Top Chef Tastebuds!

Last Thursday night, I decided I was sick of simple meals and take out sandwiches. With Valentines so close, I figured it was about time to break out the Top Chef cookbook and go all out, see how close I get my food, to the awesome food of the Bravo Network delicious tv show.

I decided to at least stick with something that I recognized a vast majority of the ingredients and ended up picking Turkey & Pork Meatball with Orecchiette Pasta & Pesto. That link is the actual recipe, but the picture is pretty different. Mine turned out more like this .

I ended up having to hit up HyVee first (silly Fareway didn't have Creme Fraise) but then it was back to the kitchen to get it all started!

It was surprisingly easy, with exception of having to peel ten cloves of garlic. But I got it done, although, I should have made the mental connection that ten cloves of garlic, is a LOT of garlic. The meatballs and the pesto sauce were both super strong. The pesto sauce was so strong, that you would put a baby drop of it on your tongue, and it physically hurt. Tim of course could handle it no problem.

Sadly, there was so much garlic, that even the next day we had to leave all the windows open to air out the strong smell. Oops. I learned my lesson on that one. Less garlic! It looked so yummy too! By the end, the sauce and the meatballs and the pasta looked yummy, but I couldn't handle it, so I just put a small amount of the meat on plain pasta. The veggie mix that was supposed to go on it looked horrible though. Plus, we don't even like cauliflower that much, so I just tossed it down the disposal. Sorry children in Africa, even you wouldn't have liked it.

After the pasta sensation, we took a break, and Matt came over for part two of Top Chef Glory, Molten Chocolate Cake with Rasberry Puree and Creme. It turned out AMAZING. Both boys had two helpings, and Matt even took some home. It really was yummy, I ended up using blackberries instead of rasberries, but it worked out just fine, and the creme was a great consistency. The only issue was that I didnt have the right baking dishes, so I used a cupcake pan. Well, this was fine, until I realized I had no way to get molten chocolate out of the tins. I tried to flip it onto a cookie sheet, but yeah...not so hot. A few turned out in great shape, but most were all globbed and broken, but didnt hurt the taste! I would do it all over again if I had to!

I. Am master chef. Tom Collichio, eat your heart out! :)