Alright son, time to giddyup

aiight all, here is our first IRON CHEF CHALLENGE!!!!! With all of our contenders from DYMS over here in one corner, and the GREAT COOKINGWITHDOG Chef in the other!

DAH DAH DAH DAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*GONG*


AND THE FOOD FOR THIS CHALLENGE IS -----

apparently zucchini.

(chosen at random by my coworker)


wow. ok, so even though my first thought was "really? zucchini? really?" now i'm starting to get into it.



Here are the rules:
1. you gotta post something by 1200 midnight July 31st. (this gives all of our lazy asses about two weeks to perfect it)
2. you gotta make someone who has no idea what your doing this for and also what they're eating to taste it, and write out some comments.
3. you gotta post pictures AND the comments. no matter how droll or embarassing.
4. it should be original. no using someone else's recipe, LET YOUR IMAGINATION RUN FREEEEEEEE.




Did i miss anything? post some comments!!!!

breakfast for dinner!

did you know that breakfast for dinner is delicious? and that croissants make delicious french toast? and sangria is a great side? mmm.

french toast:
croissants, sliced into two or three slices. use a bread knife and work the sawing motion rather than a pushing motion to obtain your immaculate slices. dip in eggy dip. fry on both sides in butter. keep in warmed oven until eating.
eggy dip:
eggs (3 eggs frenched 3 whole croissants), add a splash of vanilla, some brown sugar, some cinnamon all mixed up with two splashes milk. add a pinch of salt to break up the egg whites. yum. leftovers are good for cooking like scrambled eggs!


sangria: 2 bottles white wine (dry and without oaky flavors. we got a really good cheap dry argentinian from trader joes), some fruit (for white wine sangria we used the fruit off of a luncheon plate matt snagged from work - oranges, pineapple, watermelon, honeydew, strawberries, grapes), some sugar (about 1/4 cup. frankly, it didnt need it), 2/3 cup apricot flavored brandy, 2/3 cup triple sec (maybe should have used contreau? triple sec was very sweet!), some lime juice, some mint.
combine all of the above. put the lime juice on the fruit before adding it to the liquids and they will keep their bright colors. tear the mint into teeny tiny bits before adding so that the oils really seep into the wine. after combining the above, put in fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. best if overnight (so sayeth the internet).
when serving, add a splash of sparkling water if you desire!

yum. watch out, because of the added sugars can lead to a monster hangover.

Some stuff from my fridge that I threw together

Basically, this has been a big trying-to-use-things-up week for me. My main motivation was a long-stem artichoke turning in the fridge. The good thing about the long-stemmers is that the stem is delicious and a lot of non-main-artichoke related possibilities open up. I was really interested in getting some carbs into this dish, so after peeling the tough outer layer of the stem and slicing it into half-coins, I made some pasta dough and cut that down into linguine-width strands using the I-tossed-out-my-pasta-machine-because-I-didn't-think-I'd-ever-use-it method.

I sauteed the half-coins in a little olive oil and then put some liquid in the pan to soften them up while the pasta water got to boiling. When the stem pieces were a little softer but still al dente, I threw in some crimini mushrooms that needed to get used. Just before the mushrooms started to sweat, I poured in some red wine and let the sauce reduce. In the meantime, the pasta was ready to get cooked, which happens almost instantaneously with fresh pasta.

The sauce finished up and at the last minute I stirred in some of the pesto I made earlier in the week. Not something I would usually do to a wine sauce, but it was worth it! I lowered the heat and added the noodles to the sauce. This saucing step is essential. When you are working with a noodle dish, the noodles should remain a bit undercooked and added to the sauce at the last step so that they can cook the rest of the way in the sauce and everything gets nice and incorporated.

STRAWBERRIES STRAWBERRIES

disclaimer: excuse the horrible photography, i took these pictures before mer's tutorial!!!
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what was that i heard about a sandwich-off? oh yeah. it's on:

STRAWBERRIES. god's gift. the one and only. wayyy better than james dean.


let me tell you what you're looking at. this is potato-bread toast, with strawberry preserves, with motherfucking BASIL topped with a fried egg. on the side? more strawberries. it was the most amazing combo ever - who would have thought basil and strawberries and eggs would be the new black?

and here's another bit for ya with a bad picture to boot:
really bad photo. oh man. no justice. this would be strawberries that i sliced and then smushed with a fork, put over crushed ice (you know, bag o ice meets hammer-time) with a shot of brandy and shredded smushed mint.

i said the same thing when i looked at this dinner as i did that one time i was really drunk and had great cleavage: YOU'RE GODDAMNED RIGHT!

Tuna!

Beware, this tuna melt contains awesome. I diced up some celery in that bitch and used some brie. You heard me, brie. Heated that mofo up. Then I done ate it. Had some beer too, ain't no thang. So good I made another later in the week. Check that one out.

Had a pickle too. Damn good. Back up off my sammich 'cuz I'mma eat it right up. Underneath that sammich I got a plate with a penguin on it. Go ahead an' get mad ya jealous ass, you can't have this penguin plate 'cuz I'm makin' another sammich on it.

OK, SO. not the best picture. but let me tell you about our cooking skillz. that's right. with a Z because we're THAT gangsta. so gangsta we ate this and watched NOTORIOUS! (I got techniques drippin out my buttcheeks , Sleep on my stomach so I don't fuck up my sheets)

OK, SO. this is what we got goin on: some brie action, surrounded by some deliciousness wrapped up in some fantastical tongue-gasms.

here goes:
1 package puff pastry
1 brie in the round (no wedges! you need those moldy bits to keep all the melty bits together!)
Whatever you have in your baking cupboard.

Actions: Thaw puff pastry. slap that brie in that puff pastry. put stuff on the brie. wrap that brie/stuff combo with pastry. bake until delicious.

we used some crushed pecans mushed with brown sugar/melted butter to make it a paste. spread this on top, then topped off with semi-sweet chocolate chips. DE LICIOUS. TWO WORDS. in retrospect, i wouldnt have put butter in the brown sugar, cause after reheating the brie the next day it got everything all soggy and pulled the oils out of the pastry.

seriously. who would have thought chocolate would mix in a most heavenly way with brie? NOT ME. I'M A CONVERT. YOU SHOULD BE TOO!