Chopped Birthday Party

This year for my birthday I decided I wanted an interactive event so I had a Chopped themed birthday party.  Have you ever watched Chopped on the Food Network?  It's pretty easy to get addicted.

We modified the format based on the fact that I only have one kitchen at my house and am not a professional chef.  We had 2 teams of three and both made a main dish.  We each had separate secret ingredients and took turns.  

Team 1 aka Team Gingersnaps- My Team.  I had been mentally preparing all week and was ready for anything.  Until the second I opened my basket.  I froze.  

Secret Ingredients - Cooked rotisserie chicken, pineapple, baby potatoes, and ginger snaps.  

After a brief discussion we decided to grill the pineapple, add some bbq sauce to the chicken, roast the potatoes and figure out the ginger snaps later.  After the most intense 40 minutes of my life we presented our dish.

Final Dish - BBQ chicken over baby potatoes roasted (and microwaved) with garlic, cumin and chili powder between grilled pineapple with a gingersnap butter glaze.  We had such high hopes for our plating but ended up being a bit rushed while also enduring tons of smack talk from the other team.    

Team 2 aka Eat My Grits - The OTHER team. 

Secret Ingredients - Raw organic chicken breasts, asparagus, pre-cut butternut squash, and jalapeno pepper jelly.  

Final Dish - Spinach and Goat Cheese stuffed chicken breasts with asparagus over a butternut squash, parmesan cheese and grit puree with a balsamic jalapeno jelly glaze.  I knew we were doomed when I caught my first glimpse of those stuffed chicken breast.  

Team Gingersnap - In my heart, this is the most beautiful  Chopped dish ever created because it was made with love and ginger snaps.

Team Eat My Grits - I guess if you favor a classically beautiful southern dish, you may think this looks good.  Although it's missing the beauty of the bbq sauce smears.  

Even though Team Ginger Snaps suffered a crushing defeat, this event was very fun.  My husband did a great job organizing it and playing the role of Ted.  He purchased tons of "pantry" items so we had things to use in our creations and he created a numerical voting system so we could all vote for each other.  We also had 3 "show" judges who gave feedback.  

"Ted"

Intensity

Ok, Team Eat My Grits, we'll see you at Chopped - The Ultimate Revenge (after I take some courses at my local community college culinary school).