Top Chef 4: Da Bears!

by Erin

Unfortunately this week, my lovely sister is out of town in sunny Cincinnati, OH for work and her fancy hotel DOES NOT HAVE BRAVO!? Blasphemy! So, this is a solo effort for now. Special thanks go to my BFF Lee who's in school up in Cincinnati, who graciously took Xani and her co-worker Mike out for a good meal. Thanks Lee!

Anyway, let's get to it! This week on Top Chef, the theme was all about "simple pleasures" and good, down-home eating. We also got a chance to see a little bit more interaction between the chefs in their fabulous house in this episode (including a bubble bath between Mark and Spike...no comment). After last week's episode with all the fighting and crying and carrying on, it seemed the chefs were still fired up from it. In particular, Jen vowed to cook her way to the top to avenge the kicking off of her true love Zoi. Dale and Lisa continued to fight (but this time without raised voices) about Lisa's negativity. Lisa told the viewers at home: "Dale can go f**k himself." Very nice.

Anyway, onto the cooking! The Quickfire Challenge this week began with guest judge Chef Koren Grieveson of Avec restaurant in Chicago (recently named as one of Food and Wine's Best New Chefs of 2008) and 16 pitchers of beer. The theme of the Quickfire was "simple pleasures," and the chefs had to pick a beer (they got to choose three to taste and then pick one) and make a dish that would be complimented by the beer.

On the bottom were Dale (he made a pork loin crusted with...pretzel dust??), Spike (who basically put some meats, cheeses, and clams on a cutting board), and Nikki (who made fried shrimp but apparently they were no good). At the top were Richard (who made a sandwich), Stephanie (who made mussels steamed in beer, amongst other things), and Jen (who made seafood beignets since her beer was an island beer). Jen won the challenge with her beignets and earned immunity in the Elimination Challenge. She said she used all of her anger to cook a kick-ass dish. If that's what works for you, honey, then keep it up! Those beignets looked DELICIOUS!

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs were tasked with catering a tailgating party at a Chicago Bears game! Everyone seemed really pumped about it, and it seemed like everyone was confident that they were going to be the winner. This challenge was a little different because the fans/tailgaters were to vote on the dishes, and the winner of the challenge would be taken from the top three picks, and the loser would be taken from the bottom three picks.

At the game, all the chefs looked like they were having a good time, although of course some people did better than others. In the top three were Stephanie (who made pork tenderloin with bacon and a rosemary vinaigrette), Antonia (who made jerk chicken with pickled onion, banana, and pineapple), and Dale (who made ribs but I can't remember what else). They were all praised by the judges (which included Paul Kahan, another chef from Avec and of another Chicago restaurant, Blackbird) but in the end, Dale won the challenge! For his prizes, he got a Bears jersey with "Top Chef" on the back (I'm sure he's gonna want to wear THAT to the games next season) and he got a humongous, beautiful gas grill (the same kind the chefs cooked on for the challenge).

On the losing end were Nikki (who made sausage and peppers but ran out of peppers and onions before the judges got there), Ryan (who tried to "California" it up with a panzanella salad, poached pear for dessert, and spiked hot chocolate), and Mark (who made a New Zealand corn chowder and a chicken skewer). Upon questioning, Nikki was criticized for not making her own sausage and for not preserving enough of the sauce and vegetables for the judges to try. Ryan talked and talked and TALKED about what he was trying to do but it didn't help anything and just made everyone dislike him more. Mark had a bit of an attitude about his chowder when criticized that it was the wrong texture, and he was really criticized for being so sloppy at his station and in his own presentation. It was rough. Mark was the only one of all of the chefs who used a charcoal grill instead of a gas grill (as he said, he was the only one with the "testicular fortitude" to use charcoal), but the judges were not impressed. In the end, self-proclaimed "metrosexual" Ryan got the boot, which he attributed to him cooking "too big." Um...yeah, I'm sure that's what it was, buddy.

Next week's episode looks awesome and like a lot of fun - they're doing improv, maybe at Second City??

