“Chopped” Family Night
My family and I used to watch the TV show Chopped on Food Network. It is a competition with chefs to see who can cook the best dish with some ingredients picked for them that they have to incorporate into what they make. Sometimes the items that the chefs are given can be a bit bizarre-has anyone ever eaten a cactus pear? The show begins with four chefs, with each chef being given the same ingredients-in a convenient basket- for each round. There is an appetizer round, an entree round, and a dessert round. To make matters worse, they are given a certain amount of time, usually 20-30 minutes in which to cook their food. At least that would be an issue for me, I don’t do well under pressure. After each round is over, their dish is judged by a panel of three judges. Whoever has the worst dish gets “chopped.” The last one standing is the “Chopped Champion” and wins $10,000! So a few years ago we were inspired to try our own Chopped competition.
My son, Alec, wanted to be the host and came up with the ingredients for our baskets. In the first round, we were all given a box with tortilla shells, horseradish, persimmons, and a can of pears. We had 30 minutes to come up with something edible! All of us, except my son, Zachary, prepared a variation of chips and salsa. Zach on the other hand made a meatless taco with horseradish in place of sour cream. Needless to say, Zach was chopped because Alec took one bite of his taco and spit it out.
Then it was down to three of us. My husband, Dan won the round, so he got to have Zach as a helper. In the next round, we had canned chicken, bacon, Chocolate Frosted Flakes, and this weird cranberry/granola crunch. I couldn’t think of anything to make for awhile, except for mashed potatoes and I added cheese and the bacon. Then I heated up the chicken with some spices. I reduced the Chocolate Frosted Flakes with some water and balsamic vinegar and strained it to make a dressing (I added olive oil when it cooled down). Then I put my dressing on spinach leaves with the cranberry granola. My daughter, Emma, made a salad with all the ingredients mixed together with some dressing added. Dan cleverly thought up making a chicken potpie with the food items we were given. After our cooking time was over, Alec decided that Emma would be chopped and Dan won round 2. Well, this was most disappointing because I do most of the cooking in our house and consider it a hobby of mine.
Round 3 came around putting Dan and I against each other, and I was determined to beat him! Zach was Dan’s helper and Emma was mine. We were given chocolate bars, fortune cookies, and chopped pecans. My fourth ingredient was crushed saltine crackers and since Dan won the second round, he got Rice Crispies! Emma and I made chocolate covered fortune cookies sprinkled with pecans. We also made some “cookies” by melting the chocolate bar and adding the crushed crackers and some pecans. Then we hardened them in the freezer (they were surprisingly good). Dan and Zachary made a variation on Rice Crispy treats. They combined the Rice Crispies and crushed fortune cookies with melted marshmallows. After hardening in the freezer, they topped them off with the pecans and some chocolate shavings. This round I actually won!!! But needless to say my son chopped me because his dad did better over all.
My family and I had a great time having our own variation of Chopped. Look through what ingredients you have on hand and be creative. If you try your own Chopped, please tell me what food items you used and what dishes you came up with. And by the way, our champion won a dollar!
Oil and Shine 
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