Thanksgiving Side Dish Competition

Saturday Oct. 23, Its 8:AM and pouring rain, I'm so glad I packed my car last night! I'm feeling great,well rested and ready for the day! The drive starts out the same as always only not as much traffic given its a Saturday morning in the pouring rain, I've just made it across the bridge and I'm getting ready to exit 9th street when the radio stops playing in my car, and my lights go out and the windshield wipers are moving very slowing across the windshield before I can say "what the f*@# the little dials in the instruments on my dash are going around in circles and everything is going wacky! What the heck, am I about to be abducted! I'm afraid to stop at a red light or any of the 5 stops signs I have to go through before making it to my destination. I was lucky enough to make it to 16th & Kansas directly across the street from CCA. Phew... Just in time too, cause once I stopped the car it stopped completely, no more power! So I parked and grabbed my knife kit and went in. I decided not to worry about my car, not much I could do until later anyway -

There were 15 contestants and only 1 winner for the $1000! The competition, "The Best Thanksgiving Side Dish" We each had 2 hours to gather our ingredient, mise en place, prepare, cook, and plate. Start time 10:15am - finished and plated at 12:15pm. My dish - "Caramelized Onion Chestnut Squash Casserole" Everything went rather smoothly, all my ingredients was available except the veggie stock, so I had to quickly make a veggie stock in order to complete my Sauce Veloute. So I quickly put 2 cups of water on and diced 1/2 onion a few garlic gloves, celery and carrots and threw them in the heated water, then I put together a bouquet garni and added that to the veggie stock. It took about 15 minutes for the stock to get tot he right color and flavor, then in the walk in it went to cool down enough so I could added it to the warm roux with out ruining the sauce. While I was getting the veggie stock going I had already peeled and diced 3 large onions as well as the butternut squash and it roasting in the oven with a little nutmeg, salt & pepper. The chestnuts were also roasting in the oven - everything at 375 F  and on the stove I was caramelizing a pound of onions in a very large and very heavy saute pan. The atmosphere was calm and easy, no stress at all from anyone that I could tell......we all worked efficiently and quietly. Time was up - all the 15 dishes were plated and ready for tasting and judging! The winner was Sweet potato rosettes with cranberry compote. And it was very tasty and lovely looking dish.

I got back to my car at 2:pm and still raining...hard, really hard...it never stopped all day.....I'm getting towed to garage on Howard & 12th, and 3 hours later I'm back on the road with a new alternator. So much for groceries for the next week and half!