Chopped (Family Style)

One of my favorite things about my family is how crazy and weird and...awesome we are! Here's an example of what I mean:

Last week, Tyler, Kayla, Aaron, and I were eating dinner and trying to decide what to do that evening. Aaron and I wanted to go bowling. Tyler and Kayla wanted to play laser tag. Naturally, we ended up doing something completely different and completely new...Chopped (Family Style).

Now, if any of you have not seen the t.v. show Chopped on Food Network, I will explain what goes on. There are four contestants and each of the contestants has a picnic basket filled with four different ingredients. They all open the baskets at once and have to make different dished based on the "mystery ingredients."

So, the four of us headed to the grocery store where we each were allowed to choose one item for our basket that might be incorporated into a dessert. We each took an oath (not really, but I wouldn't have been surprised if we had) not to spy on what anyone else was choosing, and headed back to our apartment to start the challenge.

Now, since we are operating in one of the tiniest kitchens known to man, and since you can barely get four people into it without someone accidentally "moon landing" or chest bumping into someone else, we changed the rules to our Chopped challenge. After discovering what was in the basket, we would draw for positions in the kitchen line-up (who cooks first, second, third, and fourth) and each person would get three minutes to do whatever they could with the ingredients (plus the use of our pantry and refrigerator) but could not communicate with each other what we were thinking. What was in our basket?...

Giant flavored marshmallows, pie crusts, Cookie Crisp (or Crispy Cookie Cereal...Chopped isn't allowed to use brand names), and coconuts. So, who purchased what? If anyone has read Heckedy Peg you'll understand that the following feels like I'm reciting food children (don't get it...READ HECKEDY PEG!): Aaron brought giant marshmallows; Erin brought pie crusts; Kayla brought Cookie Crisp; and Tyler brought coconuts!

So the cooking/baking (whatever you want to call it...not sure what I would call what we did) commenced! After about four rounds of each of us having a chance to completely screw everything up, we finally plated our masterpiece!

Half a Ding Dong with an umbrella (nice touch Kayla) next to a mini Cookie Crisp, marshmallow, and coconut milk pie (aka "gruel cake") on a bed of caramel sauce and topped with cinnamon-sugar sprinkles.

 Amazingly enough the kitchen didn't burn down, and our "gruel cakes" tasted better than the stale Ding Dongs on the plate! What's next??? Chopped Family Style: MAIN DISH!!! Don't worry, we don't invite people over for these...unless someone wants to volunteer to be a guest judge!?!