Eat All About It

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Enter these contests! You, too, could win cash prizes, kitchen gear, fame and (at least some) fortune. I can say this with particular certainty after interviewing winners like Ellie Mathews, 1998 winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off, who treated the contest like a $1 million code, which she proceeded to break. I’ve seen enough recipes from readers to know plenty of you are good enough to beat the odds, so consider putting your culinary creativity toward:

Chipotle Mexican Grill: Create a new burrito, make a video or record a song or otherwise sing its praises, and win $10,000 through the “My Chipotle” campaign. Winners will be picked based on how well the submissions “discuss Chipotle menu items while remaining consistent with the company’s values and image.” (Talking points hints: Sustainable. Organic. Big chain does not have to mean bad guy.) Besides the dough, the first place winner also gets the burrito added to the Chipotle menu. Second prize in the contest is $5,000 plus a Chipotle party for 50. Third prize is a free burrito a week for a year. Submit entries by Aug. 14, full details at mychipotle.com.

Pietopia: Could a pie describe the way you are feeling right now? Act fast, and you can make today’s deadline for Pietopia, a Portland-based contest where I’m interested in reading every entry. The rules: “(P)lease submit your pie recipe and written explanation, including why you chose the recipe and how the taste of it relates to the current state of your life in under 300 words by July 15th, 2009. The project will culminate with an exhibition of the winners at the Portland Farmer’s Market Eastbank between 20th and Salmon on Thursday August 20, 2009. Each winning pie will receive a limited edition screen print reflecting the ideas in the written statement. Pies will be judged upon the creativity and innovativeness in ideas reflecting the ingredients used in the recipe.” Send statements and recipes to: pietopiacontest@gmail.com. Check out the blog for full details and some of last year’s winners, including the bittersweet “Chemo Savvy Apple Pie” and the “Homesick for Miami Pie”. (more…)

Julie Reinhardt’s bio says she’s “ready to talk pork butt with the most macho grillmaster.”

Really, though, she’s here to talk with the least macho audience, the women who have historically been the weaker half of the backyard family barbecue and grill. Here Reinhardt is with She-Smoke: A Backyard Barbecue Book
a thoroughly practical, well-researched new guide that manages to be fun but not patronizing.

It is, as advertised, a casually-styled, from-the-ground-up primer for those who don’t know their low from their slow. It explains how to turn on a gas grill (the book covers grilling as well as barbecuing), reviews the different regional styles of barbecue, and diagrams how to break down a chicken (the latter Reinhardt admits only learning at age 30, “out of sheer embarassment that I couldn’t do it.”) But Reinhardt’s expertise and enthusiasm comes through clearly enough to also satisfy ‘cuers who lick their chops at chapter headings like “Texas Beef Brisket: An In-Depth Study,” and would consider digging a pit for the salmon bake recipe she includes in honor of family summers on the Washington coast.

We talked with Reinhardt, co-owner of Smokin’ Pete’s BBQ in Ballard, just named one of the best barbecue spots in the West, for your Memorial Day mealtime pleasure. And if you’re planning your own barbecue this weekend, consider entering her contest (video above) to win prizes and fight hunger by creating “the largest virtual BBQ in the world.”

“I love the idea that barbecue brings people together,” said Reinhardt, a Seattle native with Alabama roots. We tend to think of “barbecue” as a noun, as a piece of smoked pork, say, but she loves the broader term that includes the event as well as the food. For her, it’s about the “down-home togetherness” of the cuisine and its history and roots.

Here are a few highlights from our talk and from the book.
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This contest giveaway thing is catching on. Next up is Boom Noodle/Blue C Sushi, offering $200 in gift cards to the winner of a contest to name the bar connecting its Bellevue Square restaurants. The 1,600-square-foot mezzanine lounge “is suspended above the Blue C and Boom Noodle spaces, and offers a birds-eye view of both,” if you haven’t been and you’re looking for inspiration. Besides food and drink, it’s got four Xbox gaming pods.

1. East meets Eastside? No.
2. Sky Slurp? No, no, no.
3. Drink+Ponder What Other Restaurants Are Loved By Both Marcella Hazan and Iris Amster-Burton? C’mon, everyone reading this has at least ten better ideas. Send them to nameourbar@bluecsushi.com until May 29. Winners will be announced June 1.

