By now I guess you know that I lost Ultimate Recipe Showdown Comfort Foods. I lost by one point. Winner takes all in this competition, and Rick Massa's Cheese Lovers 5 Cheese Mac and Cheese won the prize of $25,000 and a spot on the Friday's menu. My Pumpernickel Pastrami Panini with Rosemary-Ale Jus wasn't good enough, and I think I know my mistake:
I didn't use bacon on my sandwich. Haha. Bacon IS the ultimate comfort food, is it not? Rick had the right idea because he used it in his mac and cheese and his sandwich and his soup. More people will order macaroni and cheese with bacon at T.G.I. Fridays than a Pumpernickel Pastrami Panini with Rosemary-Ale Jus, right? That was probably a smart decision by the judges.
Congrats to him! I truly am happy for him because he was such a nice guy. He's a retired S.W.A.T team officer and he has a really interesting story that you can hear about here. He had the best dish in the competition, so I congratulate him. His recipe sounds delicious; I'm going to have to try making it soon. He's going to have fun with that $25,000! He's going to have a good retirement.
My sandwich won the speed round, but my Baked Butternut Four Cheese Farfalle with Sage came in fourth place in the signature round. It's actually a really good recipe, I promise! I like it even better than the panini. I had problems when I was making it in the competition. My squash was small and not very ripe, and my gorgonzola was stronger than the kind I use at home. The judges said something about adding the sage into the sauce instead of topping the pasta with it, but I kind of like it on top. I drizzle butter on top and it gets nice and crispy.
I have been extremely disappointed (depressed) over the last couple of months since we filmed the show, of course, because I didn't win the money to go to culinary school in New York City. Hopefully I'll get to go someday. Everyone keeps saying good things will come from being on the show, and keep my head up, so I will try. I'm incredibly grateful for this experience. It's been a blast and I want to go back and compete on the show again. In the meantime, I will be creating more recipes for contests, and of course working on my blog. I've gotten better with being on camera, so I'm considering buying a camera and filming cooking segments and posting them on here.
The last couple of months have been the craziest in my life, and the last couple of days have been insane. I've gotten SO MANY emails, comments, messages about the show, and they've all been really nice. I responded to all of them, but they were a little rushed and I'm sorry for that. Thank you for all your support! Also, thank you to everyone who showed up for the watch party.
But I know why you really came here today:
you wanted to know more about my budding romance with Chef Michael Psilakis. I've gotten so many remarks about that comment I made.
I'm going on record here. I DID NOT know we were filming when I made that comment about him being hot.
But I still think he's kinda hot. Also Chef Michael Symon.
I like men with bald heads and goatees, I suppose.
Now for today's official business:
The tasting of the winning recipe at T.G.I. Friday's.
My dining companion (tee hee) and I arrived at the restaurant on Monday evening, the night after the show aired. I was recognized fairly quickly by some of the servers and customers, which was pretty cool. I even got a free margarita glass that says "Riday's" on it. Don't you just love Riday's?
Seeing the menu made me sad because I wished my picture and winning dish were on it.
But they weren't. #&*^$#!@#&#($^#$&*#!
This is me with the Gourmet Mac n' Five Cheese. I was trying to look sad in the picture, but I kept laughing, so it looks like I'm really disgusted with the dish. Which I wasn't at all.
So it's penne pasta with a creamy fontina, bleu, gruyere, white cheddar and parmesan cheese sauce, that's been tossed with bacon. It's topped with bleu cheese crumbles, parmesan, bread crumbs, parsley and a grilled chicken breast.
Who eats pasta with a spoon? I don't. Maybe when I was a toddler.
At first I was surprised that Friday's changed his recipe and added chicken to it, and I thought I wouldn't like it, but how can you go wrong with adding chicken to something? Chicken's delicious in everything. So the chicken was fine. And I thought there was just enough bacon and bleu cheese in the dish to not overpower it, which I was worried about. I wished they had kept the macaroni though, because without it, it seemed too much like any other pasta dish. Overall I have to say it was pretty good. I loved the crunchy topping.
That's all I've got, although I'm sure I'm forgetting something...
If you want to watch the show again, it airs tonight at 10pm/9c.
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