Family Cooking Competition

   Mid November my sister Anna and her family came up North from the cities to visit with all the family up here. We had a wonderful time with them here and on Saturday evening we planned a cooking contest.

   There were 14 contestants divided into 5 teams. Each team had to cook enough food for 6 people (to feed the 30 that we would have for supper that night (all the family members in town at the time). We could use flour (white or wholewheat), sugar, honey, oil (olive, peanut and coconut), salt, pepper and all my herbs, spices and flavorings as desired but we each could only use $10 to buy the rest of the ingredients from the store. We were also allowed to buy eggs from my mom for 10 cents each and a chunk of cabbage for 50 cents. We went to the parking lot where people could shop at Dollar Tree and/or Marketplace (a local grocery store).  We have some food allergies in our group so no one was allowed to use Dairy, Corn, Peas, Tree Nuts or Shellfish. Many of the men that were not participating were working on wood so that meant that we had babies and toddlers to help us out for some of our shopping and cooking. :-) We picked Megan up from work at 4 pm and then it was time to begin. Supper had to be ready and nicely presented by 6:30 pm. As the contest began we drew for which cooking station we would get.

The team that I was on also had my nephew Gregory and Aaron. My nephew Theo (3 years old) was also on our team and helped primarily with the shopping. Gregory was in charge of the main dish, Aaron was in charge of a beverage and I took on the veggies and dessert though Aaron ended up doing the cake decorating as well. We got the center island station which included the oven, an electric skillet and a knock-off instapot. 

The next team I will introduce was my sister Anna (and sweet babe), Thomas and Mara. The station that they got was this side counter as well as a little counter on the left side of the stove. They got to use the left half of the stove-top, a small crock-pot and perhaps a waffle iron (which they didn't use).

The other half of the stovetop was used by Molly, Keren and Beatrice. They also got a waffle iron/griddle and the grill. They also had baby Lilly as an extra help. :-)

The 4th station was in my office where Martha, Megan and Heidi were at work. They had an electric skillet, a waffle iron and a griddle (they didn't use the griddle and actually gave it to the next team as that team was missing an item that they were supposed to have - it was forgotten). I believe that Netta (age 3) joined them for shopping.

The fifth station was in my laundry room where I had set up a table and they had the top of the washer and dryer to work on as well and a utility sink to use. I thought it was a kind of neat station but I guess it was a little lonely and the dryer wasn't super level for having a pan full of hot oil. They had an electric frying pan, a roaster pan and a griddle to use. This was our only team of two consisting of MollyBea and Margaret. Buirlen (3) and Beaulah (1) tried to help at times with this team.

 Many that had not worked on the cooking got signed up for judging. We were judged on:

• Being ready on time
• Staying within budget (everybody did though we did allow one team to have a small egg for 7 cents instead of the 10 that had been planned. They had cut it very close.)
• Presentation- how it looked.
• Cleanliness of area (we had to clean and wash up dishes as we went along.
• Fullness of the menu
• Kid Friendliness
• Healthfulness
• Taste
  

Here is Gregory finishing up a creamy sausage pasta dish. It was yummy!

The schedule wasn't too rushed. There was time for a little fun chit chat at times. All the teams were allowed to use the microwave if desired. They just had to limit their time to 5 minutes and then go to the back of the line if there was one.

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures at the time everybody had things set out prettily for presentation but here they are a little later...

This was our team's meal: Creamy Sausage Pasta (make with oat milk because of the need to be dairy free), Roasted Veggies, Raspberry, Lemon Slushy and Lemon Rasberry Layer Cake.

MollyBea and Margaret made Pot Stickers (with sauce), Chinese Fried Noodles and Crepes with Strawberry Sauce.

Anna, Mara and Thomas made Chicken and Pepper Fajitas with fresh tortillas (at least I think that is what they were) with fresh Pico Di Gallo and Sopapillas with honey sauce.

Keren, Molly and Beatrice made Chicken Curry, Chapatis and Raspberry Crepes.

Martha, Heidi and Megan made Egg Rolls and Waffle Brownies.

All of the food was quite delicious, everybody kept a pretty clean area, got done on time and stayed within budget. The meal was quite a success. We also made oodles of dirty dishes! We did work on them as we went and when Mom arrived she was fulltime dishwasher for a while and then after the meal she did many more dishes. 

The judges took a while to consider and come to a conclusion. But finally they were ready to announce. We were standing ready to hear the results.

The panel of judges and the videographer making announcements.

They declared our team the winner. I think it was largely because we had a drink too (which none of the rest did) which put us over the top. The Mexican food came in second and then I don't remember after that. Win or lose it was a fun evening and we ended up having a delicious supper!