Cooking & Competing From Home
It’s been a weird time. Instead of back-to-back weekends of setting up to cook in random parking lots, we’re somewhere around 80 days of staying home. After a few weeks of navigating distance learning, the kiddos (and the parents) are very happy to be embracing summer break. The hot weather is here and Nevada is starting to open back up. Although life is unlikely to snap right back to “normal,” I can safely say that we’re all ready to get out of the house!
We’re extremely grateful to have been happy and healthy at home throughout the last few months. We miss being out at competitions but fortunately, the rise of online competitions has helped lessen the blow. Organizations such as The Steak Cookoff Association, Kansas City Barbecue Society, The BBQ League, to name a few… have adapted to the times and rolled out various virtual cookoffs. We participated in a few of them and wanted to share about one our our favorites: The Stargazer Cast Iron #CABINFEVERCOOKOFF.
The contest was sweet & simple; for the duration of eight weeks, there would be an essential ingredient. We had to use that ingredient in a dish cooked with a skillet - any skillet. We’d cook a dish, post the recipe and photo, and cross our fingers. Every week, the Stargazer team chose a winner and at the end of it all the eight weekly winners went to a final round where the public got to vote for their favorite recipe.
Check out our #CABINFEVERCOOKOFF entries below…
Essential Ingredient: Biscuits
Week 1: Chicken & BisCuits
Essential Ingredient: Crackers
Week 2: Caramel Apple Crumble with Graham Cracker topping
Essential Ingredient: Green Veggies
Week 3: Zucchini CHips - pickled & fried
Essential Ingredient: Beef
Week 4: Seared Tri Tip with Grilled Pineapple
Essential Ingredient: Peanut Butter
Week 5: Peanut Butter & Jelly Pie
Week 6 Essential Ingredient was supposed to be Olives…
We fully intended to enter all eight weeks of this competition. However, upon getting out the olives we were dismayed to see that the sad, dusty little jar was best by 2018. 😳
Since we opted not to risk food poisoning, please enjoy this lovely stock photo of olives instead.
Essential Ingredient: Pork
Week 7 : Bacon-wrapped pork loin with Cheesy Bacon & Jalapeño Stuffing
Essential Ingredient: Beans
Smokey Maple Bourbon Beans
The Results…
After 8 weeks of competing with 7 entries submitted, we are excited to share that our Bean entry was a winner!!! Our Smokey Maple Bourbon Beans won the hearts and tastebuds of the Stargazer Cast Iron team. Not only did they dub us the Bean King & Queen, we also were awarded one of their gorgeous 10.5” Skillets, and Stargazer apron, and our recipe will be recreated and featured on their website!
It was a fun adventure - an awesome way to keep us cooking and competing from home! We loved seeing the various dishes and winners throughout the contest.
If you’re itching the compete, there are still lots of virtual cookoffs happening. Do a quick search or check out some of the links at the beginning of this post. We hope to see you out there cooking!