Erin's Take:

This week I chose Dale, Stephanie, and Mark for my Fafarazzi Fantasy team, and I'm so glad I did! I earned 12 points with Dale's Elimination Challenge win, plus 6 more points from cursing by all of them. It was a bit nerve-wracking to have Mark in the bottom, but having 2 of my 3 in the top was great!

I liked this episode even though it was a catering challenge. Maybe I liked it because they weren't working as teams and therefore didn't have to sell each other out at judges' table? I also liked the Quickfire and I thought it was a good, non-pretentious but still challenging...challenge. And who doesn't love beer? No friend of mine!

One of my favorite parts of the episode was when Dale got to serve several former Bears players (and legends, I'm assuming) and he was clearly honored and starstruck. Cute! It definitely showed that Dale has a heart, since up until now he's been sort of emotionless (minus the emotion of severe anger).

Dish I wished I were eating: Either Jen's quickfire dish (the seafood beignets) or Stephanie's pork with bacon and rosemary vinaigrette. Two kinds of pork on one plate? I'm in!

Favorite chef at the moment: For once I am starting to like the lady chefs a bit more - Stephanie and Antonia seem like cool chicks and you can just tell they are super-talented. I still like Richard and Dale and think they'll go far, but I didn't pick Richard this week because of last week's "Scale-Gate" debacle. He may have earned his way back onto my team for next week with his "Pate Melt" (as he says, "yet another way for me to be a wise-ass" - you got that right!) which sounded awesome and delicious.

So, what did everyone think? How are everyone's fantasy teams doing??

Happy eating,

EP

ps. I read yesterday on the Cupcakes Take the Cake Blog that there is a bakery in Chicago called The Bleeding Heart Bakery that is making Top Chef Controversial Cupcakes of the Week! Read the story and see pictures here. Thus far they have made a white chocolate with wasabi cupcake and a super spicy chocolate cupcake with ganache and a "bacon" rose! This is genius. I hope they keep us informed each week!

pps. Check out my good friend Alex's new food blog, The Smoking Kitchen! He just launched it, and it's so hilarious. He lives in Chicago, so does that make this any less of a shameless plug because it's tangentially related to Top Chef Chicago? I vote yes.

A Passover Dilemma

by Erin

This weekend, the BCD family is going to Detroit to celebrate Passover with our extended family. It is a great time every year and we are so excited about it! Stay tuned for a big post about the ridiculous and delicious meal we have planned.

But, for now, I am deciding which dessert I want to make to bring to Detroit (to save us some time since there is much other cooking to be done!), and I need your help!

Team Passover 2007

Usually, I make (what I call) Matzo Candy, a recipe from my dear friend Kim from college. Recently, Dave Lebovitz posted a vamped-up version of the Matzo Candy recipe that he calls "Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzo Crunch" and it looks so good I can barely stand it! So, I wanted to make that, but my cousin Stephanie is planning on making something similar, which was quite delicious last year.

Sooo, I was thinking instead that I would make coconut macaroons, using Ina Garten's recipe (of course).

Help me decide which recipe to make! Vote in the poll on the left-hand side of the screen (and leave a comment if you like)!

UPDATE: I have picked one of these recipes! Stay tuned for our Passover Seder post coming soon, where my choice will be revealed! Thanks to all who voted, you were VERY helpful ;)

Happy (early) Passover,

EP

Thank G-d It's...Fried

by Erin & Xani

We know it's been a while since we've shared one our Sunday dinners with you, and that's because due to the MPILP auction and some other events (post coming soon!), we haven't had a chance to make dinner together recently. We have one fabulous Sunday dinner in our archives though, and we are just now getting the chance to write it up, so enjoy!

As some of you may know, the BCD parents are building a house on the Eastern shore of Maryland, near Cambridge. (We lovingly refer to the house as "Blackacre" - if you don't get it, you're probably not a lawyer/law student; ask one if you're truly curious.) Because they travel to the shore often to check on the progress of the house, they have started coming home with great local seafood. We didn't hesitate to incorporate some great-looking shucked oysters and clams (whole belly clams! no strips here!) into our menu, which was:

• Cocktails!
• Cornmeal-crusted fried belly clams with homemade tartar sauce
• Oyster stew
• Buffalo chicken wings with Mom's famous bleu cheese dressing
• Garlic fries

Wow, fried anyone? We went a little crazy with the amount of fried items, but they were so good! Every once in a while isn't so bad, right? Right. Anyway, we started off with cocktails (the ladies each had champagne cocktails and Dad had a martini) as we began cooking each of the different items.

