Happy Friday, all! Busy as all get out here, so I'll get right to the funny, sent in by Kathleen, who once again deserves a big thumbs up for lightening up my mood!
Have a great weekend. If you have any Food Fight questions, post them here.
Some tasty looking guacamole and some cool blue glasses at The Blue Coyote Grill in Palm Springs.
Here's a quick pizza I threw together recently with some pizza dough I picked up at Sprouts. I had some marinara sauce in the freezer I made for our wedding, and some mozzerella, parmesan, and fontina cheese. I just panned it out on some corn meal, and threw it in the oven on a hot pizza stone. It got a little overcooked while I went for my camera, but it tasted just fine.
I love pizza. Too bad it's so fond of hanging around my gut...
I love a great chile relleno. Sadly, you get far more bad ones than good ones, so when you find a restaurant that makes a truly exceptional version, you owe it to the foodie world to spread the word, right?
The Blue Coyote Grill has been a must-stop for me for a number of years now. At one point it for their great tequilas too, but now I've pretty much given up on that, it's still worth a trip for the food.
The first time I ate there with Julie, we stumbled on their special version of the classic dish- a chile relleno wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried, as opposed to the traditional egg batter, which is where most rellenos typically fall flat. To see a well executed version of the traditional preparation, check out Chilebrown's version.
The place has a really cool vibe, give it a try if you're ever in Palm Springs!
I've had a few emails asking for the deadline to be extended, so let's go through that weekend and make it September 1st, which is a Monday.
Otay?
Happy Friday, y'all. Here's a country-themed funny sent in by Jerry that's real knee slapper.
Have a great weekend. Get those Frugal Food Fight entries ready!
Thanks, as always, for your support of Desert Island Foods®.com. Get your Survival Spice® ordered for Labor Day, if you haven't already!
Does anyone have any questions about the current food fight? We have quite a good number of entries so far, but I'd love to see a few more! The more contestants we can muster, the more stuff I'm willing to give away, so if you know someone interested, leave it in the comments.
The entries close on the 28th, unless collectively we feel like we need more time.
What are you making?
(Note the December, 1978 expiration date)
Hey, it was only $.43!!! Julie stumbled upon this and gave it to me, so I could have a good laugh. Wonder if it's still good?
I was tempted to use it in our coming Food Fight, but I think I'll explore other options...
(Herb focaccia with roasted red and Anaheim peppers, red onions and baby bok choy with fontina, jalapeno muenster, romano and parmasean cheeses.)
Emboldened with my last Vegetarian Dagwood sandwich, I made this for a picnic lunch we took up to the mountains last week. I used a mixture of Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, plus a touch of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar to round out the flavor once I roasted the veggies.
To keep it from becoming soggy on the trip, I pre-toasted the bread with the cheese first, then assembled the sandwich just before we left. It held together beautifully, and I have to say, although the combination of ingredients was unusual, it was fantastic. It may seem unusual to pair a white wine vinegar with a balsamic in the same dish, but I added the balsamic first to reduce it a bit, then added the Aceto at the very end to give it a bit of brightness back.
We took an assortment of fruits, cheeses, and hummus with us, but the sandwich was the winner.
Okay. I've looked at the archives and realized that this is technically Food Fight Six, so alliteration be damned! I guess it could be Food Fight Six- Strive for the Stingy, but it's belaboring the point, I think.
Speaking of points, here's how it will break down:
1 - 15 points for Frugalness
1 - 10 points for Preparation
1 - 10 points for Presentation
1 - 5 points for Photography
1 - 10 points awarded for Pizzaz in your writing
A few notes- I'd like a breakdown on cost for your meal, but points can be earned for clever use and recycling of ingredients, too. Cost is important too, but I don't think somebody should earn the most Frugalness points just because their ingredients cost $.04 less than everyone else's. Imagination counts!
Preparation- Your meal should be nutritionally sound, as well as incorporating appetizing ingredients.
Presentation- No fine crystal needed, but a properly plated dish always goes a long way with me. Imagination triumphs over brute elegance every time.
Photography- Don't go out and buy a light kit and a fancy camera. Daylight is your friend, just have enough light so that you can turn the flash off in your camera if at all possible. It's only a 5 point possible score, but good photography is all we have to judge your meal.
Pizzaz- Entertain us! Explain how you went about putting together your entry, and feel free to talk about how "cheap and cheerful" living works in your lifestyle. Recipes earn points, cost breakdowns are a must.
Only those who enter get a full vote, and you can't vote for yourself. I think we'll have one total vote for everyone else who wants to opine.
Get cooking! Entries end on the 28th.
