SWfans Cooking Club Challenge!

[Charley]

<strike>Okay, we all had a lot of fun with the several contests last year we put together, and I've been wanting to do more stuff ever since. Who wants to compete? I say we go for a competition each month, name a theme ingredient, and each contestant has to submit three dishes using that ingredient. The dishes don't have to be a part of a complete meal, but I think three different dishes would help to round out strengths and weaknesses.

Anybody keen to give this another try?</strike>

See Mandi's idea below. It's even better!

[Mandy with an I]

I really like the idea of a Fans Cooking Club Challenge (http://www.foodtv.ca/BLOG/archive/tags/Cooking+Club+Challenge/default.aspx), like on the Food Network site. Someone puts up a recipe and everyone tries it, putting their own spin on it.

That would make me want to join in and cook more because there would be a recipe. >_>;

[Cneidon Mako]

I like this idea even better.

[Hobgoblin]

I don't know if I would participate to compete, per se. If other people do this, I might participate or not as the mood strikes. I'm definitely not creative enough to do crazy dishes that would win me any competitions.

Edit: I also like Mandi's idea.

[Mandy with an I]

Thanks. :)

I just think that would work better for the people (like me) who aren't super-chefs. I get really excited when I'm going to cook something new, but I'm still learning.

PLUS, we could have cooking AND baking recipes ;) I'm much better at baking then cooking.

[Charley]

Mandi's idea strikes me as exactly the kind of thing you'd do really well at Brian.

This would be a great way to take a lot of very common dishes that people know of and to see how creative you can be with that. It wouldn't really be a competition I guess, as much as just a showcase.

[Ryan Pode]

Yeah. I'm game.

[Charley]

Cool, we've got interested folk.

What sort of generic dish do you guys want to do for the first one? It should be something that is pretty basic itself, but something that can be done several different ways.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I.. might join in.

:uhoh

[Darven]

Count me in, if I manage to get the kitchen to myself and the recipes aren't too "American" and I can get the ingredients for it. Unfortunately, since I'm living at my folks' house again and any cooking would have to be done for the whole family, some things are off the menu. And having had a son-in-law from the US who tried to introduce him to mac'n'cheese and whose tastes generally ran towards fast food, sort of made my dad very wary of what he considers "American" food (including tacos and such).

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Tacos are Mexican though o_O

[Darven]

I know. My dad classifies it simply as "that junk that your ex used to eat", tho. So it's a no-go in our house. *sigh*

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Have you tried more traditional tacos for him? Taco Bell tacos are rather americanized I do admit, with all the lettuce and cheese and tomatoes and onions and stuff. Most traditional tacos are just meat fried in corn tortillas. And nothing else. No extras; just meat. Salsa is optional too, and you can just dip the taco into a little bowl of salsa if desired.

[Mu Satach]

mmmmmmmmmmmmm...

I'm hungry now for fire grilled steak or chicken fajita's with roasted red & green bell peppers... and homemade Spanish rice and black beans....

Home cookin is the only way to go with taco's n stuff anymore.

[Emelie Shadowstar]

Hmm...depending on the boyfriend friendlyness of the recepies (he's a fucking picky eater, I swear to god) I may join in too just for the fun of trying to make new stuff. Read as: "attempting to make something edible while not burning down the kitchen."

[Shadow Storm]

I nominate baked chicken for our first dish, something simple yet can be done in many different ways. :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

Baked chicken? A whole chicken? I probably can't take part unless we are doing something that is targetted at feeding fewer people, or can be kept and eaten over a few days.

[Darven]

You can bake chicken breast, too... no need to use the whole thing.

I'm up for it.

And Christin - about Tacos.... we don't have Taco Bell here, so my dad's one encounter with Tacos was a home-made one. Trouble is, my ex just usually wanted all his food to taste like it was fast food, and my dad got in the way of that, so the two of them eating the same thing the same time was a definite impossibility. Then again, my dad also doesn't like some pasta dishes because he doesn't like cooked tomatoes.... it's not easy cooking for this family.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Oof :( That's a shame :\

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Baked chicken isn't a recipe.

I like the idea. I won't be participating because everything smells disgusting to me right now, but I like the idea.

[Mandy with an I]

Baked chicken isn't a recipe.

I like the idea. I won't be participating because everything smells disgusting to me right now, but I like the idea.

I'd say to plug your nose, but then you couldn't really taste anything.

How about THIS (http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chicken-with-tomatoes-and-mushrooms?lnc=1d14289c2d2ee010VgnVCM1000003d370a0a RCRD&rsc=photogallery_healthy-recipes_food_best-chicken-recipes) for our first recipe? It seems pretty easy, and the ingredients aren't crazy. Plus there's room for experimenting.

[Cneidon Mako]

If we do a meat dish, I'll just cook it for Christin. I can't eat it myself :)

[Mandy with an I]

Maybe we can take a vote?

We could always have a meat dish this week, and a veggie one next week. Mix it up.

[Charley]

I can make a seitan dish if we do a meat thing so that's just fine and dandy.

[Darven]

Okay, two questions:

How close does it have to stick to the original recipe?

How much time do we have?

[Mandy with an I]

It doesn't have to stick close to the original recipe, I guess. Some of us are more talented chefs than the rest of us.

I'd say a couple weeks? Not everyone is going to have time to do it right away (I lucked out and found chicken breast on special, yay).

[Yeart Quenn]

So if I ended up simply with having all those ingredients in my recipe, plus a bunch of others, and completely did the thing in a different way, it would still be okay? :mneh

[Mandy with an I]

As long as it has those ingredients, I'm fine with it. Like I said, not everyone is a master chef. I know I'm not, so I'm keeping it pretty simple.

The point of this is to get people cooking and sharing ideas :)

Edit - I'm going to try and keep copies of all the recipes, too. Then I can impress my family with my new cooking skills ;) lol!

[Ryan Pode]

We can do "meat dishes." It's just upto the abominations to figure out how to replace the meat.

[Katchen]

I like this idea, I'm just not any good at Italian. =;^^=

Feeling more confident now that I've been poking around for ideas. :D

[Leath Jens]

I like this idea, I'm just not any good at Italian. =;^^=

Feeling more confident now that I've been poking around for ideas. :D

Italian food is shockingly simple for most things. It's about one of the easiest cuisines to make in terms of technique, steps, and number of ingredients, and as well as you cook asian, I have no doubt you'll do well with it.

The trick to cooking good Italian is to source good quality ingredients. You have only a few simple things going in the pot, so you want to make sure that your ingredients are chosen carefully for quality. Getting an eye for that quality and the experience of finding what you can around you is about the most difficult skill needed. The actual cooking part is easy.

[Mandy with an I]

Yay!

I got a stack of cooking magazines and three cookbooks from a customer today :) She said she would bring me more too - my arms are going to fall off from caring all them home >_<