The Royal Foodie Joust is an awesome and fun monthly peer voted competition that is hosted on

The LeftoverQueen/FoodieBlogroll Forum! It gets better each and every month as the competition gets stiffer as Jousters try to outdo each other every month! It is also one of the friendliest competitions I have ever seen. So please don’t be intimidated to come and join us this month in another round!

We don’t bite, unless of course there is real food in our faces

The only rules for the competition is that each Jouster create one dish and each entry must feature three ingredients in common. This competition has been referred to many times as the “Iron Chef” of the Food Blogosphere. Each month’s ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s Best Overall Entry winner. The Best Overall winner of each Joust not only wins the Queen’s favor, bragging rights and a cool icon to put on their blog, but is also awarded with a super awesome Royal Foodie Joust Apron! There are also prizes for the winners of the other two categories: Best Photo and Most Unique Interpretation

So what are you waiting for? Come over and join us this month!

If you would like to participate in this month’s Joust, be sure to submit your entry by 12 NOON, Eastern Standard USA time on the First of the following Month (July 1, 2009)!

If you have an idea you would like to share about how to make the Joust a better community event, please join us in discussing it here

Now onto the winners of this month’s event. The ingredients for this month were chosen by last month’s Best Overall winner, my good friend Nuria from Spanish Recipes! The ingredients she chose were Rice, Tomato and Bacon. These ingredients are simple yet delicious with so many ways to be creative. Which is exactly what the entries were!

But there can be only one Best Overall Winner and this time it was LK from Healthy Delicious with her Spicy Gumbo with Andouille and Bacon Wrapped Shrimp.

Just look at how delicious this dish is. She used locally produced sausages to make her favorite soup. Please go check out her blog post to learn the tricks to making a good roux. Congrats LK, you made a dish that appeals to everyone!

Our next winner is Best Photo. This is awarded this month to my good blogging friend Ben of What’s Cooking? He made a really picture perfect dish – Joust Rice Cakes .

He started by making a cup of turkey bacon and filled them with a mixture of Mexican rice, beans and cheese. Talk about yum. Ben has really been getting into food photography and it really paid off in this competition! Congrats Ben!

Our third category is Most Unique Interpretation of the ingredients. This is one of my favorite categories, and since we made it a category, I have seen the creativity of Joust entries just skyrocket. People are playing with their entries a lot more, and I am really enjoying the results. This month’s winner is Raquel from Cafe Nilson with her Tomato and Bacon Pizza with a Rice Crust

We love pizza in this house, and I am trying to find more ways to eat more rice and other grains besides wheat, so I am sure to try this one!

Thanks again to all the participants for another great Joust!

If you would like to see all the entries please check them out here

******************************************************************************

Now for this month’s ingredients. LK has chosen:

Strawberries

Basil

Whole Grains

Again, really simple and accessible ingredients for everyone – yet a flavor combination that is unique and interesting! I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Please check out the rules of Joust participation here

AND

Please post your entries here

Let The Games Begin!

The Royal Foodie Joust is an awesome and fun monthly peer voted competition that is hosted on
The LeftoverQueen/FoodieBlogroll Forum! It gets better each and every month as the competition gets stiffer as Jousters try to outdo each other every month! It is also one of the friendliest competitions I have ever seen. So please don’t be intimidated to come and join us this month in another round!

We don’t bite, unless of course there is real food in our faces.

The only rules for the competition is that each Jouster create one dish and each entry must feature three ingredients in common. This competition has been referred to many times as the “Iron Chef” of the Food Blogosphere. Each month’s ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s Best Overall Entry winner. The Best Overall winner of each Joust not only wins the Queen’s favor, bragging rights and a cool icon to put on their blog, but is also awarded with a super awesome Royal Foodie Joust apron! There are also prizes for the winners of the other two categories:
Best Photo and Most Unique Interpretation

So what are you waiting for? Come over and join us this month!

If you would like to participate in this month’s Joust, be sure to submit your entry by 12 NOON, Eastern Standard USA time on the First of the following Month!

If you have an idea you would like to share about how to make the Joust a better community event, please join us in discussing it here

Now onto the winners of this month’s event. The ingredients for this month were chosen by last month’s Best Overall winners, Peter and Christey from FotoCuisine and instead of choosing ingredients, they chose the colors Red, White and Green to inspire people to create dishes that focus on both how food tastes AND looks! We had a lot of very creative dishes come out of this Joust.

