I started this with one mission: to bring a game power up into real life. With that in mind, I started going through my memory for different games, and decided to go with Mario Bros. So you got your mushrooms, flowers and etc, but I didn't want to make food LOOK like it, but actually use the SAME ingredient as the power ups.

And thus, I'll be cooking the red, 1up, and poison mushroom with REAL mushrooms, and the fire flower with REAL flowers (artichoke). Artichoke actually is the flower of the plant.

The dish is consisted of:
- marinated artichoke stuffed with hot italian sausage mix (fire flower)
- fried mushroom with basic tomato sauce (red mushroom)
- fried mushroom with creamy spinach sauce (1up mushroom)
- fried mushroom with cuttlefish ink sauce (poison mushroom)

Step 1: Prep Time

This is going to be pretty intense to make so this is the schedule:
1. marinate artichoke
2. prepare stuffing
3. prepare sauces
4. cook artichoke
5. fry mushrooms
6. bake artichoke
7. put the dish together

I'll list the ingredients as we go, so I would suggest reading through the instructions before starting.

Step 2: Marinate Artichoke

- 1 small beet
- half a lemon
- 2 baby artichoke
- a little water

- a blender
- a plastic bag

1. peal the beet and cut it into smaller pieces, just to help out with the blending
2. add the cut up beets and juice of half a lemon into a blender, and blend till smooth
3. prepare the artichoke: cut the stem off, cut the top 1/2" off, snip the tips of the "pedal", and cut the whole artichoke in half
4. mix the blended beet and artichokes and keep it in a plastic bag
5. keep it in the fridge and let the artichoke soak up the color, we'll come back to it later

Step 3: Prepare Stuffing

- 1 hot italian sausage
- 1 small onion
- 1/4 jalapeno or any hot chili
- pinch of cayenne pepper
- salt and pepper to taste

- small pan

1. chop up the onion, and save half for making the sauce later
2. cut your choice of chili into small pieces
3. take the sausage out of its casing, and split it to smaller pieces (it gets easier when it's cooked)
4. cook sausage in medium heat with a tinytiny amount of oil. the sausage will give off some oil too
5. add the chopped onion when the meat browns
6. add the chili when the onion changes orangey-red
7. sprinkle some cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper and toss it around
8. take it off the heat, and let it sit in pan for later

Step 4: Prepare Sauces

Tomato sauce (red)

- 1/4 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 onion, chopped
- 1 tsp of chopped garlic
- pinch of salt and pepper

- small pot

1. heat everything, that's it
2. keep it warm for later

Creamy Spinach sauce (green)

- a handful of spinach
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 tb spoon of parmesan cheese
- pinch of salt and pepper

- small pot
- a blender

1. blanch the spinach for a minute in boiling water, drench the water out
2. add spinach into the small pot with other ingredients, bring it to a boil
3. once the mixture boils, move it to a blender, blend till smooth
4. keep it warm for later

Cuttlefish ink sauce (black)

- 1 can of cuttlefish in ink (it's already in a tomato based sauce, good enough for me)
- 1/4 onion, chopped
- pinch of salt and pepper

- small pot

1. heat everything in the pot
2. keep it warm for later

Step 5: Cook Artichoke

- marinated artichokes
- 1 cup water
- pinch of dried thyme
- pinch of dried rosemary

- medium pot

1. add everything into a pot and bring it to a boil
2. once boiling, bring heat down to medium low and cook for 30min with lid on

Step 6: Fry Mushrooms

- 9 white mushrooms WITH STEMS ON
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup italian bread crumb
- enough oil for frying

-small pot, or fryer

1. while the artichoke is cooking, prepare mushrooms,
2. wipe mushrooms clean
3. coat mushroom with egg wash, then coat it with bread crumb
4. for extra crisp, repeat the egg wash and bread crumb only for the mushroom cap
5. once the oil is heated on medium low heat, drop in mushrooms top first so that the stem is sticking up
6. fry till golden, flip the mushroom upside down
7. fry till golden, let it rest on paper towel for later

Step 7: Bake Artichoke

- cooked artichokes
- cooked italian sausage stuffing
- beaten egg if any left, totally optional
- bread crumbs, totally optional

- an oven
- cooking foil, or any baking dish

1. pull out the now red artichokes and chill to the touch
2. preheat oven to 350F degree
3. rinse the artichoke quick in warm water to wash away the blended beets
4. using a spoon, scoop out the 'heart', save the 'heart' for later
5. stuff the cavity with the cooked sausage
6. brush the top with egg wash, totally optional
7. sprinkle bread crumbs on top, totally optional again
8. place the stuffed artichokes on foil, and bake it in the oven for 15mins

Step 8: Put the Dish Together

1. place the baked stuffed artichoke on plate
2. split the carved out artichoke 'heart' in two, dip it in the green sauce, and plate it as the leaves of the fire flower
3. take the fried mushroom, and coat the cap with a sauce
4. plate it, and you are ready to grow, lose a life, gain a life, and be able to throw fire balls

There are so many different variations you could do to this recipe. Pesto sauce would make more sense for the green sauce, I just didn't have the ingredients, squash blossom instead of artichoke, and so on.

I hope this inspired you guys for a geeky feast!
Enjoy!