The Family That Cooks Together....

Ladies and Gentleman, in just a few short days, the 3rd annual Rusty Whisk competition will be held!

Brief Explanation: Come this Saturday and continuing on til the following Thursday, all 12 Rust's will be back together again! That's right: Dad, Mom, Derrick, Brittney, Molly, Brandon, Daniel, Travis, Me, Natalie, Holly and Hannah, together again under the same roof. The Rusty Whisk, a cooking competition we've held faithfully for the past three years inspired by our friends on Iron Chef America, but suited for a family setting, will be held.

Allow me to explain the process, using pictures from last years event:

1. Food Prep

Each family member picks a dish that they would like to prepare and submit for the competition. Some use their trademark recipes, others venture out to the unknown and make recipes they've never before tried. Needless to say the kitchen is chaotic, but it's a fun chaos. There are ingredients, dishes, bodies... everywhere!

2. Plating

As each family member finishes their dish, they must then carefully plate it onto three different plates (one for each judge) and put it onto the judging table. Presentation is accounted into the final score, so this is important. This year we had (in order of appearance): Sweet and sour pork, pina colada chicken, flurry of curry chicken salad, grilled salmon, lemon chicken, stuffed chili peppers, marshmallow puffs and the infamous Completos! (There are a few other dishes not shown here)

3. Judgement

Enter judges. Three lucky... or perhaps brave... people who were chosen to come and taste each dish prepared in the depths of the Rust kitchen.  As each dish is sampled, Natalie (second picture) served as the emcee and announced each dish along with a brief description of the dish written by the chef themselves. However, no mention is made of who prepared what dish. It must be completely anonymous. The judges then savor the fruits of our labors while the rest of us wait patiently outside.

4. The Waiting Game

So to keep the 12 of us occupied while our hard work was being critiqued, we were all kicked out of the house and onto the front patio. Here, Brittney had a taste test game prepared for us. We each had a spoon and we'd close our eyes as she'd come around and fill each of our spoons with an edible item. When everybody had their spoon filled, we'd put it into our mouths and try to decide what she fed us.

4. The Finale

Finally, the judging has concluded and we are summoned in. The judges then tell us all the things they liked about each dish. And then the winner is announced and awarded with the Rusty Whisk trophy. Last year's winner was our very own Brittney Steele Rust who blew the judges away with her divine Flurry of Curry Chicken Salad  (See plating section, picture 3). By then we are tired and hungry, and of course, dying to taste all the food. So we all grab forks, dig in, and listen as Derrick says, "completos" after every other sentence.

5. Food, Family, Friends

Needless to say, it is a night to be remembered, filled with food, family and friends.
This Saturday we will do it all over again and watch as a new victor is crowned! Wish us luck :)

Love, Noelle