Hello and welcome to the second weekly challenge at Help Peter Cook.com. If you need a refresher in how this ball of fun works, check out How This Works in the menu above. Also, I’ve updated the Spices & Herbs list to include what I bought this week (I also now have butter! Wahoo!)
This week’s challenge should be fairly easy, so you may need to get a bit creative!
The four ingredients you have to work with are:
Ground Turkey – 1lb
Brussels Sprouts – lots
Red Bell Pepper – 1
Green Beans
You may add up to two ingredients of your own liking. Then please either post your recipe in the comments below, or post a link to your own website with a recipe any average guy could make! You have 24 hours, or until 10am Pacific Time (UTC-8) on Tuesday the 24th. The winning recipe will then be cooked up by me and video taped for the whole world to see, with you getting all the credit. Good luck!
As a recap, week #1′s challenge was to take halibut, broccoli, onions and shitake mushrooms, and up to two ingredients of your own choosing, and post a recipe that would work for an average cook and his daughter. While I don’t have my daughter on camera, she loved this halibut (minus the onions and mushrooms, but I knew that going into it). I still can’t believe how buttery it tastes! Thanks again to Kay from Kayotic Kitchen for the recipe. The recipe can be found under “Recipes” at the top of this website.
And now for the video of my attempt at this recipe!
I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is Kay’s recipe was wonderful! The bad news is, I can’t find my cable for my video camera. I will find it and get the video posted, in the mean time enjoy the still shot of Kay’s great recipe.
Kay, Kay, Who’s this Kay person? She was the lone and winning entry for this week’s challenge. It’s a great recipe and while I didn’t have any butter (I’m new) it has a wonderful, creamy butteriness I’ve never had with halibut. Kay added in milk and flour to the onions and mushrooms to create a yummy sauce that I managed not to botch up, in spite of nearly burning myself with the boiling hot olive oil. You’ll have to wait for the video, I’m sorry. I don’t scream, but come close to it.
Kay runs a fabulous website with tons of cooking tips called kayotickitchen.com. She also has some wonderful non food photography over at Kayotic.com. Give her a moment and check them both out!
So look for the video to be posted soon and tune in Monday for another exciting recipe challenge!
This recipe, sent in by Kay from Kayotic Kitchen and Kayotic Photography, takes top honors as the very first winner of a weekly Help Peter Cook Challenge!
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I’m adding milk and flour.
Cut the broccoli in small florets. Parboil them in lightly salted water for about 5 minutes. Chop the onions and mushrooms, sautee them in 2 tbsp butter, add 2 tbsp flour (you don’t have mustard powder in the list, shame on you!) and cook for a minute or two while stirring occasionally. Add about 1 cup of milk until you have a consistency you like. Season with salt, pepper and parsley and cook for a few minutes.
Preheat your oven to 400F. Put the halibut in an oven dish, season with salt and pepper, place the broccoli on top of it and pour the onion and shitake sauce over it. Bake for 10 minutes per inch of thickness.
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Now tune in tomorrow when I’ll cook up the scrumptious halibut and see what damage I can do! And in my defense, I have since purchased mustard powder.
Hello and welcome to this week’s Help Peter Cook Challenge!
For the first cooking challenge I’m going to make it easy. The ingredients you have to work with this week are:
Halibut
White Onion
Shitake Mushrooms
Broccoli
Now then, the challenge to you is to use those four ingredients, plus up to two ingredients of your own (you don’t have to add anything if you don’t want to), and post a recipe with cooking instructions. You may use any of the spices listed on the Spices & Herbs page free of charge.
You have until 10am Pacific Time (UTC-8) to post to post a recipe. Feel free to post the recipe on your own site and link to it here, we’d love to see what else you’ve been up to! Or simply post the whole recipe in the comments section below. I will then purchase any needed ingredients tomorrow after 10am, cook up the meal and video tape it. The final result will be presented here in living color for the world to see with an official tasting!! And if yours is the chosen recipe, you’ll be listed in our soon to be listed Hall Of Fame!
So, what kind of meal do you have in mind?
And don’t forget! You can follow along with the cooking action on Tuesday by following me on Twitter! It’s your chance to offer up pointers and suggestions while the cooking is happening.
First off, thank you to all who responded to the first two calls for suggestions (The Kitchen and Spices&Herbs)! The comments, Twitter answers and email responses have me pretty well set for Monday’s first challenge. And the number of people who have subscribed to this blog has been impressive this first week! If you have a friend who is into cooking, send them to this link where they can sign up by feed reader or for email delivery of updates.
Now then, the hint! As explained in the How It Works section, I’ll have a post up here on the site before 10am Pacific Time (UTC-8). It’ll be both video and good old fashioned words explaining how the first challenge will work and what the ingredients are. As it is the first challenge, it’ll be fairly easy for you to be creative with the two ingredients you may choose to add (or not). And just to build anticipation, one of the ingredients will be………..halibut.
Check back on Monday for the other three ingredients and then you will have 24 hours to post a recipe. And feel free to link back to your own site in the comment section when you post your idea!
Next up on things to get ready, is the kitchen itself. I’ll be picking up a new knife today from Epicurean Edge and I’m seriously considering purchasing a food processor. I just read what Kristen Dole, from Dine & Dish, suggested for a bare minimum kitchen and like what she posted. The Kitchen Aid Mixer she noted has been on my “Yes or No” list for a bit and I’m still not sure. If I do, I’ll probably go big, with a lifetime warranty. Something like the Professional 600 Series 6-Quart .
What would you suggest I add as an essential in the kitchen? Below is a list taken from my The Kitchen page of what I already have. Your suggestions would be most welcome in the comments section below. Thanks!
The kitchen in coming together and will be ready for the first video blog challenge post next week! Right now I’m working on spices and herbs. Up at the top of the site you’ll notice a link to Spices & Herbs. I need some help rounding out the list of vital "Must Have!" items in the kitchen. For now I’ll be purchasing dried herbs but as I now have a planter window in the kitchen, I’ll soon be switching to fresh herbs in pots.
So here’s the list of what I currently have. Please leave a comment below of anything you feel is vital to add! Thanks!
Thyme
Rosemary
Basil
Oregano
Parsley
Turmeric
Sage
Cumin
More Coming Soon!
Salt
Pepper
Bay Leaves
Paprika
Dill Weed
Cinnamon
Garlic (might not be a spice or an herb, but it’s always around)
Hello and welcome to Help Peter Cook! The site will go truly live the week of February 16th, 2009 with the first cooking challenge presented to you, the viewing audience. The idea is simple: I’ll list at least 4 ingredients in my kitchen that I have available. You will then be challenged to come up with a recipe that includes those four items plus up to two other ingredients. You will have 24 hours to post your ideas.
You can then post your recipe in the comments of the initial challenge post or link back to your own site. The recipe should be something scrumptious for a seven year old as well as me and there will be some restrictions and suggestions to follow (prefer gluten free, but not required, prefer less dairy and meat, but some is ok, etc…). Normal spices and herbs are available for use and will not count against the two items you may select.
The following day the best recipe will be chosen and posted for all to see. I’ll then rush off to the grocery store to procure the extra ingredients and then come home to record the cooking process on video, presented here on this site when complete. This whole process will take but a day and is meant to be fun and semi-interactive. I have a Twitter account located here and you’ll be able to follow along in the cooking process to make further suggestions, especially if I run into a snag, which is likely.
More details and rules will be available in further posts. For now, sign up to this blog via RSS.
I look forward to many cooking adventures and welcome your suggestions!
I will find it and get the video posted, in the mean time enjoy the still shot of 
