Monday, January 3, 2011

12 Culinary Challenge



As an engineer, I love solving problems and coming up with creative solutions for problems in front of me. That's why I love whenever people give me food challenges. For instance, the Dark Chocolate Lemon Truffles are a recipe that came out of a challenge posed from one of my roommates. One day he challenged me to come up with a lemon pie covered in chocolate; therefore, I gave him a crunchy chocolate dessert infused with citrus flavors.

The reason I tell this story is that another of my friends who currently lives in France (hi Rachel!) has given me a challenge to come up with a cheap stove-top or microwave recipe that uses ingredients readily available to her. From this I came up with an idea.

Dear Readers,
Give me conditions such as:

  • dietary restrictions, 
  • tool restrictions, 
  • inexperience with cooking, 
  • flavors you love,
  • food budget,
and I will accept your culinary challenge. I will create a recipe you'll love that meet the restrictions you give me. Now, I'm sure you're asking "What happens if he fails?". My response to you is that if I do, by some crazy circumstance, fail then I will present you with a surprise that will be sure to satisfy and make up for my defeat.

So please, challenge me (in the form of a comment in this post), and I will gladly accept it.

12 comments:

  1. Yay! Yes, so recipes for a poor (literally) girl living in France with no oven. I like soups and dinners! Meat optional, since you know I get weirded out about buying meat here, but also... veggies are *super* cheap at the market. This is exciting!! :)

    also, yay for HIMYM

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  2. you know mine - bacon, chocolate and fish =)

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  3. At the wedding, the most delicious looking food served were bbq meatballs, but I didn't get to enjoy any because of the meat bit. I would love for you to come up with a vegetarian recipe that involves bbq sauce, and is delicious! (Major bonus points if what you come up with isn't just "bbq tofu"; seafood would be okay!).

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  4. Rachel - I think your's is the first one I will try to accomplish.

    Elena - I realllllly look forward to coming up with one for you. :D

    Mary - Challenge 110% accepted. Its funny that you mentioned vegetarian, because Will challenged me to come up with and outstanding Gluten Free Veggie Burger...

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  5. if your list gets too long you should use a rating system for determining the hot next challenge. maybe a weekly or monthly feature?

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  6. and I have a two-part challenge that may or may not be combinable:
    1) a triple-stuffed something, involving cheese and vegetables (triple-stuffed ex. turducken)
    2) use the tagine I gave you

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  7. For the list, I could totally create a poll that I add somewhere on the blog (probably the left or right sidebar).

    And for the turducken, does it have to be just cheese and veggies? Or something more?

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  8. I was leaving the trifecta option open for your decision. I was imagining a meat, but all veggie is solid.

    And here's a Crumbley Cable TV Challenge, in light of your impeccable yet underblogged taste for amazing TV shows:
    1) five course HIMYM tribute of getting me hooked on the amazing characters of that show
    2) a four course Jos Weden salute to your choice of shows: ideally Buffy, Firefly, Dollhouse, and Dr Horrible. (okay so Dr Horrible might not be precisely cable but close enough)

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  9. Zak, I very much look forward to your challenges.

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  10. Diabetic with a dash of very carb sensitive?

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  11. Oh just thought of another one. How about cooking for a crowd? Something that isn't the same old speghetti or soup. I need something to wow a crowd of say 50 people.

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  12. I plan on doing more research on diabetic meals, but would a diabetic-friendly dish be high fiber and low fat, low carb, or is it more than that?

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