Oopsie! So this was supposed to go up yesterday but I got busy. Sorry 'bout that.
The contenders:
- fuffle's coldest, darkest, week of the fish
I'ma recuse myself from this one 'cuz I think it's a good idea - win one, participate in the next one but be ineligible for the win. Besides, I wanna see TNG do a "cream of..." next.
A suggestion (not a mandate, a suggestion open to discussion and ridicule): we might maybe wanna take a delay considering Turkey Day is fast approaching. Rather than attempt to stuff something between now and Thanksgiving, mayhaps the next grubski post shouldn't be a challenge, but should instead be whatever feast you celebrate with? I just worry about overshadowing the challenge with the biggest feast day of the American year.
Special thanks to all who participated and special encouragement for all who thought about it but didn't - c'mon! Cooking's awesome! Next time we won't invoke flame, I promise.
I like the idea of a grubski "showcase" for Thanksgiving. The next challenge could be some kind of leftovers-based dish maybe? I was gonna enter the last round guys, honest, but the only thing I really did with fire was warm up some sausage with a little torch and I didn't even get a picture while doing it (because that's hard to do without burning something):
I agree that we should do a thanksgiving showcase, but that we should put some loose guidelines on it. I have some ideas. I'm not sure if I won the fire one or not, kleinbl00, let me know. I'll make a thanksgiving grubski challenge and we can vote on a winner for it and they can choose the next challenge, but I'm happy to make thanksgiving my theme. Just let me know if I have earned that right via the voting. I personally think b_b should win, but since he's off getting hitched, I don't expect him to be hubski-ing much this week. Let me know KB. Also, b_b -- GO GET HER PAL!
Sure, that's fine, but it would make for some cool bragging rights to say "I won thanksgiving!" You wanna make the post for it? I'm very excited for this thanksgiving. We have a good friend coming to dinner that is a pastry chef. She owned her own pastry shop in Paris for years and it was very well received. This is going to RAWK!
TNG with a bullet. He managed to incorporate fire into everything, including the bisque. That's dedication. Also, looked delicious.
For me, this is a no-brainer. b_b USED HIS FUCKING FIREPLACE TO COOK A WHOLE CHICKEN. I mean, the challenge was "fire." -regardless of results, he's the winner. Period. I was/am impressed by that level of dedication to theme.
I'm just happy to be here. Seriously, though, I'll continue to participate in these challenges. I had fun. That said, Thanksgiving is a non-starter for me, cuz I gots other plans this year. Better plans, perhaps, some might say, but I do enjoy the hell out of traditional Thanksgiving. I will miss it. The food has never been great at my place, because my mom and her sister are essentially useless in a kitchen, but the whole experiential aspect of Thanksgiving makes it my favorite holiday. Last year, for example, my family and I got loaded as fuck on Manhattans made with 1910 Rye, which was a treat in and of itself, and well worth enduring my mother's cooking. HIGHLY recommend it, if you see any around your neck of the woods.
I say thenewgreen because his meal looked, and was attended to be, the most delicious. I was extremely impressed by b_b's fireplace chicken but even he admitted: it was just chicken. So, thenewgreen's meal is the one I would want to eat the most, and therefore am most likely to try to re-create (especially dat bisque!). Although to fuffle: it's only going to get colder and darker from here :)
thenewgreen gets my vote. Though I'm sad we didn't see any flaming shots included in the entries. And I'm with kb. Turkey Day grubski should be a showcase of... Something. Maybe personal favorite side-dishes, creative preparation techniques or plating.
Oh fuck yeah. We're eating one of these: instead of one of these: And I'm makin' Pumpkin Yahoo. What the hell is Pumpkin Yahoo, you ask? It's the most white trash interpretation of pumpkin pie I have yet found and it's crack. So. $7/lb turkey with white trash pumpkin "pie." I fucking love Thanksgiving.
The question is why does white trash food taste so good on Thanksgiving, while being so repulsive the remainder of the year? I've been eating sweet potato casserole and that unholy green bean concoction with the fried onions on top my whole life. I wouldn't abide a Thanksgiving without them, but holy shit...put that stuff in front of me on the fourth Wednesday of November, and I'll punch you in the face.
I hate that green bean thing. I do my best to pre-empt it everywhere I can. It's fucking awful. Of course, it wasn't part of my childhood. My must-have is nothing more than tangerines and cranberries run through the meat grinder. The family recipe (which is straight off the back of the Ocean Spray bag) involves oranges and a bunch of sugar; I do tangerines and a healthy splash of cointreau. It still tastes like cranberry-flavored oven cleaner. I eat the entire batch. Nobody else wants any. And I probably make three batches between Thanksgiving and New Year's.