Challenge Entry: The Cucone

Meet the cucone.

Based on the bacone.


Here's me holding it.

Here's that guy with his.


The bacone is a cone make of cooked bacon filled with scrambled eggs, cheese, country gravy, and topped with a biscuit. The cucone is a cone made of peeled cucumber, filled with poached egg whites, goat cheese, and topped with a piece of smoked salmon.

I'd say this guy speaks entirely for himself, but... Boo-Yah!!!

Milkshake Busters Challenge #4

The next (I believe 4th) Milkshake Busters Challenge has been announced! We will each have one month to prepare...

FATBLOG DEFATIFYING CHALLENGE!!!

Yes! It's finally come! Each contestant must select one item from the infamous thisiswhyyourefat.com and healthy that son of a bitch up! Now keep in mind, some of these recipes, in order to remain as their original post, will have fattening elements. It is your job, however, to take something from the fatblog and turn it into an everydayish meal. Points go to healthiness, creativity, difficulty level, and closeness to the original.

Go forth and make their milkshakes healthy... then drink the shit out of them! Your time beings... NOW!



Keep in mind, all those who abstain from participation may be subject to loss of posting privileges.

Zucchini Challenge: Disastrous Plating Failure

While drunk in a Manhattan bar after a trip to the Guggenheim, Erin and I were discussing the challenge. Here's what we came up with. Tuna tartare with chopped vinegar soaked zucchini topped with a poached (because I wasn't sure about raw) quail egg. The plate is rimmed with tonkatsu sauce and dollops of spicy kewpie mayonnaise and garnished with zuchinni peel (as per Kyle's bitching). I have never been able to plate dishes for my life so trust that it tasted better than it looked. Erin agreed.I started with fresh sushi grade tuna I had gotten at the asian market on rt 18. I badgered the hell out of the guy because neither of us could find a common language but eventually we agreed it was in fact fresh sushi grade tuna and that we are both fans of giving thumbs up. I guess we all speak the international language of The Fonz.Here is the chopped zucchini sitting in vinegar. I did that just for some extra taste. We then rinsed the zucchini and incorporated it with the tuna.I couldn't get the water spinning fast enough so the eggs poached a little wispy but they were still good. Not quite as good as a raw egg yolk sitting on your tartare but I wasn't 100% sure about these quail eggs so I didn't want to chance it.Erin spent most of the time snacking on these spicy wasabi crackers and cherry tomatoes I picked up at the asian grocery while getting the tuna. I eventually convinced her to chop up some zucchini and tomatos together for a cracker topping. Here's her rebuttal to my dish. She incorporated leftover tuna. It was miles better than what I made.She also topped these suckers off with some spicy kewpie mayonnaise leftover from my dish. These little bastards were increadible. Perfect spice to match the coolness of the zucchini and the tuna. I think she beat me. Not afraid to admit it.

DYMS Zucchini Challenge: MK, Contender

TriColor Zucchini Vermicelli Nests

For vermicelli:
1/2 large zucchini
1/2 large yellow squash
1 carrot, peeled
coarse salt

Into a medium bowl, use a mandolin slicer on a narrow setting (if you don't have one, use a peeler and just peel very narrow shreds) to slice down about half of each of the zucchini and yellow squash, until you hit seeds. Do not use the seedy parts! Slice down as much of the carrot as you can stand.

Break up the shreds with your hands or a wooden spoon and incorporate. Toss with salt and empty the shreds into a collander. Sit the collander in a bowl and leave the mixture alone for about 20 minutes. Squeeze out the water from the shreds with your hands and transfer the dry shreds to a bowl.

To dress and garnish:
1 small scallion, sliced thin
3 small sprigs of mint, chopped
1 dash each of mirin, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce
juice of 1/4 lemon
salt to taste
black or white sesame seeds, toasted, for sprinkling

Combine wet ingredients, herbs, and scallion in a measuring cup or small bowl. Pour over the shreds and toss to coat. With a salad fork, twirl the strands and place resulting whorl on a clean plate. Repeat until all of the strands are whorled, approximately 9 whorls.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds and garnish with a sprig of mint and a contrasting nasturtium.

Challenged: Mystery Ramen

Here we have an entry to the Mystery Ramen challenge -- direct from the Midwest! Thx, Auntie Sharon.

