Make Your Best Dish For Dudes and Win a Copy of Mad Hungry

If you're anything like me, then cooking for someone is definitely an act of giving. And now that we've officially reached "the season for giving," I can think of nothing better to give someone special than some home-cooked food. This is a rich topic, and one that never fails to fascinate me. So I'm curious, what foods do you like to cook for someone else... and specifically, for those of the male species?

The Risotto Challenge ’09

How to say... thanks? For coming out to serve delicious, unique and inspired food, for eating and enjoying the fruits of everyone's labor, for lending your discerning criticism of said dishes as an audience member or one of the expert judges, for donating your money to Just Food, and for essentially making Karol and myself's dream come true. From the bottom of our butter-clogged hearts, thanks to all for Risotto Challenging it up yesterday at Jimmy's No. 43. Especially to Jimmy Carbone, for graciously hosting the fete at his bar.

Edamame Hummus with Wonton Wrapper Chips (and a May Day menu teaser)

Guac and corn chips it is not. Plain-old hummus and pita it's neither. Just as munchable as either of the above, I'd say definitely, as well as easy to prepare. It's edamame, or soy beans, cooked and mashed up just like chickpea hummus (minus the tahini), and eggy wonton wrappers baked with a coating of oil and sesame seeds. And -- with a little modification -- it's one of the four canapés that will precede the five-course dinner on May 1st, at Queens County Farm Museum.

Pommes de Porc Cassoulet (and Jimmy’s No. 43 Greenmarket Cassoulet Cook-Off Recap)

It was a frigid Saturday in New York when seven chefs gathered in the back room at Jimmy's No. 43 to unveil their steaming pots of the French countryside comfort food, cassoulet. A fluid stream of Greenmarket supporters sampled each one throughout the afternoon until pretty much every bean was scooped up. Asked to vote for their favorite takes, each taster turned their attentions to printed sheets describing the cassoulets, their creators and affiliations. Among them were local and seasonal culinary expert Kelly Geary of Sweet Deliverance, former Greenmarket Manager and chef-to-be Melissa Rebholz, Jimmy No 43's own chef John Crabbs, Italian chef and traveling pizza teacher Mark Bello, Rockaway Beach surf taco shop extraordinaire Andrew Field, and former Pegu Club and wd-50 (whoa!) chef Phillip Kirschen Clark. Then some blogger and cook-off fanatic of Not Eating Out in New York. I'd be lying if I told you that the dish I prepared was pronounced the best cassoulet of the day. Actually, I'd be very publicly, foolishly lying, since the event has been recapitulated (promptly, I might add) by Time Out New York already, as well as Jimmy's No. 43's blog. I'd be drawing out the non-suspense in lame melodrama to continue this post without just declaring a winner. So the top honor was given to...

What is Cassoulet?

photo courtesy of ABC News Or rather, who is Cassoulet? as George Stephanoulos quipped on ABC when a large banner bearing the word was held above the crowds gathered in Times Square during the station's election night coverage. The question of cassoulet echoed throughout the world afterward, as the word rose to the top 100 most searched terms in Google on Election Day. I didn't know what cassoulet was, either, and I completely missed this bit of intrigue at the time. I first heard of cassoulet when it was announced by Jimmy Carbone as the dish to prepare for a cook-off at his restaurant, Jimmy's No. 43, to benefit the Greenmarket. It takes place tomorrow at noon!

The Year of the Ox (Dumplings)

Chinese New Year is coming up, and as with every holiday save for maybe President's Day, that means one thing to me: FOOD! Great food. Excesses of food. And the first food that comes to mind for this one is dumplings. But instead of throwing a dumpling party like I did last year, forcing my friends to roll up their sleeves in the wrapping process, the talented food writer Winnie Yang and I are going to teach a class on dumpling making at The Brooklyn Kitchen!

Come on a Food Photography Safari with me

There's no place like Brooklyn for the holidays. I'm sticking around this year, except for a Christmas trip over to Jersey. And if you're also kicking it in NYC, then there's plenty of fun to be had. Specifically, this fantastic day of food and photography that my friends at Photojojo, the Whisk & Ladle Supper Club and I are collaborating on.

Scare Clare: The Potluck Photo Contest

I was reading one of my favorite kill-time-with-funny blogs, Passive Aggressive Notes, today when I came across this post. For those not familiar with the blog, readers from all around can submit notes and other examples of passive aggressive (or just aggressive)-ness in action so that everyone can laugh at someone's petty tyrancy. After the giggles had faded out, I couldn't stop thinking about this one's message: "If you can’t cook, don’t try." I wonder how many people have thought this about someone else's cooking but were too polite to say it. I also wonder what horrible past potluck experiences has led this poor host to such austerity. Perhaps you could provide some insight to that question, with your most hilariously awful potluck food photos.

Announcing the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket Shopping Club & Tour Series

This fall, we're starting something new. An idea fledged by myself and Liz Carollo, Greenmarket Publicity Coordinator for the Council for the Environment of New York City (CENYC), the Shopping Club & Tour Series begins this Saturday, October 4th at Brooklyn's busy Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. To kick it off, I'll be making an early-fall veggie risotto at the information stand at 12:00 noon beforehand, so I hope you can come for some freshly-made grub, and stick around for the first many weekly meet 'n greets.

