh, and remember that yummy green chili cheese sauce Damon made during his challenge last week, way to use leftovers, yo!  So I warmed up what we had left of it.

The sauce has butter, flour, milk, Monterrey Jack cheese, and green chilies.  I'm down to the wire at this point so I pull my tostada out of the skillet and cut it like a pizza, I pour the cheese sauce over the top and add the diced tomato.

 

I even tried to be fancy and spread some of the cheese sauce on the plate, not sure if that worked how I imagined it now that I'm looking at the picture, it kinda looks like a fucked up happy face lol! It was still a good dinner!

 

  

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 a perfect score, 10 points!

Damon = 22, Christina = 23.5, I'm in the lead!!

 

Next week is Damon's turn to cook!

September 5th, 2014

W.C. Fields: "I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food."

Today we got a new TV, and it was practically free!  I opened a new credit card that once you charge a certain amount, they give me $250.00 back.  Just with our every day spending were able to reach the amount and get the free money.  Damon came to town and we had lunch, our first time eating at Red Robin.  Pricey burgers but they were really good.

So anyway, after work, we set up our new TV and moved our old one into our bedroom.  We watched a few more episodes of Criminal Minds on Netflix.  We're finally on season 8 and, while we lost another main character, after 8 years, it's still an awesome show!

Anyway, as you know, it's Friday Night in Winslow and time for our fifth Mystery Bag Challenge!  It's my turn to pick the four mandatory ingredients and Damon's turn to cook.  

Recap: The rules are simple; Damon has to make dinner using each of the 4 mystery food items that I put into his mystery bag.  He can also use other items that we have in the fridge and pantry, but he 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 his ingredients for the first time.

And here's what he ended up with!

A pound of ground chicken, carrots, green onions, and a box of savory herb stove top stuffing.  

Just think about what you would make for dinner if you had to use all of those ingredients. 

After seeing what he had to work with, Damon decided to make a type of casserole.  Damon wasn't sure that was a creative enough option but we don't do a lot of casserole's so basically anything he did with the ingredients was going to be something new for us. Plus, we don't use ground chicken ever and stove top only around the holidays, so I thought while the ingredients were pretty simple, he would have to cook with things we don't use too frequently.

So, having an idea of what to make, he's off!  Here he is frying up his chicken and and cutting his vegetables!

Damon's down about thirty minutes but he's got a good idea of what he's doing.  He's debating whether or not he wants to make a sauce to put on top of the casserole, which he wants to make less soupy and more of a quiche consistency.

He's got about 20 minutes left and he's putting the casserole together and putting it in the oven.  Now, he starts prepping a cheese sauce to drizzle over the top.

The sauce he is making has butter, flour, milk, Monterrey Jack cheese, and he also added some green chilies to it.

Damon's down to the wire and is starting to plate, and with just a little time to spare, here is his dish sitting before 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. 

His casserole turned out really good; I've never made stove top baked in the oven with other ingredients in it and I was worried it wouldn't work out well for him, but it came out really good and the cheese sauce was awesome! I could eat it with chips, honestly I could eat it with a spoon, but I am a huge cheese lover!

We did our scoring and I counted Damon off one point for flavor, just because I thought I think I liked the cheese sauce a little more than the casserole itself.  Damon also counted himself off one point for creativity.  He thought he should have thought more outside the box and not done just a casserole.  So, in the end, he ended up with an average of a solid 9 points!

Damon = 22, Christina = 13.5, can't wait to see what Damon has up his sleeve for me next week!

                                Next week is my turn to cook!

August 29th, 2014

Virginia Woolf: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."

I know this is Friday Night in Winslow but I have to tell you that today I earned high score on Ms. Pac Man!  We went to celebrate my boss's 60th birthday at Arkadia Retrocade and it was awesome playing all of those old school games!  My favorite, of course, is Ms. Pac Man, but if you add in Donkey Kong, Mario Brothers, Street Fighter, Tetris, and Asteroids, what more can you ask for???  We had lunch from Hawaiian Brian's, the 5-0 burger was huge and tasted great!

Okay, so it's now time for our fourth Mystery Bag Challenge and it's my turn to cook!

After watching a few more episodes of Criminal Minds on dvd, we did a little house cleaning, more like decluttering.  I'm not a hoarder, I just have a bad habit of not always putting things back where they belong.  Anyway, my family is coming out on Sunday for a cookout on Sunday, so we want to get a head start on prepping for their visit. Then, I get to open my mystery bag!

Damon caught me in the middle of a "really????" look on my face lol!  

Recap: The rules are simple; I have to make dinner using each of the 4 mystery food items that he put into my mystery bag.  I can also use other items that we have in the fridge and pantry, but I 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 my ingredients for the first time.

And here's what I ended up with!

A pound of ground hamburger meat, green onion, a yellow onion, and crushed red paper flake.  

Take a minute and think about what you would make for dinner with those ingredients?  The possibilities are literally endless depending on how creative you want to get, but the more creative, the more points!

I was a little thrown off because he didn't give me a starch, but I came to an idea pretty quickly.  I wanted to make a deconstructed hamburger; making two burger patties, dipping them into an egg wash, then breading them with panko breadcrumbs, a little pepper, and Parmesan cheese. I was afraid to add salt to the breadcrumb mixture because the Parmesan cheese is so salty. In the hamburger meat I added some finely diced yellow onion, threw in a bit of crushed pepper flake, and mixed it all in.

Yes, I am using gloves to shape my burgers and get them breaded. I hate handling raw meat so get over it! I didn't get a starch so I thought a little macaroni salad as a side would bring the dish together.  I wanted to try something different, so I mixed together some cream cheese with some red wine to dress the pasta; I think with more time I could have gotten there, but I quickly abandoned that idea and opted for cream cheese and ranch dressing as a sauce for the noodle salad.

Now, I've pan fried both sides of my deconstructed burgers and I'm feeling nervous. I'm getting low on time, so I throw the pan into the preheated oven to finish cooking the burgers in the oven while I make my macaroni salad.  I mince up some sweet bell pepper, chop my green onion, sip on a glass of wine, and wait for the noodles to get done.

The noodles are almost done so I start thinking about plating.  I'm thinking this is a burger of sorts so I go with iceberg lettuce and roma tomato.  The noodles are finely done and I mix in the cream cheese, ranch, sweet peppers, salt and pepper to taste.  I get a little nervous about the ranch flavor and I don't want to over power it so I add a little extra cream cheese and go relly light on the ranch.

I'm running out of time but the burgers are cooked through so I pull the pan out of the oven and get rocking on my plating.  I get a large leaf of lettuce, slice the tomato, and put it on the plate, then I think I wanted this to be a little spicy (since I added the pepper flake into the patty), I figured I'd top it off with a pickled jalapeno!  

And with only a few minutes to spare, there you have it!

We eat our dinner and really enjoyed it, Damon thought I was really thinking outside the box because when he picked the ingredients, he was thinking I would make something like Salisbury steak or a beef stroganoff.  I don't know where I came up with the idea, but overall I'm pleased and it was really fun doing something we've never tried before!  

Don't forget our 10 point scale...  

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 Damon didn't count me off for anything. I on the other hand thought I could have went a little further with the seasoning.  I was nervous about going overboard with the pepper flake and the salt but I ended up going too light.  So, in the end, I ended up with an average of 9.5 points!

Damon = 13, Christina = 13.5, can't wait to figure out Damon's next Mystery Bag!!

                                Next week is Damon's turn to cook!