IRON CHEF!

We unveil the ingredient!

Today's theme is PUMPKIN!

 Don't know what I am talking about - Watch this!

Yes, this show is for real.  And Yes, we did Iron Chef in real life.

RULES

(1) Iron Chef Boys vs. Iron Chef Girls 

          Boys prepare (a) an appetizer and (b) dessert  

          Girls prepare (a) a main dish and (b) a drink

(2) Team members can communicate with each other via email/phone/teleportation device, etc. as much as they'd like before Saturday evening
(3) The dishes must be completed AND plated in 1 1/2 hours or less
(4)  Each recipe must be baked from scratch - no "pre-made" ingredients may be used
(5) Each team must select a "presenter" to describe the dish and its components to the taste testers
(6) Points will be awarded by the opposing team as follows - (Out of 20 points)

          10 points awarded for pumpkin taste

          5 points awarded for presentation

          5 points awarded for originality  

Gooooooo Iron Chef Pumpkin teams!

IRON CHEF BOYS

(McKay loves to whistle while he works)

IRON CHEF GIRLS

We did this right after our ward's trunk or treat so I was still dressed up. Can you tell who McKay and I were for Halloween?

The REAL IRON CHEF way to cut a pumpkin.

McKay's techniques were pretty good too.

IRON CHEF BOYS 

Appetizer - Pumpkin Pico de Gallo

Dessert - Pumpkin All Spice Cupcakes

(These were so ridiculously good, wait, I can't believe I just complimented the enemy, NO!)

IRON CHEF GIRLS

Drink - Spiced Pumpkin Cider Smoothie

Main Course - Creamy Pumpkin Soup

(Ever wonder what happened to our pumpkin?  Well here it is!)

Why, Yeeeees, the IRON CHEF BOYS presented their food with upper-crust British accents.  We ladies may have given them more points because of it.

Tasting...

We really enjoyed our first Iron Chef battle. 
Now, the verdict.  
Both teams fought bravely and stretched their culinary horizons, but who takes it, who's cuisine reins supreme?

IRON CHEF BOYS!
There was much rejoicing and the boys basked in their glory for quite some time!  

We did, however, have one minor casualty.  McKay got a steam burn from the microwave.  When I asked McKay what he learned from this experience he said,
"Never to cook in the kitchen again!"    

(That face was so tragic that I had to go kiss it right after this picture!)

 Oh, and I had to include this adorable Haunted Gingerbread House made by our friends.  What a fun idea, huh?  McKay and I are definitely making one for next year!  So Cute Carolyn!

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.

(Some days I feel like this when my Jedi comes to the rescue.)

As a child our family lived on the main drag of trick or treating territory, so Halloween has always been a big deal to me.  We would keep tally of the trick or treaters that came to our house and then pass out a king-size candy bar to every 100th trick or treater.  One year we had 3 thousand trick or treaters!  Yea, my parents were pretty much broke every year around Halloween time! 

So, this whole trunk or treating business is new to me and I was a little skeptical... 

The Halloween Gang

We used the force and got my brother to participate by putting McKay's Jedi Cloak on him, then gathered other Star Wars fans.  (By the way, McKay made his whole costume in high school from scratch!  He did an awesome job!  And the lightsabers he assembled just in time for Halloween.  You can read about that if you click here.)

 McKay was not wanting to share his lightsabers, so I stole one while distracting him.

Then celebrated!

The cuteness factor of the kids in our ward was kind of ridiculous so I had to include a few.

Remember little FUNgebob!

McKay always steals this child during church.

 As you can see, McKay is pretty adorable with him.

Below are the costumes we thought were just awesome!

Zorro and his Spanish Rose

The Incredibles!

Nintendo's Duck Hunt

Up

Marge Simpson

 They even had games for the kids!  Ok, I'm sold.  Trunk or treating is the coolest!  Way better than just trick or treating!

 The best part! - Passing out the candy!  We riddled off Star Wars quotes throughout, such as

"the force is strong with this one" or "it's a trap!"  Yea, we are kind of nerds.

 Some of the other trunks

 I love my little Jedi!

But that's not all folks!!!  This post got way too long so stay tuned to see what we did later that night!

FUNgebob!

McKay and I were hesitant to go to the pumpkin patch by ourselves without a kid, so we had one...

...on loan, of course.  We considered snatching a child from the park or something, but figured we might get in trouble, so opted for borrowing instead.  I babysit this little guy every once and a while and he is super fun!  As established previously, McKay is very good with kids, so my heart was melting a little bit here.  (One day, I kept telling myself)

It definitely made the pumpkin patch experience more of a treat for us.  This is the one McKay and I picked out.

Blond-haired, blue-eyed kid - yea, I know, he kind of looks like he could be ours.  Apparently you are not the only one that thinks this because we get it all the time when we are out with him.  I've just started saying thank you when people comment on "how cute your boy is".

 And isn't he though!

When we started carving our pumpkins I asked him what he wanted his to be.  He thought for a second, but only a second, then his eyebrows went up, his eyes got big, and he yelled "FUNgebob!" while throwing his hands up in the air and dancing around.  And so it became FUNgebob!

Happy Trick or Treating!

Stay tuned to see what our pumpkin turns into....wooooo

Tis the Season for Lightsabers

While McKay was at the academy, (despite him being there and me being in Utah) we would often embark on adventures together by phone.  So, once upon a day McKay called me up and here is sort of how it went:

McKay: Marielle, I need to make a lightsaber.  

Marielle: Oh really!  And why is that dear?

McKay: Well, because every REAL Jedi makes his own lightsaber.  

Marielle: ...and you want to be a REAL Jedi?

McKay: YES! So....you want to come to Home Depot with me then?  

Marielle: Of course, why do you have to go there though?

McKay: Because that is where I'll find the goods!

Marielle: Well then, let's do it!

Thus began our phone date and 2 hours later McKay sent me this picture:

This lightsaber is now prominently displayed in our apartment and every man that enters in begins to salivate when they see it.  One such man includes our rad friend JD.  For his birthday McKay took him on a shopping date so he too could become a REAL Jedi.

JD's wife, Rachel and I came along for the date, figuring we could pick up some super glue and maybe pick out a festive plant or something...which we did.

(I love ornamental peppers, or really any small foods for that matter!)
While our lovely little Jedi men took their sweet time rummaging through bolts of all sorts and the plumping aisle, Rachel and I started getting very bored, but more importantly, very hungry.  It was past noon and we had been there for over an hour and a half!

I attribute the next few photos to very low blood sugar and slight mental retardation brought on by prolonged exposure to Home Depot.

(We really considered buying these things.  Yea, I know, we were pretty bad off!  Our last few braincells in action!)

Well, hello there sassy little lady!  

Miss Adorable Face here rounded out the last half hour of our play time bringing the total time at Home Depot to 2 hours!

Then began the real fun for the boys as they put together their lightsabers.

I love the concentration on that face.  

It's like big boy Lego time with welders and man stuff!

We noticed the sister missionaries passing by and invited them up to join in on the fun.  They're kind of awesome if you can't tell!

The finished product.  McKay even made me one!  Now that is true love.

Bring it on Halloween!

May the force be with you!