Dad was in charge of the clams. First he dipped the clams into a mixture of milk, eggs, salt, and pepper, and then he dipped them into yellow cornmeal. We busted out the Fry Daddy (yes, we actually own one) and in they went! Meanwhile, Xani put together a quick tartar sauce made from mayonnaise, relish, and hot sauce.

Caught stealin'!

These clams turned out great! They had a great texture without being too chewy (is this because they are belly and not strips?), and the cornmeal coating was nice and crunchy. Served with the tartar sauce, they were a great nosh as we continued to cook the rest of the meal.

EP was in charge of putting together the oyster stew. Now, oyster stew is not really a stew at all. It's basically a creamy soup with oysters in it - yum! We used a recipe from The New York Times Cookbook, which began by sauteeing some thinly-sliced garlic and grated shallot in butter. Then milk and cream are a little white pepper are added and heated through, and then the oysters and their liquor (the liquid that they come in) are added until they oysters are cooked (only a few minutes). The dish is finished with some salt and chopped parsley.

We enjoyed the stew in mugs and it was so awesome - rich, creamy, and oyster-y. This is a great simple recipe if you have some extra oysters lying around (who has oysters just lying around? Get a job, oysters!).

For the main course, we had WINGS! BCD Mom makes some killer Buffalo wings and the best bleu cheese dressing ever. It is a real treat when we have them because (a) they are so good!, and (b) they are a huge pain in the ass so we don't do it often. Mom uses the Hooters recipe (we're classy like that) and they turn out great every time.

The wings are coated in a light coating of flour, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt. Then they are refrigerated for a bit so the coating sticks better. Then the wings are fried up (we use an electric fry pan for more even heat), drained on wire racks, and then tossed with the wing sauce (butter, hot sauce, ground black pepper, and garlic powder) while still hot. Yum!

The wings were served with Mom's famous bleu cheese dressing, a (secret?) family recipe made with sour cream, mayo, bleu cheese, garlic pepper, ground black pepper, and hot sauce. OMG this is good stuff, even on a salad!

Lastly, Xani made her famous fries (wow, that link is from our first post ever!), and this time she tried to emulate the great garlic fries at Don't Know. She took finely chopped garlic and tossed it on the almost-done fries while they were in the hot oven. They turned out great, but next time she says she wants to use even MORE garlic to give them even more flavor. More garlic? Yes, please!

Gellie loves fries...can't blame him

Finished plate - yum!

Our little chicken- and fish-fry was a really fun, casual Sunday dinner filled with new experimental recipes and old family favorites. Good times!

Happy frying,

E & X

Top Chef 4: The Elements

by Erin and Xani

Last night was the fifth episode of Top Chef and finally the claws (and the tears) have come out! All that fighting helped both of us gain precious points in our Top Chef fantasy game. But first, a quick recap:

Ming Tsai was the guest judge for the entire episode, and everyone was excited about him, especially since so many of the chefs cook with an Asian influence. (Side note: It's really too bad his show was taken off of the Food Network, it was good! Yet another example of the FN moving away from interesting, ethnic cuisine shows to more quick-fix, weeknight dinner shows...blech. But, I hear his show on PBS, Simply Ming, is quite good.) (Another side note: Our cousin Doug went to Yale with Ming! One degree of separation - sweet!)

The Quickfire was all about the chefs' palates, so they did a blind taste-test of 15 different ingredients. They were presented with two kinds of each ingredient, one cheap and one super-expensive, and the chefs had 20 seconds to pick which was the higher-quality ingredient. Ingredients included crab, maple syrup, bacon, soy sauce, chocolate, aged cheese, butter, caviar, pork, and olive oil.

Antonia won the challenge, getting 12/15 right! She was not shy about her incredibly sensitive palate.

