A Visit From Kelly and Seth

 We just LOVE when we have visitors, especially when it's family. We had such a great time with my niece Kelly and her husband Seth. Although, Hunter was recovering from his 3 week bout of RSV and was still confined to the house. We got to spend a lot of time, playing and cooking with Seth and Kelly. They had a few good days of decent weather and were able to get out to enjoy some of the popular sites that San Antonio has to offer. The Riverwalk, The Zoo, several of our Mexican restaurants.

 "Who was eating brownie batter, not me"

 One show that we all love to watch is "Chopped" on the Food Network. So on Sunday, we decided to play ourselves. The Boys against the Girls. Us girls were responsible for making the appetizer and dessert rounds, and the guys were in charge of the main course. With all the strange and new ingredients that were picked, all 3 courses turned out really good. (surprisingly)

 When Kelly and I opened up our basket of goodies that the guys had picked. We both just stood there for what seemed like 20 minutes, saying "What are we going to do with these nasty ingredients?"  The tasty items we were given were fennel, dried apricots, clams, and wabsi peas.  Really, what were the guys thinking, not only did we have to come up with something that resembled an appetizer but it also had to be edible. We felt like we were up against a brick wall. However, Kelly and I both have watched hours and hours of Food Network that we literally threw our ingredients into the pan with a little white wine and chicken stock and BAM.... a very tasty appetizer emerged !!!!

 Don't you wish you could have eaten this with us?

 Don't the guys look a little worried about what awaits them in the basket...... Only one could wish, Kelly and I picked much easier items than the boys did. ( just remember pay backs boys)

 Black Beans, Tomato Soup, Stew Meat, Shrimp and fresh spinach was the line up staring the boys in the face.The time given was One hour..... at the 50 minute mark Kelly, I and Hunter were gasping for air with all the smoke in the house..  Things got a little messy and smokey in the kitchen, but once the smoke cleared and dinner was on the table it was well worth the wait. Everything was very tasty. Good job guys !!!!

 It's been a week or so, and I don't remember exactly what everything was. I do know that they ground up the wasbi pea's from the appetizer course and coated the stew meat and then pan fried the pieces. They also whipped up a little tomato soup kind of sauce that was absolutely amazing. ( we even saved the extra and dipped our steak and lobster on Valentines Day in it)

Kelly and I were given two ingredients for dessert to work with. Dried Pineapple and spicy peanuts. So we created a banana split of sorts using ice cream sandwiches, banana's, homemade chocolate and caramel sauce, diced up pineapple and spicy peanuts. I must say, they were very tasty and great way to finish off a really fun and tasty dinner.