Blue Moon Burger Bash 2011

Did you know that this weekend is the Food Network - Food and Wine Festival in New York City this weekend?  The city smells of delicious food, it's flowing with wines from all over the world and it's abuzz with some of the best chefs around.

Last night, boyfriend and I were lucky enough to attend the Blue Moon Burger Bash.  The evening was set underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, in the old Tobacco warehouse in Brooklyn bridge park. 

What did Burger Bash entail?  Twenty-one of some of the countries greastest chefs doling out some of the most delicious burgers you'll ever taste.  Those of you that know me are a little puzzled right now, those of you who are new friends might be curious as to why. 

For the past fifteen years, I haven't had a steak, hamburger or other beef product, yet there I was yesterday, walking through the smoke from all the grills. It has been many, many years since I've had a hamburger and last night was a good night to start having burgers again.

Mini hamburgers, quarters of hamburgers, burgers on focaccia, burgers on brioche.  There were sides of fries, pickled zucchini and cole slaw.  Tables were slinging gougeres, potato chips and some seriously delicious fried pickles (thank you Custom Burgers!).  With over twenty burgers to try (and one hot dog), boyfriend and I were getting a little full. 

We decided to try and hit as many stands as possible, but split the tables offerings.  How the judges ate each and every single burger, I have no idea.  We probably ate ten and were completely full.  Who were the judges?  You might be asking...  Well, we got to rub elbows with some of Foods biggest stars!

Andrew Zimmern, I think he was sad there was no Brain Burgers..

Guy Fieri, although he only showed up at the very end of the evening...

Bobby Flay, busy stomping for his table "Bobbys Burger Palace"

Duff Goldman and his delicious milkshakes!

And...  The lady of the evening...  Whoopi Goldberg!



Oooo, Whoopi likes this burger!

Some other fabulous people we got to meet were Giada DiLaurentis, Anne Burell and Sunny Anderson.  While it was fun meeting some of my favorite Food Network personalities, the people who deserve the most attention were the chefs behind the tables.  These people made me happy that I broke my fifteen year burger drought.



After eating way too many hamburgers and seriously delicious hot dog, boyfriend and I had decided on our personal favorites.  We voted (using our Blue Moon token) for some pretty delicious hamburgers and I would recommend you check these places out next time you're in their neck of the woods...

My favorite - Benoit's Lamb Burger.  It should be of no surprise, that after fifteen years of not eating beef, I went with a lamb burger.  Not that I didn't enjoy quite a few of the beef burgers!  This lamb burger was topped with roasted tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini confit, raw fennel and sat inside of the most delicious bun I've ever had, a small focacci with black olives.

Boyfriends favorite - Porter House New York's - Two Bites Burger: it's the COPPA.  It was the first one we had and one of my favorites as well.  Boyfriend said it tasted like nachos.  It was an all-beef patty, topped with hot coppa, hand-pulled mozzarella and jammy roma tomato.

My favorite side - There were two.  First, Custom Burgers fried pickles.  Crunchy and tangy, these were some seriously delicious bites.  Second, Smash Burger was doling out miniature cones of bourbon caramel ice cream covered in magic shell and peanut brittle.  I love Shake Shack, I just hate waiting in that long line!  Go on a rainy day to get fast service.

Boyfriends favorite side - Abe & Arthur's Truffle fries.  This was the judges favorite burger, we thought that the fries really made a complete meal.  We ate all of the fries.

Now, you might not be able to head to New York City (or New Jersey) and hit up these delicious burger joints, so I brought something back for you!  Boyfriend and I got to attend a cocktail party before the event where Andrew Zimmern was signing books and answering questions.  I got two extra copies, just for you!  If you're a fan of Andrew Zimmern, like to eat weird foods or are just looking for a good read, you should enter my first giveaway!



Look!  Two signed copies of Andrew Zimmern's new book!

To enter the giveaway you have a few options!

Most importantly - Leave a message and tell me about your favorite burger!

To get additional entries, do any of the following, then leave me a message saying that you're done so!  You can really rack up entries if you do all of these things!

1. Follow Wilde in the Kitchen on Twitter (@WildeKitchen)

2. Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter, tell your friends, they like to read too!

3. "Like" Wilde in the Kitchen on Facebook

4. Subscribe to Wilde in the Kitchen, join the party!

The giveaway closes on Wednesday, October 5th at 10:00pm.  From the first few chapters that I've read, this book is a pretty fun read!  Good luck everyone! 

And, meet my new best friend...

Not really, I grabbed him mid-burger bite, right before he had to run off to the stage!

Pasta Rustica

Most of the time I dictate the menu around the Wilde household.  That's why you see a lot of chicken, plenty of salads and lots of vegetables.  Apparently, man cannot live on healthy food alone!  At least, this is what boyfriend told me this weekend.  When looking through cookbooks, planning my grocery list, I asked what he would like for dinner this week.  He replied "pasta."

Okay, there are lots of pasta options.  My next question was "Hearty or light?"  "Hearty" was the request.  Getting closer, one more question "full of vegetables or cheese?"  Obviously the answer was "cheese."  He's a dude and dudes like cheese.  With those simple guidelines I decided on a hearty, baked pasta dish. 

There were a few things that I decided on for this meal.  The protein is not beef, it's chicken sausage.  There are onions in the sauce, because you can't have a pasta sauce without onions.  Finally, the pasta was served with whole grain garlic bread.

So, with boyfriends suggestions and my finessing, we came out with one delicious meal.  It was even ready in just 30 minutes, which is good, because my train was late getting me home and I was tired!

Daring Bakers : FRESH, FLUFFY, FRENCH!

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

I don't know why these little beauties weren't on my Culinary Goals list.  I love croissants!  While in France last year I ate them every morning for breakfast with my chocolate chaud!  Perhaps I realized that if I knew how to make them, or was successful at making them, that I would be in trouble. 

The problem being, if twelve light and fluffy croissants come out of the oven and there are only two people around to eat them, how many croissants does each person eat?  The inevitable answer is, too many!  While the croissants are cooking in the oven, the house begins to smell warm and delicious.  A sweet, yeasty fragrance starts to tempt you into the kitchen.  You peek into the oven and see those crispy, golden layers and can't wait until the timer rings.

This is exactly how it played out the morning that I made these little darlings.  I woke up at 6:00 to give the dough the final few turns and went back to bed for another two hours.  Around 8:00, I got out of bed to cut and shape the croissants.  They spent a little time rising and warming up, starting to fill the kitchen with their sweet smell.  After a quick egg wash and short time in the oven I was ready to scarf down a few of these French treats.  I held myself back and only ate two, then took the rest to work the next day to avoid any temptation!