March Contest Discussion Thread.

[Fen]

Unfortunately my soulmate is in Bucharest and I will not be visiting there until Easter, so she will not make the bribery.
This year, we have my smexy classmates ;). One has already agreed to be my bribe.

[Dirty n Evil]

I figured you'd follow the rules, Fen. But to make sure that no one questioned how much you did yourself before hand, by bringing it up I've ensured that no one will doubt you. ;)

I bring being fair to new, sneakier heights.

And yes, your friend from last year was lovely. Not that we haven't been all falling over about your latest hair coloring, too! You seem to discount yourself in cuteness bribery value, Fen!

[midgetshrimp]

Do eet!

[Azrael]

My fellow follower of the Path of Chaos can do as she damn well pleases. Because she can. Go Fen!

[Don Alexander]

Well, my entry is up!!!

My great and grand plan to win this contest... FAIL!!!

Early last week, I drove to work over an alternate route... and to my astonishment, I saw OSTRICHES wandering around on a grassy knoll, still partly snow-covered! In passing, I saw that it's an ostrich farm, and they sell ostrich eggs!!

So I had the crazy idea to make a rather simple (quite a lot of work and time, though) dish with one exotic component: an ostrich egg instead of normal eggs.

Anyway, I quickly got three of my colleagoues here to agree to help out, especially two of our ladies. ;) I informed them right away that this was for a contest on a web forum.

We wanted to do it earlier this week, but our Spanish PhD lady was sick... On Wednesday then, our Czech postdoc informed me "I had planned on eating something else the next two days" and she also told me the Spanish lady did not want to eat ostrich egg... So, only me and our Italian PhD student Andrea (who was very keen on The Egg) remained... We decided to do it today, as I will be gone most of next week and not be back until after then nom-off deadline.

All the while, I kept it a secret from my forum friends, making some mysterious hints about coming awesomness... I only informed Sarah, as she is hardly at risk of blabbing it out.

Today, we drove to the ostrich farm, and even took pictures with one of the birds (but did not get too close...) - see the Picture Thread. When we went in, we found out what I had kind of feared already. They did not have any eggs. Due to the long winter, the birds have not even started laying yet, and they already had 30 orders from all kinds of places who wanted to have the eggs for Easter... As you can imagine, we were not ready to wait for Easter.

So we drove to the next village, and bought 16 chicken eggs instead. Incidentally, the ostrich eggs are freaking expensive, at 20 Euros a pop (Sarah told me you can get them in Calgary for about half that, 14$Can) - and we got a pack of 10 chicken eggs for 1.29 Euros... All in all the used stuff presented in the entry cost maybe 15 Euros. (The ostrich egg is equivalent to about 20 - 25 normal eggs.)

Back at work, we met our two ladies who were already having lunch. Especially the Czech girl was very pissed off at something (not us, at least) and growled around all the time. We quickly retreated, waiting until they were gone to work our culinary magic... (She came over just now and said she was sorry )

But even without the ostrich egg (and schmexy bribery...), it worked out really well, it was one of the best things I've had in a long time. Just a freaking amount of work!!!

[midgetshrimp]

Don, that's freaking awesome!!!!

Screw the guidelines. QFT. I feel so hungry now.

[Fen]

Tomorrow, my entry shall be made:).

[Don Alexander]

Yay, more entries!!!

MS: We don't need no stinkin' guidelines! But what do you mean, actually? Last year, we had some photo-heavy entries too...

[midgetshrimp]

I quoted the post above me.

[Dirty n Evil]

DA, that's a delicious looking entry! And interestingly enough, rather similar to some Southern cooking I've had before... makes one wonder if its influence made its way across the Atlantic and it was slightly altered in its recipe over time. Okay, I'll stop being a geek, and just repeat - delicious looking!

And yay for Fen entry! More entries! C'mon, people, we know that you eat!

[Fen]

Dear god. This. will. not. end. well

I knew I shouldve gone with pasta or something simpler >.<

[Don Alexander]

Sounds like competition, Fen. ;)

Hope it turned out well!

[Dirty n Evil]

Yay for Fen entry!

Now, I'm curious what a 'ciolan' is as well... after a bit of searching, I'm not certain but it might be a cut of pork known in the States as a Ham Hock, and usually smoked. Does that sound close, Fen?

[Bear]

Hmm... *checks the rulebook to make sure that ham is close enough to bacon to furfill the unwritten bacon requirement.*

[Fen]

Yay for Fen entry!

Now, I'm curious what a 'ciolan' is as well... after a bit of searching, I'm not certain but it might be a cut of pork known in the States as a Ham Hock, and usually smoked. Does that sound close, Fen?

Ah yes. that is it:P. I'll edit it out. Thanks DnE:D.

Bear: Ghiveci can be pesonalized. You can put bacon instead of sausage:P.