Colicchio v. Fallon Sammich Smackdown

Kudos to Jimmy Fallon for hating the same stuff that I hate!

via EatMeDaily:

BENTO BOXES

Meredith and I have been obessed with bento boxes for quite some time now. Whenever we go out for Japanese, Meredith orders the bento and we are constantly talking about buying our own boxes to bring to work or school or pretty much anywhere. Today we had decided to bring them to the movies. The original plan was to put together some bento boxes based on whatever movie we were gonna go see and sit in the theater with them. We had spent maybe half an hour sending eachother pictures of different crazy bento boxes on the internet. Unfortunately I over slept and we ended up not going to the movie. We spent way too long wandering the aisles of the RT 18 Asian Market to get all our ingredients including two packs of sashimi from the restaurant we love out in front of the market. Then we went home and got to work. The picture above is the ingredients we were going to use. Once we got the rice going we started opening up the canned fish and making the "tuna mayo" (CwD).

This picture is Meredith packing one of her rice balls. I think this one is "tuna mayo" wrapped with a strip of nori and covered in rice topping. We kept forgetting to cut the nori first and it turned into a mad scramble with our hands covered in sticky rice.

This is one of the bentos filled with rice balls (boxes courtesy of our mom). They were all sooooo gooooood. Luckily Meredith didn't eat all of hers and I had leftovers that I'm eating while I'm typing this.

This is my finished bento. I wish I had a picture of Meredith's. It was much more elegant. I kinda just shoved stuff in there. Below my initials and the sashimi is a bed of sticky rice. Above it is cucumber strips, broiled eel and mackerel covered with avacado and eel sauce, oysters, fake crab meat, and an anchovy.
This is a picture of Meredith eating a rice ball and getting pissed at me for taking pictures of her eating. She hates when I do that. Anyway the bentos and rice balls were delicious. We ended up sitting around eating them and watching Metalocalypse. A truly blogworthy night.

Challenge #2: Post a solid recipe for once plz

Vanessa is right. We are lazy pieces of crap that throw ingredients into a pot and brag about it. This is a challenge specifically to Ben and ugh I guess myself to post an actual recipe for a soup.

So, I made a pretty ok sandwich.

I opened the fridge around lunch time. Opening the fridge reminds me most of the time of cooking plans that didn't materialize. Like that basil that was on its way out because I wasn't getting stoked on the pesto I was supposed to make this week. So I told myself to get off my ass and make good.

Whole wheat bread from the fridge had to do. No time to bake my own, though it's easy enough. I like the No Knead recipe because who has time to really do the whole bread baking thing? It's surprisingly good for how little effort is involved.

I made a pretty standard pesto: basil, pine nuts, salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic.

The day before, I tried a new seitan recipe that requires baking rather than boiling. I really love this concept. I altered the seasoning a little (it is reminiscent of pepperoni) and maybe in the future it would be fun to do a stuffed version. I think there is also potential there for a veggie dog that is not just a bunch of extruded soy paste. (Another shortcut confession: I used vital wheat gluten flour rather than forcing the gluten out of wheat dough which takes 8796984 hours.)

Ugh boiled seitan. Talk about disaster stories. I challenge anyone to tell me that their boiled seitan was anywhere near baked in quality. Or even approached store-bought.
Anyway. Sauteed the seitan with some spinach that was turning in the fridge as well.

Bang. Sandwich. Stacked on some carrot matchsticks and sliced avocado. Then I ate it. It was fine.

In conclusion: Sammich challenge? Stuff turning in the fridge challenge?

Great Moments in Tofu

I invite everyone who has not seen Sympathy for Lady Vengeance to do so. I've had this scene on repeat in my head for the past hour and a half and its making it hard to sleep. This is most likely due to the fact that Meredith and I will be embarking on a tofu challenge in the near future. Inquire within to join us!

Challenge #1: If you're serious, then you don't care what's in it.

(reblogged from Ben)
Meredith and I have a challenge going. We try to find the instant ramen bowl with the least possible english. If you’re really into it then you don’t care what’s in it. The running competition has been going for a number of years. I guess we just have a thing for Japan. This one is the best I’ve found so far. I have no clue what’s in it. The brand “Master Tong” is in english so not a complete shut out, but the best I’ve found so far. Extra points always go for how many packets are inside the actual bowl itself. If the noodles, vegetables, sauce, oil, powder, and quick assembly spoon are all self packaged, you win. Try to find some of your own, let us know.