The Elimination Challenge was another catering challenge: the chefs were divided into four teams of three, and they each had to make a first course for the Meals on Wheels Chicago Celebrity Ball. Each team was assigned a different element: earth, air, fire, and water. The chefs really tried to be creative here and incorporate their elements, and while some were successful, others failed miserably. There was quite a bit of bickering as well, specifically between Dale and Lisa on Team Fire, and amongst the whole Team Earth (Spike, Antonia, and Zoi).

The winners were Team Fire (Dale, Lisa, and Stephanie), who made a chili-marinated shrimp with a miso-glazed piece of bacon, atop a salad of pickled chilies. Yum! The judges found it to be very fiery and spicy and delicious. Stephanie is on a roll, but in the end, Lisa won the challenge for her innovative miso-glaze on the bacon, and as a special prize she and a guest get to go to Italy!

On the bottom were Team Water (Richard, Andrew, and Mark) and Team Earth. Team Water once again was led by Richard, but this time it didn't work out so well. They made a sous vide salmon (sous vide is where meat or fish is placed in vacuum-sealed bags and cooked in hot water) with a parsnip-vanilla puree and a salad, and MORE fake caviar made with tapioca! Richard cleaned the fish but not very well, as almost everyone had SCALES on their portion of fish. Ew! As Ming said, that can ruin a dish completely.

Meanwhile, Team Earth made a beef carpaccio with mushrooms and sunchokes which was apparently completely devoid of flavor (well, except some ill-fitting rosemary). Spike argued that he had wanted to make an earthy, butternut squash soup, but he was out-voted. Ming commented that that would have been a GREAT idea, saying the test in France for a good cook is: make me a soup. (Family members and others who have been to France: is this true??). This obviously pissed off Spike, this being his third time in a row on the bottom.

In the end Zoi went home for not seasoning the mushrooms correctly. When they got back to the back room where all the chefs wait (for hours I'm told by a certain Top Chef friend of mine), drama ensued. Jen (Zoi's girlfriend) was obviously upset, and then Zoi started crying, then Antonia started crying, and even Richard cried! Then began the fighting: Spike yelled at Antonia for not taking more of a backseat since she had immunity. Then Dale complained a bit and Lisa told him to stop, and he WENT OFF on her since she complained throughout the entire episode. Whew! DRAMA QUEENS!

Erin's Take:

I had Richard, Mark, and Dale on my team this week, and with all the drama, I earned 13 points!! (Speaking of points earned, I have to give a shout-out to the lovely Kit of Mango & Ginger who is playing along - she is in 37th place OVERALL!) I was hoping Dale would have won the challenge instead of Lisa (as Dale said: she made bacon and she gets to go to Italy??), but I was glad that neither Mark nor Richard went home, and let me tell you, they were CLOSE!

I thought the episode overall was good, though these themed dishes (zoo animals, films, elements) is seeming a bit forced to me. The best theme they have ever thought of was in the second season, where they had to cook a 7-course meal and each course was inspired by one of the 7 Deadly Sins. Brilliant! As I recall, my boy Michael had Envy and made something with a big fish and a little fish. In fact, I think he may have won that challenge??

Dish I wished I were eating: Well if Ming Tsai had never had miso-glazed bacon, then I sure as hell haven't. Bring on the fiery shrimps and bacon!

Favorite chef at the moment: Stephanie or Dale. Stephanie keeps a low profile but she is quite brilliant on the show (and in real life as my family members who have been to her former restaurant in Chicago keep telling me!). Dale I think is really talented even though he is kind of an ass. But hey, that's good television!

Xani's Take:

I kept my team from last week, and it was a smart move! I earned 12 points this week from Antonio, Richard and Andrew:

The fighting, cursing and crying really paid off!

And now, a confession... I haven't technically "watched" the whole episode, yet. I mean, I watched about 90% of it laaate last night, but it was after consuming a bit more akvavit than I maybe I should have, so its a little fuzzy. I also turned it off right after Zoi got the boot, so I totally missed all the fighting and crying that everyone is talking about (everyone=2 people)! I'll have to re-watch it again during one of the billion re-runs.

Dish I wished I were eating: None of the dishes really blew me away this week. I'd probably pick the bacon dish by default (I love anything with bacon!), but what I really wanted to do was try the palate test! So curious about how I would do...

