Polish Sausage!

I'm going to throw in some disclaimers, a shout-out, and a short insight about me.

1) I do better when I just list out thoughts in list-form than true recappage. So, I'm going to list thoughts out below about last night's Top Chef episode
2) I really wasn't going to blog every week about Top Chef until Bethy went and had to tell me that she's "looking forward to my recap" last night when we were taling on the phone. That's a lot of pressure Bethy! oof oof! I promise I'm going to do one more full-on recap blog at a later point.
3) (and almost most importantly) I'll leave the recapping to the pros...

I'm really pretty new to cooking and knowing about good food. Through the wonderful influences of my foreign husband, dinners at the Johnsons, installments of baking with mums, watching the Food Network, and reading blogs (like Lorraine's!) I've really started on a journey of cooking. I'm not good, but I have a desire to cook really good food for a husband with a really excellent taste for food. He's not snooty about anything (hello, the boy loves him some spam. ew.), but he's grown up the Lebanese way: amazing female cooks that work hard, spoil him, and have the best mediterranean ingredients all on hand. That's a lot of pressure (!!), yes, but it has been ENJOYABLE pressure. The most important ingredient for cooking for me is the desire. I desire to have a good/healthy diet, cook really good food, and really make an effort to work on it. It helps when you have a friends like Bethy. It doesn't help when you have past failures.
I'm not really too good at baking. My brownies turn into gross dry cakes or rocks. I can't remember how many scoops of things I put into batters. It's just not pretty. My cookies turn out well, so at least I have a fall-back recipe I can always make. (Until it snows, I'm trapped, and cannot go get milk for icing!!!! grrr!) My mom and grandma are the bakers, so I actually grew up baking more than experimenting with cooking.

My baking anecdote leads into Top Chef this week.

The quickfire is to make an impressive dessert. The chefs freak and I get angry. HI! You are going on a cooking show called "Top Chef"! If you don't brush up on some things that you will encounter on the show, you are just screwing yourself!

- Richard really is a force to be reckoned with.
- Even though Richard fell into my category of "stupidity" for not practicing a dessert before going on the show, his creativity pulls through. I still think it's weak that he just cut bananas to look like scallops. How is that baking? How is this pastry? How does this win the quickfire?
- I still like Dale even though a lot of people don't out in blog world
- Lisa was all "telling herself" ridiculous things about "never making pastry" and "sticking by that." She's basically just saying, "Hey, Top Chef! Go F' yourselves!" (which she likes to say. a lot.)

(( Perches on soapbox: Again, I get angry. It's not like they pull these people off the streets and deposit them into the Top Chef kitchens. Wouldn't you want an advantage and do everything in your power to be the BESTEST and DOMINATE?? And, no, having a molten chocolate cake recipe memorized doesn't count (was this Spike?). I'd be bustin up some mean petit somethins, researching restaurant openings, blind tasting, using (and breaking) lil smokers, researching spices, learning to toss large croutons from dishes, learning to cook with 2 ingredients, etc. Gah. /end soapbox ))

- I think it is HILARIOUS that Jen predicted her own "packing of knives" and got eliminated for having a dumb piece of bread on her plate. They did the demo of how to eat their asparagus, so I didn't see the need for making a phallic plate of food. So much for "winning this for Zoi"
- The improv happened and the audience yelled "Polish Sausage." Antonia and Lisa then thought they had to "improv" further. No. Your job was to use the audience's improv. I think Lisa should have been eliminated... well, I WAS still bitter about her quickfire comments.
- I wondered what "salted basil ganache" tastes like
- Awwww, Spike got to do his soup. How precious. Now go home. (actually, he's gotta be out of recipes/ridiculous hats by now. Vietnemese spring rolls, check. Soup, check. Yep, he's done)
- Mark was really weird with Spike again this week. I swear something went on in the bathtub. Ew.... but didn't you pick up on it too?!
- Chilean Sea Bass must be on sale at Whole Foods a lot. It's been featured too much.
- The judges were correct: if you serve a dish and call it a "ménage a tois" it better stick to THREE ingredients. TOIS. No more.
- HAHA, unnecessary bread is many a top chef's downfall.
- The tequila shot by Lisa and Antonia was AWKWARD when they didn't have any for the guests. I repeat, AWKWARD!
- ANDREW! FOCUS! put down your sugar. stop hopping up and down.

Overall, I liked this episode. Not too much bitching and no fighting and only about two swears from Lisa (50 cents into the cookie jar bitch!).

See a much funnier/more official recap HERE