I don't really consider myself much of a foodie. I mean, Bree, SPD, and other close friends of mine are, but I just really like food. I don't really care how expensive or gourmet it is, as long as it tastes delicious and feels really good in my tummy. That goes from McDonald's to fresh conger eel or the kobe beef skewers I've had here. I love any new and exciting combination that will make my mouth happy.
However, I can't lie, I simply adore Top Chef. I look forward to it each week, and I think that has something to do with the inspiration/art/competition mumbo-jumbo that is each week's episode. Seriously, I think it's incredible what these people can whip up (pun intended) in a super limited amount of time usually within some sort of time constraint and theme. It's like 24 hour musicals on crack.
It usually ends up inspiring me to try new combinations in the kitchen, and I often surprise myself with my ratio of success!
Like yesterday, when I decided to make fresh cornbread from scratch to go with my can of chili. Yes, that seems a bit odd, but a $3 can of chili seemed really pain-free and easy and I love baking more than 4 hours of simmering. But, as I heated it up, the chili was not quite as saucy as I would have liked, so I threw in a little pasta sauce I had sitting in the fridge, added a bit more salt, pepper, and garlic, and voila! We are talking a winter feast to die for...
All because those Bravo peeps made me less afraid to take a risk!
But the real coup de grace, was tonight. See, it's my best bud Evan's birthday today (Thursday), and we were all chilling up in Nikki's room, blissfully chatting away munching on Sloppy Joe's. But then... we realized Evan's birthday was rapidly approaching and we had nothing with which to celebrate and/or surprise him.
So, brilliant rockstars that we are, Nikki starts rummaging through her kitchen and decides (with 15 minutes till midnight), that we are gonna whip up a graham cracker frosting cake that will be to die for.
And the QUICKFIRE was ON!
Next thing I know, we're googling for quick frosting recipes, freaking out that she doesn't have any powdered sugar, and re-googling for something else that will work.
We stumble upon a 7 minute egg white recipe (she has a mixer) and get to work, only to realize too late that we were supposed to beat the egg whites separately....
So with 8 minutes to spare, we start over, I'm boiling sugar water as fast as I can on the stove and shouting at the pan, whilst Nikki is separating egg whites and beating them with the mixer waiting for my simple syrup to congeal.
With one minute left to midnight, my syrup has boiled, but sadly not quite string-ified, and we are mixing it all together.
With 15 seconds left the 8 other people in the room start the countdown and we are plating meringue/frosting mash-up "Glee" style onto cinnamon graham crackers hoping our concoction will suffice.
At at the stroke of Tokyo midnight, as the singing of "Happy Birthday" begins, I shout "Utensils down, Hands up!" (Padma would be so proud) to officially finish our quickfire.
Now, I don't think we would have won any competition with our final product, but I'm darn sure we got an A for effort.
And that my friends, is how I made a quickfire birthday cake for my friend Evan. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEIGHBOR!
