So I finally got around to starting the end of this contest!  I decided to cook warmaker's Mexi Shells next, and I have to say it was easily the most difficult recipe yet, for sheer technicality.  I thought this one would be easy.... one look at the instructions and anyone would likely think the same.  However, yesterday either just wasn't my day, or I'm even worse at cooking than I thought!

So I gathered all my ingredients.  I did exchange the required beef for lean ground turkey, since I'm trying to adapt a healthier lifestyle this summer.  Aside from the meat and cumin, however, no other measurements for the ingredients were given.    I was thus left to guess and pray I had guessed correctly.  Thus, I chose to get 1 onion, 2 bell peppers, two boxes of giant shells, and four jalapenos.  I absolutely adore hot and spicy foods, so I also threw in some Crushed Red Pepper as well.

I also couldn't find ANY 36 oz tomato sauce cans, or 5 oz tomato paste cans. Thus, I got a 29 oz and an 8 ounce for the sauce.... and a 6oz can for the paste. I figured one ounce wouldn't make a difference, and I certainly wasn't going to try and get rid of an ounce!  Oh, and finally, since the -kind- of cheese wasn't mentioned, I pulled some 'fiesta' shredded cheese from the fridge.

(Also, I'm not sure if you guys can tell but... does it annoy anyone else that the meat package is upside down in my photo?  I didn't notice until I uploaded the shots on my computer, and now it's driving my OCD absolutely nuts! ARGH!)

I've never cooked ground turkey before, so I was a little nervous because I didn't know quite what to look for. It was so unexpectedly soft that I half expected it to burst into flames the minute the stovetop got hot.  Luckily for me, that didn't happen of course, and so I set about preparing the vegetables while the meat cooked.

I figured you guys probably had enough pictures of me chopping onions, so I only took pictures of the green pepper this time.  While I've never gutted a green pepper before this, I do remember watching my mother do it. I always thought that gutting a green pepper was very similar to gutting pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, and so that's what I set out to do.  Of course, cutting the top out doesn't require quite the finesse it does on a pumpkin, so I felt like I was hacking the poor thing to pieces.  Then, in my efforts to get rid of the seeds, I wasn't sure if the white parts of the ribs were supposed to stay or not.  I can't say that I've ever really seen them used, so I sliced them off as well.

When I was chopping them, I kept looking at the pasta shells.  Was I really supposed to stuff them with this?  Thus, even though the instructions weren't very clear, I attempted to cut both the onion and green peppers into pieces I thought would fit into the shells.

   

(Notice my nails?!  That's right world!  Gasp your heart out! I bought nail polish and painted them!  Shocker, huh?!?!  I have to say I did a pretty fine job for someone who never behaves like a girly girl. )

Once I tossed all that into the skillet, I was found questioning the instructions again. Was I supposed to wait until the veggies got completely soft?  Was I supposed to leave them crisp?  Worried and without answers, I went ahead and started one box of shells to boil.  I didn't really see the point in waiting for the meat to completely finish, to start the shells.

   

I then started working on the sauce. I was actually super excited about this part, as I adore hot foods.  In fact, hot sauce, peppers,and anything spicy almost always makes me very hyper.  Forget the sugar... pass me a bottle of Crystal hot sauce!  ^.^  I loved slicing into the jalapenos... I've never used real ones before, but I've tasted them and I love their earthy flavor.... the stuff that gets lost when jalapenos are preserved and packed in jars.

I once again thought about the size, so I decided to cut the jalapeno slices in halves or quarters.  After pushing them all together, I kind of wished I had bought more, but I consoled myself with the fact that Jason probably would be quite appreciative that I hadn't.

Perhaps interestingly, I had never owned or worked with cumin either.  I didn't even know what it tasted like, so I tried a small bit before adding it to the sauce. Delicious!  I put in a little more than the recipe required. hehe.

   

(Ironically, when I uploaded that first photo, the captcha was "Which is hotter?"  LOL)

Once everything was ready, I still wasn't feeling very comfortable with the way things appeared.  The meat and veggies for one, looked completely dry.  I couldn't bare the sight of it, and so despite the recipe's instructions, I tossed most of the sauce into the pan and placed it back on the burner.  I was hoping to cook some of the sauce into the meat and thus moisten a bit.

I also knew that the recipe later called for pouring the remaining sauce over the prepared shells.  The recipe, however, didn't tell how much sauce to mix or set aside, so I simply took a guess.

The meat and veggies and sauce STILL looked dry to me.  And what doesn't go good with cheese?  I thus attempted to sweeten the deal by placing three slices of Velveeta into the skillet and mixing it in thoroughly.  I know the recipe didn't call for it, but it DID look a lot better after the cheese was added.

