thursday night smackdown

I meant by 10pm. Technical difficulties. And by technical difficulties, I mean it was a beautiful day and I got up and went for a run and went out to lunch and spent the afternoon in the pool and then at around 6:00, while lying in the sun drying out, thought “Oh, shit.” So the technical difficulties are with my brain. I’m only human, people.

This month’s theme was picnic fare, and not only did you all produce summery, perfectly picnicky food but several of you really squeezed those ass cheeks to show yourselves to be the tightest of tight asses.

Month after month, Dark Side of the Fridge churns out plates of incredibly cheap food: they come to play. This month is no exception; their barbeque-ish chicken and potato salad clocks in at $0.86 a serving.

At this point, they’ll be approaching ramen-like prices within the next month or two, and by the end of the year will have figured out how to get money back for their meals.

Maybe I should just turn Tuesdays over to them altogether.
_____________________________________________________

Emily’s Hot Dish also churned out a full picnic meal, while I made a single dish and was all proud of myself like a sucker.  Plus: meatloaf sandwich.

Her meatloaf sandwich was paired with not only a side (spinach salad) a beverage (passion tea lemonade) AND a dessert (blueberry boy bait, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen and possibly the best and/or scariest name for a cake ever).  I’ll say that again: AND DESSERT. Grand total, $9.83 for 4, or $2.46 per person.

As cheap as the last entry? Maybe not. But: AND DESSERT. (I really love dessert).
_____________________________________________________

Pasty. Heh.

What is better than pie you can hold in your hand?  The answer: Pie you can hold in your hand that contains pork. Better than that? When it’s cheap, which this is at $4.01 for four people, or $1.025 per pasty-muncher. (Pasty-muncher. Heh.)

Aside from being filled with pork, apples and cheese, this pasty (heh) was made with a hot-water pie dough, something I’ve never run across before.  Go visit Robbing Peter, you’ll learning something.
_____________________________________________________

I like newcomer A Form of Function because she also “just” made a salad instead of getting all fancy with the pastry or the four course meal or any of that other shit.  To boot, it’s centered on a grain that I love, is painfully healthy and is happily portable: quinoa.

I wouldn’t be quite as happy if she’d used any other grain, but I’m a big quinoa fan. Quinoa: fun to say (keen-wah), more fun to eat! But if you don’t have any on hand, just say it more than once; the fun increases by roughly 15% with each repetition. $3.36 for 3, or $1.12 per. Well played, grasshopper!
_____________________________________________________

Also fun to say: tabbouleh!

Okay, I’ll admit it: I don’t actually know how to pronounce tabbouleh.  Tab-oo-leh?  Tab-oo-lay? Tab-oo-lee? I don’t know, but they all seem fun, and it’s fun to spell to boot.  Channeling Granny brings us this colorful version. And get this: $0.67 PER PERSON.

For serious. That shit ain’t right. You could argue that this is a side dish whereas other people made full meals but I also made a side dish, so cram it.
_____________________________________________________

Smoke Under Pressure bring us what is, compared to this penny-pinching bunch, the month’s most expensive picnic by far: $2.22 per person (actually going slightly over the alotted $13 for 6 people).

Pork, however, covers a multitude of sins; the Caprese salad doesn’t hurt either. And if you smoke a pork butt, you could kick one of my dogs and even THAT would be covered.

Okay, it wouldn’t, but it would be close.
_____________________________________________________

The post has a picture, although one wasn’t submitted with the entry, but I think you’ll want to click through to read it anyway once I tell you the title of Kay at the Keyboard’s entry: The Central Avenue Asian Burrito. It’s packed with things I love: Chicken thighs (the tastiest part of the bird, in my always-correct opinion).  Hoisin, the cure-all condiment. Sriracha, which I can never spell correctly but man is it good.  Water chestnuts. Ginger. Garlic. $3.45 for 2, or $1.73 per person.
_____________________________________________________

A round of applause to everyone who played this month, but a standing ovation to Channeling Granny, who wrests the Tight Ass Smugness Prize from hard-core players Dark Side of the Fridge.

Granny, this earns you the right to (1) be smug until August and (2) choose August’s theme. What’ll it be?

First Tuesday in August is the 4th.

ONE YEAR AGO: Thursday Night Smackdown: Would you like to ride in by beautiful balloon?