Chopped

We recently visited my parents in the States.  Both of my sisters were in town at the same time as well.  Now, there were a lot of things that we could have done together.  There's one thing, though, that we all love: food.  We watched a fair amount of the Food Network together, and one night we did a great activity: Chopped.  Chopped is a TV show where the competitors are given a basket of ingredients, and they have to use all of the ingredients in one cohesive dish.  (Click here to find out more about Chopped.)

My dad and sister picked the ingredients and acted as judges. 

Our baskets had: feta cheese, sprinkles, sparkling water, whipped cream (the squirty kind in a can), sweet potato, kiwi, grapefruit, peach (doughnut), plum, gluten free crackers, jabanero pepper, and spinach (fresh leaves).  In addition we could use any items in their house/garden.

Rather than just having one dish, we actually cooked both an appetizer and a dessert.  All of the items had to be used, but we could choose which items to use in which dish.

My husband and I (Away Team) competed against my mother and other sister (Home Team). 

Team Home's Menu:

Appetizer: A selection of nibbles, including home-made chutney served on the crackers and stuffed spinach leaves.

Followed by a palate cleanser drink (sparkling water, grapefruit, kiwi, etc.).

Dessert: Mini sweet potato cream pies

Away Team's Menu:

Appetizer: Salad with a grapefruit vinaigrette served on a sweet potato flower

Dessert: Italian Cream Soda (Peach and vanilla flavour) with a plum, apple, and pecan crumble

After careful deliberation, the judges announced the results: both teams scored perfect 100's!  So we tied. 

My dad still maintains that, as judge, he won, as he got to pick ingredients he liked and then eat the food we all made :)