Thank goodness you chose the rainbow challenge for this week’s cooking adventure! (I couldn’t face those frozen bananas for a second week in a row, especially when paired with pretzels, shrimp and a surprise ingredient!) Besides, summer’s produce is filled with colorful choices for a rainbow meal! We all know that eating a variety of…
Category: Chopped and Other Challenges
Pork Wellington and a Cooking Challenge Hoax!
As you know, last week we came to you, the readers, to help us pick items for our cooking challenge that would help reduce our freezer and pantry contents. Phil and I each put 10 “slow moving” items on a list and you voted for the ones you wanted us to use. I carefully tallied…
Something Old, Something New, Plus a Vote Needed from You
With the wedding behind us and Phil returning to teaching in the fall, Ben and I are excited to start up our Ben’s Day Wednesday activities again. I had in mind starting with something new, but when I asked Ben what we should cook this week, he suggested chicken parm, the dish we have been…
A TRIUMPHant Summer (Plus a Contest!!!)
During the height of the pandemic, we spent a lot of time driving in our antique Triumph convertible. Last summer, we made a list of two dozen lunch-ish spots within a one-hour radius that we wanted to try, and by the end of the summer, we had made it to over half of them. It…
Spring Has Sprung!(er)
We loved the ideas you gave us for making a spring meal! As you can imagine, we had a hard time narrowing it down again. While we loved Kristie’s ham idea, we decided to save ham for Easter Day. Brunch or tea sandwiches also sounded very springy to us, but ultimately, we riffed on Sue’s…
Ben Takes On The World!
Today, fully vaccinated, Ben went back to school for the first time since November! What better way to celebrate his triumphal reentry into the world than to meet his international cooking challenge? Short of riding in on a donkey, on a path lined with palm fronds, cooking international is the next best thing. When France…
Shenanigans O’Sprunger Tips his Hat to the Emerald Isle!
This week’s challenge was to go green, whatever that meant to you, our readers. Ben and I read over all your ideas together, and he wanted to make ALL the food. Green eggs and ham? Yes. Palak Paneer? Never heard of it. Wait. The green ‘Indian rice’? I love it! Ingredients that spell G-R-E-E-N? Why…
The Frugal Gourmet
This week’s challenge was to make a meal for the whole family costing less than $10. (Next week’s challenge is at the end of this post. Don’t forget to weigh in!) We are bargain shoppers more often than not, so it wasn’t too hard to do it this week, but we did the math to…
Ben Brings Best Burger for “B” Challenge! (And your vote is needed for a new challenge!)
In our opinion, Ben crushed the “B” challenge, where every ingredient had to start with B. We usually don’t make burgers at home because it is Ben’s go-to meal when we get carry out on Fridays, but when our readers requested a “B”-filled meal, Ben answered the call with a loaded beef burger. In principle,…
Leftover Valentine’s Day Candy, Dried Morita Chile, Pecorino Romano Cheese, and Espresso Powder: Mystery Basket Revealed and Conquered
I won’t lie. When I told Ben what we were cooking with, he said, “Rough!” However, we think we turned it into a win. We are limiting trips to the grocery store these days, so we just used other ingredients we had on hand to create our menu of spaghetti and meatballs with milkshakes. We…