Chopped

We pulled off our first attempt at 'Chopped'! One basket with four mystery ingredients and 20 minutes on the clock. You need to use all four ingredients in some form and will be judged for taste, creativity, and presentation. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.

I pulled a surprise attack and didn't tell anyone I had the 'Chopped' idea planned until they all showed up and I didn't really get any resistance. All in! Jay, Sonny, and Dante would be taking on the challenge, so we fired up the grill and that was their only cooking source. The basket contained chicken breast, trisket crackers, baby carrots, and grape jelly. I had set up a variety of pantry items and had their cutting boards, knives, bowls and other items ready to use. They didn't waste any time to get moving and did they every have their heads down, working hard. We worked out a couple of kinks quickly, like we forgot a garbage can, but it went fairly smoothly throughout the competition. It was something to experience. The timer ticked down the minutes, food was cooked, and plates were served up.

I know they were all judged and a winner was declared but I think all three were winners! AND the overall response was how much fun it was! Hey. That sounds like a win-win to me. So all in all, the 'Chopped' session turned out to put the *Fun* into this holiday weekend I've been calling my stay-cation. And then we went on to grill some fresh corn and steaks for dinner. And that eggplant I picked up at the grocery store became some babaganoush. It was good!

In fact, that could be the way to describe the entire day!

TT