Hello from Orlando!

[travOtaku]

Hey there everyone! It's nice to meet you all.

My name is Travis. I have two eyes, a nose, and enjoy eating turkey sandwiches. I am sarcastic, and love to joke around. I am passionate about cooking, and am studying Restaurant Management at UCF's Rosen College in Orlando, FL. I love to cook, and have been looking for a community like this for a long time.

I'm currently not taking summer classes, but have decided that I am not going to keep that from allowing me to continue learning about cooking. To further this aim, I have developed a cooking challenge I will be undertaking this summer, which I will also be blogging about.

The challenge entails assigning a letter to a week, and during that week creating a three course menu that showcases a common ingredient across all dishes that starts with the assigned letter of the week. I have recently finished up my first week of the challenge, which involved using apples in an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert.

If anyone is interested in following me along the way, here is a link to my blog: http://a-2-zucchini.blogspot.com.

I appreciate all of your support, and am looking forward to getting to know you all, and learning from you all as well.

Thanks for having me.

 

[Mimizkitchen]

First and foremost welcome to DC, second want to run with this and let me in on your fun??? I'm game if you are just tell me the rules...

 

[getoutamykitchen]

Hi Travis,
Welcome to DC.

 

[travOtaku]

First and foremost welcome to DC, second want to run with this and let me in on your fun??? I'm game if you are just tell me the rules...

The rules to what? My cooking challenge? It'd be awesome to have someone doing it along with me

If that is what you meant, then I would surely be happy to let you in on the rules. Just let me know.

 

[Mimizkitchen]

The rules to what? My cooking challenge? It'd be awesome to have someone doing it along with me

If that is what you meant, then I would surely be happy to let you in on the rules. Just let me know.

Bring it on Travis... Tell me the rules and we'll go for it, I would love to play along...

 

[travOtaku]

The rules are not too complicated, but here's the general idea:

Each week will have a letter of the alphabet assigned to it. I just finished 'A' week, so I'm moving onto 'B', if you wanna skip 'A' so that you're caught up that's perfectly fine, it's entirely your prerogative. You need to pick an ingredient that will be the focal point of three different courses, and it needs to start with the letter for the week. (For example, for A week I chose to use Apples. My appetizer, Entree, and Dessert all had to have apples as the main ingredient). You can substitute either the appetizer or the dessert for a beverage, if you'd like to change it up from week to week.

The other part of the challenge comes from needing to create original recipes (with inspiration coming from other sources as necessary). It wouldn't be much of a challenge if all you had to do is surf the web and find 3 different recipes other people came up with.

I know it seems kind of like shameless self-promotion to ask you to visit my blog, but I have my first week write-ups and recipes posted, and you will get the full gist of the challenge from reading my first few blog postings.

Also, I am not sure if this would be a popular thing among users of this site, but if you think it could catch on then maybe I should think about writing up a formal post and inviting others to participate in a main forum? What do you think?

 

[Mimizkitchen]

Ok i'm so up for this, do you want to pick the ingredient for both of us and we'll see what we come up with, or should they be different??? I will visit your blog to see how you have done things... As far as other people, I say make an informal invite, I don't know but I think it would peak some peoples interest...

 

[Mimizkitchen]

Just went to your website and came back quick cause I see you hafta deal with electric also!!!

 

[travOtaku]

Haha, yeah. I don't mind it too much. I have never really ever used a gas range before (my parents had a glass top), so I'm not really sure yet what I'm missing.

It might be interesting to see where we go with the same ingredient. Would be cool to kind of see where one ingredient will take us. I'll make a posting and see if there are other people who would be interested. I didn't really expect this to go anywhere beyond my friends and I, but it would be really cool if it become something bigger than that.

 

[Mimizkitchen]

1 letter. 1 ingredient. 3 courses. 25 weeks..(HAHA) God help us!!!

Pick the "B" let me know asap gotta alot of planning...

 

[Mimizkitchen]

P.S. not sure where your from but I don't do brains...

 

[travOtaku]

Haha, then does broccoli work?

 

[Mimizkitchen]

I don't know never had broccoli for desert, you???

 

[travOtaku]

That's part of what makes this a challenge! I've already got an idea, which I'll be testing out tomorrow haha.

 

[Mimizkitchen]

So it's broccoli???

 

[travOtaku]

Yeah, it's too late for me to change it... all of my friends are so excited (well, except for one, who hates broccoli more than the Red Sox). If you wanna choose a different ingredient then feel free, I wont be offended.

But after your meals, take some pictures and provide some recipes and I'll post them on my blog too

 

[Mimizkitchen]

K See Ya next sunday, if ya need help let me know..

 

[travOtaku]

Same to you, haha.

My "Broccoli Day" is happening on Tuesday since all of my taste-testers will be here to watch LOST. My write-up and recipes should be posted before Sunday, so check on Thursday or Friday and you can see what I made.

I'm excited someone is doing this with me, haha. =]