You have been chopped!

We were sitting around the table Thursday evening, eating dinner, when Blaize asks, "Mom, when are we going to have a chopped?" We had talked about doing one before as a family, but never got around to it. For those of you who don't know what chopped is, it's a TV cooking show were the contestants are given three main ingredients they have to use, and have a certain time limit and three different rounds  in which they make a entree, appetizer or desert. They are then judged on their creations. We had thought it would be fun to do as a family, but always had a reason not to do so. Now, being snowed in, and having nothing on our schedule, we decided to do it then. We cleaned up supper and divvied out the teams. I (as I have mentioned in earlier blog posts) am not very good a cooking/baking, so I insisted I be with someone. I got put with papa. He isn't terribly experienced in the kitchen, but knows much more than I do. Hannah, and my mom were put on the other team, and Blaize was dubbed the official judge. Each team had one person go into the pantry and pick out the required main ingredients. They turned out being cashews, and canned chicken...yuck. My dad pulled me aside and said before the timer began, "Alright, Blaize is judging, so we can't use vegetables, or anything very healthy (or we would most definitely lose), so here's what we're going to do. We'll take filo dough (we had some left over from desert we brought our neighbor for his birthday) and take chicken and some kind of cheese and egg mixture and put it inside. (yes quite gourmet, I know!=) we'll wrap it in the filo dough and then roll it in a breadcrumb cashew mixture and fry it."
"Okay."
"Let's go."
The timer began, and I got out the can opener, the cheese, and eggs, while my dad chopped up the cashews. I also grabbed the breadcrumbs. We threw together the cashews, and breadcrumbs, then my dad pointed to the Rice Crispy cereal box and asked if I thought we should throw some in. I agreed. Meanwhile, Hannah and Mom were mixing together a cheese sauce for a chicken cashew pastry they were making.  The rest of the time passed rather uneventfully, except for the fact that we burnt two of the fried chicken cheese pockets we were making, and Mom dropped their pastry on the floor. When Blaize called time up,  we had a rather plain looking plate with a kind of grainy cream sauce to dip the pockets in, and sliced grapes (that was my idea, and besides, I didn't have time to think of anything creative. I glanced over at mom and Hannah's and it looked like something you would have served to you at a restaurant. Here, compare for yourselves:

yum!

gross looking.

"We have made for you today, sir," mom said "a cashew chicken creamy pastry, with a cheese cream sauce, and a lemonade orange drink."

Blaize tasted the pastry...and said it was "too flaky." Well isn't that the POINT of using filo dough?
Then he tasted the cream sauce, and said it was delicious. Then...well. Then came the drink.

Yup. That face sums it up. "It's way too sweet... and sour." he said.
"How can it be sweet, AND sour?" Hannah asked.
Blaize shrugged and said, "It just is."

Next came ours.

"We have made for you...a...a...hmm, well a kind of cheese and egg...and chicken patty...that's fried with a cashew/breadcrumb/rice crispy breading and has a side of grapes. Oh, and the sauce is a cream sauce and we used the left over breading in it." Papa said. Hannah and Mom were cracking up and Blaize was laughing hysterically. Then he tried it.

He liked it. Except for the cream sauce. He said "its really thick and grainy." Oops.

We all went into the living room while Blaize made up his mind. When he returned, he pulled off the a lid from the plate, and said,

"Team mom...you have been chopped." My dad and I high- fived each other. We won! I guess for a very picky eleven year old boy, simpler is better!