The Great Hot Dog Cook-Off: It was great

I was a proud glutton on Saturday. Not that co-hosting a Great Hot Dog Cook-Off isn't reason enough to celebrate (or pack on five extra pounds), but through it all, we made over $1500 for the Food Bank for NYC from ticket sales and cash donations at the event. Fourteen chef-contestants made trays full of fabulous, fantastical frankfurter creations. We made new friends, lots of them. And it was also a day when the majority of the ballot-voting audience made this fascinating discovery: Goat cheese and hot dogs go REALLY well together. Especially with mangoes.

If I were entering the Great Hot Dog Cook-Off Take I: The Baked Brie Dog

Oh yes, you heard it correctly. The Baked Brie Dog, which was born, baked, and eaten at a Memorial Day barbecue this weekend, will not be seen at the Great Hot Dog Cook-Off this July. But it only marks the beginning of the hot dog greatness that the event will doubtless inspire. Who said hot dog competitions were only about stuffing your face 'til you threw up into plastic cups? We, slightly north of Coney Island, have much more respect for our dogs than that.

Risotto Loco

Challah! The Risotto Challenge has been fought, and by "fought" I mean "feasted"! I hate to say, 'You kind of had to be there' about this event, but I seriously can't even remember enough of it. All I know is that I had to replenish the plates and forks and one point, and we'd put out 100 each. (And not everyone was eating!) Billiardsburg took a field trip to the swank tables of the 'Slope (or just Loki Lounge's), the judges tasted 17 different risottos and came up with 9 spectacular awards, 22 contestants and their friends old and new shared free grub, I got wasted, and you know. It was a good time. But most importantly, this night was all about The Food. To say that I was impressed by the risotto entries so undermines the situation that it would almost be like giving the contestants a slap in the face. All told, ingredients in them included blueberries, plantains, white peaches, goji berries, cranberries, pears, apricots, cashews, almonds, pine nuts, arugula, fennel, beets, peppers, olives, Chinese five-spice powder, sardines, Gorgonzola, Mascarpone, Zamorano, carrot juice, pumpkin butter, coconut cream, turkey sausage, mysterious Korean ingredients, and general insanity. I could not pronounce the names of many of the dishes as they were written in other languages, mostly Italian. In one case, a new Franco-Korean language was invented in naming a risotto.

The Risotto Challenge

Behold: the work of two stir-crazy minds joined in the common goal of furthering research in the home-cooked field of arboriology--

Great Greenish Gobs of…

Spicy Honey Aubergines! And that's our official theme song for the finale of the Ugliest Gourmet blogging contest. Huzzah to The Blog That Ate Manhattan for creating what this blog's readers have deemed the ugliest delicious food of the bunch. All told, the results were nail-bitingly close to a four-way tie, with three votes each for the Gnocchi, Corned Beef and Tomato Pie, Kitty Box Cake and Maraq Molokheyia bil Dajaj. Some of these recipes sound so good I still want to make them sometime anyway.

Which is The Ugliest Gourmet?

Judgment is upon us for The Ugliest Gourmet! Let's have a big round of imaginary applause for everyone who bravely cooked, photographed and blogged about all the treats below. This home-cooking event was devised to prove that, despite the visual ostentation that professional cooks strive for, great food doesn't always look so great. So for once, the pressure of beauty is off -- and in fact, turned on its head. What will these bloggers have the freedom to cook up with the opposite of great appearance in mind? Let's have a look! But before we do, a word on how the contest works: In the next four days, ending midnight, Tuesday, November 20th, you may vote for the dish that you feel deserves the title of The Ugliest Gourmet. The dish you vote for should be something you want to eat -- figure in 50% for ugliness, and the other 50% for deliciousness. (Take a look at the contestants' blog posts for more details, too.) To vote, simply leave a comment on this blog. Please state somewhere in the first sentence of your comment the name of the dish and blog that you're voting for. I'll tally these up on Wednesday, and whoever receives the most votes/comments wins -- and will get to see me cook their dish for my family on Thanksgiving. So, without further ado, here are the entries: Charissa of Foracious Journeys created this Spinach Parsley Scramble -- lots of tasty greens bound with egg. "I realized how ugly this was going to be when the eggs started to turn green from the wilted spinach," she wrote on her blog.

The Craziest of Kitchen Gadgets Go to Task: Blogging Event Round-Up

Oh, to the joys of toys. And to learning something new every day. Let me back up a moment. When I purchased an antique Chinese cookie mold in a curiosity store a month or so back, I thought that the thing itself was so beautiful and ornate that it would engender the most incredible spawn in the form of cookies fit for an emperor. Well, it didn't turn out to be quite the easy process, but in the end (and with some cheating), the apples didn't fall too far from the tree.

That Crazy Kitchen Gadget

Announcing the first one-off food blogging event on Not Eating Out in New York: That Crazy Kitchen Gadget. Rules are simple: 1. Identify your crazy, obscure, mysterious, ineffective, obsolete or completely awesome kitchen gadget and remember to photograph it or at least describe it well in your post. 2. Cook a dish using the same crazy kitchen gadget. Provide recipe and photographs in your post. Remember to mention the name of this contest and blog in your post, and link to it. 3. Post your crazy kitchen gadget recipe before August 1, 2007, and email me also before then with your name, blog name, post name, gadget name, mother's maiden name (just kidding), URL to the post, and low-res image of the dish or gadget (320 x 240 is good). I'll post a round-up in early August and we'll have a blast. Why am I doing this contest? Because crazy kitchen gadgets are wonderful artifacts of our culinary and/or domestic culture. And they can also be hilarious.