February Cook Off

It all started last month with a Creme Brulee Cook Off and a bunch of friends. We decided to have our own monthly cook off competitions and this month was pupus (appetizers). Boy did we have some amazing and delish foods to savor! We had many ties as prizes were being awarded at the end of the evening in the categories of Taste, Eatability, Presentation, and Best Overall.

Bacon Wrapped Mahi Mahi - It won best presentation and best eatability

Spring Rolls and Peanut Sauce - Best Taste

Sun Dried Tomato Hummus -Best Eatability



These are the Bacon Wrapped Dates sutffed with Goat Cheese and Almonds that I made and contributed to the party. They tied in 2 categories Best Eatability and Best Presentation and they took the big prize of Best Overall! They are super easy and amazingly delicious. Much to my enjoyment the complimenting bowl made of bacon as a tea light holder that I fashioned was the talk of the evening! Also I didn't have a platter that I thought we do justice, so I used a plain black picture frame and printed out a fun mustache paper to go in it. Only a couple people noticed the staches and were entertained by thier presence.

Week 31: Horrible looking deliciousness (Nov. 7-13)

I am not much for scary movies, in fact I flinch at previews of scary movies, but I was willing to give one a go to spend time with friends. A friend recently received his copy of The Human Centipede and we decided to have a themed party. The movie is quite graphic and I actually don't recommend it at all! But in an effort to make it a themed party a couple of us came across a recipe that looks intestine like, but modified it to make it healthier and gluten-free. We think ours turned out very realistic looking and I just couldn't get over how horrible it looked. Every guest that walked it was "wowed" but its disgusting appearance! We ended up coming up with our own filling (chicken, a bunch of veggies, sweet chili sauce and more) then overlapped spring roll wrappers and stuffed our intestine. I attempted to paint the blood (with food coloring) on the intestines, but realized I am not good at veins and so FS took over with some help from LC and they finished it out. I love the see through look of the spring roll wrappers and it was DELICIOUS!! I can't wait until our next themed party.

Our spring roll intestines. Stretched out it was 8 feet long.

Week 4: 2 more for a total of 3 new things

So I wasn't sure what I was going to do this week for my new experience. It wasn't even until I was in the tap class Wednesday night that I realized that tap would be my experience for the week. It is funny how things fall into our laps; 3 days ago I had nothing and now I have 3 for the week.

#1 Tap class (BTW the second tap class was one of the most FRUSTRATING hours in a long time, why can'y everything come naturally to me!!)

#2 BINGO - I have never played grown up bingo before. When I was young I played with an at home set I got from Santa one year and have played academic versions with my students, but to play with a bunch of competitive adults was something totally new for me. I loved that I had to use a dotter and each game had a different configuration to try and win. The only thing that would have made the experience even better would have been if I could have yelled "BINGO" and taken home some dough.

#3 Pandanus Fruit - I don't get to try new foods very often on my little island, but I was able to try an indeginous fruit called pandanus. It is eaten much like sugar cane, where one just chews on it letting the juice seep out and the fiberous pulp gets spit out. It wasn't quite as sweet as sugar cane, but has just the right amount of sweetness as it goes down.