Torrents of Spring – a comical little story by Hemingway if you like satires and are familiar with the writing style of his generation. It’s also a rather fitting description of our life.
Hello! It has been quite some time since our Chopped Challenge. As you may have noticed, we are on a bit of a hiatus here at Eat, Play, Love; however, before we continue the self-imposed pause on our journey, I wanted to share the winning recipes from our big day, a few updates and a teaser.
You may remember, our appetizer basket required the use of rice flour, macadamia nuts, Parmesan cheese and spinach. Miss A and I made a roasted garlic macadamia nut hummus with spinach and macadamia pesto served with rice flour fry bread. While it was delicious it was no match for Mike and Mr. N’s hand-made rice flour pierogi filled with potato and bison meat and served with a butter macadamia nut sauce. 
Print the recipe here: Pierogis
Then we had a meatless basket which challenged us to combine cauliflower, kale, apricots and chili. Miss A and I opted for a slow cooker recipe since we had to jet out mid-event to the birthday party on that cold, snowy day (doesn’t seem fair that months later we’re still waking up to snow!). The strategy paid off in the end when our chili nachos won the round against Mr. N and Mike’s fried vegetable spring rolls with chili apricot sauce. The funny thing is, that I much preferred the boys’ dish. In fact I prefer their take on spring rolls to those I’ve had in restaurants. But the majority rules, and the chili was a hit with the boys who ate leftovers for the rest of the week! 
Print the recipe here: Chili Nachos
Last, but definitely not least, was our dessert round. This is often the toughest round and typically where Mike’s teams have lost in the past. Dessert is his weakness. It was much the same this year since Miss A and I brought out the berry semi-freddo using the basket ingredients of puff pastry, oreos, peppermint schnapps and cream cheese. It was the clear victor over Mike and Mr. N’s oreo crusted, mint-infused cheesecake. 
Print the recipe: Berry Semi-Freddo
Thank you again for participating in and following along with our annual Chopped Challenge. It’s one of our favorite things to do as a family each year. Speaking of family, we’re all doing well. Thank you to those of you that have reached out. We are all alive and well, just busy, busy, busy. The kids’ schedules and a few trips and adventures on the horizon have turned our lives a bit upside down once again. We’ve had to reprioritize some things and sadly blogging had to take a back seat.
Miss A is rolling along in first grade and still loving every minute of gymnastics. She and Mike also found time to hit the daddy-daughter dance again this year (notice all those missing teeth!). 
As for Mr. N, well, he’s found himself in another play in the city! He auditioned last month and rehearsals are now underway. He’s the only child in the play and has about 100 lines! It is an original screenplay about the Oklahoma City bombing, which was now 20 years ago! He’s very excited, as are we.
Well, that’s all for now folks. I have to run get Miss A’s dinner made before gymnastics. We miss you all and want you know we’re still silently lurking in the blog world. We hope to be back sometime over the summer, at which point we might have some news about our next big adventure. Until then, cheers!
Eat, Play, Love 
It is always a true pleasure to read your posts Kristy. It feels like chatting over a cup of tea with an old friend 🙂
I am really glad everything is ok with you all, I do miss reading about your adventures and wonderful creations in the kitchen.
My blog had to take a back seat until a month ago, we moved from Jordan to the UAE and it turned out to be a bigger adventure than what I had anticipated. It took 10 months for me to be able to blog regularly again (and that means 2 posts a month now lol) but still. Whenever you have the time, we will definitely be here
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Look nice the desert
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hey I think hiatus is an awesome idea and yet I am sooooo happy to see you back! yeah for the winners and year for the recipes. I can’t wait to try those nachos. Miss A is just adorable as ever and Mr N is so grown up
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It’s nice to have a little glimpse into your busy life, Kristy! The children are obviously doing well and thriving in their pursuits! I would love to see Mr. N in one of his roles. This one sounds very challenging. I’ll look forward to updates this summer. Be well! ox
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Hey youre back, we missed you. I thought something was wrong with my feedly all of sudden your posts are not showing. Well as always we are looking forward for your wonderful posts.
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You have no idea how many times I started an email to you only to be distracted. I suspected that life got busy by some of your posts on FB so I’m glad it’s nothing more. We too are tired of the cold and although we didn’t get the snow you guys got, things are incredibly cold still. Thank you for including us all in you chopped challenge, I just love following along and look forward to it every year. The recipes are quite clever and I’m always impressed how the kids are so actively involved.
I was so happy to hear the Mr. N was chosen from his audition, he is one serious little man. I love that photo, he looks like he is in a strategic planning session. I’m sure the other actors appreciate how committed he is to his craft. 100 lines is a lot for even an adult to learn, but a kid! I’m impressed. I hope to connect with you guys soon. Our friends in Illinois are selling their house and buying a winter home in Arizona so our trips will likely be to Wisconsin in the future. Fortunately it’s only a 2 hour train from Chicago so we’ll likely drop in every now and then!
Those pierogies look a little too tempting, wish I hadn’t looked at the recipe, now I am craving pierogies!
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Congratulations to Mr N. He is doing so well with his acting. What an impressive CV he has for a boy of his age. I do hope he really enjoys the experience of working with all the adults. I’m sure you will be very busy running him backwards and forwards to all the rehearsals. I do love the look of the chile nachos. And Miss A is certainly missing more than a few teeth! She looks gorgeous heading off to the dance xx
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Nice to hear from you! Let me know if any of your adventures will take you overseas this summer 🙂 Hope you are doing well!
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I was very excited when I saw your post. Lovely to see things are going well Kristy and so busy with the Mr N and Miss A. I don’t have kids to worry about and I don’t even find much time to blog lately either.
Have a beautiful weekend and love to you all.
🙂 Mandy xo
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Hello Eat, Play, Love!! ❤️ What a joy finding you in my inbox and timely too as I’ve been thinking of all of you a lot lately (I take comfort in seeing you occasionally on FB 😉 ). I too love your Chopped Challenge and look forward to it every year. Even the boys (now very blasé teenagers don’t you know) stop by to see what shenanigans Mr. N and Miss A are up to during the Challenge — so thank you for another fun and delicious installment. Love the toothless grin Miss A is sporting – as precious as ever and a big congrats to Mr. N — he looks like a CEO there amongst all the adults. Will your summer plans bring you to San Francisco? 😀 Heeheeh, sure hope so one day. Smooch.
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