Denver's Most Valuable Blogger Nomination!

Dearest readers,
Big news! I have been nominated as "Denver's Most Valuable Blogger"! It's incredibly exciting! I really want to win. Please vote for me! It's a daily vote and I will love you forever if you vote every day (or, frankly, at all). And feel free, nay, feel encouraged, to forward this link to everyone you know!

http://denver.blogger.cbslocal.com/most-valuable-blogger/blog/1383-the-joy-of-the-joy-of-cooking/




I will reward you all by posting at least one new post every other day. I like to think that is a reward.

And follow/contact me on:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/tjotjoc
Twitter: @tjotjoc
Email: tjotjoc@gmail.com

Help me pick recipes to make in the next month!

I have several blog posts in the hopper as well as announcing the winner of the contest--everything will be updated by Sunday.

This is a repost from the TJOTJOC Facebook page (become a fan!).

I totally stole this idea from Carol Porter (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-Porter/187387317960673), who had her fans vote for a 1949 edition of TJOC recipe that she would make. I thought "Great idea!". So which of these would you like to see me make? Have you made any of these?

You can vote three recipes: one sweet, one savory category 1, and one savory category 2.

Either vote here or on the FB page. PLEASE VOTE!

Voting will close March 19th at midnight and I will make all three recipes within the next two weeks.

Savory category 1:

1. Chicken pot pie (p. 103). I've never made a pot pie from scratch, it seems intimidating.

2. Jellied tomato soup (p. 127). Or any of the other jellied soups. It seems so gross!

3. Corn dogs (p.185). I love corn dogs. Scared to make them though.

4. Eggs in a nest (p. 199). Eggs in mashed potatoes--weird.

5. Mousaaka (p. 274). Something I eat at Greek restaurants and something I've never considered trying to make.

Savory category 2:

1.Vanilla coconut shrimp (p.388). Sounds like a terrible combination.

2. Thai fish cakes (p.410). This recipe could be awful, could be delicious.

3. Sesame chicken (p. 432). A guilty pleasure at the most Americanized Chinese restaurants.

4. Pork braised in milk (p. 501). Odd.

5. Puttanesca sauce (p. 564). Streetwalker's sauce!

Sweet:

1. Oatmeal cake (p. 721). It says it has a loyal following.

2. Madeleines (p. 739). I actually have a madeleine pan now!

3. Ginger thins (p. 770). This recipe says it makes 300 tiny cookies.

4. Butter pecan ice cream (p. 833). It might be time to make ice cream.

5. Curried apricot chutney (p. 950). Interesting, right?

**If this goes well, it's going to become a regular feature. I like the idea!

GIVEAWAY! CSN Gift Code

CSN has given my followers the opportunity to win a $35.00 gift code! I'm so excited to have a contest to offer my loyal (and new!) readers! CSN is an amazing network of 200+ stores in which you find everything from gorgeous modern bedding to cookware and bakeware, all with one checkout. Who wouldn't want $35 they can spend on essentially anything? Everything on the website is unconditionally guaranteed.

Particularly awesome stuff I spotted this time:

I love these sheets SO MUCH. I think it has to do with my love of peacocks (my family raised them):


I love prep bowls. They are incredibly important when you cook something where you have to move fast (candy, stir-fry, etc.). And I love Le Creuset.



Spice mills. I love fresh ground spices. You will love them too if you have a spice mill!






Mandatory entry: Tell me what you would buy with the $35 gift code if you won!

Extra entries for:
+1 Following TJOTJOC publicly through Google Friend Connect
+1 Following @tjotjoc on Twitter
+1 "Liking" The Joy of the Joy of Cooking on Facebook

Rules:
1. Fill out the form above.
2. Must be 13 years old or older.
3. Contest will end February 15th at midnight. Winner will be chosen through a random number generator.
4. Winner will have 48 hours to respond to my email. If they don't respond, a new winner is chosen.

My favorite recipes and a CONTEST!

Contest! I'll get to that in a moment.

Jennifer asked me a question on my Random Questions with Jessica post that I've been thinking about--what recipe do I make the most often and what are my favorite TJOC recipes within certain categories. And I think I finally have my answer! I'm only going to speak on the categories where I've made significant progress on the chapter--I will update it in the future I hope! I would love to know if any of you have made any of these recipes! Please comment.

Appetizers--
I LOVE tortilla chips. I make these all the time! They are so much better than store-bought and so amazingly easy. On the other end of the spectrum, the samosas were amazing but time-consuming and difficult.