But there can be only one Best Overall Winner, and this time, the title was given to my friend Nuria of Spanish Recipes with her Piquillo Peppers stuffed with Cod Brandade over a Parsley sauce:

This dish was beautiful to look at, and I am sure the taste was amazing. Nuria always comes up with very creative, fresh and gorgeous dishes on her blog, and this was no exception. The photo was so inviting that she also won in the category of Best Photo – which seems to be a trend as of late – Best Overall winners also taking the top spot in Best Photo. I guess having a good photo makes it almost possible for you to taste the dish from the screen, giving you the extra edge. Ah the power of food porn! So congratulations to Nuria for your picture perfect dish. You will be receiving a Royal Foodie Joust Apron AND mug!

We have a different winner for The Most Unique use of ingredients – or in the case, the most unique use of colors. Now this dish was the first dish to be entered into the Joust this, month, and just like I told the winner, the amazing Elle, from Elle’s New England Kitchen, when I saw this dish, I knew it was a winner, as it was just so creative. So without further ado, here is Elle’s “Guacamole” Ice Cream :

She made an avocado ice cream, and instead of tomatoes, white onion and cilantro, she used strawberries, coconut and mint. And a shortbread cookie “tortilla chip.” How cool is that? She set the bar really high from the get-go, and it really got other participants thinking outside the box! Thanks Elle, and congrats!
You will be receiving a Royal Foodie Joust Mug!

Thanks again to all the participants!

>If you would like to see all the entries please check them out here

Now for this month’s Challenge:

Here is a message about the challenge ingredients from Nuria:
“RICE because it’s the most consumed cereal in the world and because everybody should have bowl of rice at least twice a day. TOMATO because it’s a basic ingredient in the Mediterranean diet; cheap and healthy. And BACON because… who doesn’t love bacon?”

(If you are a vegetarian, vegan or cannot eat pork, please feel free to use a bacon substitute!

Please check out the rules of participation here

AND

Please post your entries here

So let the games begin!

Our friends Chris and Erin, from The Olive Notes host a weekly community potluck dinner for all their friends, here in Saint Augustine. It is a way for all of us to get together on a regular basis. You don’t have to RSVP, just be sure to come with a dish, dessert or a drink based on a pre-determined theme. Sometimes these Tuesday night Community Dinners fall on a holiday, and today was one of those times. So of course the theme for tonight was Mexican.

I really didn’t know what to make. I hadn’t gone to the grocery store in about a week, so I started rummaging through the pantry. Originally I thought I would fall back on beans and rice. However I saw a can of coconut milk and a can of sweetened condensed milk. I had a mango in the fridge, so I thought about making a mango-coconut ice cream. That was until I pulled the mango out and realized it was still hard. However, next to it was a papaya that was very ripe.

When I pulled out the can of sweetened condensed milk, I read the back and the recipe was for flan. Lo and behold, on the ingredient list was also a can of coconut milk and a few other ingredients I had on hand. I was in the mood for ice cream so I decided to use all the same ingredients for the flan, but instead make ice cream. I cut the papaya into rounds, took the seeds of of the middles, sprinkled them with sugar and popped them under the broiler for a few minutes. Once they got caramelized, I took them out, squeezed a fresh lime over top and sprinkled the papaya liberally with cinnamon.

I made the ice cream, while the papaya was cooling, and once it was blended and still soft and creamy I scooped a big dollop of ice cream and placed it in the hole of each papaya slice. I also put a fresh mint leaf on top – and it was almost the color of the Mexican flag! Then I put it in the freezer to harden.

This was a nice cool treat to end a meal of spicy Mexican dishes! Happy Cinco de Mayo Everyone!
I am a bit late with this, but I dedicate this dish to Peter and Christey of FotoCuisine, who picked the ingredients for this month’s Royal Foodie Joust, which were the colors, Red, White and Green.

Voting closes tomorrow, so be sure to cast your vote for your favorite overall, best photo and most unique interpretation of the dish. Stay tuned to the LOQ blog to find out the winners!

(*still to come – the last of Italy – Rome)

Caramelized Papaya with Flan Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS:

1 can of coconut lite milk
1 can (from coconut milk) of whole organic milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 large organic eggs
1 tsp Tahitian vanilla extract
1 large papaya cut in rounds and de-seeded
sprinkling of sugar
juice of 1 lime
dusting of cinnamon
fresh mint leaves for garnish

METHOD:
Peel papaya and cut the papaya into rounds, take the seeds of of the middles, sprinkle rounds with sugar and pop them under the broiler for a few minutes. Once they get caramelized, take them out, squeeze a fresh lime over top and sprinkle the papaya liberally with cinnamon.

While the papaya is cooling, make the ice cream. In a large bowl blend 3 milks, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Pour into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. Once the ice cream is blended and getting frozen, yet still soft and creamy scoop a big dollop of ice cream and place it in the hole of each papaya slice. Garnish with a fresh mint leaf and serve.

