Food Game Friday: Go-Go Gourmet

Kicking off a new feature of the blog, Food Game Friday will attempt to showcase a new food-related game one Friday a month (for starters). This month's pick is Go-Go Gourmet, available over at Reflexive Arcade:


The description speaks for itself:

Search, sauté, and serve your way to gastronomic greatness! Go-Go Gourmet puts you in the heat of the kitchen with hidden object and time management gameplay, all rolled into one! Find ingredients, whip-up recipes, and juggle hungry customers as you quickly and efficiently toggle between orders to prepare more than one request at a time! With 7 uniquely themed restaurants and more than 25 unlockable upgrades, Go-Go Gourmet will leave you hungry for more!

So head on over to the arcade and download your copy today!

Thanksgiving for the Kitchen Challenged

Baked Stuffed Turkey

Ingredients:

• 1 thawed turkey (10-12 lb)
• 1 C melted butter, divided
• 1 C of your favorite stuffing
• 1 C uncooked popcorn

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Clean and rinse turkey inside and out (remove neck and gizzard, if present) and pat dry
• Combine stuffing, popcorn, and 2 tablespoons melted butter (consistency should be crumbly and on the dry side)
• Fill cavity of turkey with stuffing/popcorn/butter mixture
• Place turkey on rack in roasting pan
• Brush skin liberally with remaining melted butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper
• Place pan in oven with neck towards back of oven

Listen for popping sounds. When the turkey’s ass blows the oven door open and the bird flies across the room, it’s done. Order pizza (you can clean up later).

You Gonna Eat That?

Sometimes, late at night, you get the munchies ... and all semblance of food sanity goes right out the window (it also seems to happen when you're pregnant, or so I'm told). At any rate, I remember people looking at me as if I'd completely lost my mind when (in response to "What do you wanna eat?") I say "I'm thinking pasta and caramel sauce". Now, granted, I wasn't really hungry for pasta and caramel sauce, I was just going for the shock value ... and I usually got it in spades.

Well, checking out metafilter tonight, I found this. Oddly enough, it sounds kinda good (apparently someone else agrees).

Smoked Potato and Andouille Soup

Yet another experiment in crockpot cooking.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs red potatoes, cleaned and halved
  
• 4 links andouille sausage, rough dice
  
• 1 C onion, rough dice
• 1/2 C carrot, rough dice
• 1/2 C celery, rough dice
• garlic (to taste)
  
• chicken stock
• vegetable stock
  
• olive oil
• chipotle powder
• crushed red pepper flake
  
• crushed habanero pepper flake

Additional Tools:

• Stovetop smoker
• Wood for smoker (either sawdust or chips), hickory, maple, cherry, apple (whatever you prefer).

Instructions:

• Boil potatoes in chicken stock until fork tender (~ 15-20 minutes). Drain, let cool.
• If using wood chips, soak in water for 30 minutes before placing in smoker. If using sawdust, place in smoker according to directions. Place drip pan and grill in smoker, then place potatoes on grill. Place smoker on stove burners on medium heat.
  
• Smoke potatoes for about 30 minutes. They'll develop a nice mahogony color around the edges (using BBQ terms, "bark"). Remove smoker from heat and let cool.
• While potatoes are cooling, heat a little olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.
• When warm, add garlic and sautee briefly (don't let it turn brown), then add mire poix (the onions, carrots, and celery) and sweat the mixture. Add salt, pepper, and a dash of chipotle powder (to taste). Sweat for a few minutes.
• Add sausage to pot, and let the mixture heat through.
• While heating, large dice the potatoes and place them in your crock pot.
• Add the mire poix/sausage mixture to the crock.
• Add enough vegetable stock (or water) to cover the mixture.
• Dust the top of the soup with any combination of chili powder (chipotle, crushed red pepper, habanero flake, etc.). This is very much to taste, so add as much or as little as you wish.
• Put the lid on the crock and let 'er rip for anywhere from 4-6 hours.

Hot Sauce Haiku: The Results

Last month, I had a couple posts of haiku for the Hot Sauce Haiku Contest going on over at Baby That's Hot. I didn't win (wasn't really expecting to ... I'm not much of a poet), but a mention as a favorite (yeah, I'm the last on in the list, but I'm still there) in the competition ain't too shabby.

The two that won deserve it ... truly wonderful verse!