So it was on! My ingredients were apple juice, portabello mushrooms and feta cheese. I decided that apple juice would be the core inspiration and I began preparing a marinade for the mushrooms on Saturday. I used apple juice, soy sauce, honey, garlic powder, dijon mustard and lemon. That's me thuggin' as I put in the honey.
Now I'm not really familiar with cooking portabello mushrooms (or anything besides frozen burritos and mac 'n cheese), so Caitlin had to teach me how to clean them. They are a curious shroom.
Sometimes you just got to make it work in this business. I didn't have a lid for this container - but it was the perfect size. So I put a can of Diet Pepsi to hold the mushr0oms down in the sauce.
Cooking the shrooms I think I had the oven on too high...they darkened pretty fast and started looking a bit black.
This is me freakin' out because my homemade apple sauce with tomatoes and the marinade mixed in was ready, but my quinoa was not!! I prayed that the apple sauce wouldn't brown. Oh the perils and fears of cooking fresh!
As I mentioned, quinoa and cherry tomatoes were used. I was worried that the tomatoes would really clash with the soy sauce and apple sauce mixture, but I needed some color and a bit more substance.
The final product! I'll be honest, it turned out pretty awesome looking and parts of it were very, very tasty. The only problem is I forgot to incorporate the final ingredient until the very end - feta cheese. So I sprinkled some on top. I thought the judges (myself and Caitlin) were going to ream me for that...but it ended up really tasting well mixed in. The weak point was the quinoa - it was too sweet and too redundant with the mushroom that had all the same sauces in it. I didn't think the mushroom would absorb so much flavor, but it was really sweet and delicious. So I wish I had cooked the quinoa in just soy sauce and mixed the feta cheese into the warm quinoa. Oh well.
Caitlin was stuck with orange peppers, bananas and cinnamon. She thought that was mean to give her such hard ingredients, but I thought they sounded great together. Her mind thought and then sparkled with inspiration.
Some of her ingredients give you a hint as to what direction she was going.
Caitlin slaved over her dish, adding in sweet potatoes, onions, quinoa and coconut milk. In her video she presents the final product! Pretty stunning delivery if you consider she didn't even want to do the video in the first place.
Her final product! Truly amazing and flawless! We both agreed that mine had some amazing parts but overall hers didn't have any flaws like my quinoa, so technically she won based on taste. She gave me some extra points for this being only my second meal I have cooked since we were married in 2007.The question is - who won the presentation challenge? You decide in the comments!
5 comments:
Sorry Jeff, Caitlin wins in presentation too. Good attempt though. Im impressed (kinda). But what I wanna know is if Caitlin's dish topped the meal she made for us the day before I left. Cuz that would be pretty freakin hard to do.
P.S. Can u guys just like come back to Chicago already? I think you've been there long enough. We need u back
Jeff, I think you win because you incorporated the Diet Pepsi container top. That's a veteran move that shows not only that you're fearless in the kitchen, but also your ability to dominate shrooms that could have otherwise been floaters. Congrats.
You peeps are fun! We miss you guys! LOVE both presentations and both look delicious.
We watch that show too! You both did awesome. I think you should do a combo hubby/wife show like Down Home with the Neelys. :) Oh and Caitlin wins.
Jeff, I'm voting for you because nobody else but my husband did. Good work with the pepsi. Smart move.
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