Favorite chef at the moment: Hmm... this is tough. There's no one I really LOVE, yet. There's not even anyone who gets the eye-candy vote! Can I say my favorite chef at the moment is Sam from Season 2??

So, what did everyone think?

EP & X

Oh Big Time: We Have Field Reporters!

by Erin

As you may have gathered from a few of our posts, we like cupcakes. You might say we're a bit obsessed, but really, can you blame us? Anyway, about a week ago, Xani saw the Martha Stewart Show which featured the three ladies who write the Cupcakes Take the Cake blog (which is wonderful, by the way). They mentioned a particularly good cupcake bakery in Brooklyn, NY, so Xani wrote to our friend Lauren (the one I visited in NYC who lives in BK) via Facebook (shameless plug: join the BCD Group!) and said:

"Kumquat Cupcakery... Do you know of this place? Its in your 'hood. Please investigate and report back."

And you know what? SHE DID! This is one of the ten million reasons I love Lauren - she takes direction! And now, Dear Reader, Lauren's field report on Kumquat Cupcakery:

Ladies,

I spent a little time this weekend doing field research for my favorite food blog (that's yours, by the way). As directed by Xani's post on my Facebook wall, I checked out Kumquat Cupcakery and ooh did I like what I found. The owner, Keavy, doesn't have a storefront but sells at two markets in Brooklyn, so we went to one this past saturday called Artists and Fleas in Williamsburg--put on your hipster glasses, gals! The place was small and mostly clothing and jewelry. The cupcakes were the only food on offer, and Keavy was there selling them herself! She was awesome, super sweet, and you should be friends with her. So, she had three flavors of her tiny cupcakes on offer--chocolate truffle, banana creme, and red velvet. They are SO adorably small, Xani you'll die of cuteness, about half the size of the Tribeca Treats ones I'd say. I tried red velvet first, and lemme tell you why Keavy is awesome--wonderful cake to frosting ratio, frosting sweet without being cloying, cake moist and favorful. Plus we got 6 for $5, tried a couple there and ate the rest at 4am when we came home drunk, when they were even tastier!!

Oh, Sarah and I both got some awesome new jewelry there, too, so the trip was a hit. Thanks for putting the Kumquat on my radar! She sells at a much bigger market on Sundays, which I think we should hit on your visit. So much to cram in...

I'm attaching a pic, though my photography is nowhere near as good as yours!

Thanks Lauren!! You are the best. Can't wait to hit the Kumquat during our next visit to the Big Apple!

Happy cupcake hunting,

EP

ps. Bonus points for figuring out the reference in the title. Hint: it's related to Top Chef!

More Burgers, plus Cupcakes and Bacon Chocolate! Oh MY!

by Xani

This past weekend I took a moment out of my whirlwind life for a whirlwind trip to Philadelphia. In less than 24 hours I was able to knock another burger off the list, visit the cutest grocery store EVER, achieve a culinary dream, drink in the lap of luxury, and visit an old favorite haunt.

The first meal of the day was at Rouge, a see-and-be-seen type of place on Rittenhouse Square in Center City. You know its a hip spot when there is a 45 minute wait at lunchtime! No matter-- we strolled around the square, did some window-shopping and were finally seated at a table by the open windows overlooking the square (great people and dog-watching!). Ordering was easy-- a bottle of Prosecco and of course I had to get the Rouge burger, served with melted Gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, and fantastic pomme frites on the side.

Yummmm...! I was super-excited to eat this burger. It was obviously "classy" (served on an actual plate instead of a greasy paper bag) and when it arrived at the table it looked absolutely perfectly cooked (medium-rare, of course). The fries were great, but not quite as good as a friend's order of Truffle Parmesan pomme frites! Note to self: next batch of duck/goose fat fries MUST be covered in Parmesan and truffle oil! I give the Rouge burger 7.5 burgers out of 10. Great grilled bun and toppings, and high quality beef, but the burger itself was slightly under-seasoned for my taste. Also, it was $17! I know I was paying for the plate, the view, and the experience, but I can get better flavor at Five Guys.

