the return of cousin chef

years ago, a tradition was started. my cousin aaron and his wife maricarmen, cousin laura, and cousin scottina had a cooking competition on one fateful new year's eve and "COUSIN CHEF" was born(modeled after "IRON CHEF AMERICA"). that first year, scott and aaron competed against each other with shrimp as the secret ingredient with only maricarmen and laura in attendance. scott was crowned "cousin chef" and aaron became "the chairman". since then it has become much more. so much more.

we hold the competitions once or twice a year. a secret ingredient is chosen by the chairman (who is the loser from the previous battle), the secret ingredient is revealed the week before the competition, judges are chosen, and a location is revealed. we've held battles at a mansion in lake forest (battle shrimp-winner scott followed by battle pineapple- again, winner scott), an awesome back yard deck (battle apple- winner laura), and an outdoor battle that involved a tricked out garage (battle mushroom- winner me, the knitter monkey). it's great fun and every battle gets slightly more elaborate.

we have had different trophies: the golden spatula, a crown of monkey nuts (don't ask), and a lovely fimo dough sculpture depicting all of the ingredients we have used.

the rules are tweaked with each competition. no recipes are allowed during the cooking, we are allowed 3 hours to complete our dishes, we are alone in creating our dishes- no sous chef allowed.3 judges vote. comments are made on ballots regarding taste, presentation, and originality.

and now it has come to this. i am pitted against a fierce challenger...scott's twin brother steve. our next challenge is on april 19. location and ingredient are still unknown. the taunting has started. for the past 2 days i have awoken to a morning email with a photo array and narrative of steve's triumphs in the kitchen. he is trying to beat me down, scare me, if you will. well, i will not have it. from now until the competition i will be recording my kitchen fun-time for steve to read and weep over. and now, for the first time ever, here is... WHAT I HAD FOR BREAKFAST!!!

ah...my trusty global knife and bamboo cutting board getting ready to dice up sweet onion, red pepper, and portabello mushrooms


a perfect julienne...


followed by the perfect dice...


melting unsalted butter and olive oil in the pan that helped me win the last cousin chef...


adding freshly ground pepper...


whisking the eggs with some milk and getting ready to add them to the vegetables...


ahhh deliciousness...


the finished product: scrambled eggs with sauteed vegetables and goat cheese, a side of sour dough toast, and sausage.

read it and weep steve...the best is yet to come!

p.s. here's a little bonus:

my holiday turkey 2007 with fresh herbed butter under the skin and stuffed with a whole grain onion bread stuffing.