Chopped Basket 1

Chopped is a TV show on the Food Network in which 4 chefs compete for $10,000. They get a basket with all kinds of crazy foods in it and have to make a coherent dish out of it.

I thought this would be fun to do. So I got a Chopped Basket for Erik. It contained:

• Tilapia
• A pomegranate
• Crunchy potato topping
• An onion
• Mike & Ike candy

Now you may look at that list and say "HUH?" But that is exactly the kind of crazy things in chopped baskets on the show (well maybe not exactly - they might have squid and chocolate covered raisins but believe me the combinations are weird).

Erik's chopped basket

 Erik transformed this odd assortment of food into a really good dish. He encrusted the tilapia with a mixture of onion, potato topping, and crushed up gold fish crackers (yes this is Erik remember).  Then he made a sauce out of pomegranate seeds and Mike&Ikes. He put this mixture in refrigerated crescent roll dough to make a side dish. Then garnished the plate with more of the sauce. 

The sauce was surprisingly good. The whole dish was actually delicious. The tilapia needed a little more salt but other than that I thought it was great!  I am looking forward to doing more chopped baskets - this was fun!

Erik's dish plated for us!

On Friday Erik's poison ivy had gotten so bad that his right eye was swollen shut. It was all over his face and hands and he had trouble doing simple tasks with his hands.  This was not good.

So on Saturday I pulled the car out of the driveway to go to church and the tire blew.  Bummer. I drove it back into the garage slowly and carefully. Erik really couldn't change the tire because of his horrible poison ivy. And I can't budge those lug nuts to save my life (Gina != strong)

So Erik took the other car to the emergency room and got a steroid injection in his butt. Yes his butt. His poison ivy was so bad they couldn't put it in his arm because the dose was too strong. Wow! Now he is on steroid pills for 15 days. He looks and feels so much better. His hands hurt but today we were able to put the spare tire on the car.  It required some fancy maneuvering for both of us since his hands still hurt but he was able to loosen the lug nuts enough for me to get them off.  Hopefully they are tight enough to drive the spare to the tire place!

Note: we did the chopped basket last weekend before the poison ivy attack

93 points on quiddler today!