Now, it was time to stuff the shells.  I drained the water and......

warmaker.... WHAT IN THE WORLD possesses you to tell a girl who can't cook.... to STUFF SHELLS?!?!?  Aie aie aie! While the idea sounded simple enough, I felt like I was trying to learn rocket science!  The shells kept curling shut, I didn't know how 'full' they should be, and I ended up getting the stuffing -everywhere!!!-  I also could hardly make the shells stay in place once I put them into a baking pan (sorry, I don't have a glass baking pan).  This was beyond frustrating to me, and my shell surgery probably took about 40 minutes all by itself.

   

Finally, I didn't have any room for more shells.  I had so much left over though!  I'm so glad I didn't cook the second box of pasta shells, as you can probably see.  This was not a meal for 1, 2, or even 3!  How many people do you feed with this?  Wow!  LOL

I poured the sauce and sprinkled the cheese as lightly as I was willing to.  Personally, I probably would have dumped the whole bag of cheese on it.

 

And finally, here is the resulting product.  I didn't bother to take a picture of it plated, because we were both starving and I didn't do anything but set the shells on the plates anyways.

So how did you fare?

Jason's Ratings

Taste: 6/10 My husband is a complicated person.  So I'm just going to quote him.... "4 or 5.  It's missing Ricotta.  Did you forget the Ricotta?  I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be some Ricotta.  If you hadn't forgotten the Ricotta, I'd have given it a 10. I've tasted something like this before, which is why I'm only rating it a 4 or 5.  If I hadn't tasted another version and known what a different Ricotta makes, I would have given it an 8."

So I'm going to compromise and average the 4 and 8.  You get 6 of 10!

Appearance: 4.5/10  He said the only reason he rated it that high (between 4 and 5) was because of the cheese on top.  I asked if he meant that in a good or bad way, and he said the cheese helped.  I personally have no idea why he rated the appearance so low, but I couldn't get any other information from him.

My Ratings:

Taste: 7/10 I have to say that I was really worried about this one at first. I tasted the filling before putting it in the oven, and I was not impressed.  It was so bland, and the Velveeta cheese didn't help at all!  However, once it came out of the oven?  I was rather pleasantly surprised.  There's no way I ever would have guessed the cooked and uncooked fillers to be the same thing.  To me, their tastes were as different as night and day!

That being said, I thought this was a really good meal.  Not superb, but really, really good.  It's not something I think I'd crave or WANT to make again, but I would love to eat it if someone else made it for me.  hehe.

Appearance 6/10  I mean, I didn't see anything wrong with the appearance.  It wasn't drop dead gorgeous, but the colors were nice and it looked like something I'd want to eat.  I wouldn't say it had any major flaws.  If it did, those flaws would likely be the fault of my clumsy hands. XD

Originality: 6/10  I'm not really sure how original this is.  I've seen stuffed shells and maybe eaten them once, but I'm unfamiliar with what they are usually filled with.  However, I did appreciate the spicy idea very much.  

Cost: 10/10  This was probably the easiest category for me to rate.  Even the lean turkey wasn't a bad price, and it was the most expensive ingredient to buy.  Even if it HAD costed a little more however, this recipe makes QUITE an impressive number of meals!

Instructions: 4/10  I'm sorry, but as simple as this recipe was, the instructions were just awful!  LOL Trust me when I say that I DO enjoy the potential to be creative and create things by gut instinct but.... the lack of detail in his recipe just really threw me off and mad things difficult.  For someone who's never cooked before, the simplicity of your recipe was a little daunting.

warmaker :
Your meal -was- great tasting!  However, it only scored a 

Just asking here, but did you ever grt aroud to my chicken?

thing1 :  I'm making yours tomorrow when my in-laws come to visit.  ^.^ I have the ingredients and everything!

Singelli : o.0 The in-laws? That is huge. I can get more critique. Remember... if you have any questions, just ask me on Skype. I will be out all day, so Skype will the best way to reach me. ( Just search DCM7734 ... you will find me )

Singelli : Hey hey!

They look pretty good.  I'm a whiz in the kitchen and I know you said you're not that much of a cook but I like to leave a little open to experimenting.  This is one of the more complicated recipes I make and the stuffed shells take a little time to get used to when you deal with them.  The final result looked good.

I'm glad you tried and I'm glad you had some success.  Again, it was different and I just fired off the recipe without being ultra specific.  Thanks for trying it.

You did a good job.

Alrighty, alright.  I know I've been promising thing1 to give results on his chicken dish, so I'm setting about to keep my word!  There really wasn't much to take pictures of because the recipe really only included one ingredient plus spices, as shown here:

I did as you suggested and pre-heated the chicken in the oven before pulling it out, but that's when I discovered that the frozen chicken I bought was quite fatty.  I was almost scared there wouldn't be any chicken left in the mix, so I was relieved to find meat as I pulled all of the fat away.    However, as I cut the chicken up and pulled the fat away, I discovered... BONE!  Thank heavens I was supposed to cut the meat up, because someone biting into that when the meal was finished.... well, that wouldn't have been pretty.

In the second picture here, you can see just SOME of the fat I pulled away, as well as the bone I found.  



