Chopped, 3.0

It really hit me recently that I'm leaving for our regional conference Monday and not coming back to Santiago until October. Amidst a flurry of last-minute conference prep and helping with VBS in Palmar, that means packing and squeezing in visits with friends. Like the Davises! 

We go to church together, share meals regularly, and race each other at New York Times crosswords, and every summer, we stage the Food Network's Chopped. This was our 3rd year (remember the 1st year?), so it's obviously a tradition now. 

Val, her husband Owen, and their 3 kids had just gotten back from a month in the US but wouldn't dream of letting the tradition die. 

Round 1: Endive; muffuletta; red quinoa. 

The teams haven't changed; I'm always with Abigail. She had the genius idea to grind the quinoa in a coffee grinder and use it to make mozzarella sticks by breading string cheese with it! We served it over an endive salad with muffuletta dressing. 

One of many innovations this year was a sanity-saving plating method: instead of using small bowls or dessert plates and washing 18 of them (3 teams x 6 people) between each round, each of us had a dinner-sized paper plate on which all three dishes were plated. In an effort to be green, we even wrote our names on the rims and used the same one for appetizers and entrees. 

Round 2: Chives, ground turkey, asparagus. Abigail and I stir-fried everything together with fresh minced garlic, soy sauce, and slivered almonds. I'm sure we would have gotten dinged for lack of originality on the show, but I'd eat it again.  

Actually, I'd eat all of the entrees again! Clockwise from top: herbed rice topped with fresh tomato sauce, sautéed asparagus, and a turkey "nugget," Abigail's and my stir-fry, and penne with [homemade] pesto, asparagus, and turkey "pancakes."

Round 3: Gluten free creme-filled sandwich cookies, cape gooseberries, and labneh. Abigail and I turned the labneh into a (winning!) chocolate cheesecake filling, served atop a sandwich cookie, walnut, and oat flour crust with cape gooseberry compote. 

I went over a little early to help set up. As we emptied her pantry onto the dining room table, opened bags and containers, and washed produce, Val worried that 2021 would come off as thrown together and not live up to our memories of past years' greatness. Au contraire. We all agreed it was the best year yet! Other innovations not mentioned above included a written list of each round's "basket" ingredients so we didn't forget and a paring knife at each station in addition to a chef's knife. We're all looking forward to 2022 and already decided I'm going to be in charge of selecting ingredients for one of the rounds. 

Now back to the other, far less thrilling marker of the week before home service: packing. I'm pretty sure I have more clothes than I need in my suitcase so I'm going to go take some out...

Until next time, blessings!