thursday night smackdown

Congratulations Judy, of No Fear Entertaining! Your red wine-braised short ribs have taken the day. There is no way to adequately describe my love of a well-braised short rib other than “junkie.”

Everyone, bow your heads and pretend to be serious as you celebrate her victory.

Know, however, that this was not an easy choice. There were lots of strong entries (pot pies, mac and cheese, grits casseroles), although to be forthright with you, there were also more than a few that made me sigh. (Not in a good way.) You are trying to WIN here, people. The canned cream soups, they may win for you – congratulations – but they do not win here.

So’s you know for next time – though god willing, I won’t run anything like this again; the Abilification seems to be proceeding apace – people who were stricken from the running posted:

• Canned soup (see above)
• Booze. It is comforting, but not in the right way. (I don’t want to set a poor example for the youth by rewarding self-medication via alcohol, despite the fact that I totally do it. You do get an honorable mention, because you can’t deny its effectiveness.)
• Nutritional yeast, or really anything that seemed nutritious. (Yes, I know what nutritional yeast is and that healthy food can taste great.  But self-imposed arbitrary rules unknown to the contestants are self-imposed arbitrary rules unknown to the contestants.)

Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter – thanks for the comfort.

Judy, send the address to which you’d like your book shipped to michelle at thursdaynightsmackdown dot com and I will ship post-haste!

Special thanks again to Zen Can Cook for providing the book.