The next part was adding all the spices and stir-frying it.  I've got to say that your list of spices was not all that useful.  LOL  I mean, 'stuff you put on seafood'? For someone that never cooks, I had NO idea what you were referring to.  After nearly 30 minutes in the spice aisle of Wal-Mart, I ended up picking the only thing that said anything about seafood: some strange yellow rectangular box that said "Old Bay Seasoning" on it.  From what my mother-in-law said ("Usually when people say that... they mean... oh... what is it... some... Bay stuff...."), I'm guessing that I luckily chose the right spice.  Odd, because I would have thought Seafood powder was literally ground seafood.

I also almost didn't find the Cajun spices.  I'd never heard of it or seen it, and so I wasn't sure if you were stating I should look for a Cajun flavor, or if there really was a spice called Cajun.  I almost gave up on it, but I found it right as I was ready to throw in the towel! Yay! 

Finally... 'stuff you put on steak'.  This one gave me SUCH heartache.  I mean, there are SO many things you can put on steak!  At first I thought you must mean seasoning, but then I realized the dish had no sauce whatsoever, and so I began to think maybe you meant some kind of steak sauce.  I originally was just going to go with the sauce, but I kept thinking of how strange it was to use all those spices, only to have them drowned in something as strong as A1 sauce.  I also didn't want to ask, because part of the judging involves the quality of instructions. 

However, in the end, I just HAD to ask.  You surprised me by stating that you did indeed mean spices.  My only problem then... was determining how MUCH of each spice to throw into the skillet.  Like I told warmaker, I certainly appreciate the idea of "Add to your taste preference", but you failed to remember that I have NO experience in cooking.  Asking me to throw indeterminate amounts of spices into a dish I know nothing about is kind of like throwing numbers at kids and telling them to evaluate a formula with the numbers.... but without giving them a formula to work with.  (Sorry, I'm a teacher.  It's the best reference I could come up with.   )

Anywho, I threw in a whole bunch of random amounts.  I didn't even measure them..... just threw in what looked visually appealing and began to cook.



As you know, but maybe the rest of vizzed doesn't, I began to feel really bad about how dry the dish was.  As it cooked, I kept thinking about the fact that you said to throw it into some rice, but I kept looking at the meat and wishing it was more moist.  I absolutely can't stand dry dishes, and I was being asked to throw dry meat into rice with no sauce.  I went to you for help again, -while- cooking, to ask you what kind of sauce would be decent in the dish.  You were a little stubborn and gave me no advice, despite me asking several times and explaining to you that I didn't want to serve dry food to my in-laws.

You finally gave in and told me to throw in.. as a sauce... oregano.  Now, maybe I know less in the kitchen that I thought, but as far as I'm aware, oregano is a spice... not a sauce.  I use it all the time, but I've never seen it as a sauce.  I asked you again, pointing out that oregano wasn't a sauce, and you STILL wouldn't give me a sauce, instead pointing out the obvious that I had cooked my chicken too dry.  LOL

So... well... I came up with my own sauce.  Please don't ask what's in it. XD  It sounds absolutely disgusting, but in the end, I really think it's what saved the dish.

(Alright, I give in.  As far as I can remember, it was sour cream, soy sauce, A1 sauce, oregano, curry powder, and steak seasoning.Oh yeah, and tomatoes )

By the way, notice the gorgeous new pot?!?!  While I was cooking this, Jason came home and surprised me with a brand new deep skillet (red) just for the cooking contest!  Isn't it beautiful!??!  Well, I guess you can't see it all that well from my pictures, but the rice is in it.  I'll have to show it off in the next cooking report!

So how did you do?  *winces*  Well, I've got to be honest... not that well.  My in-laws tried one bite and wouldn't eat any more, because they said it was far too salty.  While they are pretty strict about what they eat, I do think it was over-seasoned.  I'd put equal blame on us both for that, though.  Me, because I don't know how to cook... and you, because you didn't give me something I could work with.  

Jason's Ratings:

Taste: 8/10  Jason actually liked the dish quite a bit.  He's a sucker for strong flavors, though he did say it would have been a 6 or less without the sauce.  He said the sauce, for him, was what made the dish.

Appearance: 5/10  He said it looked better mixed, than with the chicken sitting on top, so I asked him to rate based off the mixed bowl.

My Ratings:

Taste: 6/10 While I didn't mind the strong seasoning so much, it wasn't a dish that I'd fight to have.  I mean... it was seasoned chicken in rice.  Yummy, but I think more could have been done with it to make it more interesting.  I'd eat it if someone else made it for me though.

Appearance: 5/10  I thought it actually looked better sitting on top of the rice, so I'm not sure what's wrong with my husband.   However, there wasn't much visual appeal to the dish, in my opinion.

Originality: 4/10  You mixed some spices together?    (Here let me remind you that I love you as  friend very much! XD  Please forgive me!)

Cost: 10/10  Heck, buy some chicken and you're all set.  It kept us fed for about three days, too.  Very, very nice.