Lauren from I’ll Eat You is having a really cool blogging event for her blogiversary!!!
She is hosting a virtual “bake sale”that will raise money for the world food program. To participate all you have to do is post your favorite dessert recipe (it doesn’t have to necessarily be original – just yummy and there are no limits, as you don’t have to worry about actually transporting it) on your blog with a link to Lauren’s post about it, and to the fundraising page at Firstgiving. Then, email your name, your blog name and url, the title of  your recipe and a permalink to your post (with 250×250 jpeg, if you want) to illeatyoublog@gmail.com

Ask  your readers (or family, friends, co-workers, dogwalker)  to donate, and mention your blog or recipe in the comments.  Whoever raises the most money by May 22, the blogiversary, wins a prize package!  (you CAN vote for yourself!). Readers can also “buy” some treats by donating any amount and crediting the recipe or blog that sent them there.

Let’s see what we can do together!

For More info http://illeatyou.com/2009/04/blogiversary-bake-sale.html

The Royal Foodie Joust is an awesome and fun monthly peer voted competition that is hosted on
The LeftoverQueen/FoodieBlogroll Forum! It gets better each and every month as the competition gets stiffer as Jousters try to outdo each other every month! It is also one of the friendliest competitions I have ever seen. So please don’t be intimidated to come and join us this month in another round!

We don’t bite, unless of course there is real food in our faces.

The only rules for the competition is that each Jouster create one dish and each entry must feature three ingredients in common. This competition has been referred to many times as the “Iron Chef” of the Food Blogosphere. Each month’s ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s Best Overall Entry winner. The Best Overall winner of each Joust not only wins the Queen’s favor, bragging rights and a cool icon to put on their blog, but is also awarded with a super awesome Royal Foodie Joust apron! There are also prizes for the winners of the other two categories: Best Photo and Most Unique Interpretation

So what are you waiting for? Come over and join us this month!

If you would like to participate in this month’s Joust, be sure to submit your entry by 12 NOON, Eastern Standard USA time on the First of the following Month!

If you have an idea you would like to share about how to make the Joust a better community event, please join us in discussing it here

Now onto the winners of this month’s event. The ingredients for this month were chosen by last month’s Best Overall winner, 5 Star Foodie :

Asparagus (white or green)
Lemongrass
Almonds

The Best Overall Winner also won the Best Photo entry as well, and it is husband and wife team Peter and Christey from FotoCuisine (he cooks, she photos) with their Almond Crusted Asparagus Rolls with Lemongrass Hollandaise.

Now trust me on this when I tell you that Peter is a master at classic French sauces, especially hollandaise. I know this information first hand because I was able to enjoy it on a nice eggs benedict he prepared for Roberto and I when we went to visit them a few months ago so I was happy to see that his winning entry included this sauce. I am a huge fan of both Peter and Christey’s blog AND sushi and so this entry really caught my attention, I think the flavors really work well with each other, and I just loved the creativity! Plus, you must admit that is some serious food porn! Great work guys! Thanks so much for participating in this event and for putting out such an inspired creation. If you are not familiar with Peter and Christey’s blog, FotoCuisine, you really need to check them out. They are both extremely good at what they do and great people besides.

Another foray into creativity is this month’s winner for Most Unique Interpretationwhich is Asparagus Ice Cream in Almond-Lemongrass Cookie Cupsby LK from Healthy Delicious.

This recipe was inspired by an asparagus ice cream they had at a Belgian restaurant. Apparently it tastes like asparagus, but it is really good. I can believe it too, because I once had garlic ice cream, and it was delicious! I love savory takes on normally sweet recipes, and this is no exception! This certainly was an extremely creative take on ice cream, and the cookie cups the ice cream is served in, are also a stroke of culinary genius all to themselves.

Thanks again to all the participants!
If you would like to see all the entries please check them out here.

Here is the challenge for this month! Really great food can look as good as it tastes.  So, Peter has chosen something a little different and picks “Red, Green, and White” as the ingredients.  Each cook should interpret “Red, Green and White” for themselves and come up with something really fun and interesting. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

Lately I have been trying to make breakfast more interesting. We seem to be always on the move lately and so I have been experimenting with portable breakfasts that taste good and use up what I already have on hand. I found a recipe for apricot-almond Dutch babies – a kind of muffin with a soft center. You use a lot of whipped egg whites and it has a wonderfully creamy batter. I decided to turn the muffins into a cake that I would fill with the rest of a jar of apricot preserves and the rest of the Nutella from World Nutella Day. We have given up Nutella for a while because they now have switched to palm kernel oil in their recipe – and we are definitely off of that! If you missed my rant on the subject, click here. But I did make an exception for World Nutella Day.

