Cool Hunting

In our recent post on the Katana Series Knives by Calphalon we asked you to send in your favorite kitchen mishap to win an 8-piece set of these great knives (featured on the right).

It was a close call. Highlighted by inadvertent slices and dices to various body parts, maggots, festering meats, potato plants growing in cubbards, ruined meals, a few sexually deviant acts, scary cats, a skunk, a tomato-stealing squirrel, flat cakes, too-tall cakes, giant matzo balls, prized tulip bulbs inadvertantly mashed and buttered, girlfriends mistaking dishwashers for toilets, the confusion that can arise between a can of Pam and bug spray, one-eyed lasagna stealing pugs, disappointed grandmothers/kids/cousins/loved ones and a fire department or two. After much consideration, we chose the following by CH reader TL:

"My in laws visit from the "old country" twice a year. My mother in law, bless her heart, takes care of the kids and cooks big, hearty meals. Unfamiliar with English, she accidentally made her famous dumplings with Fancy Feast cat food. Who could blame her - the cans were sitting right on the kitchen counter.

"We only discovered her "secret ingredient" after the fact, and the dumplings were so good we've served them to countless guests since - without ever divulging the source of those tasty, tender morsels.

For your benefit, the recipe:

Two packages of Betty Crocker Pie Crust Mix
Three cans Fancy Feast Cat Food (beef) One small onion finely chopped
Two cups sliced button mushrooms
1/2 cup white wine
Handful of raisins
Two teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
Ten pitted and diced green olives
1/2 stick butter

"Roll out dough, using a drinking glass create disks of dough, each 3 inches in diameter.

"Fry onions in butter until golden. Add mushrooms and white wine. Add cat food, spices, raisins and olives. When cool place two tablespoons of filling per disk of dough. Fold into semi-circle and flute edges with fork. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 325 degrees. Serve with sly grin."

Congrats TL, and thanks for the dinner invitation. We'll pass.

And thanks to the hundreds of CH readers for sending us their stories and to Calphalon for hooking our readers up.