Instructions: 3/10  Not only was the list of ingredients confusing, but the instructions were also way too vague for someone that can't even make brownies out of a box.  I definitely needed more from you there. 

You scored a


Not bad, but I have a feeling you could have made it a lot better!  Sorry my review isn't 5,000 words, but hopefully the feedback can help you improve, or you can tell me how to do better!

warmaker :  Thanks for the vote of confidence!  I felt like I was doing it all wrong.  LOL  I have to say though, those shells were just as delicious cold, as they were piping hot.  I actually ate the rest of them all cold.  They made a nice, quick meal for all those days I was rushing about to do school stuff.  Thanks for the recipe!

Singelli : You messed it up from the beginning. I will edit this post in a few, with corrections, and a better set of instructions. 


Edit as promise: 


I said to heat them up in the skillet frozen, straight out the bag... not stick them in the oven. >.< that is why they were so dry. 
You were supposed to leave the fat in there... while you were frying the chicken, it helps keeps the chicken juicy and gives it a little flavor. 
Old Bay Seasoning sounds about right.
I did not say to throw it into some rice. I said you could rice if you had to. But, if you did, put buttered rice in a bowl, then just dump the chicken on top of the rice.


Now... for better instructions, to the best of my ability, because all I really did was throw some stuff together, and experiment the first time I made it.

Ingredients

Chicken Breasts ( Frozen ) - 2 Per person, decent sized, depending on apatite. 
Seasonings - Cajun seasoning (not too much, not too little. Depends on how much you like spicy foods)
                     Old Bay Seasoning - Give it a few good shakes to get a good bit in there. Really, it is all eyes. I usually shake it                      for about 10 seconds all around the dish 
                          Steak Seasoning - about 1/2 the amount of the Old Bay Seasoning. 
                           Add any other seasonings that you wish to add, but be conservative with the amount.
                        Recommendation is no more than 5 or 6 different seasonings. 

      

I can try it again, but not for awhile.  The rest if the chicken is for Crazy Li's recipe.  XD

And by the way, I'm not -completely crazy.    A direct quote from you last set of instructions:  "and put it in the stove".  I know the difference between the stove and oven (my husband corrects me enough on it!), but the word IN made me think, quite obviously, that you were speaking about the oven.  

Hey guys, I know I said I would post the results by yesterday, but I was taken on an unplanned, surprise trip Sunday night.  I didn't get back until around midnight last night, and thus.... I was without internet for nearly.. 28 hours.  I'm working on it now, and I'll post by the end of tomorrow by sure!  Hopefully by today, but I'm leaving myself some wiggle room!  I'll either edit this post and hope someone summons everyone afterwards.... or I'll make a new post.  It all depends on if someone posts here or not between now and the time I'm done writing it up.  I'd really hate to triple post.



So if nobody posts, I'll edit... and if someone posts, I'll make a new post.



So sorry for the delay!  

First off, let me apologize in my tardiness when posting these results.  My husband decided to take an impromptu trip to visit his parents, and I was away for the last 30 or so hours, with no access to internet!  Then, I went to type this up at the park, and came back three hours later to find my apartment completely flooded.  Three hours later, and it's finally all clean...



So now that I'm mentally exhausted, let me finally post this up here.....

First, let me evaluate Erin’s Ramen.  The ingredients sounded very intriguing, but unfortunately, I just don’t know where to get most of those results.  Therefore, I’m glad you provided us with somesubstitutes!  I really wish I could have tried it with all the ingredients you listed though.  That being said, I found the closestingredients I could when it came time to shop.  Wal-Mart seemed to only carry two kinds of tofu, and both were pre-cubed, so I got the ‘super firm’ variety and moved on.  Then, I also didn’t know if you were referring to fresh spinach packed into a measuring cup, or frozen spinach.  I decided to go with frozen (and chopped)spinach because of the temperature change you mentioned at the end of what you wrote.

The brown rice noodles were surprisingly difficult to acquire.  I found some “Thai Kitchen” products, but none of them said ‘brown rice noodles’.  I ended up picking the kind I felt most closely resembled Ramen noodles, since I’m not sure what brown rice noodles look like.

 Most of the preparation was really easy, and this was a nice, simple recipe that didn’t take much time.  The first thing I noticed, however, was that the tofu came pre-cubed.  I put about half of the cubes into the bowl for the soy sauce soaking, but I decided that I might as well cook the whole bunch.  So I doubled the amount of soy sauce and everything else that was required for the dish.  The soy sauce didn't –quite- cover the tofu up, so I added a small amount of tabasco soy sauce and just thought I’d stir it every once in a while. 

 

 Tofu wasn’t the only ingredient that gave me trouble though.  I had no idea how many noodles were supposed to be added and I’m not sure there’s even a measure for that, so I tried adding the whole box.  As you can probably see, the results were only very amusing.  Of course, at the time, I didn’t really find them so funny, and I was left with scurrying to add more ingredients and get everything to settle nicely.  I didn’t even look to see how much spinach was in the little frozen box I bought.  I just dumped it all in, figuring I had messed up any ratios already. 

