Friday, May 23, 2008

Champion Chefs

Last night we had another "Taco Night" and this time we had a "Bring your best salsa competition" theme. Because I am a humble and giving type of guy, I volunteered to not make a salsa and to simply serve as a judge. One guest (a Minnesota boy) also served as a judge with me.
My boys, aged 8 and 5 made their own salsa completely on their own. Sara simply supervised and bought their ingredients at the store. They made a cheesy, chili, and pepper mix which closely resembled the excellent canned nacho cheese dips from America but theirs tasted much more fresh and was honestly quite tasty. Because they also made their own dessert (Israeli pudding snack packs dumped into wine glasses and served with fresh Israeli cherries) they ended up taking first place. They were completely overjoyed and wore their first place ribbons with pride.
2nd place went to a grad student here who made a "summer salsa" consisting of berries and other fresh ingredients which was excellent but he really impressed with his dessert salsa which he served with baked cinnamon and sugar tortillas. Singles ladies, you might want to meet him.
3rd place to our friend from Santa Barbara who teaches Kindergarten here in Jerusalem at the Anglican school. She made a perfect guacamole from the fresh Avocados that are in season here in Israel.
Of course my wife would win any cooking competition if she was not serving as the host or competing against me but for last night we had a great time with friends and we had tasty salsas. We will have one more Taco Night before returning to the States and we will miss this monthly event.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ryan, It will be a tremendous sacrifice, but for your famely we volunteer to help you keep that tradition alive. As long as it 's only once a month. Well maybe twice a month. OK for you guys once a week. We always talk about being servants and some times that means sacrifice so we are willing to sacrifice. Have you ever made tacos at the beach over a fire pit? We would be willing to show you how, you know that servant thing again. This sounds like the start of a welcome home type of thing. Just think the beach, good food, and the friends we have all missed so much this year.gREG

Anonymous said...

Derek, when you see how family is spelled it was Kim that spellchecked that. Guess what kind of house I'm in now?gREG