Hi everyone-
We're in La Quinta, CA today at the resort. It's a travel day headed home, but had to share an amazing meal we had last night at The Rattlesnake club. Wonderful food, superb service, and a great experience overall.
Check it out, and have a drool at the menu.
We've got a good start to the new Food Fight, keep spreading the word!!!
Announcing Food Fight #6- The Fight for the Frugal!!!!
I've chosen this theme because times are tight, let's face it. I've been doing a lot of blogging to prove it, but it's nothing you don't know, right? I know a lot of you have food gardens, cut coupons, and make a lot of stuff from scratch, so here's your chance to profit from it!
In terms of judging, here's the deal. The usual "Four P's" criteria will apply- presentation, preparation, photography, and pizzaz in the writing, but the twist this time is the fifth P- "penny pinching". Along with your usual entertaining write-ups when you enter your dish with up to 3 pictures, you'll have to 'break down' what you submit with prices, and the frugality of your dish will be a major criteria. I'd like to see 3 courses- appetizer/soup/salad, entree, and dessert, and your pricing should be based on feeding four, even if you have more or less mouths to feed in your home.
Let's give everyone two weeks to submit, so we'll close entries at the end of the day on Thursday, August 28th. Email me your entries with picture(s), interesting write-up, and the pricing. Notice you have to take out the phrase 'REMOVETHESEWORDS' from my email address before sending, this is to thwart the scum-sucking spammers.
Prizes? Did you say prizes? What, the thrill of a job well done isn't enough?
Didn't think so.
I'll be giving great prizes like our all natural, gluten free Survival Spice® barbecue rub, Tibvrtini Olio Novella- one of the finest olive oils in the world, and their Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco organic white wine vinegar. And to make it more interesting, the more entries we get this time, the better the prizes will be. First prize will be all 3 of these, and more!!
Seriously, let's have a lot of entries this time, I really do want to reward all of us who try so hard to make great stuff without spending a lot of money.
Get cooking!!! Let me know in the comments or by email if you're interested.
I thought it was only appropriate to get an Olympics post in here somewhere that didn't involve those revolting pictures of Chinese delicacies that I've gotten via email numerous times, but the sheer gluttony that's partly responsible for Michael Phelps' success is kinda of hard to digest:
Phelps lends a new spin to the phrase "Breakfast of Champions" by starting off his day by eating three fried-egg sandwiches loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, fried onions and mayonnaise. He follows that up with two cups of coffee, a five-egg omelet, a bowl of grits, three slices of French toast topped with powdered sugar and three chocolate-chip pancakes.At lunch, Phelps gobbles up a pound of enriched pasta and two large ham and cheese sandwiches slathered with mayo on white bread - capping off the meal by chugging about 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.
For dinner, Phelps really loads up on the carbs - what he needs to give him plenty of energy for his five-hours-a-day, six-days-a-week regimen - with a pound of pasta and an entire pizza.
He washes all that down with another 1,000 calories worth of energy drinks.
He's truly a phenomenon, but I can imagine the tabloid pictures of him as an overweight, middle-aged guy, once he quits swimming around the world every 24 hours...
Some interesting observations on the downturn in luxury grocery shopping in what I call "organic boutique" grocery stores like Whole Foods, by LA Times blogger Matthew DeBord:
A scientist would point out that the body doesn't care what you're feeding it, so long as it's nourishing. When times are tough, that means the value-pack bag of frozen chicken thighs wins and the vegetarian-fed, free-range whole fryer does not. Virtue is a funny thing: It has a hard time competing with an empty stomach. Or an empty wallet.
Whole Foods stock is down 30% of late, mainly because shoppers are turning to less expensive sources for organic and non organic products. Personally, I'm a big fan of Sprouts, but they don't have much national exposure yet.
A new series of "flavor modulators" might make a Diet Coke drinking, broccoli eater out of you yet:
Healthy, sugar-free, low-salt foods that taste as good as their fattening, additive-ridden alternatives could soon be on sale - thanks to research into chemicals that trick our brain into believing we are eating the 'bad' things we crave.Two companies in the United States have won new patents on ways to convince the brain we are consuming foods that are far sweeter or saltier than they actually are. The firms are working with Cadburys and Coca-Cola to create healthy yet appealing products.
I think they're going to have a tough time convincing the general public, and me, that this latest "better living through chemistry" attempt is something we'll want to spend money on. I could be wrong, though, what do you think?
Okay, it was yesterday and I just noticed. Many, many more, my cyber friend! Go over there and help him blow out the candles.
