Please Open Your Baskets

Somehow this was also the 4th annual Davis family Chopped competition, having started way back in 2019. As promised after last year, I was in charge of the "mystery basket" ingredients this time. The pressure was on, but I think my choices hit on just the right level of challenging with the potential for deliciousness:

• Appetizer: turkey bacon, sundried tomatoes, bean sprouts
• Entrée: smoked pork chops, purple cauliflower, canned pumpkin
• Dessert: evaporated goat milk, zucchini*, caramel corn

Owen and Val had already gone back to school (aka work), so I came over early so the kids and I could outfit each station with a cutting board and knife, wash produce, and arrange the "pantry." We were far more efficient than I thought we'd be and even had time for a few rounds of Boggle.

The teams haven't changed and probably never will, so I was Chef Abigail's #2. In round 1, we served our bacon-wrapped sundried tomato and bean sprout "sushi" on a bed of cucumber "zoodles." (The time limits are...flexible when it comes to plating since we're practically on top of each other.)

The winning appetizer dish, prepared by Chef Micah, was a spicy BLT with sundried tomato sriracha cream cheese spread. 

Chef Jesse & Sous Chef Val's entrée mac n' cheese.

It's never a bad idea when your teammate comes to you and says "What if we made a taco?" I think our [winning!] curry pumpkin glazed pork tacos with roasted cauliflower salsa would be at home on any  SoCal hipster taquería menu.

Our zucchini brownies needed more sugar, but topped with a chocolate hazelnut peanut butter glaze and crushed pretzels...they weren't inedible by any means. 

We keep saying we can't possibly get any better...and then we do. In addition to culinary skills that are more refined with each passing year, we're constantly innovating. New in 2022 were relocating one of the stations to a folding table for better traffic flow and the addition of new friend Lauren, who gets the credit for all but the first photo in this post. She might have to don an apron if she comes back in 2023! 

Fun plans all afternoon mean you have to work late, especially when prepping for back-to-back-to-back-to-back teams in September and October, and before that a FORO, and before that, a partner RSO visit...

Until next time, blessings!

*Google told me that zucchini has appeared more often in the dessert basket on the Food Network show than in any other round!