After lunch we decided to hunt down some cupcakes! After EP's experience with NYC cupcakes I wanted to see what Philly had to offer. We ended up at nearby Grocery Market and Cafe, which is one of the cutest places EVER. Sort of like a Superette for the very rich and refined, everything at this little corner shop was ultra-gourmet. They had a selection of five different cupcakes, so we got one of each!

Chocoholic and Coco Loco

Little Lolita, Plain Jane and Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Grocery also had a great selection of fancy candies, including Vosges chocolate bars. I was way too excited to see their rare and elusive Mo's Bacon Chocolate bar (with Applewood smoked bacon + Alder wood smoked salt + deep milk chocolate) available for purchase! I quickly snatched one up, and a friend picked up their Red Fire Exotic Candy Bar (Mexican ancho & chipotle chillies + Ceylon cinnamon + dark chocolate). We took all our sweet treats back to a friend's room at the Ritz Carlton and had a mid-afternoon cake and chocolate tasting... NORMAL!

This was sooo fun and delicious. First the cupcakes: unfortunately three out of five of the cupcakes were chocolate cake-- not my favorite. But they were pretty tasty and delicious. Chocoholic was just that-- super-rich chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. Peanut butter and chocolate (the name speaks for itself) was pretty good, and Little Lolita was chocolate cake (boo) with with AMAZING goat's milk cream cheese frosting with chile toffee peanuts. I definitely preferred the Coco Loco (mmm coconutty) and the Plain Jane (vanilla cake, vanilla icing and delicious crunchy nonpareils) over the chocolate varieties. And if THAT wasn't enough sugar, out came the chocolate bars:

Oh Mo, how I've longed for you...

Bacon-y sweet perfection

Surprisingly spicy

I'd been dreaming about trying the Bacon Bar, especially since experiencing the fantastic Maple Bacon ice Cream at Craft a few months back. And, I gotta say, it is damn good. It's pretty salty, and the bacon flavor is mild, but it works so perfectly with the deep milk chocolate. Yum. I'm hoarding the last few squares and allowing myself one little nibble a day! The chile-dark chocolate bar was interesting as well. More cinnamon-y than spicy at first, it has quite a kick at the end. I would love to try some of their other bars, but at nearly $8 a piece its more of a once in a while indulgence...

We soon fell into a prosecco and sugar-induced coma, until it was time to wake up and drink and eat more! First, drinks at the Four Seasons before dinner at The Continental Midtown. The Continental (the original location is still open as well) is an old favorite place of mine and I've been there many times over the years. Anyone who is visiting Philly and wants a fun, funky atmosphere, great drinks and affordable, delicious food should definitely check this place out! It was packed so we enjoyed some cocktails at the bar (get the Buzz Aldrin for something sweet, or the Pickled (extra spicy) if you've had enough sugar for the day), then were seated upstairs for dinner. No pictures this time kiddos-- but I highly recommend the shoestring fries and the Continental salad. Don't miss the house-made cotton candy for dessert!

So, that's my trip to Philly in a nutshell. It was a much needed escape from real life, if only for 24 hours. Hope to return to the city of Brotherly Love soon!

X

Top Chef 4: Movie Snacks

by Erin and Xani

Another episode under the belt and another chef is out the door. This week's episode had guest judge Daniel Boulud, who has guest judged in previous seasons. In the Quickfire challenge, the chefs are tasked with making a vegetable plate that will "impress Daniel" using at least three different classic culinary techniques. A good thing to test for Top Chefs, but didn't they do the same challenge in the first season??

Daniel's favorites were Richard (of course, Richard worked in one of Boulud's restaurants!), Dale, and Zoi. Dale won the quickfire with his vegan sashimi plate, which Padma and Daniel actually paused to admire its beauty before eating...wow.

For their Elimination Challenge, the chefs picked knives and were split up into 6 pairs, which was each assigned a course for a dinner party. Dale got to hop into his choice of pair, and he chose Richard and Andrew's first course team, forming quite a powerhouse! Andrew's commentary on this: "The weak pick the strong" - dramatic!

