Well Happy Fantastic Great Saturday To All You Cute Smoking and Fabulous Cookies!
The Throwdown from March is now done, the selected winners have won, and I applaud, indeed, the fantastic job that each person did do!
Sensational!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seeing as it's safe game to post our entries now, I did want to simply share what an absolute ball I did have, while making my menu.
And so please enjoy!
This was done back in March, as to enter the contest by the cutoff date.
I took dried persimmons, dried mangos, dates, and also "date sugar" (the only sugar I have in my house whatsoever and it is literally 100% pureed dates) and coffee beans, and I did put this in a frying pan that had a handle broken off of it.
Leary as I was about whether ANY of that would smoke, I was in for one VOLUPTUOUS and delectable great surprise!
Then I soft boiled eggs, gently peeled them, took fresh mint, black Kalamata olives and hearts of palm and put that into a "grapeseed oil greased" perforated grill pan...
I put the sugar, date, fruit, and coffee bean mixture on the inner rack of my tiny, humble gas smoker,
I fired that up,
And with the other plate on the top little rack...
And meanwhile boiled a pot of amaranth grains on the stove,
brought the first batch of smoky goods in, and they looked adorable!
And while the sugar got some moisture and thus clumps, may I just say that SMOKED date sugar can make a house smell better than a damn roast? We talk about that smell (and how we drank the best coffee of our lives too) and still today!
Then the creative and daring side of me got nutty, and I put the whole damn spaghetti pot of cooked amaranth onto the smoker and kept "interrupting" to stir it some...
I didn't expect ANY smoky flavor to get in there, but WOW did it ever! Smoked amaranth is GOOD!!!!!!
I then took half of that smoked amaranth, and used it to make a gluten-free Tabouli, (with mint, tomato, cuke, garlic, etc.)...
And got out my ground camel meat...
And I smoked that pan (same one without the handle) for some minutes, and thought the mint tasted better or more pronounced, once smoked and it really made for an interesting Tabouli version that I adored!
(I wanted, no matter how silly or humble with my little machine, to smoke EVERYTHING, and so I just took my time, drank some wine, had a ball, scared the neighbors yet AGAIN and smoked absolutely everything! Yes each little thing!
And so I got the camel ready...
Put that on grill grates atop the smoker, as to get it medium rare...
And yes, just because I am a woman of my word, always, I even put my black pepper onto foil, and just for the hell of it, did SMOKE THAT, and it opened my sinuses when I was carrying it inside even - who knew!
Then I needed to mold my meat into a camel... and I did give it my artistic best though will never claim to be Salvador Dali by any stretch...
I sliced apart most of the black smoked olives as to get "outlining" to put around my camel and define him more...(my dogs appreciated it anyway)...Smiles.
And I hollowed out each egg, chopped up the yokes and dusted them with the smoked black pepper, and filled each egg with some tabouli and then topped a smoked whole olive onto each one...
And sliced up a sunshine with the dried smoked fruit and added a smoked olive in there as well...
And then had a crazy time, making that smoked date sugar form the word: "Bacon." That took ages, and kept falling, moving, and while I thought it would be so very simple, it was a mess, and a "start over" mess, again and again, and alas, I got the letters moderately 'clean' and then added slices smoked olives to the tips of the letters as to define them, and added smoked mint, smoked dates, and smoked hearts of palm underneath...
And it was healthful, delicious, and arty enough to make my dogs jump around and demand some portions, and so all was well!
Thank you again for sharing in my joy! I had so much fun! And thank you for the handful of people who voted for me as well! How very kind!
Meanwhile, congrats to the winners of the contest who were terrific! This whole experience was a blast and I adored seeing what each and every person so wonderfully did!
Cheers!!!!!!!!!!! - Leah
The Throwdown from March is now done, the selected winners have won, and I applaud, indeed, the fantastic job that each person did do!
Sensational!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seeing as it's safe game to post our entries now, I did want to simply share what an absolute ball I did have, while making my menu.
And so please enjoy!
This was done back in March, as to enter the contest by the cutoff date.
I took dried persimmons, dried mangos, dates, and also "date sugar" (the only sugar I have in my house whatsoever and it is literally 100% pureed dates) and coffee beans, and I did put this in a frying pan that had a handle broken off of it.
Leary as I was about whether ANY of that would smoke, I was in for one VOLUPTUOUS and delectable great surprise!
Then I soft boiled eggs, gently peeled them, took fresh mint, black Kalamata olives and hearts of palm and put that into a "grapeseed oil greased" perforated grill pan...
I put the sugar, date, fruit, and coffee bean mixture on the inner rack of my tiny, humble gas smoker,
I fired that up,
And with the other plate on the top little rack...
And meanwhile boiled a pot of amaranth grains on the stove,
brought the first batch of smoky goods in, and they looked adorable!
And while the sugar got some moisture and thus clumps, may I just say that SMOKED date sugar can make a house smell better than a damn roast? We talk about that smell (and how we drank the best coffee of our lives too) and still today!
Then the creative and daring side of me got nutty, and I put the whole damn spaghetti pot of cooked amaranth onto the smoker and kept "interrupting" to stir it some...
I didn't expect ANY smoky flavor to get in there, but WOW did it ever! Smoked amaranth is GOOD!!!!!!
I then took half of that smoked amaranth, and used it to make a gluten-free Tabouli, (with mint, tomato, cuke, garlic, etc.)...
And got out my ground camel meat...
And I smoked that pan (same one without the handle) for some minutes, and thought the mint tasted better or more pronounced, once smoked and it really made for an interesting Tabouli version that I adored!
(I wanted, no matter how silly or humble with my little machine, to smoke EVERYTHING, and so I just took my time, drank some wine, had a ball, scared the neighbors yet AGAIN and smoked absolutely everything! Yes each little thing!
And so I got the camel ready...
Put that on grill grates atop the smoker, as to get it medium rare...
And yes, just because I am a woman of my word, always, I even put my black pepper onto foil, and just for the hell of it, did SMOKE THAT, and it opened my sinuses when I was carrying it inside even - who knew!
Then I needed to mold my meat into a camel... and I did give it my artistic best though will never claim to be Salvador Dali by any stretch...
I sliced apart most of the black smoked olives as to get "outlining" to put around my camel and define him more...(my dogs appreciated it anyway)...Smiles.
And I hollowed out each egg, chopped up the yokes and dusted them with the smoked black pepper, and filled each egg with some tabouli and then topped a smoked whole olive onto each one...
And sliced up a sunshine with the dried smoked fruit and added a smoked olive in there as well...
And then had a crazy time, making that smoked date sugar form the word: "Bacon." That took ages, and kept falling, moving, and while I thought it would be so very simple, it was a mess, and a "start over" mess, again and again, and alas, I got the letters moderately 'clean' and then added slices smoked olives to the tips of the letters as to define them, and added smoked mint, smoked dates, and smoked hearts of palm underneath...
And it was healthful, delicious, and arty enough to make my dogs jump around and demand some portions, and so all was well!
Thank you again for sharing in my joy! I had so much fun! And thank you for the handful of people who voted for me as well! How very kind!
Meanwhile, congrats to the winners of the contest who were terrific! This whole experience was a blast and I adored seeing what each and every person so wonderfully did!
Cheers!!!!!!!!!!! - Leah
