Cooking from my garden.

I'm very excited about the massive plant in my garden FINALLY producing something.  I couldn't tell if it was going to be a squash or zucchini plant but, after it began flowering, I suspected it was a zucchini.  The flowers are edible.  I had some on my trip to Italy.  The Italians like to stuff them with cheese and fry them.  Delicious.  Here is an actual photograph of one I ate in Italy.  It doesn't look as good as it tasted because this pic is in black and white - but trust me - It was yummy.

I didn't want to eat the flowers without getting some actual vegetable so I had a serious conversation with my plant.  I marched out to my garden and basically threatened to yank its flowers off and start devouring them if it didn't make something soon. Sure enough, after "the talk" a good sized zucchini magically appeared.  Sometimes you have to show your plants who's boss!

Lately I've been obsessed with a website called Gojee.  It pulls all sorts of different recipes from food bloggers and such.  You can actually type in ingredients you have, or what you don't like, and it will spit out some suggestions.  Well of course I typed in zucchini.  I could just cut it up and grill it but after being mean to my plant I decided I needed to do something special.

A quick search led me to Aggie's Kitchen and a recipe for Baked Parmesan Zucchini Sticks.

(Sidenote: Aggie is not an Aggie as in Texas A&M, as I originally assumed.  Being from Texas, I think this was a fair and honest mistake.  Her name is just Aggie - unassociated with the college.)

I have decided to give the recipe a go with my zucchini.  Here is my lovely creation before I butchered it:

You have to cut it up into sticks.  Don't worry, I didn't do this in front of my plant.  That would just be cruel.




The set up: Zucchini Sticks, Egg, Breadcrumb/Parmesan/Spice Mixture




Zucchini taking their egg bath...

After their bath they were dipped in the breadcrumb mixture and into the oven.  I think the Italians would have probably fried them.  Italians fry a lot of things (surprisingly).  This is the somewhat healthy version so they get baked.



TA-DA!  The final Product!  I realize that serving these with ranch took away the health factor.  They would have been good with marinara also.  All-in-all quite delicious.  Highly recommended.










Although this is not a food blog, I have a future post in the works about how to make the Perfect Grilled Cheese - because I have perfected this art and think its important to share with the world.  Stay tuned!

State Fair Chili Cook-off Part 3: Lets Cook Some MF-ing Chili!

Ok well I know all of my readers have been waiting with bated breath to learn the results of the chili cook off. In case you're busy and don't want to read this whole post I'll tell you straight off: we didn't win. But that doesn't mean my chili wasn't BADASS. Apparently I was in violation of a few "rules" that will be discussed in detail below.

We finally decided on a Team Name and I finished the shirts the night before:







I loaded up my Jeep and headed over to pick up my friend Jennifer.  Our team was downsized considerably when people were told that we had to be out there at 8:00 am.  It was just as well because the Jeep was full!








 

We drove around Fair Park lost for about 20 minutes.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Fair Park area (like myself), it can be quite confusing.  There are street names inside the park but not any "official/legal" street names that will show up on the handy dandy iPhone (not that it isn't a stellar product - RIP Steve Jobs).  We spotted some golf carts and figured this was where we needed to be. (The rules said officials would be driving around in golf carts to check on us periodically).  I snapped a picture of one such cart.  Honestly I'm not quite sure what these ladies were thinking.  I guess they got tired of crocheting scarves and decided to keep their golf cart warm???

Anyway, we found a spot and it was set up time!  My friend bought this huge umbrella type thing to shield us from the sun.  Problem one:  It calls for stakes to be put in the ground to hold it down.  We were in a parking lot.  No going to work...

 This was my bright idea - Throwing it on the back of the Jeep!





This was her bright idea - Tying 1000 knots to hold it down.  This became problematic when it was time to break everything down and after 6+ beers...





I can't complain too much because her knots did the job.  The guys next to us were pretty cool.  They let me borrow their automatic lighter, like 10 times.  My dumbass brought matches and the wind was not cooperating.  They also shared a margarita with me at some point during the day.  It was pretty good.







My competition...






OK so the deal with the Chili: I was trying to make CASI Chili.  CASI stands for Chili Appreciation Society International, Inc.  One of the rules is no fillers.  Specifically it says:  "NO FILLERS IN CHILI - Beans, macaroni, rice, hominy, or other similar ingredients are not permitted."  So in reading this rule, I assume that things like onion and tomato are alright and had such items in my ingredient list.   I put the onions in my pot first thing to get them cooking.  This chick comes over, takes one look at my pot and the following conversation takes place:

Chick:   "I guess you're not making CASI chili."
Me:       "Actually, I am."
Chick:   "You can't have those onions in there..."
Me:       "I read the rules and it said no beans or macaroni.  I didn't see anything about onions."
Chick:    "Well, let me get one of the other officials to take a look and we'll just see..."

She goes to get one of the other officials who proceeds to tell me that although I don't have anything "illegal" in my pot, the onions must be rendered down to no bigger than my meat or else I won't score very high.  The chick gives me a smug look.  I thought to myself, OK, its like that.  I see how you people are. 

A neighbor two tents down tells me (after my chili is done, of course) that to win at CASI chili you have to have only meat, tomato sauce and spices.  That's NOT how I read the rulebook but whatever....

So this was the final product - my friend and I thought it was pretty tasty.  Do you see any MF-ing onions in there???





Another guy came over during the cooking process to ask me why I thought my chili was a winner.  My response:  "Because I'm BADASS, that's why."  I stand behind this statement and my chili.  Although next year, I'll play by THEIR rules and leave the onions out. 

Anyway, we had fun and drank a lot so that's all that mattered.  Here's my friend and our neighbors before they announced the results.  These guys named their team for a buddy of theirs who had passed away.  Very nice.





The Judging area.  Looks very official with that table lying on the ground, huh?  (I swear I'm not bitter.)






So at the end of the day we walked away with a Participation Ribbon, Two tickets to the Fair, a Parking Pass and some badass chili cooked by yours truly.  Not bad if you ask me.  Plus, there's always next year!