The winner has been announced in the Seattle Cheese Festival’s grilled cheese recipe contest, and it’s the “Grilled Suds ‘n Cheese” sandwich created by Cristal Ortiz. Ortiz will demo the sandwich during the festival, at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, and it will be on the menu at the cafe at DeLaurenti. 

I’m in a hotel room right now and can’t test the recipe for you, but I’m willing to bet it’s good. Why? Because it calls for a half-stick of butter. Not good enough? It also calls for a pint of good German beer. Resistance is futile:

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My sister’s birthday is today, and I’m trying to convince her a trip from Delaware to Seattle would make a great gift for herself. She got more of our mom’s cooking genes than I did — she’s the one who worked the counter at Cocolat and forever ruined my grading curve for chocolate cake — and the rare times we see each other, we create good memories around food. One year we ate a perfect dinner at Restaurant Zoe. One visit she made spaghetti sauce in our kitchen, even though she was the guest, just because that’s her way. And one of the most delightful days in Seattle I can remember was a clam chowder festival we attended, maybe 15 years ago. I love food contests. Dishes that all riff on the same theme are more interesting, somehow, than a collection of random bites.

You can see for yourself this Saturday, when the 13th annual Seattle Waterfront Chowder Cookoff takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., as part of the Seattle Maritime Festival. I don’t think it can be connected to the one I attended, which was in Gasworks, but the setup is the same. (more…)

Preparing "Uighur Pastries" from Beyond The Great Wall

I meant the third day of the United Way Hunger Challenge to be fish night. I figured I would try to get around the conundrum of fish being one of the healthiest foods around (once you avoid the pollutants and environmental landmines) but also one of the most expensive. Instead, I found myself in my first experiment in deep-fat frying. 

Searching through Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid’s “Beyond The Great Wall” for inspiration on spectacular dishes within limited means, I became hypnotized by the little vegetable-filled turnovers (”Uighur Pastries With Pea Tendrils”) the authors found in the Turpan oasis of China. The dough couldn’t have been simpler or more inexpensive — 22 cents worth of flour, water, and salt. The recipe called for a filling of peavines, but I decided against a trip to the Asian markets and instead used $1.15 worth of the chard that I had bought on my run to Trader Joe’s, along with a 25 cent onion and a bit of bulk cumin and cayenne and salt.

I made a batch of dough early in the afternoon, but by cooking time I was running into the dinnertime limitations I struggle with even when cost isn’t such a concern: Me needing to be around a sharp knife and a hot stove when time is short and the children are hungry. So I did this: I fed each one a banana (19 cents apiece). I fed the toddler, who we once nicknamed “BPB” (it sounded more polite than “bottomless pit baby”) a second banana. And I managed to remember that lesson I keep relearning, that cooking with kids is just another, more practical, version of playing with them.

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Kristin Zwiers for Spur Gastropub

The last time I had anything to do with an ice cream contest, I saw flavor suggestions like “candied green tomato swirl in Beecher’s Flagship ice cream,” and “Double-churned Gooeyduck Microbrew Tidalslide Surprise.” And we were operating on a completely different level of creativity than the fellows at Spur, who are opening up a competition to create an outstanding ice cream flavor for the Belltown haute spot.
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Financially, food has always been my great luxury. My kitchen table came free from a friend and my 15-year-old couch was a gift from my grandmother; I get my clothes at consignment shops and most of my books at libraries… and yet I also jumped last week at the chance to order two jars of wonderful $14 marmalade. 

I’ve also always known I need to spend less on food, and I certainly know ways to eat frugally and still eat well. So I was glad at the invitation to join United Way of King County’s  ”Hunger Challenge,” asking participants to eat for five days on $7 per day, the maximum food stamp benefit for an individual. The challenge starts April 20, and individuals are encouraged to sign up here and share your experiences on the United Way blog. Several other bloggers will be joining in and sharing stories, including Cook and Eat, Family Friendly Food, Foodista, and GastroGnome.

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I’m down in California for a few days, but checking in often enough to notice that the weekend of May 16-17 is filling up awfully fast. Ruth Reichl is speaking about her latest book, the International Food Bloggers Conference is taking place (with a Reichl event as part of its festivities), and it’s also the fifth annual Seattle Cheese Festival at Pike Place Market.

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Ethan Stowell's StarChefs crudo (recipe below)/Photos by David Dickey

Seattle’s “Rising Star” chefs got a chance this week to collectively show off the dishes that won them the honor from StarChefs, the online magazine that’s been called the industry’s Gourmet. Here’s the tough part, though:

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