Chopped Inspiration

C and I do not watch a lot of "quality television" or even "hits". We make totally questionable choices that we're often embarrassed to admit. I will say we both enjoy "Life" quite a bit, as well as "Paranormal State". I know, I know. Honestly not worth discussing most of the rest of it.

However, one other theme that carries throughout our TV-watching is FOOD. Food Network (almost anything but Emeril), anything on public access...anything food. Recently, there has been a new show introduced (at least to us), "Chopped." Stars Ted Allen as the host; you know, the food guy from "Queer Eye".

Premise is this: four competitors, three courses. A competitor's dish is on the "chopping block" each round. Trick is, they hand you a basket of random - and I mean random - ingredients that you must use.


Many times people get booted for not using all the ingredients, not cooking their food properly (there's a time limit for each round), lack of creativity, etc. Best ousting? Messed up and used salt instead of sugar in his dessert.

Well, this has been a long lead-in...my copywriter friends would likely scold me for that. Long story short, Chopped is a bit of an inspiration of late.

If you are one of the very few dear regular readers of this blog, you'll know that on occasion I post up a "Dinner Surprise" post. Tonight I really did a dinner surprise. But I forgot to take a photo of it. Ditto with yesterday.

Dinner surprise means...no recipe, no plan, seat of my pants.

Yesterday: Seared shrimp with fresh parsley and mint, butter and orange zest, served over Israeli couscous; side dish: sauteed cauliflower.

Today: Boneless pork chops, lightly grilled then baked with coconut milk, black beans, green onions, cumin, lime juice...and banana. Side dish: my homemade guacamole.

Verdict from C and O: thumbs up on both! Woo-hoo. G ate well too. I am so proud.

I don't really know what the point of this post is except to show that I can cook creatively. Yep, that's it.