Foto Friday--Chopped!

Summer--whew!  The first two weeks have FLOWN by.

Lily was at our neighbor's house this week when she called home and asked if six kids could come home with her and play chalk.  Chalk?  She's headed to seventh grade and this seemed like an odd request, but maybe they had discovered something awesome on Pinterest?  So I said sure.

I couldn't have been more wrong about their intentions.

Have you ever seen the show Chopped?  I hadn't even heard of it (my culinary sister is probably cringing to her bones right now).  I guess it's a show where there are three mystery ingredients given to the contestant chefs and they have to come up with an entree, a dessert, and  . . .  a drink, I think.  This is the game they wanted to play.

Hmmmm.  My kitchen was spotless at the moment, the floor newly swept and mopped.  Were they sure they didn't want to swim or something else?  Filled with Lily's promises that they would clean EVERYTHING, including sweeping and mopping, I hesitantly gave in to their demands.

It was two hours of sheer commotion and fun.  They had a blast.

Two rounds played:  First round one of the ingredients was hot dogs.  (I keep a gourmet kitchen, you know.)

 These two were licking this plate and when I asked them what it was, they answered, "MMmmm.  Hot dog juice."  Ewwww.

At least that's what I thought until I saw this skillet:

 

Sauteed onions and sliced dogs then topped with just a touch of grated cheese.  I was impressed.

 

Emily really got into the whole process.  This smoothie included canned peaches, kiwi, yogurt, and I don't know what else.  It was delish.  Or so I heard.

 The kitchen looked like this midway through the second round, where the best concoction was graham crackers smothered with melted chocolate chips and melted starlight mints (like those at Sonic) that turned back into fragile strings of mint across the top.  This was the winner of the afternoon in my book.

These were the judges, and they enjoyed their task a little too much if you ask me!

True to their word, the dishes were loaded into the dishwasher, the counters were scrubbed and the floor was swept.  I was amazed.

And I guess I'll have to let them do it again sometime soon.  I took an extensive trip to Sam's Club today, so maybe we'd have better ingredients this time!