For their challenge, they had to cater a dinner party thrown by film critic Richard Roper, with special guest Aisha Tyler. Each pair had to base their dish on their favorite movie, but that whole "favorite" part seemed to be pushed aside and the pairs instead looked for movies that were either appropriate for what they wanted to cook or had scenes with food in them.

Richard, Andrew, and Dale chose to do a dish inspired by "Willy Wonka," and made a smoked salmon with a wasabi-white chocolate sauce, and soy tapioca pearls. Also entertaining were Ryan and Mark, since Ryan has only seen three movies in the past year and Mark is rattling off all the Kiwi blockbusters that no one (in America) has ever heard of. They ended up basing their dish on a scene from "A Christmas Story" that included quail and a delicious-looking egg roll. Miguel and Spike chose to do Vietnamese summer rolls, conveniently being inspired by "Good Morning, Vietnam!". Stephanie and Lisa chose "Top Secret" to inspire their beef dish with shortrib potstickers and savory caramel.

In the end, the "Willy Wonka" team and the "Top Secret" team were at the top, and Richard came out the winner - big shocker there! In the bottom were Antonia and Zoi for their not-colorful-enough Spanish dish inspired by "Talk to Her," and Spike and Miguel's Vietnamese summer roll. In the end, Miguel got the boot for blindly following Spike on the path to summer rolls.

Erin's Take:

This week, yet again, I failed to earn barely any points! I chose Dale, Andrew, and Mark, and I won three points with Dale's quickfire win, and two points from some cursing from good ol' Andrew.

I know, I know - I should have stuck with Richard! I am getting to know the chefs better and I was glad that they had a chance to do a dinner and not a catering event. I thought the film inspiration challenge was a good idea in theory but the chefs sort of cut corners and picked movies based on food and not the other way around.

Dish I wished I were eating: Stephanie's dish with the beef and those shortrib potstickers, reduction of braising liquid and savory caramel - yum! The potstickers reminded me of when we had potstickers when we went to 2941 for my birthday.

Favorite chef at the moment: I still like Mark, so cute with that accent. Richard is definitely a force to be reckoned with, as is cute little Stephanie.

Movie I would have chosen: The first movie that came to mind was Tampopo, the famous "Japanese noodle western". Or maybe Napoleon Dynamite and then I would have made something with tots?? Or The Godfather, where I'd make something with a whole fish, reminiscent of the scene where Luca sleeps with the fishes.

Xani's Take:

Awww yeah! This week I finally stepped up and earned some points! My team:

I was also watching with my good friend Jason, and we decided to make a little side wager-- whoever scored the most points on the episode had to take the other to dinner; if Jason lost, he had to take me for french food (and he apparently "hates" french food), and if I lost I had to take him for Italian food. Well, guess who's going to be enjoying some french food pretty soon (with a side of victory)?! I ended up with 10 points (Richard won the elimination challenge and got bleeped twice, and Andrew got bleeped twice as well), compared to Jason's paltry four!

Dish I wished I were eating: The quail and eggroll from A Christmas Story. How can I resist a miniature bird and a miniature spring roll??

Favorite chef at the moment: Gotta stick with Richard for now. He seems to have the skills and vision to make it far in this competition. His hair is still extremely distracting, but I think it says a lot that his dish won even though his gimmicky "molecular gastronomy" element (the smoke that was supposed to billow out from beneath the plastic-wrapped plates) was derailed by technical difficulties.

Movie I would have chosen: No way I can beat EPs idea for the whole fish a la The Godfather! Genius! I was also thinking Tampopo (the egg yolk scene!? Has anyone reading this even seen that movie, other than BCD Dad??) or maybe Sweeney Todd (meat pies--but I think that movie was released after the episode was filmed!).

Alright folks, bring on the comments!

X & EP

Charitable Basketcases: The Recap

by Erin and Xani

As you may recall from our friendly reminder last week, this past weekend we participated in the annual Maryland Public Interest Law Project (MPILP) Goods and Services Auction, a fundraiser whose proceeds go to grants given to law students who want to work in public interest law during the summer.

