Uncle Wiggly’s Good Time Cooking Contest – Version Weekday

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Yay! A contest! It took me a bit to come up with something worth doing. And personally, I’m getting a little overwhelmed with all the fancy cookin’ & ingredients both in books and on the internet. Sure it’s a lot of fun, always something new to try. But this isn’t something that occupies most of my time in the kitchen or at the grill. I’m usually coming home from work and have about 1.5 hours to come up with something, get the kitchen clean and serve up food that is worth eating, good or at least good for you. To be honest, after 10 years of cooking every night for my family, I’m starting to come up a little dry on recipes. So, this contest is all about your favorite weekday meals. A meal you have 2 to 3 times a month, more or less. If not, something that you love dearly and would work well in a pinch. If your recipe requires going to 3 or more grocery stores, that’s not going to work. 2 I think we could handle, maybe 1?
I’m going to make this easy, nice eh? Your submission can be on your blog or you can submit it directly to Meathenge Labs. You can make it as long as you want or as many pictures as you want, it’s up to you. You will be judged on 3 things:
1. You’d want the judge to say, “Yeah, I’d make that. It looks & sounds really good.”
2. Overall Love Factor of your image & prose(show you cared with your presentation). Tell a little story?
3. Completeness and flow of your recipe. Does it make sense? If you can’t make sense of it, you can’t eat it. And if you can’t eat it, you can’t win. See?
The Meathenge Lab assistants will be pitching in to judge these fine entrys, thanks all!
The contest starts today, July 13th and ends on July 27th. That’s Wednesday to Wednesday, 2 weeks & 2 weekends.
The 3 top finalists will receive a copy of Diana Abu-Jaber’s book, The Language of Baklava. Diana weaves the story of her life in upstate New York and in Jordan around vividly remembered meals: everything from Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts with her Arab-American cousins to goat stew feasts under a Bedouin tent in the desert. These sensuously evoked meals in turn illuminate the two cultures of Diana’s childhood – American and Jordanian – and the richness and difficulty of straddling both. Thank you so much to Pantheon Books in New York for supplying these hardback books. Yup, hardback, ain’t that cool?
I’m sure I’ve left a few things out, feel free to email me and we’ll get to them as we roll along over the next two sun filled weeks.

Good luck and let the contest begin !!!

22 thoughts on “Uncle Wiggly’s Good Time Cooking Contest – Version Weekday”

  1. I don’t suppose you want to hear that at least 8-10 times a month dinner is nothing more (and nothing less) than Fatted Calf charcuterie, pain au levain from Acme, french butter and cornichons, do you?! I suppose I have to make a little more effort than that.
    (It is ready in about 5 minutes, though, and it doesn’t spoil in the slightest whilst you are staging it for a photo!)

  2. Hey Sam,
    Oh man, that sounds SO FINE. Acme bread gives me shivers. Not bad for 5 minutes. You do what you feel you must, I wanna see.
    Biggles

  3. About the only time I spend more than 1/2 hour is if I’m doing soup, roast chicken, or something I’m not planning to eat that night.
    I am also the Queen of High Quality Pre-Prepared Elements.
    The Society for Getting Dinner on the Table will sling some weeknight love in your direction. I’ll also work up a post for the OMGINeedFoodNow!!! standbys.

  4. I am not in control of cooking where I am but I wanted to commend you for cooking for your family all the time and really taking that seriously. I am in land of take-out and I can’t wait to get home and cook from the farmer’s market findings!

  6. Hey Joaquin,
    So, are you with me or against me?
    I consider myself a food snob and most of the people around me consider me a food snob. But on the same side of the coin, there are so many ways to do things and reasons for it.
    I’m not interested in cooking anything Ray does, but many do. I don’t have a problem with that. In fact, she did a book signing here in Berkeley a while back and a friend and I went to oggle her. I got within 6 feet of her, oooooOooo. I thought she was really nice. She took the time to talk to everyone and was great with the kids.
    THANK you for that last link !!!!!!!!!
    Biggles

  8. Oooooh… I LOVE it. And frankly, I’m surprised there hasn’t been an IMBB with a similar theme.
    We will be eating WELL the next 2 weeks!

  9. Hey F,
    Thanks for the support, I was beginning to think I screwed the pooch on this one.
    I’m hoping we all come out with some great day to day food we can deal with on a short basis.
    Biggles

  10. Most of my come-home-tired-after-work meals can be described in a sentence, so they ain’t gonna win any contests – Cut up a chicken, brown it in a big iron skillet as some rice or pasta cooks in another pot, throw some other stuff into the chicken pan, spice it, let it simmer long enough to finish a beer or two, then eat.
    The “other stuff” (as is the chicken) are infinite choices that can make infinite meals.
    Not very inspirational but it works. I’ll try to throw some prose on that sentence and see what I can come up with.

  11. Hey Paul,
    I realize that, in fact it’s what I did last night. I was looking for one of your favorites, something off the beaten path a little bit, a special during the week meal. A gift to the masses to help make our work week a little less dreary.
    Biggles

  12. Dr. B-
    The pesto dish I blogged on is a great weekday meal, especially if you’re got leftover meat you can chop and toss in. No-cook no knives, so the kids can even help mash it all together. Just boil a pound of pasta and go for it.
    My photo isn’t great but I don’t know how much better I’ll get in 2 weeks anyway. I posted on your contest, maybe you’ll get some more entries…

  15. I’ve got the simplest dinner for you. We (Japanese people) have taken simplicty on its toes and spun it around. Bringing out the best of the ingredient doesn’t take too much time or work…

  19. Hey Lady,
    Yup! Typing it in right now. If anyone wants to submit something today? You still have a squeak worth of time, hurry hurry!

  20. Thanks for linking me. I love the concept of this contest – bring back the simplicity of cooking and sharing a meal.
    Looking forward to more MeatHenge Contests

  21. Since I’m reading about this contest a year and a quarter pass the “EXPIRATION DATE”; I was wondering if your going to give us Johny come latelys a chance to toss our hats in the ring?
    I’m sure a few of us out here in internet land think we can toss a few fire crackers in the wood stove. Let me know.