Bring It On – Chopped Challenge 2013

February 3, 2013April 13, 201396 Comments

The big day is here! And no, we don’t mean the Super Bowl.
The winning baskets are in and we are ready to go. After a marathon shopping adventure (we finished as the grocery store was turning off its lights at 9 p.m. last evening), both teams are confident of a win today.

It’s Chopped Challenge 2013. Thanks to everyone that voted. We had some interesting races with some tight results. So without further delay, we’re going to kick off today with our appetizer basket which comes to us courtesy of Eva at Kitcheninspirations. Thanks Eva! Continue reading →

Y’all Ready for This – Chopped Challenge II

January 22, 2013April 13, 201364 Comments

Do I even need to post the link to the song? Or is it already thumping through your brains? Y’all ready for this…That’s right, it’s time for our annual Chopped Challenge live blogging event! (Make sure to vote at the end of the post!) Last year we held our first annual Challenge on New Year’s Day. Some of you may remember the fun we had with our seared scallops: Continue reading →

“Energy and Persistence Conquer All Things”

January 7, 2012April 13, 201342 Comments

I don’t think that Benjamin Franklin was referring to a Chopped Challenge, but let me tell you, that’s what this event and this particular basket took – energy and persistence.

Our final dessert round began after an epic clean-up of this mess.

It was late, it was dark (thus some of the not so great pictures), it was New Year’s Day…but persevere we must! That, and you better believe the kids weren’t letting us off that easy. They wanted their dessert! So on to the dessert basket offered up to us by Kay, the always inspiring, artistic genius at Pure Complex. Her basket of Oranges, Red Miso Paste, Kettle Chips and Cottage Cheese won by a landslide victory (Kay your family all came through!). And we thought the last basket challenged us! Continue reading →

Rocked Lobster

January 4, 2012April 13, 201343 Comments

Tonight we bring you our main course dishes from Sunday’s Chopped Challenge. The basket for this round came to us from Sally at Bewitching Kitchen and included lobster tails, edamame, buckwheat noodles and chipotle peppers. We were a bit intimidated because if you’ve been to Sally’s blog, you know she’s always coming up with inventive dishes that look deliciously full of flavor – without fail – and we wanted to make sure we did her proud.

We were also a bit nervous and baffled about how to combine edamame and buckwheat noodles with chipotle peppers. This one was definitely throwing us. Do we go Asian or Southwestern? Ultimately we went both directions. I went towards Asian flavors and Mike embraced the Southwest. And while our dishes may not look as restaurant-worthy as the last round, these were hands down our favorite dishes of the day. Mr. N and Miss A were also very excited about the lobster. You should have heard Miss A, “Is it ready yet? Is this the lobster? Is it dead? Can I eat the lobster?” Apparently we taught them well in Maine this summer. Continue reading →

Scallops and Drunken Chestnuts

January 2, 2012April 13, 201351 Comments

Yesterday was our epic Chopped Challenge for Mike’s birthday celebration and our New Year’s Day fun. The baskets of ingredients were provided by members of our blog family and put up to vote by our readers. We completed three rounds including an appetizer, main course and dessert recipe. It was a crazy day of cooking, spills, dirty dishes, laughter, a bit of competitive jabbing and absolute fun. Thanks for all of those that participated and followed along. We hope you had some fun too. 🙂

Now as promised here are the first recipes from the event. We’re going to kick off with the appetizer dishes. We used the ingredients suggested by Linda at Savoring Every Bite (who has some fantastic recipes – we’ve tried several in fact – not to mention amazing party planning/hosting skills) which included Chestnuts, Brandy, Polenta and Scallops. The measurements provided in the recipes are approximated as we didn’t do too much calculating yesterday. We mostly went on gut feel and tossed in what we thought worked. Continue reading →

Chopped Challenge Begins…(A Live Blogging Event)

January 1, 2012April 13, 201363 Comments

Our chopped challenge begins with the appetizer round. We’ll be posting live updates through the day, so check back often! Our voters were generally kind, hopefully our judges will be kind as well, though we don’t expect them to be as kind as the Dalai Lama himself.