The Bitten Word

Wrapping up The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project

The inaugural Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project is complete! 

More than 300 of you -- from all over the world! -- joined up to cook nearly every single recipe in six different October 2012 food magazines. We have absolutely loved reading about your adventures and seeing how the dishes turned out. We enjoyed hearing your stories and your thoughts on the recipes, and to see the photos of the finished products. 

Though it was a lot of work, we've had a lot of fun with this project, and we'll definitely do it again in the future, in this form or another. But for now, here are all six teams' write-ups. Explore their posts and get inspired!

(As for us, we'll be turning our attention to the Super Bowl of home-cooking -- Thanksgiving -- starting tomorrow. Don't miss it!)

Huge thanks to everyone who participated and to those who have been following along!

• Team Saveur
• Team Everyday Food
• Team Bon Appetit
• Team Food & Wine
• Team Martha Stewart Living
• Team Food Network Magazine

Enjoy!

-- Zach & Clay

Food Network Magazine Cover-To-Cover: All the Recipes in the October 2012 Issue

Part 6 of The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project

As you may have heard, we had a little bit of wind and rain in D.C. over the past couple days. We took the opportunity to hunker down and finish pulling together the final installment of the Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project. And we're going out with a bang! 

Team Food Network tackled the November issue of the magazine with gusto, stewing gumbos, whipping up cakes, improvising fondant (Starburst? Genius!) and trying all manner of new (to them) techniques and recipes. Give them a read and leave a comment with your thoughts!

And without further ado, here's Team Food Network!

 

APPETIZERS AND SNACKS | SOUPS AND STEWS | SANDWICHES | PASTAS AND GRAINS | MEAT, POULTRY AND EGGS | FISH AND SEAFOOD | VEGETABLES AND SIDES | DESSERTS | DRINKS

Saveur Magazine Cover-To-Cover: All the Recipes in the October 2012 Issue

Part 5 of The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project

When we first made the decidion to expand the Cover-to-Cover Project to several magazines, we knew there was one that would be on the extreme end of the scale. The October 2012 issue of Saveur is a doozy. To celebrate the magazine's 150th issue, the editors compiled a definitive list of 101 "classic recipes."

But if you're familiar with Saveur, you know they didn't stick with "classic" dishes from the American table. Oh sure, there's a recipe for Buffalo Wings, and New England Clam Chowder, and Baked Alaska. But the list also includes dishes like Chawanmushi, Hongshao Qiezi, Coquilles St-Jacques, rösti and Djaj Mqualli. You know, those classics.

Team Saveur was ready! Armed with exotic ingredients and unfamiliar recipes, they churned out a wildly impressive global buffet. Way to go, Team Saveur!

Which of these "classic" dishes do you want to make?

Any "classics" you think were omitted?

Let us know in the comments!

 

EGGS AND BREAKFAST DISHES | CHILIS, SOUPS AND STEWS | SALADS AND APPETIZERS  | FISH, MEAT AND VEGETARIAN MAINS  | SIDES  | DESSERTS AND SWEETS | CONDIMENTS

Everyday Food Cover-to-Cover: All the Recipes in the October 2012 Issue

Part 4 of The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project

Everyday Food's October cover touts "Feel Good Food," with promises of meatballs, sandwiches, and pot pies.

Sign. Us. Up.

Team Everyday Food jumped at the chance to make the dishes, enthusiastically embracing everything from Halloween food ("Slimy Bog Balls," anyone?), recipes that rely on using frozen chicken fingers as a shortcut, and some truly interesting takes on meatballs (we were eager to see the review of "Shrimp Scampi Meatballs"). 

As of the time we're publishing this post, a good portion of the recipes aren't yet online. If you want to make a dish that doesn't have a recipe linked, pick up the issue from newsstands or visit MarthaStewart.com to search for the recipe. 

Let us know which recipes most intrigue you, what you plan to make, and most of all, let's give it up for Team Everyday Food for all their hard work! 

 

SOUPS | SALADS AND SIDES  | FISH AND SHELLFISH  | MEAT AND POULTRY  | VEGETARIAN MAINS  | DESSERTS  | MISCELLANEOUS

 

Bon Appetit Cover-to-Cover: All the Recipes in the October 2012 Issue

Part 3 of The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project

Simple can be amazing. That's what we heard from many members of the Team Bon Appétit. Whether it was a bowl of spiced cashews, a super-easy shot of red-pepper soup, grilled cheese sandwiches or crackers with exactly one ingredient, many of these Bon App recipes go to show that just because something's easy doesn't mean it's not delicious.

For those of you looking for a challenge, never fear. There are plenty of more-involved dishes in the mix, and Team Bon App rose to the challenge! (We just have to tip our hats to Connie, who deboned an entire duck -- bill and all! -- for her Duck a L'Orange.)