 

 You never really did say when to add the honey, by the way.  I kept wondering when I should add it, but I ended up adding it twice.  Once when just the bullion was dissolving, and then after when I decided to ‘double’ the recipe.  As a side note, ‘super firm’ tofu was a LOT softer than I expected.  The container I bought already had it soaking in water, so I’m not sure if that’s normal or not.  It was really squishy though, which surprised me.

After combining all the ingredients, there really wasn’t much to do, but serve it.  Like I said, the recipe was pretty simple, so there weren’t many bumps in the road other than ones I caused by my own doubt. XD


 

 So how did you fare?  

This was a dish I actually liked much more than my husband.  He’s a man… you know… tofu is silly to him.

Haha!

Jason’s Ratings:

Taste: 4/10  “It would
have been better if it had meat.  It needs meat.  Oh, and the noodles. I
didn’t like the noodles.”  I asked him what was wrong with the noodles, and he said he wasn’t certain… that they just ‘didn’t belong’.  That made me laugh a little, and I asked him how they didn’t belong, but he really gave nothing else satisfactory to answer the question.  Amusingly enough, I asked him if he realized he’d just be eating bullion soaked spinach without those ingredients, and he started listing all sorts of things the recipe would be better with.  He made his own recipe and then just said “That’s how you can improve that recipe.” Ha!

Appearance: 5/10 He didn’t really have anything else to say on this topic.  I didn’t ask, after asking him about the taste!

My Ratings:

Taste: 6/10  You know,
I actually didn’t think it was that bad.  I might not have liked it as much as some of the other recipes, but I love how simple and quick this meal was. It’s definitely a step up from normal Ramen or noodle soups, and as far as I’m aware, it was pretty healthy, too.  The soy sauce probably isn’t all that great for you, but the rest seemed fine.   It’s something I wouldn’t mind eating a few times a month, though I’d probably go the cheaper route and actually use Ramen noodles.  Lol

Appearance: 5/10  It wasn’t anything great to look at, but that being said, I wouldn’t imagine it
looking any better.  I mean, when you’ are dealing with ‘Ramen’, it’s not like you’re going to be looking at some kitchen masterpiece.

Cost: 7/10  I can’t
remember what each individual item cost, but I know the tofu was organic, I used half a bottle of soy sauce, and the box of noodles was not the cheapest out there in comparison to other options.  Luckily, what I DID buy made a very large amount of food that lasted several days.  It’s not something you really WANT sitting around though, because it just gets soggier with each passing day.  I don’t think the meal was expensive…. I just don’t know if it’s worth the money for being how quick and easy it was to make.  For something that quick, I’d just rather buy Ramen noodles and throw some spinach in, maybe.

Originality: 7/10  I could be totally off base with this, but I never cook with tofu or any other combination of these ingredients.  Maybe it’s something that’s done with tofu quite often, but I have no way of knowing that.  Plus, with all those other ingredients I’ve never heard of, your original recipe seems to be quite original… I don’t even know where to find many of those items!

Instructions: 9/10 
The instructions were pretty simple, but I’m not sure how I would expect them NOT to be.  I’m definitely grateful you gave me substitute options!  The only
reasons I deducted a point were for not telling me when/how to add the honey, and for not telling me how many noodles I should be using.  I mean, even assuming I got the right box, should I have used the whole box?

You actually didn’t do so bad for something that most people wouldn’t even touch, though.  You ended up scoring a

43/70

Congrats!

---

Next is Crazy Li’s Jerk Chicken.  Li, I should have read your instructions before I started. I might have noticed that I was supposed to prep a full day in advance (at least!).  haha!

I had… well, let’s just say I had a fun time trying to find some of the spices you listed in your ingredients.  The one that gave me the most difficulty, by FAR, was the actual Caribbean Jerk seasoning. 



I know you gave all the ingredients to make it fresh, but I didn’t really want to buy 10 spice bottles just for one meal.  I imagine I would eventually use the spices on something, but when each bottle of spices can be around $3 apiece, I wasn’t looking forward to buying those all at once!  LOL

I think it was about the third time going to Wal-Mart that I FINALLY found it!  I couldn’t believe my eyes! However, when I pulled it down, I did discover that it didn’t have all the ingredients you listed.  It was the right brand and right name and everything, but it was missing two ingredients:
cinnamon and brown sugar.  I decided to buy a bottle of cinnamon to add in, but I wasn’t about to buy a whole bag of brown sugar when I never bake or use it in anything.  I WAS tempted though…. I love brown sugar with a passion!