Happy Friday! It's been a long week here, so I'm really looking forward to a relaxing weekend, with some quality pool time if the monsoons give us a break. I'm still working on the next Food Fight competition, but as a hint- it's going to have a 'frugal' theme, so start working on your best 'cheap and cheerful' entees! The cost of your dish will be a criteria in the judging.
Have a great weekend, here's a joke from John in Chicago that should get a chuckle out of you.
Oh, Labor Day's coming, order some Survival Spice®!!!
Say it isn't so!!! From Fox News:
Among the findings were:— Americans are drinking significantly less beer and more wine, while hard liquor use has remained fairly constant.
— The number of people describing themselves as non-drinkers has increased.
— People born later in the 20th century drink more moderately than people born in the early part of the century.
— Alcohol consumption goes down as people age.
I know my drinking has slowed down a quite a bit over the years, but everything in moderation, including moderation, I say.
(Whole Wheat Rotini, squash, tomatoes, corn, pine nuts, shallots, red onion, thyme, chicken stock and asiago cheese)
In our quest to keep our carbohydrates down we've given up on pasta for the most part, but when I was scrambling for a quick dinner last night I found half a pound of whole wheat rotini in the pantry. Whole wheat pasta is considered a healthier alternative to standard semolina, but really, moderation will do you far more good than the actual pasta you choose. I just make sure to incorporate plenty of vegetables and/or meat to keep it all in balance.
Julie had bought some aged asiago cheese a while back, and it was absolutely fantastic when I shaved in a generous amount to the dish once it was on the heat, after I took the picture. It added a wonderful flavor, along with lots of Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgine di Oliva, and a little chicken broth. Toasted pine nuts also added a bit of thickening, as well contributing depth of flavor.
We had this with some Scariyaki Salmon. Great tasting, and healthy. What a concept.
I know, I know- you've worked all day, then came home and cooked a good dinner, when all you really felt like doing was opening a greasy sack of anything. Kudos for making the effort, but I beg you to try not to just plop it on a plate and ring the dinner bell. Putting a little bit of thought into plating a dish properly, even if you're just cooking for yourself, not only makes a dish look better, it will actually make it taste better.
Why? By incrementally increasing saliva in your mouth and on your tongue, which helps to distribute seasoning and flavors all over your taste buds, including those the food isn't actually in physical contact with, which increases the perception of flavor in your brain.
In these days of tight food budgets, a little bit of thought into plating can help you to get a "WOW!" out of simple ingredients, such as what I did with a simple pork chop and applesauce dinner, and after a while you get in the habit of considering how you're going to present a dish as you're doing your prep, which will help you to be more imaginative with your meals.
It's fun, rewarding, and it will make you a better cook.
(If you were to invest $6.00 or so in one of these babies by buying it through the above link, I would receive a royalty of $19,320. Okay, maybe if you bought a few million...)
I'm not a gadget freak, though for some reason family members and friends feel compelled to share cool things that come their way. I'm grateful for that, actually, it's how I was first exposed to the E-Z Hook® we've been carrying at Desert Island Foods®.com for a few years now, and I truly use one nearly every day.
Here's a gadget I got from my mother in law recently that while kind of nifty, I wouldn't call it a "must have" item because we don't eat a lot of soft boiled eggs. It has given me something to play with though, and that's always fun.
The Amazon link looks a lot like the unit I got, but I don't have the box anymore so I can't say for sure. Close enough, really. The idea is that it saves you a lot of time heating up a bit pot of water every time you want to poach an egg. Normally, if you were to just put an egg by itself in a microwave, you'd have egg-colored walls in no time, but the aluminum reflector the eggs sit in presumably keeps the heat focused on the water, which steams the egg.
Okay, time to fire this thing up. The water's in and I've got a nice brown egg loaded.
Hello, what's this?
Duly noted.
I gave it 4 1/2 minutes in a pretty peppy microwave for just one egg, and it was a bit firm for me. I guess I'll try 4:15 next time:
All in all, a fine gadget. It would definitely take a while to dial in the appropriate cooking times, but if you frequently need to cook a few eggs for salads or egg salad it might be just the thing for you.
Happy Friday, everyone! Lots of unexpected reaction to my Fresh & Easy posts, including contact from one of of the union stores who aren't too happy about their employees used being used on the flyers that started it all.
Here's a funny one from Steve to give us a badly needed Friday afternoon chuckle, thank you sir.
We'll be starting a new Food Fight next week, so get ready!!!
Have a great weekend, treat yourselves to a few great home cooked meals, and if you were to stop by Desert Island Foods®.com and pick up a few goodies I'd sure appreciate it.
