300 sandwiches' Stephanie Smith and her boyfriend, Eric Schulte, made an appearance on the Today show to speak about the project and defend themselves against the slew of criticism the blog has received from the press.

On  TODAY, Smith and Schulte clarified their position and gave a few more details about the back story and their relationship to pacify the detractors.

Smith's New York Post piece, 'I'm 124 sandwiches away from an engagement ring,' recently invited a lot of negative attention from the press.

Smith, who is a senior reporter at the New York Post, wrote about her plight -- which she seems to have embraced without any resistance -- of committing to make 300 sandwiches to get engaged to her boyfriend. Schulte, who is also a gourmet cook, had jokingly suggested if she were to make him 300 sandwiches, she'd earn an engagement ring.

Smith wrote the piece for the Post after she was done making 176 sandwiches, with 124 to go. She is documenting the exercise on her blog, 300sandwiches.

Many publications like New York Magazine, Slate, Salon, and Gawker were up in arms about the project. Most of them viewed Smith's agreeing to do this as an affront to the modern-day feminist and regressing to age-old roles defined for women.

Read the best reactions to 300 Sandwiches.

In the interview with TODAY, Smith pointed out that actually her boyfriend -- who is a gourmet chef -- did most of the cooking at home.

"If he wasn't the kind of guy that was worth one sandwich, I wouldn't be making 300 sandwiches," she said. "And plus it was a joke. It was light, it's funny. Come on, it's a sandwich. It's supposed to be just lighthearted."

When asked by the anchors of the show if Schulte would actually marry her, he suggested that her completing the challenge was unnecessary.

"Oh of course," he said. "I would have married her without one sandwich."

Watch the interview:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tags: 300 sandwiches stephanie smith