Christmas Cook-off 2013 (Final Meal and Results)

Christmas Cooking Challenge 2013

Round 4: Dinner

Our final meal had a long 3 hour preparation, which caused us to have an interim dinner, but was well-worth it in the end when we were gifted with homemade bread and a very finely marinated and corn-raised beef.

Jude got a little bored while the food was being prepared so he did a little light reading.

We also got into the Christmas spirit(s) and decided to dress festively.

The table-scape evolved throughout the evening and turned out pretty awesome.

The final dish was: Flat iron steak with arugula salad and lentils, maple oatmeal bread, and amaretto sour cocktail.

Maple oatmeal bread with maple worcestershire compound butter

Arugula Salad with grapefruit supremes, pomegranate seeds, maple candied almonds, and a maple worcestershire vinaigrette

Lentils with almonds, vegetables, and a worcestershire wine sauce

Pan-seared flat iron steak marinated in worcestershire, maple, ginger, soy, garlic, lemon juice, salt, and amaretto, served with a pan sauce of marinade, red wine, and butter

Maple amaretto sour with amaretto, bourbon, house sour mix (lemon and orange juice), maple syrup, beaten egg white, maple drizzle, maraschino cherry/lemon twist flag

The final dish was hearty and delicious. I had seconds of the bread.

Scully is tired of us.

Everyone voted and final results were tabulated. Total points were out of 140 and results were as follows:

3rd place: Liz (and Kip) with 108 points and 1st place in Presentation

2nd place: Greg (and Kevin) with 109 points and "best meat"

1st place: Marion (and Andrew) with 112 points and 1st place in Creativity and Taste

Specific results can be found at:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvXpVgy0xMeCdFhlQUV5N1pXN2JMQlVsbE13bDJFckE#gid=0 

Christmas Cook-off 2013 (3)

Christmas Cooking Challenge 2013

Round 3: Lunch

In signature timely fashion (bonus points) at exactly 2:00 PM, Greg and sous chef Kevin served us lunch. The "silent assassin", true to form, prepped and cooked silently with his sous for almost 2 hours as the rest of us sat around yelling ("someone turn off that cricket!") and arguing. 

We also lost one contestant, the elusive breakfast sous chef arrived late and half dead. Casey does not seem to mind.

The table-scape was a lovely non-Christmas theme, suspiciously lacking napkins of any kind. Otherwise, this was a fine meal.

The final dish, unofficially titled "All You Should Eat Lunch" was:

Sirloin hummus pocketless half-pita sandwich and fancy sauce, beer cheese roasted red pepper hummus soup with a Caesar salad cocktail (vodka, clamato juice, dash of tabasco, dash of worcestershire sauce, lime, sprig of romaine lettuce, and a rim garnished with parmesan cheese)

Ps. Worcestershire has to be the hardest word in the universe to spell. Note to self: Do not include this ingredient in the palate test next time.

Christmas Cook-off 2013 (2)

Christmas Cooking Challenge 2013

Round 2: (late) Breakfast

Our first competitive meal of the 2013 season was breakfast, made by Liz and her absentee sous chef, Kip (who did not even make it in time for the meal). He was replaced by Danika in the kitchen.

Kitchen preparations were surprisingly complex, despite the simple dish. It must have been the lack of sous chef that made the whole situation so elaborate. Or perhaps the 2 hour long gossipy phone call despite having the entire family in town...

This is what the table looked like at 9AM.

This is what the table looked like at 11AM.

(note the exact same-ness)

Everyone was quite anxious.

The final dish was: 

Baked eggs in hummus with garlic aioli drizzle

Biscuit with cran-raspberry spread

Poinsettia cocktail (triple sec, cranberry juice, champagne, cranberry bitters)

Let the voting begin!

Christmas Cook-off 2013

Christmas Cooking Challenge 2013

Round 1: Palate Test (Dammit)

This year's challenge started off a bit differently. We decided to do a palate test (officiated by yours truly) to kick off the festivities. Specifics were as follows:

1. Meghan purchases and prepares 20 ingredients for the palate test. 

2. The ingredients are divided into 4 rounds of 5 ingredients.

3. Tasting stations include small plate, shot glass, tiny spoon, palate cleansing beverage, and blindfold

4. Participants are blind-folded and given ingredients via hand, spoon, or shot glass

5. Participants record guesses on post-it notes (which are not usually for note-making). After every 5 ingredients they are told how many guesses were correct (but not which guesses).

                        

6. Kip quits after making many guesses of "disgusting" and "more disgusting" which yield no points and joins in on the hilarity of watching this spectacle.

7. Maddy leaves the room to lay on her ottoman because it is too noisy.

8. Final scores are tabulated and correct answers are shared. 

9. Winners are determined and sous chefs/meals are chosen.

10 Incorrect guesses are recorded and added to menus. (All items guessed incorrectly must be used in competition dish.)

Winners are:

1. Marion- she chose Andrew as her sous chef and dinner as her meal 

(worcestershire sauce, maple syrup, almonds)

2. Greg- he chose Kevin as his sous chef and lunch as his meal

(worcestershire sauce, garlic puree, hummus)

3. Liz- she received Kip as her sous chef and got breakfast as her meal

(hummus, mayonaise, canned cranberry sauce)

Draft Menu

Breakfast

Baked eggs in hummus, biscuits with sweet savory spread and poinsettias (cocktail)

Lunch

Steak and hummus sandwich with hummus soup and caesar salad (cocktail)

Dinner

Arugula salad with almonds and maple vinaigrette, baked lentil-ly dish, marinated flank steak, perhaps bread, and amaretto sours (cocktail)

Stay tuned for the competition and results. I will post each meal and a final result.