I'd Rather Get Salmonella

Last week my friend Caitlin asked me to bake with her, she found a recipe through a friend and wanted to test it out. I agreed instantly, I just had to see Caitlin's baking skills.

To give some background, Caitlin and I were college roommates and now conveniently live one apartment building away from each other. Throughout all of college Caitlin had a selective palate, most of her food could be microwaved so she doesn't cook all that often. However, she loves chocolate so shes done some baking but how involved the baking has been, I'm not too sure.

This my friends is how Caitlin gets ready to bake.



Priceless.

The recipe was for a layer cookie dough brownie. We decided to use boxed brownie mix because 1.) I think its just as good as made from scratch and 2.) it takes way less effort.

Yes, we may have over cooked the brownies a little. Don't judge.



This is what happens when Caitlin measures flour.



The idea behind these layer bars is that the brownie is cooked but the cookie dough is not and therefore the recipe is tailored to not having egg so that there is no risk of samonella.

Good in theory, right?



Until we tried the cookie dough.

It looked like cookie dough, it smelled like cookie dough but it tasted like flour and definitely was not sweet enough.



We tried to make it taste better by adding sugar and it helped a little. So naturally we continued on our efforts to make this work.

I mean freezing it and making it all meld together would make these taste amazing, or at least thats what we told ourselves.



And clearly while we waited there was some, singing, some incredibly talented dancing, and a lot of giggling. Caitlin even put on her new toe shoes to show me.



When all was said and done we even doctored it up by adding chocolate to the top.

Caitlin's an artitst, no?



We wanted to like it, we wanted to love it and yet we just couldn't. It just tasted so...awful.

The theme of the night became "I'd rather get salmonella than eat these".

So no friends, I will not be giving out this recipe and you should consider that a gift. See, I love you!

I suggest if you attempt something like this to stick with regular cookie dough recipes and or if salmonella freaks you out enough use egg beaters instead of raw eggs.



Me? I will risk the salmonella every time!

Disclaimer: While I choose to eat raw egg and risk getting salmonella, I am not endorsing the consumption of raw eggs. Use your judgement and eat what you think is best for you.

Chef's Best!

Last week I told you I'd share a little bit about Food & Friends big event Chef's Best. And now is the time!

I was able to get some quality photos of the evening from work. I would like to credit the majority of these pictures to Darren Santos our photographer.

Let me give a little background about Chef's Best. Chef's Best is Food & Friends signature gala fundraising event. 60 chef's from the DC metro area provide tastings of their cuisine while guests can bid on silent and live auction items all to support Food & Friends life sustaining services.

This year is the 21st year of Chef's Best so the theme was blackjack/cards. Our program books and center pieces all had the theme tied in.

Pretty cute, right?



Food & Friends is a very gay friendly organization, having started in the late 1980's when members of the gay community wanted to help their friends that were suffering from HIV/AIDS. Therefore many of our supporters are gay.

Disclaimer: This is in no shape or form meant to offend or represent my feelings about religion and or homosexuality. This is merely a picture from the evening of a very prominent chef, and well quite frankly the only photos of him that evening.

Now that thats over with, this is Patrick O'Connell. For those of you in the culinary world, you probably know who he is. He has won 5 James Beard awards, started the first 5 star country house hotel (The Inn at Little Washington) and was part of the farm to table movement before it even had a name.

He was also a guest judge on the DC season (5) of Top Chef.



He likes to dress up every year and he likes to push the envelope. Two years ago he dressed as the Pope because he has been referred to as "the Pope of American Cuisine". This year he did so by dressing up as "GOD", along with Adam and "Steve".



There were a lot of other great chef's from amazing restaurants in the area.



Hello Cupcake, Marcel's, Hank's Oyster Bar, Restaurant Nora, Bastille, Dino, Ristorante Tosca...and the list goes on.



My role in the evening was managing the silent auction from start to finish. From setup to breakdown.

We had some really great items this year including a mixology class for 4, box seats to a Washington Nationals game, a week stay at a private condo in St. Thomas, and an assorted case of wine to name a few.



It was a lot of work and it kept me pretty darn busy most of the night.



Per usual, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that guests and others do not know about. I had to trouble shoot at times during the evening and in heels to boot, girl power!



Despite being so busy, you better believe I was able to try some of the food!



Can you blame me?



It's pretty amazing that we work for months on this one event. We shuffle 1200 guests and 60 chefs into the Washington Hilton and then in a matter of hours its all over.



But when its all done there is no better feeling. It's definitely an adrenaline high, maybe not quite like sky diving or bungee jumping but a euphoria all its own. And best finished off with a big glass of wine.



In the end we did well budget wise considering the economic climate.

Our live auction really helped with items like tickets to NYC fashion week, trips to Costa Rica and Australia, a cupcake and champagne party at Hello Cupcake for 12 etc.



In the end and most importantly our clients will continue to receive nutritionally specialized meals free of charge because of our fundraising efforts at Chef's Best.



It makes all the planning, stress, and hours completely worth it.


Photo by Wade Morrison from MetroWeekly

So who wants to come next year?