thursday night smackdown

September 2008 was all about gorgeous grilled foods and over-achievers. I don’t know if the multiple-recipe entrants are trying to make up for lost time or just want to make the rest of you look bad, but some people are definitely working overtime here.

Roundup after the jump, and October 2008 info at the end!

Feeding Maybelle admits to a problem I’m sure many of us share: cookbook hoarding tendencies that lead us to purchase the questionable cookbooks that litter the Barnes and Noble sale racks (Soup Bible, anyone? It’s ALWAYS there, and it’s ALWAYS $6.99. What could I do)? She puts one of her bargain-basement books to the test, with these bean curd and veggie skewers from 1000 Vegetarian Recipes. She also hedged her bets with some grape leaf-wrapped camembert with pesto and fruit skewers, both from Williams Sonoma’s Essentials of Grilling.
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Elle’s New England Kitchen knows the way directly to my cold, grey, shriveled heart. Pork ribs, pork ribs and more pork ribs, preferably smoked low and slow with some kind of delicious sticky-sweet sauce. This month, she taunts me with these orange-ginger smoked baby back ribs from Better Homes and Gardens’ Smoke Cooking.

The gorgeous pink smoke ring on those ribs is making me a little weak in the knees.
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Also trying and succeeding in getting on my teeny tiny good side is Live::Love::Laugh::Eat, who whipped up grilled ribs using a basic but unbeatable dry rub recipe from “Down Home with the Neelys.”

Such is my love of ribs that I am overlooking the fact that no cookbook was involved here.  I would be even more willing to overlook it if an overnight shipping box packed with dry ice and ribs were to appear on my doorstep.  Just saying.
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Burghlicious thinks she can only squeeze one blog post from her obsession with corn, but if this Mexican street corn (adapted from none other than 101 Cookbooks Heidi’s Super Natural Cooking) is any indication, I think she’s just not trying hard enough.

She also suggests that being “dirty” is my domain. I must respectfully disagree; I think my domain is much more along the lines of “crass and bitchy” than “dirty.”
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CanaryGirl is another overachiever who is trying to reach ahead of the class in a single entry after having missed out on both July and August. She goes for not one but FOUR recipes from Jeffery Alford and Naomi Duguid’s Hot Sour Salty Sweet: Vietnamese grilled pork balls, grilled lemongrass beef, peanut sauce and fish sauce.

There are no bonus points for multiple dishes, but the peanut sauce she chose does get a +1 for somehow managing to have pork as an ingredient.
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I’m still not sure about the legality of Fotocuisine’s entry, as their recipe for citrus grilled lobster tails came from an ad for Frei Wineries in Saveur magazine, and not from the magazine itself. When I started First Thursdays, I had no idea I’d be dealing with conundrums like this. I’m considering assembling an ethics team.

On the other hand? Fuck it! It’s GRILLED LOBSTER. They could have gotten the recipe from a gum wrapper for all I care.
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A Little Greener Every Day closes us out with my favorite new obsession, grilled pizza, using a dough recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook and taking her toppings from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food. There is no way to go wrong with fresh mozzarella, home grown tomatoes and homemade pesto from your own garden-fresh basil. NO WAY. I dare anyone to challenge me.
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For October 2008, we celebrate moving into fall (at least, here in the Northeastern US) by focusing on my favorite fall color: show me orange, orange, orange. Check out the First Thursday page for details and dates.

First Thursdays now also have giveaways! One lucky entrant, as determined by a random number generator (Brian, instructed to pick a number between 1 and the total # of entries) gets these awesomely hilarious Squirrel vs. Crow recipe cards from Etsy crafter ScotiaMade.

Also: don’t forget to send 150×150 pics with your entries! As much as I love you (and I love you a LOT), I’m not going to edit your photos or go take a photo from your blog; I just can’t - TNS takes enough time as it is. Don’t sell yourself short - send the pr0n!