So anyway, this little cake was born. The photos didn’t turn out too great, but it was very satisfying for breakfast and lasted about a week, which was perfect. Hope you enjoy it!
Read the rest of this entry »

The Royal Foodie Joust is an awesome and fun monthly peer voted competition that is hosted on
The LeftoverQueen/FoodieBlogroll Forum! It gets better each and every month as the competition gets stiffer as Jousters try to outdo each other every month! It is also one of the friendliest competitions I have ever seen. So please don’t be intimidated to come and join us this month!

We don’t bite, unless of course there is real food in our faces

The only rules for the competition is that each Jouster create one dish and each entry must feature three ingredients in common. This competition has been referred to many times as the “Iron Chef” of the Food Blogosphere. Each month’s ingredients are chosen by the previous month’s winner. The winner of each Joust not only wins the Queen’s favor, bragging rights and a cool icon to put on their blog, but is also awarded with a super awesome Royal Foodie Joust apron!

So what are you waiting for? Come over and join us this month!

In case you have not joined us since the new year, we have made some changes to the way the Joust is run. We got a lot of feedback over the past few months on how the Royal Foodie Joust is run. The biggest problem was that people were having trouble picking just ONE favorite and wished for various categories to vote on.

So we decided to have a vote for 3 different categories: Best Overall, Best Photo and Most Unique Interpretation of the ingredients. The winner for best overall will win a Royal Foodie Joust Apron, and chose the next month’s ingredients. The winners for the Best Photo and Most Unique Interpretation will receive a Royal Foodie Joust Mug!

We have also changed the posting time to be 12 NOON, Eastern Standard USA time on the First of the Month. However, for this month only the post by date will be April 3, 2009 by 12 NOON, Eastern Standard USA time. So please join us!!!!

If you have an idea you would like to share about how to make the Joust a better community event, please join us in discussing it here!

Now onto the winner of this month’s event. The ingredients for this month were:

Satsuma (or any other orange citrus) – zest, fruit or juice
Shallots
Edible Flowers

This month’s choice of ingredients were chosen by the previous month’s overall winner, Angela, from Spinach Tiger who was inspired by the coming of Spring with her choice.

These ingredients spurred a lot of conversations and really got everyone into creative mode. I must admit although I was worried about participation, this turned out to be one of the best Jousts ever! So many clever ideas and uses. It really was amazing!

The winner of the Best Overall Entry category is Natasha from 5 Star Foodie with her Grilled Scallops with Flower Foam Watercress Salad and Orange Shallot Vinaigrette!

Doesn’t that look amazing??? Love all the colors – those grill marks on the scallops look beautiful!

The winner for Best Photo is Ben from What’s Cooking? with his Pumpkin Blossom and Blood Orange Chicken Dish!

Those blood oranges really POP in that photo! No wonder it won with such a lead!

The winner for Most Unique Interpretation of the ingredients is Toontz from Okara Mountain with her Shallot Sugar Crisps with Tangerine Zinger Ice Milk !

I would certainly like to try a dish of that – because I just can’t wrap my head around Shallot Ginger Crisps!

Thanks to all the participants!

This month’s ingredients are:
Asparagus (white or green)
Lemongrass
Almonds

Please be sure to post your entries here!

(must love dogs)

Well, even though I officially bowed out of the fabulous group Daring Baker’s last month, I was happy to have the oppurtunity to do two things I had always wanted to with this month’s challenge:

1) Make a flour-less chocolate cake
2) Do a DB challenge with my good friend, and fellow blogger, Judy from No Fear Entertaining. You can find the recipe and whole story over on her blog.

Judy and I have talked for a long time about doing a DB challenge together, since we live in the same state and have so much fun with the challenges. So since Roberto and I went to visit her and her wonderful family during February, we decided to do the DB challenge as a dessert for a dinner party.

I am glad that I was able to do this challenge also because it was hosted by my other very good blogging friend Dharm and his DB partner for this month, Wendy.

So what can I say about this challenge? I absolutely loved it. It was a wonderful change of pace from some of the most recent DB challenges, and the cake was so delicious. Something I would make again, in a heart beat.

It required very few ingredients, not many steps, and was not time consuming. The taste was fabulous. We used a combo of bittersweet and dark chocolate – but you can really use any kind you want!

So thanks Dharm, Wendy and Judy for making this such a great challenge.

***Just for the record, I am not leaving the DBs because of any displeasure on my part. This is an awesome group, who really helped me get over my fear of baking – both bread and pastry! So I really enjoyed my year as a DB. It has just come time for me to challenge myself in other areas this year. As with any adventure, things change as you learn more, so this year with the upcoming launch of my new website (maybe April or May) I will explain the journey of this blog up until this point and where I am headed with my adventures in food!