Pre-Christmas Visit

The week before Christmas, my little sister and brother came to visit us. They flew in the day after they finished their finals at BYU, with minds relieved and bodies tired. After the airport pickup, we decided to spend the day in Chicago. We went to the German market at Daley Plaza, saw "the bean", walked along the lake, did a little shopping, saw the Macy's tree, and of course stopped by for some deep dish pizza Chicago-style.



One evening, we decided to have an IRON CHEF CHALLENGE. We watched an episode of Iron Chef America and then headed to the store. Bethany and I were on a team and Neal and Luke were our competitors. We were in charge of the Entree and the boys were in charge of Appetizers and Dessert. Both teams picked out a "secret ingredient" for the other team to use in their dish(es). We chose cream cheese for the boys and they got us a bag of Cheetos. Lovely.





We took turns in the kitchen creating our concoctions and the boys went first with their appetizers.
Neal got stuck cutting the onions. It made him cry. ;)




They made us a Cream Cheese and Asparagus Fritter that was surprisingly insanely tasty.




Seth was pretty entertained during the cooking madness:



Bethany and I went next, and we decided to incorporate the Cheetos into each element of our dish -- the protein, the starch and the sauce.
So, we made: Cheeto Crusted Chicken with Cheeto Cheesy Potatoes, and a Spicy Chili Cheeto sauce.

Don't adjust the color on your screen, that is really the color of our dish. -- But c'mon, our secret ingredient was CHEETOS! What do you expect?
Let's just say, it tasted a lot better than it looked. Especially the sauce. That was a kick'n sauce -- if I may say so myself.



The boys rounded out the meal with a Creamy Strawberry and Ice Cream parfait.



Me, with our not-so-impartial judge. He just couldn't decide who won, but secretly I'm declaring the girls as triumphant for embracing the secret ingredient whole-heartedly. :)

Overall, it was such a fun thing to do and I highly recommend it. (It would also be a fun double-date idea...)

The rest of the week went way too fast, but that's only because we were having so much fun.

Highlights of the week: Our attempt at a gingerbread house masterpiece (I say attempt because it was about a mile off of being a "masterpiece"); staying up late talking and laughing harder than I've laughed in a long time; seeing Neal laugh harder than I've ever seen him; bowling and considering breaking 100 as a HUGE accomplishment -- we are all a little rusty --; Tripoly with the candy we were supposed to use for the gingerbread masterpiece; and more...

It was a great week -- thanks for coming you guys!