Party!

We went to an amazing, fabulous, sad party on Saturday.  The going away party for Libby, Brian and JJ!  Libby was worrying about what to do with all the food in her cupboards.  The two of us came up with the idea of doing a Chopped style cooking contest!  That way they could easily provide food for the party with the ingredients they already had.  Brian was not on board with us two crazies.

But the next weekend Lib/Brian split the group into three teams and each team got a box of mystery ingredients + one bottle of alcohol to make a mixed drink with.  Like Chopped we could use anything in the pantry.  They have an amazing bunch of friends so let's just say everyone was ready to go and super competitive- it was crazy fun!  Brian said afterwards that even he thought it was fun and the food turned out much better than expected.
The results are below.

A couple of disclaimers:  The photos are from the iPhone- sorry!  And sorry to Lib and Brian for all the photos of you eating!

Two of the teams cooking.  Thankfully Libby's neighbors are good friends so Team 2 was down in their kitchen!

Box #1- Heat and Serve Pot Roast, Black Beans, Rice, Pomegranate and White Merlot

Team Members- Krista, Andy, Mary, and Chris

Our Pot Roast with Pomegranate White Merlot Reduction and Mexican Beans and Rice.  

And you can see how wonderful our drink was.  

Apparently you can't make white merlot better by adding club soda, lime and pomegranate!

I accused Libby of sabotaging us with that, but apparently she couldn't bear to dump a bottle of wine from Thanksgiving down the sink.  So thank you Joy for leaving that behind and contributing to our loss!

Team #2's box- Pasta, BBQ baked beans, canned green olives, canned pineapple and tequila.

Team Members- Michael, Dave, Jamie

They made pasta with tomato and olive sauce and crostini with beans, olives, and cheese.  

Their drink was a margarita with pineapple juice and grilled pineapple- my hubby's creation.

Lastly, Team #3.  Box- Ground Beef, Pasta, Onion, Apples and Kahlua.

Team Members- Renee, Michelle, and Alan. 

They made cheesy bowtie pasta, baked apples with cinnamon/sugar and meatloaf.  Their drink was a black russian- Kahlua and Vodka- let's just say it also was not a success.

And the winner was- Team #2!  I'm guessing the drink was the real winner, here : ) I don't care what anyone else says their crostini was not good.

 Team #1's downfall was that our drink was nasty and mexican beans/rice don't go with pomegranate pot roast.

Team #3's downfall was that they didn't realize meat loaf took so long to cook so it came out an hour after the rest of the dish was served plus none of their components went together!  

In their defense the meat loaf was really good even if they cheated and used a recipe for it!  

And believe it or not we ate up almost all the food we made plus some safety pasta salad Libby made from her cupboard ingredients.

 The next morning we went to real breakfast- chicken and waffles San Diego style.

And the BLT Mary- bacon in a bloody mary- strangely delicious.