The only other ingredient I wasn’t certain about… and I hope this doesn’t sound incredibly stupid… was olive oil.  I have cooking oil at home, and I decided to go with that instead, but I didn’t know if there is a difference or not.  I tried looking on the labels to see if there was mention of olive oil or olives or anything of that nature, but I didn’t see



anything.  I guess I was a bit thrown off because I’ve never really heard of… marinating something in cooking oil, really. I mean, sure there were some spices thrown in and all, but it still sounded really strange to me. XD 

 Of course, I hadn’t heard of poking holes in chicken breasts either, and that bit was quite fun.  It was a lot easier than I expected, and it helped me relieve some of the frustration I felt at making an utter mess when I mixed all the spices into the cooking oil.  I dumped half a spoonful of curry powder into the mix and then realized… you recipe required me to use 3 TEAspoons of curry… not 3 TABLEspoons.  

However, it was certainly too late to fix the error by then, so I just kept trucking it and poured the sauce over the chicken.

 I let it all marinate for a little over 24 hours before pulling it out, and most of the spices had settled towards the bottom of the 

container.  As far as I’m aware, there’s really no way to prevent that, but I also didn’t want to lose the spices.  Since you suggested seasoning in the rice, and I didn’t have jasmine rice anyways, I went ahead and poured the juices from the marinated chicken, into the rice and began to cook that all together.

 The chicken, of course, was put into the oven.  An interesting fact:  I’ve never used the BROIL option on a stove and wasn’t even aware our stove had it printed on the knob!  To be fair, the word is faded and all, but still! 

 

 I loved how simple this recipe was because once the baking and broiling was done, there really wasn’t much else to do.  This recipe had easy prep and easing cooking, the most work being with preparing the rice.

Even though I added the marinating sauce and juice to the rice, it didn’t help flavor it very much.  I drained as much oil as I could and also added more seasoning, but it never really did catch much flavor.

Jason’s rating:

Taste: 9/10 He actually gave it between an 8 and a 10, since he’s never really able to just give me a plain number.  LOL  He LOVED the chicken on this dish.  I’m a bit surprised, because I wasn’t as big of a fan.  I love my meat to be quite moist, and



although he disagreed, I thought this chicken was slightly dry.  He even pointed out #8216;glistening’ on the chicken, but I honestly didn’t see it. XD  his only complaint was the rice.  He said the rice (as I thought) didn’t really add to the dish, and that he would have liked the rice I made for thing1’s chicken to be added to this dish.  He said if that rice had been combined with your chicken, or if something else suitable had been added as a side to the chicken, it would have been his favorite of all the recipes!  Wow! 



Great job!  I guess I’ll definitely be making this one again.  ^.^

Appearance: 8/10  Like



me, Jason really loved the way this chicken looked.  I let the chicken broil for longer than you had suggested because it never really did get much of a crispy look to it.  Ever after sitting on broil for around 7 minutes (if I remember right), it only had a hint of black on top.  However, Jason liked the way it looked, and even thought the rice looked nice, despite its bland and oily taste.

My Ratings:

Taste: 6/10  This was actually a dish I wasn’t too thrilled about, which kind of confused me.  I’ve never seen Jason like something SO much, that I wasn’t really all that keen on.  To me, the flavors didn’t really pull through, but I don’t know if that’s my fault or not.  As far as I’m aware, I did follow the instructions as they were intended.  I DID mess up on the curry though, and in my opinion, I might have cooked the chicken too long. So I had to at least give you one more point than my original rating. XD  I’m a terrible cook!

Appearance: 6/10  I



really thought this was a beautiful dish.  I loved the char on the top of the chicken, as it made me look like I knew what I was doing.  However, I definitely could have used some other colors on the plate, like greens or reds.  Salad next time?

Cost: 8/10  The cost for this meal was really spot on, for me personally.  I used frozen chicken breasts which made the
meal even cheaper, but I would have loved to have used something fresher. However, fresher always means more money, of course.  Also, I can’t imagine someone making this
recipe using your fresh version of the recipe!   Buying all those spices would be a killer! Whooee!  I’m glad you offered another version for frugal people like me. XD

Originality: 6/10 



Like thing1’s chicken, this was another dish which basically utilized spices. I’m not against using spices or flavoring my food, but I’m not so sure how original that is… especially when the seasoning is pre-made. XD  I love that you put this all together though,including the marinating and the broiling.  I wouldn’t have thought to do either of those things, of course. 

Instructions: 10/10 



Absolutely, spot on perfect.  Not a bit of it was confusing or left me wondering what to do next.  Great job!

How did you compare to everyone else?  Well, Crazy Li, you made a

53/70

Wow!  Great job!  XD

 

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Finally, there was also the matter of becerra95’s recipe.  I didn’t include 3 recipe’s into the contest: XHero111’s taco flavored chicken because it wasn’t an original recipe, DittoDude’s bread crusted chicken, because it’s… not exactly what I’d call a recipe (sorry!), and DwarvenKnuckleBuster’s chocolate pie pizza just because I’m trying to eat healthier and because I know it wouldn’t have reached high in the ranks since it’s not a meal, anyways.  I was saving it for last, but I ran out of time to do it. I am going to send everyone who participated a consolation prize, however, so never fear!

