Date Night- Chopped

So recently Andrew and I got into a show called "Chopped." Four chefs are given a basketful of random ingredients that they have to incorporate into a dish in a short amount of time. After each round one of the chefs gets chopped. Anyway, because of this show and another culinary show that we watched for awhile we thought it would be fun to let our creative juices flow in the kitchen.

We decided to work together rather than compete and we gave ourselves one hour to complete three dishes in. We made an appetizer, a drink, and a dessert. After we started our time we randomly drew out of a hat our ingredients. Appetizer- Carrots; Drink- Soy Sauce (gag!); and Dessert- Cauliflower.

We decided to saute the carrots with some zucchini in olive oil. We added parsley, onion powder, and oregano and then topped it off with parmesean cheese. Pretty safe but it turned out well.

You know how sometimes you go to a Chinese place and the sauce for the egg roll or lettuce wrap is so good you just want to drink it? Actually the only person I know that has ever felt that way is Andrew and this was our "inspiration" for our drink. We decided that we put rice vinegar with the soy sauce. It needed a more drinkable flavor so we decided to do a fruity-slushy drink. We ended up with ice, nectarine, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, a little ginger, and more sugar. It tasted ok.

We decided that since cauliflower looks like mashed potatoes we could use it to make doughnuts. You know like spudnuts? Any connection was good enough for us because cauliflower and dessert don't seem to go together. So we tried to concoct a very small amount of batter. Then we put carmel frosting with it (because we already had some...) It turned out pretty much how you think cauliflower in a doughnut with carmel frosting would.

So to sum it up, I would definately say this date idea is only for those with strong stomachs. Or else give yourself really simple ingredients that go good in everything. Like sugar & chocolate. It was fun to try this once but I don't think our stomachs would be able to handle round 2. We definately would have been chopped.

Word Roundup

So as I have mentioned we usually have date night at home and as cheaply as possible. That's just what works for us because of our little family right now. Because of that we have the "opportunity" to get creative so we aren't just watching a movie together every Friday night. My sister-in-law told me I should start a blog with the ideas we come up with but I don't think I have time for that so I will just include an occasional date night idea that we have fun with.

This idea is actually a website: Word Roundup It's just a silly game but we love to play it together. When we do this it usually is followed up with a movie or something...

Tucker's smile

This is what Tucker does when we ask him to smile for a picture. It always makes us laugh. I think he thinks that a smile has more to do with your eyes than your mouth. Oh well. Candid shots are better anyway-right?

Thompson Family Reunion

We had a lot of fun with family at the Thompson family reunion. I rarely remembered to take pictures but some of the highlights were: finding a crawdad at a park, talking with Grandma Call, playing with Nate's kinect, going shopping with the women (for me), watching the kids get so excited just to wash windows, and watching Andrew do the "impossible" and crack a raw egg by squeezing it (which consequently exploded on the floor & Grandma). As always there was good food and games. Fishing. We lasted a few minutes before Tucker & Adelia decided they would rather play on a playground that was nearby.

Having fun at the pool with cousins & Nan