Happy Halloween!!

I hope you're all enjoying this Halloween day! Tracy and I had great plans for a Halloween feast...sadly it fell short. It was great on paper, squash and mushroom gnocchi, you know, orange and the black. The squash turned out well and was a beautiful color of orange. It was the mushroom gnocchi that didn't step up...it was grey and ugly. It looked like rat brains. Or animal turds. Or ogre toes. Take a look for yourself...
While it's definitely not attractive....it is Halloween, which makes rat brain's quite festive.
It ending up tasting yummy...even though it looked less than delicious!

Here's to culinary mishaps!

Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Back to Michigan...

Going to Michigan is definitely in my top 10 greatest experiences of my life. Yup, that big. Competing was more fun then I imagined. Being awarded medals for the first time in my life was definitely a highlight. But my favorite part was meeting people from all over the world and getting to know them well enough that I was sad to say goodbye come Sunday. Like my roommate for 6 days...Iona from Scotland.She is probably one of the funniest people I have ever met. She was up for everything...even riding an 80 year old carousel with me!

This is Chef Mike.

He found out early on in the competition that was I jumpy and easily scared....he took advantage of that every time he could.

*This picture was taken right after he scared me for the 5th time!!!*

This is Chef Angus and I. We watch videos of him making stock in the first year of school. He's from Scotland as well and has an amazing accent. He is a sweetheart.

Here I am getting medals!!

And the moment you've all been waiting for...the winner of the 2009 Nation's Cup, Team USA!And then was lots of hugging...
Lots of toasts...
And lots of relief that the compeition was over and everything went well. We were quite happy...
I am so happy I went. So glad I had such a good teammate and coach...
and so glad I was able to make more connections and meet more wonderful people.

New posts soon!

I'm back in Charlottetown and I promise to do recaps from Michigan...as soon as I'm caught up on homework! I sure missed a lot being away for a week! But not to worry I'll be back!

The results are in...

And Team Canada walks away with 3 silvers and 3 golds. And they are the Nation's Cup runner ups! Woot! Woot! I couldn't be happier with this competition...the people, the food...amazing!

Now I'm must say goodbye to all the other teams...

More posts to come.

We did it!

All 5 black box competitions are complete! I'm dead tired but very happy! I learned a lot and really, really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we have the international gala and then we find out who wins the Nations cup as well as the individual bronze, silver, and golds.

*Sorry I have not been giving very good recaps. I'll catch up once I'm back home!

3 down, 2 to go

Phew, we did it. It was a long day but we're now more than half way through the competitions. Here are all the competitors:If you can't spot me in the sea of whites I'm the second in on the left.

All three (appetizer, salad, fish/shellfish) went very well and since we had a professional photographer I'm just going to give you the link with all the pictures. Lazy maybe, but I am very tired. So, here are all the pictures. I will do a better recap once all the competitions are over and I'm not having to get up at 6:00 in the morning!

I will leave you with a picture of all the girls on the teams. We went out for Tapas tonight and took many group pictures. Here are the girls:

*Notice my proximity to the cup...

Tomorrow is two more black boxes and then the international dinner on Saturday! It's crazy, fun, and an experience of a life time!

Fall Harvest Party

Yesterday was a busy, busy day. We explored Michigan a bit, even though it was pouring rain, it seems to have followed us from PEI. Then we got all uniformed up and headed to the college, where we had tours and took many many photos.

They had a "Fall Harvest Party" planned for us where we carved pumpkins (the Americans and Canadians were the only ones who had done it before), dipped caramel apples, made caramel corn, and iced cookies. Wow. So fun! It was like going back in time to an awesome kids birthday party!

Here is the pumpkin my roommate (Iona) and I carved:

Here's Adam, my team mate, making caramel apples:

And crazy Iona and her 18th decorated cookie:It was a really fun night...and a really great way to get to know the other teams. Today the competition starts.