There's one group of these recipes we're especially excited about. When we first read this issue of Bon App, it was the cakes that got our tongues wagging. And the readers who ended up with the cakes seemed extremely happy with the results. 

Check out those cakes -- and every other recipe from the issue -- in the Cover-to-Cover entries from Team Bon Appétit!

 

APPETIZERS | BEVERAGES & COCKTAILS | SALADS | SANDWICH | BREAD |  SOUPS | SEAFOOD | MEATS |  POULTRY | RICE & PASTA| SIDE DISHES | DESSERTS

 

Food & Wine Magazine Cover-to-Cover: All the Recipes in the October 2012 Issue

Part 2 of The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project

We made our first big mistake on the Cover-to-Cover Project with Team Food & Wine. 

You see, with assigning so many recipes, we didn't take the time to read every single one of the recipes ahead of time. This quickly become apparent when we received an email from Valerie about her assigned dish, which was a cocktail:

"The recipe for Aged Negroni sounds interesting but it takes a month of being aged in an oak barrel…"

Huh? 

Yes indeed, we assigned six members of Team Food & Wine aged cocktail recipes that require a "One 1-liter oak barrel" and a month's worth of time. Instruction #1: "If the barrel is new and dry inside...." 

Hilariously, Team Food & Wine seemed more than game for the challenge, and had already started discussing ways to improvise this process. Needless to say, we let them off the hook with other recipes. 

That's not to say that there weren't some seriously challenging dishes in the issue. Here are all the recipes in the 2012 issue, as cooked and photographed by Team Food & Wine. 

Give them your kudos and let us know what you're going to make out of this issue.

 

STARTERS & SOUPS | SALADS, VEGETABLES & FRUIT SNACKS | MEAT | POULTRY & EGGS | FISH & SHELLFISH |  PASTA & RICE | SANDWICHES, FLATBREADS & TAMALES | DESSERTS |  SAUCES & CONDIMENTS | COCKTAILS

Martha Stewart Living Cover-to-Cover: All the Recipes in the October 2012 Issue

Part 1 of The Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover Project

Cover-to-Cover, here we go!

Earlier this month we challenged our readers to make every dish in the October issues of six food magazines. You guys more than rose to the challenge. We were blown away by the responses we got, and by all your fun stories of cooking dishes from the mags.

In all, more than 500 people signed up to participate! Amazing! We wish we could have included everyone, but we just had to cap the number, mostly for our own sanity. In the end, we wound up with more than 350 participants, from Bali, Brazil, London, Paris, Hungary, and all over the U.S. and Canada. How cool is that?!

For Part 1, we're starting off easy, with Martha Stewart Living. Well, not easy on those who participated in the project -- the recipes are nothing to sniff at. We're starting here because it's easy on us -- there are only 25 dishes. 

Team Martha faced some interesting dishes (lots of Halloween party food), some classics (fried chicken, handmade pasta) and some things that we're just dying to eat (the desserts here all sound amazing). 

With that, let's see what Team Martha cooked up over the last few weeks! Here are the dishes, in our readers' own words and photography. 

#TBWC2C Eve!

 

 

 

Spiced Lentils and Poached Eggs

Cooking Light (October 2012)

Earlier this week, we invited our friends Trevor and Owen over for dinner. They just got married a few weeks ago here in D.C. (We were honored to get to participate -- Clay stood up with Trevor, and Zach sang a song during the ceremony.) It was a beautiful event.

Right after the wedding, T&O took off for a honeymoon in Hawaii. They just got back this past weekend, and we wanted to catch up and hear about their trip. So we invited them to swing by for dinner on Monday night.

The previous night, on Sunday, we had thrown a dinner party for 8, which we'll write about soon, after the Super Awesome Cover-to-Cover project. The Sunday night dinner ended up being a fairly lengthy affair, with plenty of wine consumed by the group. 

The next day, the evidence remained -- empty wine bottles and wine-streaked glasses still stood on the dining room table. And at 7 pm on Monday, they were still there. Trevor and Owen were due to show up at 7:30.

Mission 1: Clean up from the previous night's dinner.

Mission 2: Get cooking.

Chorizo and Sweet Potato Hash

A recipe from The Bitten Word

Cheap, healthy and fast. It's the trifecta of home cooking. 

Don't get us wrong: We sometimes love devoting hours to a slow-cooked dish. And we're fine with splurging on special ingredients. (And lord knows we like our share of unhealthy foods!)

But for a get-us-through-the-week mid-week dinner, we're always striving for the same triple-header: cheap, healthy and fast.

Here's a meal we've been making a lot lately that is a total winner on all three counts.