When I went home to visit last weekend, my sister chose the ingredients for my first timed "Chopped" challenge: blackberries, chicken, and crescent roll dough. For those of you who may have never seen the show, Chopped presents a series of baskets containing random ingredients which the contestants must then use to create a stunning dish that utilises all of those ingredients in some form. At the end of each round (appetizer, entrée, and dessert), one chef is "chopped," with the remaining chef declared the winner. My roommate and I once did a similar Chopped-inspired challenge, utilising some of the most random leftover ingredients in our classmates' apartment: giant gummy bear, Ramen noodles, and oranges, to name a few. We had an unruly amount of time to create an entrée and dessert and if I recall correctly, I took the entrée round while he took dessert. In any case, there was no competition this time around, but I did set a 30-minute time limit, after defrosting the chicken.
