Summer Week 11

Congratulations to ShoeboxKitchen, who won this week's contest for Your Best Condiment with their Dead Guy Sauce.

Q&A with ShoeboxKitchen (above, at their Italian-themed rehearsal dinner, just a month ago!)

• Describe an early food experience that has influenced the way you think about food and/or cooking.
• Jason: I used to watch my dad cook every weekend.  He made an all-day event out of it -- he truly viewed cooking (and eating) as a "spiritual experience."  When I started cooking myself years ago I tried to adopt this same philosophy, although sometimes my OCD/perfectionist tendencies get in the way and make the kitchen more like a science lab than a spiritual retreat.  My dad and I still share recipes and strategies, and our favorite thing to do together is cook.
• Anne: Sunday dinners at my dad's parents' house.  These moments made an impression on me at an early age: food brings people together.  I like that, and still do.

 

• What's your least favorite food?
• Jason: olives.  I know -- I've TRIED to like them many times.  I just can't. (but Anne loves olives)
• Anne: canned peaches (but Jason loves these)

 

• What is the best thing you've made so far this year?
• Jason & Anne: Our favorite thing to cook is homemade pizza and the version we thought was our best was thin crust with olive oil, pear, gorgonzola, garlic, prosciutto, purple onion, and honey (see below)

 

• Describe your most spectacular kitchen disaster.
• Jason & Anne: Enchiladas.  Wow.  What a disaster.  We had oil, sauce, and ripped bits of tortilla all over the kitchen.  And the end product tasted like a really bad casserole.

 

• What is your idea of comfort food?
• Jason: I'd have to say true southern food, like what I had at my dad's parents' house growing up: butter beans, corn bread, roast beef, corn on the cob . . .
• Anne: A BLT.  Or soup.

 

• Apron or no apron?
• Jason: White t-shirt = apron.
• Anne: Yes, apron.

 

• What's your favorite food-related scene in a movie?
• Jason & Anne: The Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant in A Christmas Story

 

• If you could make a show-stopping dinner for one person, living or dead, who would it be?
• Jason: My dad's sister, who passed away over 10 years ago, before I really got into cooking.  She just loved good food, and she was so looking forward to the day that I found a beautiful wife -- I would love to cook her a meal with Anne.
• Anne: My grandfathers, who both died within that last 5 years.  They would both really love what Jason and I are doing in the shoe box.

 

• You prefer to cook: a. alone, b. with others, c. it depends on your mood
• Jason & Anne: With each other!  Even though we have totally different styles.

 

• When it comes to tidying up, you usually: a. clean as you cook, b. do all the dishes once you've finished cooking, c. leave the kitchen a shambles for your spouse/roommate/kids to clean.
• Jason & Anne: We usually tag-team the mess, although Jason's tendency is to wait to the very end to start cleaning -- he's getting better at it, though, with Anne's help.

 

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• ShoeboxKitchen's thin crust pizza with olive oil, pear, gorgonzola, garlic, prosciutto, purple onion, and honey