Now, why did I see it fit to mention that here?  Well, becerra, if I had read your recipe a little more closely, I probably wouldn’t have included it either.   Not that it wasn’t a GREAT sandwich, but I wouldn’t exactly consider it a cooked meal.

That’s okay though, because I DID make your sandwich, and so I’ll post the results!  There’s not a WHOLE lot to show since it mainly involves piecing a sandwich together, but were were all the ingredients: 

 I have to say that… looking at the ingredients, I couldn’t help but think about how MANY there were.  I mean, for one simple sandwich, I practically had to pull out my whole fridge!  You certainly have a lot more time on your hands than I do, because I couldn’t ever imagine pulling all this 

out for JUST a sandwich.  I didn’t get regular turkey because I’m poor and didn’t want to buy 4 kinds of meat for one meal.  I also could not find ANY guacamole with green peppers and tomatoes in it, so I got the kind with garlic in it instead.

 Here, you can just see some various stages of making the sandwich.  That was one TALL sandwich.  I kept wondering how in the 

world I was going to pull it all off and put it together in the end.  Also, there were so many sauces on it that I just knew it was going to be a slip ‘n slide kind of sandwich, which worried me.

 Here above, I am grilling the monster, 

 And here above is the finished product.  It was every bit as messy as I expected, and I even tried to cut it in half so that it’d be easier to eat.  It wasn’t. lol  Great, delicious sandwich though!  Just definitely, most certainly NOT worth the trouble.  LOL  For one, I expected you’d be grilling more than the meat…. I could have just used the toaster if I had known you were only grilling one side of the bread!  Lazy, sure… but I’m not complaining about having less dishes to wash, and eating quicker….. after I have to unpack and repack my fridge!

Jason’s ratings:

Taste: 7.5/10  He actually said “Between a 7 and an 8”, if that surprises anyone.  His only complaint at the beginning?  It needed bacon.  Bacon added, and he would have given it a 10.  Such a man!  LOL  However, he DID only end up eating 1 sandwich.  He said the sauce just became a bit overwhelming and that the onion was too much.  (That surprised be, because he’s an onion freak.  And I only put 1 thin slice on there, as advised.  You can even see it in some of my pictures.)

Appearance: 5.5/10 And of course, he ACTUALLY said “Between a 5 and a 6.”  I don’t blame him.  This sandwich was a killer on the eyes!  The sauce kind of dribbled down the sides, the layers wanted to slip out…. It was a mess!  Good, but a mess!  XD  Maybe I just need practice in making foot high sandwiches.   I DID try to press it altogether in the skillet though, I swear!

 My Ratings:

Taste: 6.5/10  I actually didn’t eat a whole sandwich, or even half of one due to two reasons.  The first reason is that it was just far, far too messy.  I would have had to have eaten it in bits and pieces pulled off my plate.  The second reason was that I had already eaten.  I told Jason this, but it was the last day of the contest, and I didn’t have any other days to cook it.  He didn’t want to wait until later on in the day after I was hungry again, because he had plans to leave the house.  However, what little I DID taste was fantastic. I can only rate off my few bites, but if it did get overwhelming like Jason claimed, I’d have to rate it lower.  Thus, I gave this category a 6.5.

Appearance: 6.5/10  I mean, I didn’t see anything wrong with the way it looked, other than being sloppy as expected.  And a tall sandwich always looks good…. I just don’t know that I can say it looked special when you consider all large sandwiches and their appeal.

Cost: 3/10  This is one of the most expensive sandwiches I’ve ever made.  Actually… scratch that… it is THE most xpensive sandwich.  Four kinds of meat had I followed the instructions perfectly, tons of vegetables, and about 4 different condiments? Delicious…. But it certainly comes at a price!

Originality: 7/10 I mean..... it’s a sandwich like you’d see in any deli.  I think the most unique aspects for me were the lemon juice and the sour cream.  I adore sour cream…. So the sour cream totally had me sold on it.  I loved that you put it on both bread slices too.  The only real shame is that with so many other ingredients the sour cream gets lost.

Instructions: 10/10 



Nothing wrong with the sandwiches at all.  I’d be kinda surprised if you could screw up instructions for making a sandwich. 



“Buy, stack, and eat.”

becerra, you scored a

46/70

For your sandwich. 



Great job!

(Also, my cat thoroughly enjoyed it.  When Jason looked away from his second sandwich, Dorito had jumped up and dragged it to the ground.  He took bites out of that thing like there was no tomorrow!  I should have taken a picture. LOL)

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So who are the winners? 



Well, after this contest being extended for far, far longer than I ever meant it to be…. After four months of cooking, sweating small things, cutting myself, making messes, and buying more things for my kitchen than ever…. It’s time to put this to a close!

First, a few notes: 



My personal favorite was Mia03’s meal, and closely tied to my own preferences was Light Knight’s fish.  Both meals were absolutely exquisite, and if I had the money, I’d happily eat them once a week.

