#anniversarychopped

Last week Mike and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary and he surprised me by planning our very own version of Chopped. If you are not familiar with the show, first of all, go turn on the Food Network and catch an episode. Second, the concept is pretty simple: there are four contestants, three courses, and four items in a "mystery" basket for each course.

The chefs must use every mystery basket ingredient in their dish, and at the end of each course, one of them gets chopped.

Mike adopted the same concept, except for the two of us, with no judging and no chopping. We were celebrating our anniversary after all (even though we were both after blood.)

He had me pick random numbers and he made a list of ingredients from past Chopped episodes, corresponding to a number. The day before, I picked 4 numbers at a time and he would unveil the ingredients for that course. It made the whole process even more fun because I got to think obsess about what I would make with watermelon, ground beef, polenta and granny smith apples (first course ingredients.)

I would absolutely do this again, it was so much fun. It would be great to do with friends and have actual judges too!

a few shots of the basket with ingredients (yes he even bought an actual basket!)

The dishes we each made are below. While we didn't determine a winner, Mike won out for...creativity...and I swept everything else :)

first course: watermelon, granny smith apples, ground beef and polenta

second course: country style pork ribs, beets, rutebega and 5 year aged gouda

last course: pitas, ritz cheese crackers, condensed milk and whiskey