The monthly Paper Chef challenge has reached a new milestone, the big 5-0! I’m thrilled that Cath from Showfood Chef chose me as this month’s announcer and judge. I’m big on birthdays in general, but today, March 3, auspiciously is the king of birthdays in my family, celebrated by my husband, his sister, my brother, our dog, and, growing up, our son’s best friend’s father and our daughter’s best friend’s father. (You couldn’t make this stuff up.) So a happy day to all.
For those who have followed Paper Chef for a while, whether submitting or not, we owe a big thank you to the wonderful organizers, Ilva of Lucullian Delights and Mikey of Spikey Mikeys. They took it over from its founder a couple of years ago, and the result is one of the longest running food challenges in blog history. Impressive. And fun.
I hope that we’ll have some new (and returning) participants in honor of this milestone.
If you’re new, this is how Paper Chef works: three ingredients are chosen randomly and the judge chooses a fourth and also identifies a theme. Recently the theme has been the fourth ingredient. If you can’t find an ingredient or don’t eat it because of dietary, religious or other good reasons, just substitute something that is close or achieves a similar purpose.
SO, here we go with three random ingredients to be selected by Birthday Boy, followed by one that I will add:
HONEY … good one … as I type …
RICOTTA … maybe we’ll make dessert, pretty rare for Paper Chef…
DILL … phew … not anchovies or wasabi (which I love but not here)
And I add … EGGS.
At this time of year, when winter turns to spring (here in east coast US anyway), we become energized by the prospect of the garden and wonderful new green shoots to grow and harvest and cook. I originally thought of asparagus or peas as potential fourth ingredients but the egg is a perfect symbol of new beginnings and is potentially more local to participants. So the theme is rejuvenation, celebrating the equinox and the change of seasons, whatever they are for you.
You now have about a week to come up with a dish to share with your fellow bloggers by emailing to Paper Chef the link to your post. If you don’t have a blog, you can e-mail the recipe (and photo) instead. No excuses not to participate! Ilva and Mikey couldn’t make it any easier.
Check out the rules and details about Paper Chef here. Submit your entry by next Tuesday, March 9 no later than midnight your time, to paperchef@gmail.com (paperchef AT gmail DOT com).
This strikes me as a pretty easy challenge (hope you don’t think we should have re-drawn the choices). So challenge yourself to something that energizes you. Over the years, the variety of dishes and the range of creativity and invention on Paper Chef have been amazing. Participants have come from all over the world. And I’ve found wonderful sites that I return to again and again. We’re all winners here and I look forward to the results!
Happy Birthday to Paper Chef and to all of you other 03-03s.
Categories: Uncategorized
PROSPECT THE PANTRY 
Hi Cathy would love to participate to this lovely event. please let us know if we could use dried dill or dill seeds. getting fresh dill here is difficult. thanks a ton in advance.
Certainly, feel free to substitute dried dill or dill seeds. If you want to use a fresh ingredient, you could also substitute another herb, like parsley. I’m looking forward to see what you submit. Karen
This sounds very interesting! Visiting Cath’s blog I discovered this monthly foodies challenge 🙂 I have already the virtual pan in my heads working 😉
Posted my entry! Since it’s so close to the deadline I just wanted to let you know!