Jason’s two favorites seemed to be (much to my surprise), thing1’s chicken and Crazy Li’s chicken.  He, however, said he would want to take the rice from thing1’s and combine it with Crazy Li’s chicken to make the dish perfect.  I honestly think he liked the same to dishes I mentioned as my favorites just as much… I think he simply doesn’t remember them all that well.

Light Knight, for many reasons… you are easily the winner of this competition!  Congratulations!  You’ve one 75,000 viz!!! How cool is that?!?!

Mia03, THANK YOU for the delightful meal… you’ve won 50,000
viz!!!!

And Crazy Li, third place isn’t bad at all, now is it?  especially since there were a few dishes I liked better than yours!  Hehe!  You’ve won 35,000 viz!

To everyone else, thank you so, so, SO much for this wonderful time I’ve had running this contest! I’m very strongly considering a similar one in the future!  This was a blast!  To everyone that participated, I’m also going to be rewarding you 5,000 Viz.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Keep an eye out for my next contest! 

The Final Scores:

Light Knight: 61

Mia03: 58.5

Crazy Li: 53

mrfe: 50

becerra95: 46

warmaker: 43.5

Shatatomyo: 43

thing1:41

Jigsaw: 21



If someone could summon these people, that would be great. XD

Singelli : Don't have to triple post now do you? Also, pretty cool to see a cooking thread. I'm no cook but at least I am better than my Father(he can't or won't even make Grilled Cheese). Also don't feel so bad if your not the best cook in the world because I know of someone who has set their oven on fire (and no it wasn't me).

Anyways, this person who will find out soon enough since I will summon her here, once took leftover pizza in a cardboard box and put it in the oven to reheat. What she didn't realize was that she had set the knob on the oven to BROIL by accident. In time, smoke started emanating from the oven and low and behold, the cardboard box that was in the oven had caught fire and subsequently burned the pizza to a charcoal crisp . We've all had our "Dunce" moments when cooking but I think this trumps all others... who BURNS leftover pizza?

Cuurious : Your going to kill me for telling this story but its too late! *RUNS*

DH110985 :  Thanks for the post!  XD  unfortunately, while you posted that, I had already edited the above post.  Annoying things is... I've tried fixing the format for about 40 minutes now, and vizzed is being stubborn.  As much as it plagues my OCD, I'm just gonna ignore it, 'cause I can't get it to work right!  LOL

I'm not even sure what BROIL does..... as I coincidentally mentioned in the post above. However, what your friend does sounds exactly what I would have done! LOL  I've even failed at making brownies out of the box!

I'm considering making my next contest one related to cooking as well, so maybe you should give it a shot!  

Also, summoning everyone to see my garish post above... pfft.... :

Light Knight :
Mia03 :
Crazy Li :
mrfe :
becerra95 :
warmaker :
Shatatomyo :
thing1 :
JigSaw :
XHero111 :
DwarvenKnuckleBuster :
DittoDude44 :

Thank you guys SO much for participating!  Participation prizes will be coming soon!

Singelli : lol, I do not think it is necessary to summon JigSaw, hes permad. But anyways, I can wait to see what I get on it...I hope you like popcorn chicken.

Singelli : Broiling is essentially making the oven EXTREMELY hot. Sometimes people broil steak so as to fully cook it. As for entering a cooking contest... eh ill pass lol. I may be able to cook for me and maybe others if its EASY enough but for the heavy duty stuff or stuff I'd have to do to win a contest, eh I'll leave that to people who know better. Now, as for my friend, from what I've been told, this incident was YEARS ago and since then she's gotten significantly better with regards to cooking but she leaves the BULK of it to her husband XD. Wonder how long it will take her to notice this since I know I will likely be drawn&quartered for divulging that story

Thanks for summoning without my consent again... Jk.

Wow, a simple recipe that you turn into a messy meal, lol.

Did you spread the sauces evenly or just splattered them on the bread? Yeah..... You should of cooked the meat, and don't ever press.... That's how it gets messy... Next the tomato, I use small tomatoes, not those mini ones but like small oval shaped tomatoes (you know what I'm talking about) and if there was no guacamole, make it. Grab an avocado, some peppers and tomatoes, put it in a blender with a quarter cup of water and 3 tbsp of salt and put it on liquify until it becomes liquid. I just saw the pics and looks like you smeared, lol. As for the sour cream... Yeah, the taste gets lost but depends how much you put it on.... And the meat.... Walmart is cheap on deli....

Lastly, double spatula on the skillet, yeah, it's a big sandwich, so I two spatulas to flip it so it won't make a big mess.... Actually comes out real nice and organized.

Anyway, thanks for trying it out and yeah, it's expensive but delicious.

Great. thanks for this fun contest. Definitely keep me in the loop for next time!

Local Mods :
Please close, since this is done?  I don't think anyone else is going to comment on it.  Thanks!  

this thread is now closed upon request of the owner singelli