Cook-off

For many years my siblings and some aunts and uncles and I have gathered at my parents house on Memorial Day to watch the town’s parade.  Over the years the parade has gone down hill but we have still supported their town and enjoyed some hot dogs and hamburgers.

This year we knew it would be different.  There would be no parade and no big gathering to kick off summer.  We decided we still needed a plan to make the day memorable.

So a cook-off between my sister, my sister-in-law and myself was decided upon.  That was the extent of our planning though.  We didn’t decide who would score the food.  We didn’t decide the scoring system.  We didn’t even plan what we would each bringing.

But surprisingly we all showed up with food…  I brought an appetizer.  My sister-in-law brought a pasta salad.  My sister brought a dessert.

Now to figure out the rest.

“Dad… you are the judge today.  No one else needs to vote.  Rate this appetizer,” I said handing my dad a plate.

“Mr. Wetmore… rate this pasta salad (forget about the fact that somehow it got slightly frozen in the frig overnight somehow).”

“Dad…here’s the last course to rank.”

As we enjoyed our meal we made comments about what we liked or would change about the new recipes we had tried to make.  We each were our own critics.

“Ok… so who’s the winner?  Who gets the prize I brought,” Amanda exclaimed as we finished eating.

“Well… I’d eat it all again.  It was all really good.  But obviously I love my sweets so Tori is the winner!”

And with that our first (maybe annual) cook-off was complete!