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by BS

Last Supper: ES Staff Picks

We asked what you’d pick as your last meal on earth, so we figure fair is fair, we might as well share our own. Think you can do better? Send your funniest/best/most salivating last supper menu to contests@endlesssimmer.com, and you’ll be in the running for the biggest Top Chef prize pack ever.

80 proof: Start the meal off with a nice plate of twelve mozzarella sticks. Then move on to a large pepperoni pizza, a 2-liter regular coke, and a side order of Bojangles chicken supreme combo (chicken strips, fries, tea).

BS: A buttered filet mignon, an entire box of wheat thins, and vanilla ice cream with perfectly juicy strawberries. Bacon is used as a palate cleanser in between every course.

Liza: Chicken fried steak with cream gravy, macaroni and cheese, fried okra, mashed potatoes with cream gravy, and chocolate ice cream. And a delicious Pilsner! And for an appetizer (as if I didn’t put enough food down), my mom’s grilled cheese and tomato soup 🙂

TVFF: I’d have to go Italian. A nice cold spread with great cheese, olives and vegetables. Main course would be authentic spaghetti carbonara made with guanciale and a side of sauteed broccoli rabe with plenty of garlic and red pepper. For desert, a Philly-style cherry water ice.

I Want to Be a Caterer When I Grow Up

It’s that time again.

I’ve recently persuaded DAD GANSIE that it will be perfectly possible for the family to prepare all the food for my sister’s college graduation party. For my brother’s party a few years back we ordered a large deli platter (cold cuts, hoagie rolls, potato salad…) and I made a few appetizers, including this gem that I really need to start producing again. But that was when my food obsession was still young. I hadn’t landed any catering gigs at that point.

So now that we’re ditching the processed meat, I need to figure out what to feed our friends and family.

Initial thoughts:

Chicken/veggie fajitas (I love the idea of do-it-yourself)
Baked pasta dish (family style also works well in this situation)
Kebabs (everything’s better on a stick)

Of course I’d also be making dips and other hors d’oeuvres. And I think DAD GANSIE will be on desserts (combo of buying/baking himself). Also, we’d like to be able to make as much in advance as possible.

This is just the beginning, folks. I’m not wed to any of these and I’m looking for something fun, easy, and that suburban New Jerseyans (no, I will not link the word to that horrid show that I refuse to watch) would enjoy. We’re thinking 50 people, which does not include the drunks that require a second meal close to midnight.

Let the games begin.

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in Personal 13 comments

by tvff

Endless Simmer Goes Behind the Bell

I’ll be honest with you: I’m not a big eater of fast food. Takeout items like Chinese and pizza are much more likely options when I’m looking for a quick, convenient and inexpensive dinner. The fact of the matter is, with most of the big chains, I just don’t find their offerings interesting enough. Of course, there is one exception…

I’ve always had a thing for Taco Bell. Why? It has some spice. It uses cilantro (which I think we’ve definitively said is a good thing). It’s just different enough from the usual American fast food offerings to have held my interest.

This is why the Beef Baja Chalupa (those shells are addictive) has been occupying a spot on my bio since I came aboard ES.com and it’s likely why I received an offer to be flown out to Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, California along with a number of other bloggers to tour their test kitchens and discuss product development. The opportunity for a behind-the-scenes look at the kitchen and make one last attempt to be reunited with a long-lost friend from the Taco Bell menu were too much to pass up…

Don’t You Dare Lose My Bacon

I love bacon as much as the next pork psychotic, but as I’ve said before, I don’t support the use of bacon in that many dishes. Some people love to throw it on everything, thinking that a dish cannot possibly be bad if it has bacon in it. But poorly used bacon pisses me off because when it’s combined with too many other ingredients, it can often get lost, and there’s nothing more disappointing than getting excited for bacon and then barely being able to taste it. I’m talking to you, bacon tuna melt. No thank you. Just give me a tuna melt with bacon on the side.

There are a precious few bacon dishes that just work. A good BLT is heaven, because the crispy stuff plays so well with the other, not overwhelming ingredients. Same goes for a cobb salad. I’m not against bacon cheeseburgers, but I feel the bacon gets lost unless you put like 8 slices on, and that kind of burger should really be a once-a-year occasion.

