Aluminum Chef - Fall Edition
( Aluminum Chef Pictures and Desciptions )We skipped a couple months on the food challenge this fall, so I'm just calling this one the Fall edition. This Aluminum Chef saw an additional Adult and a few additional kids in the junior division. It was also the first one that was held at my parents house during one of our family gatherings (and when my brother John was home visiting. So it received a great many more judges as well as a bunch of attention for the contestants. (and my family had more sweets than double the 20-30 of us present could ever have eaten).
Overall it was a fantastic showing from everybody. We haven't scheduled the next competition as we have to see how schedules allow, but the ingredients for the adults will be Fresh Garlic, Cottage Cheese and Salsa. I've never really eaten Cottage Cheese before so I don't know what I"m going to do with this one. I tried it in preparation for some ideas, and its essentially pretty vile. Currently I'm wondering if it can be made into a cheese sauce of some sort with the judicious application of heat and butter?
Thanks to everybody that came out as judges or contestants. I"m really excited to have been able to share this with my family as well.
This seemed like it would be a pretty easy challenge until we tried to think of ways to use brownies and pudding together and differently from each other. Then it became kind of a "what were we thinking?" The added pressure of doing it for a crowd for the first time and needing to make enough to feed a bunch of people was tricky. In the end I held up the whole group by a good hour in trying to get my dish ready. This time also saw the addition of my sister Michelle, who heard the challenge and decided that she had to get in on it for this one. In the Junior Division, we added James, our youngest competitor at 5 years old, and Dylan, my sister Michelle's 12 year old. Without any further Ado, I give you the Adult Entries:
Here is my Dish
( Make with the clicky for pictures and description )Total: 239
Secret Ingredients: Brownie, Pudding, Crackers
These are Deep Fried Chocolate Ginger Brownie dough balls with a frozen vanilla pudding core and graham cracker coating, sprinkled with powered sugar and topped with vanilla pudding.
This was what I nearly burned my house down for. In my experiments it was really difficult to get the pudding inside the brownies before deep frying, so in the end I made little balls of pudding and froze them and then inserted them into the half baked brownie batter, made it into balls and coated it in the graham cracker goodness and deep fried it. I added a powdered sugar and topped it off with a dollop of vanilla pudding. I think it tasted like a filled munchkin and loved it, but my use of ginger really turned my family off. (Philistines :-) )
This one earned the lowest grade, but everybody was very impressed at the work that went into it. Personally I was extremely pleased with the result, though I should have played to my audience better.
Next up was Jess' entry:
Total: 253
Secret Ingredients: Brownie, Pudding, Crackers
These are Raspberry Brownie Desert Cups with a Vanilla Pudding filling, whipped cream and animal cracker dusting on top.
These were a great idea, and Jess went through several incarnations before she found a way to make the vehicle work. The raspberry flavor really came through in the chocolate and set it apart from your standard brownie fare. I'm pretty sure she doctored the pudding and whipped cream as well, but its been too long and I can't remember now.
Next we have our newest contestant, my sister Michelle:
Total: 241
Secret Ingredients: Brownie, Pudding, Crackers
This is Brownie Layer Cake with a Yellow Cake Base, a half baked brownie layer, and a layer of chocolate pudding, with chocolate dipped animal crackers decorating the top.
Its a shame we didn't get a picture of this one when it was still in cake form, because it was really well put together. This is one of the servings though and it was a really tasty treat. I'm sure she had a bear of a time trying to layer half baked brownie batter on top of yellow cake.
She made a pretty great showing on her first run out and we were really happy to have her with us.
And last but not least, my brother in law, John, who had the winning entry this time out.
Total: 281
Secret Ingredients: Brownie, Pudding, Crackers
This is a Cheesecake Parfait, with layers of Cheesecake, and chocolate pudding with a shaved chocolate and a chocolate covered animal cracker layer with a blonde brownie surprise in the middle.
This might just be the best looking dish that has ever hit the Aluminum Chef Competition. John always excels at presentation, but this one was tops. Even better, it was delicious in its layers and I could have eaten it all day. Where all of the other food we had was rather rich and filling, this one just floated into our pallets.
There was no doubt he was the winner of this competition.
On the Juniors Division, we had a number of entries and my descriptions for them will be short and sweet so that I can get this posted. I don't honestly remember what the scores were, but I remember that Chris won and it was a pretty close race all around. .
This is James, my 5 year old nephew's (John's son) entry:
Fall Aluminum Chef Junior Division. James ' Entry:
Secret Ingredients: Fruit, Yogurt and Chocolate
This is James' beach them with blueberry's and chocolate forming the ocean tide and a graham cracker beach strewn with candy litter.
Next we have Wesley's entry:
Fall Aluminum Chef Junior Division. Wesley 's Entry:
Secret Ingredients: Fruit, Yogurt and Chocolate
This is a mixed fruit yogurt Dip with chocolate sauce.
Next we have Dylan, the other new contestant, and my sister Michelle's son.
Fall Aluminum Chef Junior Division.
Dylan 's Entry:
Secret Ingredients: Fruit, Yogurt and Chocolate
This is a Dylan's beach theme with Apple and chocolate graham cracker beach chairs sitting in the cocoa sand and being washed away in a yogurt tide.
Next we have Chris' Entry:
Fall Aluminum Chef Junior Division. Chris' Entry: This was the winner this month
Secret Ingredients: Fruit, Yogurt and Chocolate
This is a fruit- yogurt pie with a chocolate candy personality.
Next we have Tristan's Entry:
Fall Aluminum Chef Junior Division.
Tristan's Entry:
Secret Ingredients: Fruit, Yogurt and Chocolate
This is a fruit yogurt smoothy with animal cracker and chocolate chip blend.
Dan
( Read more... ) 
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
daiseejane's Friends Page
amused