Recently in "Food Fight™" Category

Congratulations, Chile. You beat me at my own Spam pizza game! I don't know what happened to all the other entries this time, but I'll hook you up big time.

Here's Chilebrown's winning entry, more pictures over at Mad Meat Genius:

The Frugal Gourmet

The Frugal Gourmet was the ‘Emeril’ of the eighties on PBS. Jeff Smith was his name. He was entertaining, funny and frugal. I always enjoyed watching him. I also had a suspicion that there was something a little odd about him. He would travel to Europe with his young male assistant and leave his wife home. Some people made some accusations against him and PBS dropped him like a Hot Potato. Today I am dedicating my entry to Jeff Smith. My first plan was to make a fruitcake. That probably would not be appropriate and not very frugal. I am going to make a pizza with ingredients that I have on hand.

My garden is in full swing so I can make some pizza sauce with fresh picked tomato’s. I checked the cupboard and found a can of Spam from The Pragmatic Chef’s last contest. There is some cheese in the refrigerator. The pizza will be cooked in the Beehive Oven fueled by almond wood. Let’s start by making the dough.

Pizza Dough

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (I use Honey)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups bread flour (1 cup more as needed)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
Combine water, honey, and yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes until yeast starts to bloom. In a food processor combine all ingredients and mix until dough forms ball and pulls away from side of bowl. You may have to add a little more flour. Knead on a floured board for 10 minutes. Place in Ziploc bag and put in refrigerator for 24 hours.

Sauce
1 slice of bacon diced
7 or 8 tomatoes peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
Salt & Pepper
1 small onion diced
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sugar

Cook the diced bacon in large sauté pan for 5 minutes. Add the onions and sauté for another couple of minutes. Add the paste cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Arrange all your ingredients. Roll out the dough and assemble the pizza pie. Cook in oven at very high temperature for several minutes.

I think Jeff Smith would be proud. The Spam was actually very good I was surprised. I do not think I am going to run out and buy anymore unless there is another contest.

To be announced tomorrow...

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?

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?

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.

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.

Diana has thrown down the Gauntlet for another Food Fight.

Is is time? Leave a comment if you're up for it!

Congratulations, Diana, on your fine victory! Diana has won Food Fight Five- The Spam® Cookoff, with her Curried Spam® and Mango Salad, which she presented in a couple of interesting ways.

Diana, if you still want to donate your six-pack to Operation Gratitude as part of our Two For the Troops program, I'll be glad to match it!

This was a really good competition, I think. To make something like Spam® into an upscale dish takes a lot of thought and imagination, and every entry we had sure had both of those! Thanks to everybody who entered, even the "imaginary entries" were really fun.

So, what's the next Food Fight to be?

(Photo: Dr. Biggles, of his sons demonstrating their "Spam on a Stick" technique...)

Let the voting begin! Here's the original rules I posted:

• Spam® needs to be a primary ingredient, no hiding a few morsels in another dish! You need to use a full tin, or thereabouts.

• Those who enter can cast a full vote in the comments of this thread only. Other readers can vote too, but their votes in total will only serve as one tie-breaking vote. And just for another cruel twist, no voting for yourself!

• Imagination should be a large factor in the voting, I think. Be creative!

• Oh, and yes, you actually have to eat it and let us know how it turned out.

I'll award a six-pack of Survival Spice™ to the winner. I'm going to enter, too, and vote. I'm not saying my vote could be influenced by an entry using Survival Spice™ or our other products, but... If I win, I'll donate an extra sixpack to Operation Gratitude.

This has been a real challenge, and a lot of fun, I think. Leave your vote in the comments, along with an explanation of how you came to your decision, if you like. I'll close the voting as soon as all the entrants have posted their vote.

Gail has sent in the latest entry into our latest Spam® Food Fight, a "Kinda Cajun Spam with Polenta". At the point, because I don't know of any other entries that might come in other than Dr. Biggles, I'll say "last call" to create a Spam® dish! To see all the entries so far, just click on the Food Fight category in the right sidebar.

Another really imaginative, well executed dish. I'm really impressed with the creativity we've all put in to this!