Who Wants to be Discuss Cooking's Virtual Golden Chef?

[jkath]

(I believe I need to be a judge here, so here I am in my judge's seat, pretending to be seated next to Ted and Jeffrey, with Alton nearby)

Goodweed, your presentation was lovely.
The recipes were very well written, and after reading them thoroughly, I could almost taste them. Then, with your critique, I got quite a sense of your finished product.
The pork soup sounds very interesting, as I can say I've never put oats into a soup before. But, with the feel of barley, I am quite intrigued. The zuchinni: grinding down the oats is a very good idea indeed. You didn't put your ranch sour cream in your original cash register receipt, but I'm sure it more than made up for your accounting of a whole brick of tofu, when you only used 1/2. (See, I was paying attention!)
The cherry sauce sounds interesting, but I must say I'm not sure clove would have been my first choice either. It has a way of interfering with the smoother, mellower flavor of cinnamon. However, I like that you added the rice vinegar to it.
The no-bake cookies: I like the idea, but I'm not going to critique them yet. Tomorrow I will make a batch of the chocolate and see how they come out.
( I want to see how much of an oat flavor I can taste)

All in all, very well done my friend. Your photos were very impressive.

 

[Harborwitch]

Well the sun is supposed to shine all weekend. The people I used to work for were paying for a storage unit for all of our stuff when we were told to move out of the residence so they could demo it and rebuild it. Well it seems that 2 weeks before they sacked me they quit paying for it.

That means that this weekend we'll be moving all of our stuff into a much cheaper storage unit - that's a 10 x 30 and an 8 by 10 all into a 12 x 60 container. With no one else around to help it'll just be us - I'm not seeing any cooking in my life this weekend at all! I had some fun stuff in mind - but I'm going to have to bow out of this one. It'll be take out this weekend.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Harborwitch; Isn't it just lousy the way other people can mess up your life? I hate that through no fault of our own, others can put major stop signs in front of our plans. I hope you find a much better job than the last one, and are truly successfull in your own right. Maybe it's time to set up your own business. I hope you weather the storm well.

And anyone else who was going to participate, feel free to jump right in. I certainly don't want to win by default. I want to win fair and square.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Harborwitch]

Thank you GW! I am taking this time to re-think the next portion of this journey I'm on. It's time to consider what I really want to do - and I think you're right; it may be time to go back out on my own. I'm also giving a lot of thought to culinary school! There's a very good program at a nearby college and I'm really giving it a lot of thought! A dear friend told me I had to do it before I was 60 - that gives me a year and a half! Hustle Hustle Hustle!!!!

 

[jkath]

Harborwitch, that's awesome! We're behind you 100%!

Goodweed, I'm afraid I'm going to have to postpone the chocolate/oat cookie making for the weekend - the grocery store was out of coconut! However, there's another market I can go to on the weekend.

 

[Snoop Puss]

Harborwitch, what a dreadful situation. I hope everything turns out for the best.

 

[Harborwitch]

We discussed it last night - this month the goal is to find a house to move into with Sarah (the delightful young lady who replaced me) and her son. Then I'm going to start my ADA suit against these creeps!

I don't look at this as a trajedy - it's just an opportunity to move on to the next phase of my life! It's a blessing, really.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

It's almost 8:00 Easter Daylight Savings time. Only four more hours to go. I hope I'm really not the only contestant to actually submit something. C'mon people. It's not to late. Give it a shot. It was a lot of fun for me and my son.

You can even use my recipes and ideas. We'll see who's comes out better. It only takes a couple of hours out of your life.

Two people bowed out due to unforseen circumstances. But that still leaves five, including myself. And my entry is posted.

I need Competitionnnnnnnnn!

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[pdswife]

Oh wow! Goodweed, it all looks wonderful!!
I'm going to look at the recipes and such this afternoon.

Anyone else going to play?

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Just revisited this thread. No one ever took up the challenge. So, I'm offering it again. Anyone who wants to try can take on my original challenge, or, we can start with a new theme ingredient. Anybody up for this?

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[GrillingFool]

I think the challenge would be more successful if the ingredient were more common.
To be blunt... I don't know nothing bout cooking no oats, LOL!

But if it were pasta or something that I have even a TINY bit of knowledge and experience with, I might participate.

Most of us here are just people who like to cook. Not chefs, not pro cooks, and not Iron Chefs with that innate creativity.

Great idea, but I think oats was a bit scary.... It would be for me!

 

[deelady]

I agree with Grilling Fool, and would also like to participate preferably with something other than oats....
my only problem is we leave for California in a couple of days and wont be back till next friday night. I will check in again when I return to see if this is still going on.

GW I do love the idea, and was excited when I read this thread today!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

GrillingFool and Deelady;

The ingredient can be anything so long as it is fairly inexpensive, and available to most people. Here are some ingredient examples:

Pasta
Dried Beans
Tomatoes
Onion
Zuchini
Apples
Canned Fruit (pick a type)
Pumpkin
Rice
Garlic
Chicken
Pork
Ground Beef
Bratwurst
Etc.

So, as one of the objections to the last competition was the ingredient - oats, let's maybe start this one by compiling a list of possible theme ingredients and then voting for the most popular one. And then, we have to pick a time to do this. Just remember, we are comming up on a couple of major food holidays, Thanksgiving (in the U.S.), and Christmas. So many of us may be hard pressed to take on this challenge in the next two months.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[deelady]

Or we can incorporate the set ingredient into one of our Holiday dinners dishes so it wont be as hard pressed since we will be cooking those days anyway as well we will have imediate feedback on the results from our dinner guests!

Just a thought....

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Or we can incorporate the set ingredient into one of our Holiday dinners dishes so it wont be as hard pressed since we will be cooking those days anyway as well we will have imediate feedback on the results from our dinner guests!

Just a thought....

Brilliant! Which Holiday do we want to choose? I vote for Christmas as it will give us more time to prepare and get others to join in. Also, there is more flexibility available with a Christmas meal than with Thanksgiving. But then again, it might be fun to stray from our comfort zone in either meal. And we need ideas for the theme ingredient. I'm gonna say that I really don't want to mess with the turkey as everyone around here has certain expectations as to how it will be prepared and served.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[deelady]

Christmas sounds good to me!

 

[JMediger]

I followed the intial thread and was wondering what ever happened! I would be very interested in participating but the holidays won't work for me (we travel to see family and as a result do very little cooking). I would be happy to be a judge, though, and participate in the next one. Let me know what I can do!

 

[deelady]

well I'm flexable as to when this takes place so what ever the majority agrees on... I'm in!

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

How about February. It's a month that has few special days in it. It's the heart of winter, and so is a good time to do something that brings the spirit up a bit. Plus, we're hopefully recovered financially from Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years by then. And come to think of it, March or April might even be better. I'm gonna suggest April.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North