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Sunday, May 2, 2010

Chopped

Last night was the BEST. DATE NIGHT. EVER. Seriously, it was such a blast!! After our crepes last week, Colby said he got the idea for this week. While I tucked the kids into bed he ran out to the grocery store and then printed something up on the computer. I kinda figured we were going to be trying a new recipe again, which I thought was a little lame considered we JUST did that. Boy was I wrong!

He brought me into the kitchen and showed me this: and announced we would be having a Chopped competition! (Love that show.) I was a bit perplexed, wondering what was in the basket and how on earth I could come up with something from scratch. I'm soooo not creative with cooking and am a very recipe-oriented kinda girl. Here were the ingredients we had to work with:Kiwi fruit, mini chocolate chips, cashews and peach syrup. (Can't you just hear Ted Allen's voice as you read those?!) We had 50 minutes (yes, I know the contestants on the show only get 30, but hey, we're amateurs!) to come up with a dessert using these ingredients. We both just kinda sat there laughing for a few minutes and staring at the ingredients, wondering what on earth we were gonna make. We finally started going and it was such a hoot running around the kitchen and acting like goofballs. I admit I was known to say, "Behind you!" several times, just like they say on the show. :) We made quite the mess in the kitchen.
I decided to make a dessert pizza. I think I had a bit of an advantage cuz I knew what other ingredients we had in the kitchen. Like sugar cookie mix. And cream cheese. And I was pretty proud of my chocolate melting skills, too. I tempered it (is that the correct term?) just like I saw the Barefoot Contessa do once. :)I mean, look at that beautiful, silky stream of chocolate!
Time literally FLEW by! I wanted to wait til the last minute to plate cuz I didn't want my cookies to get soggy. Plus, they always wait til the last minute on the show. (I know, I'm a dork.) I was literally sprinkling the nuts on top as we were counting down the seconds. Colby, on the other hand, was not even CLOSE to being finished. I had to wait a good 5 minutes before his dessert was done. He was totally disqualified for that. :P

So here's what I came up with. A sugar cookie topped with a frosting made of cream cheese, sugar and peach syrup. Then sliced kiwi and a cutie orange. Then my silky chocolate drizzled on top, followed by chopped cashews I toasted and candied with some sugar. It was yummy if I do say so myself. :)Here was Colby's dish. He took the blueberries out of a Jiffy muffin mixed and used chocolate chips and peach syrup mixed in. It was placed on top of crushed cashews and topped with a very bright green kiwi & apple puree and was complimented by a stream of melted chocolate. I was laughing so hard I could barely take pics cuz all I could see were two big eyeballs with bushy eyebrows staring back at me! :P
Although it looked like eyeballs, it really wasn't too bad. But I still think my dessert was better. ;) And plus he was DQ'd cuz of the time issue, and because he used a mixing bowl that was pretty much 12 sizes too large for the batter he was mixing. :)

We had so much fun last night!!! It was totally different and we got to act like big goofballs! I'll still be giggling about this one for a while. I don't know if either of us can top it. Or if we can watch Chopped the same way any more. (I totally have a new respect for those chefs!)

Project 52: Date Nights logo

10 comments:

Kelly said...

So fun! Glad you guys had a good date night!!

Anonymous said...

Ok as an expert watcher of chopped I have to give more points to Colby for creativity!!! You so took the easy and SAFE route. Way to go Colby! I wouldn't eat his but way to go!! lol
Mom

Erika and Wesley said...

haha mom you wouldn't eat a lot of things :) but marie's does look pretty! colby's definitely looks like eyeballs though!

Shauna said...

That sounds like so much fun! I'm pretty sure I'd get all stressy if it were me!

Debi said...

This is hilarious! I've never watched this show, but now I HAVE to! Thanks for sharing!!
Debi [The Romantic Vineyard]

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

That is a great date. I totally see the eyeballs too. LOL. The pizza definitely looks better. Both very creative ideas.

Cheree Moore said...

this is hysterical and an awesome idea!

Pam said...

Ha ha ha...what a nice way to end my day--a good laugh! I too can only see big blue eyeballs staring at me. (And the dessert pizzas look delicious!)

Marian said...

What a fantastic date idea! And kudos to you for making such a great looking dessert after saying you weren't very creative in the kitchen. We will have to borrow this idea for one of our date nights.

Anonymous said...

i love this date idea! i'm totally going to steal it! thanks for having such a great idea and sharing it!
tiffany {Simply Modern Mom}