Soups--
I make chicken stock CONSTANTLY. I love making my own chicken stock. I like it better than canned because I can control the salt content and it's a heckava lot cheaper than buying it. I make tortilla soup CONSTANTLY and it's become my go-to comfort food.

Vegetables--
Green beans, potatoes, and smoked meat seems like such a simple, obvious recipe--and it is--but the flavors are SO GOOD together. I can't recommend this recipe enough. I love fried eggplant--it's so crisp on the outside and creamy on the inside. TJOC's hash brown recipe is one of the best things I've ever eaten--you pour cream on them! Wow are they good--they take a while though.

Pasta--
I make creamy pasta with tomatoes and Swiss chard constantly. It's so good and the leftovers fry up amazingly. It's honestly one of my favorite things to make.

Poultry--
I honestly think that the turkey meatballs are better than TJOCs real meatballs. They are absolute perfection.

Meat--
The Italian pot roast is one of Josh's favorite recipes in TJOC and I've made it a number of times. On the other end of the spectrum, chicken-fried steak and meatloaf I are perfect examples of what they should be. There is nothing strange in either recipe--it must be the proportions that do it.

Sauces--
The blue cheese dressing is so good that people who don't normally like blue cheese love it (be sure to use Maytag blue cheese). Honestly, my mom doesn't normally like blue cheese and eats this dressing with a spoon. Curry mayonnaise is probably the thing I've made out of TJOC second only to tortilla soup--it's great with salmon. Also, make your own honey mustard and barbecue sauce--it's easy and will impress people.

Pancakes, etc--
Cornmeal waffles. OMG are they delicious. In fact, if I had a waffle iron I would make some right now. The tempura batter makes the best calamari I've ever had--and I've had a lot.

So those are my favorites within certain limits!

I recently reached 200 followers on Facebook (if you aren't a fan, join!) which blew my mind! I had promised to run another contest when I got to 200 FB followers or 100 blog followers and I will keep my promise! I'm giving away a copy of The Joy of Cooking, 75th Anniversary edition so you can cook along with me!

To enter: Leave a comment on this blog post, preferably a question (either about the blog, TJOC, myself, whatever). For another entry, leave a comment on another post. If you want to leave a comment and not enter the contest, just say so!

Deadline: June 15th, 2010. The book will be sent media mail because I'm just a poor college student. ***THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED!**



DON'T ENTER IF YOU JUST PLAN ON SELLING THE BOOK--I'LL WARN YOU NOW, I INSCRIBE IT. I WANT THE BOOK TO GO TO SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY WANTS IT.

Now enter! Hooray!

TJOTJOC's anniversary and a GIVEAWAY!

***I love comments but I've had an influx of very annoying Japanese spam comments and they are driving me crazy. So please, send me your comments or comment on another post because I'm closing comments on this one***

I missed it! I missed the big day!


What big day?


The blog's birthday!


September 23rd was TJOTJOC's second birthday! Two years ago, I made Becker Brussels Sprouts and started this journey!

So what has changed in the last two years?

I have gotten over my fear of phyllo, learned how to beat egg whites, and made an entire Thanksgiving meal. In the last two years I have traveled to Japan (twice), China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mexico (three times) along with about two dozen states. I have gotten married and blogged about my engagement, finding my dress, and the wedding (with more to come!). I have learned a few recipes that I have made 10+ times including (among others) chicken stock and tortilla soup (with the requisite homemade tortilla chips). I have gained more fans on my Facebook fan site (make sure to become a fan!) and followers to this blog than I would have ever expected. TJOTJOC shows up within the top ten choices when you google "the joy of cooking" and just about any food--and first if you google "joy of cooking blog", before The Joy of Cooking's actual blog.

So for my anniversary/birthday I am giving away a copy of TJOC!!

The small print:

1. You have to live in the US--I'm sorry, it's just too heavy of a book to send outside of the US.
2. You have to post to this blog with some way to get a hold of you if you win. You will get a second entry if you post a comment onto a different blog post.
3. Know that I plan on personalizing the book to you, so if you want to sell it to the used book store or return it for cash to Borders, this is not the contest for you.
4. The contest will officially end November 2nd.

Contest Number 3!! Win an awesome recipe box!! Ends 6/30

I want to preface this by saying that I'm posting five more posts in the next day or two and they will be backdated behind this blog--be sure to check for them (especially the cheesecake entry!).

First things first--I PASSED MY PRELIMINARY EXAMS! And did quite well on them :) Exciting!


