Chopped Challenge: The Lamb that Almost Was, but Wasn't

This week The Box arrived with a wide variety of familiar goodies and a couple of strange ones. Nothing exactly made me want to jump up and down and cook like a mad woman, but for the most part the ingredients were useful. Here's what I got:

• Sorrel
• Orange Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes
• Texas Onions
• Elephant Garlic Rounds (basically one big clove of garlic)
• Cucumbers
• Mammoth Basil (Looks like Basil, Smells like Basil, is 2X the size of Basil, I called it Mega Basil)
• Italian Sweet Basil
• Elephant Garlic Flowers (big fluffy purple flower thing)
• Something that looked like a Zucchini and a Eggplant mated
• And Purslane (because MIL thought it would be funny.....THANKS)

Again, we had some odd ducks, like the Purslane, which is essentially a weed, and sorrel, which is poisonous in large quantities. But nothing screamed "COOK ME" so I was looking forward to what was in the big brown basket sitting on the counter. It could have been anything. And I was hoping to get a nice fat, blood pressure rising challenge. So when I opened it up and looked at the ingredients I was perplexed.

Week 20, Box 20 and an Appology

So for the first time in 20 weeks it looks like I honest to god missed a recipe post. The truth is last week was just about the worst week thus far luck wise. I was sick, The Husband then got sick and then over the weekend I had to take my grandfather to the hospital. So over all even though I got The Box, took pictures and even cooked and took pictures of two full recipes, I just never got around to posting. I apologize. If you were wondering I made 2 dishes, the first was Macaroni and Cheese with Swiss Chard, which was a variant of THIS recipe. To modify it I gave the chard a quick chiffonade, blanched it and squeezed the water out. I then mixed it in with the final product just like the recipe calls for mixing in the broccoli. It was a little bit of a cheat recipe, we wanted comfort food, and when that comfort food is mac and cheese you always feel better adding some green to it.

The other recipe I made was baked potato soup. I followed the recipe found HERE to the letter. It was easy, delicious, didn't require an excessive amount of milk fat and exactly the thing The Husband needed in his sickness. Also a fantastic way to use up a TON of potatoes. Yum.

This week I am hopeful that things will go more smoothly. I am pleased with the ingredients that came in The Box. They will prove some challenges but also some comfort items. Let me show you:

Week 17, Box 17

This week's box was brought to be by The Husband for the first time ever after 9:30PM. It finally happened, we both had a conflict and since my hearing could have taken me to midnight to complete it fell to him to stop by the MIL and bring The Box home. From the contents of the box you can see we are well into the fall harvest.