Chopped dinner party- part 1

As I mentioned in Thursday's post I entered a foodbuzz contest where you come up with a dinner party idea and if you are selected they will sponsor you to host the party for your friends. Sadly I was not selected put we decided it would be a fun idea to do it anyway! Here are the rules we set:

1. John, Cart an Timmy will go shopping for 4 main ingredients for the  3 rounds (appetizer, entree and dessert rounds). 
2. I gave the boys a list of "pantry items"
3. The 4 items were reveled to me after the previous course was complete and we have all eaten. 
4. After the ingredients were reveled I was allowed to use my computer to help me find ingredients to put everything together and there was no time limit

Saturday morning I got up and ran some errands, cleaned the apartment and prepared the table while the boys were out shopping.

center piece

center piece

When everyone showed up we had some pre-appetizers to start

Then it was time to begin first up-  Appetizer round!

Teddy grams really!! What in the world was I suppose to do with these and in all 4 flavors. Thankfully it was a joke! Here's the real items. (please excuse my language at the end of this one I slipped up)

Mangos, chinese sausage, tortillas and cheese sticks. I decided the best and easiest thing to do was make quesadillas. I took the sausage out of the casing and cooked them in a frying pan, once it was cooked I added onions, peppers and I shredded the cheese sticks. One the side I made a mango salsa to go with the quesadillas which I believe was the hit of the evening (it's my secret recipe ;) )!

Round 2- Entree

Plantain chips, steak, bacon and mustard greens. I struggled with these ingredients for a while trying to come up with a healthier way to use them. But as last I decided there was no way around it and I made plantain coated steaks with sauteed mustard greens with bacon. For this round I had help cutting up some of the items to help with the time.

The entree turned out ok, the steak turned out well but my timing was off so it was a little cold and needed warmed up by the times the greens were done. Cooking for 9 people takes precise timing! The mustard greens had mixed reviews, I for one didn't care for them they were really tart. But some people really enjoyed the tart taste. Besides the bacon I mixed them with a little sugar to balance out the tartness and some apple cider vinegar with a little sprinkle of chili flakes.

Next was the last round dessert! Stay tuned....