Second, I love the Flight of the Conchords. Absolutely adore them. Don't know FotC? Here are a couple examples:







Josh and I went to see them at Red Rocks a couple weeks ago. Red Rock Amphitheater is a pretty awesome outdoor theater just outside of Denver.



It was a TERRIFIC concert with new songs. Loved it!

In other miscellaneous news, I went to New Orleans (I adore NOLA). Crayfish is extremely common in NOLA and, yet, I can't figure out how to eat it. You will be sitting in a very expensive restaurant and get served this:



How do you eat it? I know the correct method involves twisting off the head but I can't do it correctly. It seems bizarre to eat with my hands in an expensive restaurant. ::sigh:: I think I'm going to choose against them from now on.

So on to the contest! To enter, comment on the blog and answer the following questions:

1. Favorite concert you've attended
2. Favorite city for food
3. Have you ever ran across food you've had no idea how to eat?


So what will you win? I commissioned this awesome recipe box on Etsy from GottaHaveitNow.

A perfect way to keep your recipes organized. The box is decoupaged with clippings from vintage cooking magazines.





The contest will end July 30th. Comment on this thread (answering the questions) for one entry and receive a second entry for posting a comment on another entry on this blog. Sorry international readers--unless you have a shipping address in the US.

CONTEST WINNERS and final Japan blog :)

Contest winners!!
The contest winners were randomly chosen! The winners are Melissa, Lisset, and Vanessa--packages will be sent soon! Everybody who sent me their addresses should watch their mailboxes though :)

If the winners (and anyone else who gets a prize!) would send me your thoughts on the snacks, that would be awesome--I would love to include someone else's opinion on these foods!




Blog about Japan

My camera was found and the pictures that were on it were saved!! So what were my final photographic thoughts about Japan?




I think it's really funny that enough people randomly come to the park to do karaoke that a sign has to tell them not to do it.



What does this sign even mean? I totally don't get it. I like to think it's about swimming through the air, which I try to avoid. I mean, that hasn't been a popular dance since about the 1950's and who wants to look that out of fashion?


An exhibit at the Tokyo zoo incuded:








What do bison, wild pigs, prairie dogs, and a turkey have in common? All are native to the US...could this be an America exhibit? And it was! I thought that was a hilarious mixture of animals. A couple of squirrels and a few rabbits would have really added to it, I thought.



What are these flowers that my mom is standing around? They were growing in water. Are they lotuses?





Rachel and I watched a movie about killer sheep not too long ago (just before I left for Japan, actually) and that is exactly what I was thinking about as I posed for this picture!




My last night in Japan with a couple of my co-workers in a very Japanese pose :)




Some of the final foods that I tried (most of which were sitting around the apartment for about a month):



1. Caramel corn/cream soda puffs. Horrible. I will give you that they tasted like cream soda but they also had a weird carbonated flavor. How do puffs taste carbonated? Don't know.

2. Caesar salad Pringles. Uck. Let's just say I don't expect to see these on our shelves any time soon...that being said, they did taste exactly like a Caesar salad...

3. Mitsuya Cider, grape flavored. I hate fake grape flavoring (I won this one) and it was SUPER sweet. One drink and in the recycling bin.

4. Cake soda. First drink--wow this tastes like a cake! Second taste--boy, this is pretty sweet. Third taste--why am I drinking this?


Curry Pringles--really good! Odd but really delicious. I ate the whole tube of them. i love curry.




Duchess and her sushi toy:




The sushi toy is easily one of Duchess's favorite toys. Mom's dog Gracie also enjoyed it:




Until next time!

JAPAN CONTEST! CONTEST NUMBER ONE!

Contest! Contest! Hooray! (and yes, this is entitled NUMBER 1! I hope to have a contest for a copy of TJOC--for those of you that don't have a copy--later in the year).


I know I picked up some readers with my Japan exploits--how would you like to have a "taste" of Japan? I carried back plenty of cool Japanese snacks and want to send you some! So if you want to try Japanese snacks, here's what you have to do:

1. You will get ONE entry for leaving a comment on this page. You must also email me your name and address at thejoyofthejoyofcooking@hotmail.com

2. Because I would like people to actually READ the blog, you will get ONE additional entry for leaving a comment on a blog entry OTHER than this one. That's two entries! But make sure you email me your name and address.

3. This contest starts today (August 25th) and ends in one month (September 25th).

There will be at least 1 prize, but if lots of people enter, there will be multiple prizes :) The winner will be chosen by a random number generator.




If you have any questions, let me know! I will update this page as I need to...(hopefully, I won't need to).

Now back to my regular TJOC programming...