Needless to say, I was pretty stoked when I came up with this idea: bacon and egg salad. As far as I’m concerned it’s a perfect, simple way to incorporate bacon into a meal. Just take six hard boiled eggs, fry and break up three slices of bacon, and mix it up with a tablespoon of mayo, salt, pepper and whatever other spices you like to throw in your egg salad. Makes 2 American-sized sandwiches, and the bacon taste and crunch shines through.

PS – Of course you know we very much support putting eggs on everything. Thanks to everyone who commented with bonus egg recipes, we’ve updated our post on 100 ways to cook an egg with even more recipes. Check it out.

More Bacon: Recipes, raves and other bacon bits in Endless Bacon.

in Bacon / Eggs / Endless Bacon / Personal / Recipe / Sandwich 8 comments

by BS

Don’t Forget to Tweet

If you’re a tweeter, or even just some kind of pervert who watches other people tweet, be sure you’re following Endless Simmer and getting all our bites and tastes 24/7.

Endless Simmer on Twitter

in Personal 0 comments

by gansie

Of Family, Tomotoes and Cookless Bacon

Editors Note: Who doesn’t love a good family bonding story – and over food no less? ES friend LC has been chronicling her grandmother’s recipes. And when I say recipe, I mean ES-style: ingredient listings, no measurements, no guidance. Luckily, LC’s mom is a culinary professional. Below they tackle Tomato Pie.

I made a comment about my project a little while ago. My family’s recipes are kept by my grandmother in an accordion file full of scribblings and I have set out to transcribe them. The task has defeated one aunt and one cousin who said that it cannot be done because of the illegible handwriting, intentionally and unintentionally omitted items, and the color commentary (what is a “knuckle” of butter?)

I have spare time and talked my mom, a chef, into updating the recipes and gansie into posting them here for, frankly, additional help. We made a three course meal this weekend but I will post the recipes one by one so you all can concentrate on the details much better than we could.

We’ll start with cryptic tomato pie. Read about my grandmother and mother’s differing food philosophies, cheating, and one tasty piece o’ pie below.

ES/Food Network Contest: How Crazy Can You Grill It?

It’s that time of year again! Spring! Which in addition to debilitating allergies, means it’s time to break out the grill. If the warmer weather wasn’t enough to clue you in to the onset of grilling season, the fact that you can’t flip on Food Network without seeing someone toiling away at an open flame would be a dead giveaway.

Oh, and speaking of giveaway, we’re partnering with the folks at Food Network for a little contest that will let you show off your grilling adventures, past or present. All you need to do is send us your story about the craziest thing you have ever grilled. Have a creative topping for that burger that goes beyond just Dijon mustard? Thrown something on the grill that you’re sure no one ever had grilled before you? Maybe you’ve traveled to the ends of the earth for the greatest grill of all. Send in your story and you can be rocking the grill like a pro this summer with our sweet grand prize:

Nobody grills it like Bobby Flay, whose Grill It! can be seen on Food Network on Sundays at 9 am. And so, it’s only fitting that our winner be able to do his or her best Bobby Flay impression with some real gear. So our first place winner will receive a Food Network / Bobby Flay Grilling Basket, which includes an All-Clad BBQ Tool Set, Bobby Flay’s Burger, Fries, and Shakes cookbook and a canvas bag. To our runners up, we’ll be sending copies of Down Home With The Neelys cookbook and a copy of the latest Food Network Magazine, which is all about the burger this month.

Now that you know what you’re getting, how do you enter? Tell us, in 100 words or less, about your most unusual, unique or just plain out-there grilling or barbecue experience, past or present. While we won’t be fact-checking, let’s keep it to true stories…we don’t want to hear about cooking brisket for Mahatma Gandhi and Napoleon. The story (and feel free to include photos!) should be sent to contests@endlesssimmer.com between now and midnight, Eastern time on Wednesday, May 20th.

We’ll be announcing the winners late next week, so get your story in now!

in Celebs / Contests / Personal / TV 8 comments