We decided to donate a basket full of gourmet goodies, and we had such a blast preparing it (despite Xani's sleep deprivation due to a red-eye flight the previous night)! We decided to include some homemade goodies, and some store-bought goodies. Here were the contents of the basket:

• Chocolate Truffles
• Raspberry Jam Thumbprint Cookies
• Bacon, Gruyere, and Scallion Mini-Buscuits
• Cafe Latte and Cappuccino-flavored Jelly Beans
• Jamaican Whole-Bean Coffee
• Sparkling Wine

The weekend before the auction, we went shopping for the coffee, the basket, and fun crafty stuff like ribbons and tissue paper. The jelly beans (Jelly Bellys, of course!) were an impulse buy. We have a tendency of buying jelly beans when out shopping together, particularly for non-food items (e.g., we always pick some up in the check out line at Staples - normal?).

The night before the auction, while Xani was flying back to Baltimore, EP went grocery shopping (see the ingredient spreadsheet here) and later made the chocolate truffles while taking a study break. We used the Ina Garten recipe (of course), which was quite easy, even in EP's completely ill-equipped kitchen. Simply chop up good bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolates and pour hot heavy cream over them (let the cream come to a boil and then take it off the heat for about 20 seconds). Gently whisk to combine and then add some fresh-brewed coffee and some vanilla extract. (We wanted to add some coffee-flavored liquor but we didn't have it on hand, so we nixed it.)

The recipe said to let the chocolate mixture stand for an hour at room temperature before rolling it into balls, but it did not set up in that amount of time, and it was getting into the wee hours of the morning, so EP put it into the fridge for about 20 minutes and it came together well. Then she rolled the chocolate into cherry-sized balls and rolled them in cocoa powder, and whadya know? They look like real truffles!!

The next day, after Xani had gotten some rest, we gathered at TinyHouse and got started on the mini-biscuits and the jam thumbprint cookies. The mini-biscuits, according to the recipe, are technically full-sized muffins, but we wanted to make them in our mini-muffin tins because (all together now) tiny = cute! We also found that they turned out more like biscuits than muffins, so we re-categorized them.

The biscuit recipe was also quite simple. Cook up and crumble some bacon, finely chop scallions, grate a bunch of gruyere, and add those to some flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Meanwhile, take some milk, an egg, and the reserved bacon fat (!!), mix together, and then add to the dry ingredients. We then scooped the batter into buttered mini-muffin tins and baked for about 11 minutes. We wish we had used more liquid because they were a bit on the dry side (which made them more like biscuits and less like muffins). Still, a delicious little savory treat that we'd probably make again, with a few adjustments.

(Sorry, no pics of the final product - we were rushing!)

Last we made an old standby of ours: Ina Garten's jam thumbprint cookies. These are so delicious, and we always get compliments on them. The recipe calls for butter (3 sticks, natch), sugar, vanilla extract, flour, and salt. Then the dough is rolled into 1 1/4 inch balls, then rolled in egg wash and then sweetened shredded coconut. Then an indentation is made and raspberry jam put in the little hole (we used a makeshift piping bag made from a zippy bag to pipe in the jam). They are baked until the coconut becomes golden. We are drooling as we type this - OMG these are so rich and intense and AWESOME!

While everything was baking and cooling, we began assembling the basket, which was so fun! (Special thanks to BCD Mom for scoping out the basket selection at a nearby Marshall's - she's got a good eye!) We bought cellophane baggies and pretty ribbon for the goodies, and a HUGE cellophane bag to put the entire completed basket in. We also printed off a "menu" that listed the items in the basket and included our logo.

Here's a few shots of the almost-finished and completely finished product:

You can see the jam thumbprints, the truffles, the mini-buscuits, and the champagne

Ready for the party!

We brought the basket to the auction (which the BCD parents also attended, being alumni and all) and there was a lot of hype about the basket! Unfortunately, there were lots of other great items at the auction, including other baskets, so ours did not stick out as much as we wanted. In the end, it was auctioned off (in the silent auction) for $90! And guess who the lucky winners were?? THE BCD PARENTS! They bid when we weren't looking! So sweet of them...

It was a great time and a lovely event, and MPILP raised over $35,000 to support law students working in public interest this summer. We were so happy to participate and do a little mitzvot. Looking forward to next year!

Happy eating,

E & X