This past weekend was the Aetna Healthy Food Fight Cook-off in Dallas at the State Fair. My first public cooking experience! Woohoo! I had a great time. Lucas and his mom were so kind to document the day for me...
At my station, ready to cook! I used every last leaf from that basil plant.
Being interviewed by the host before we started cooking.
Toasting up some almonds.
Floating baby!
More interviewing.
Shelling some edamame...lots and lots of it. At home, I used already shelled edamame, but they weren't able to find it for the cook-off. After shelling the whole bag, I was still 1/3 cup short!
Lincoln hanging out while I cook.
Man, those are some cute kids.
Presenting the finished dish to the judges. Pretty sure I should have done much more talking then I actually did...that giant camera there was a little unnerving.
The presentation.
I'm glad I had the opportunity to participate. It was a lot of fun and definitely something that was on my bucket list (although, it has now been revised to WIN a cook-off...). I'm hoping next year that voting will not be a part of the scoring process. I went in knowing I didn't have the numbers in the voting category to have a chance to win (it was a ridiculous 25% of the final score), but am glad I went anyway. Thanks to everyone who voted, wished me luck, drove 7 hours in a car with 2 children, attended the State Fair on a hot and humid day with about a million other people, and otherwise supported me. I appreciate you :)
