November: Bacon

October slipped away without us hosting Iron Chef, so we skipped straight to our November installment last night. The "special ingredient" was bacon--delicious. First off, here was the coveted "trophy" everyone was competing for:

And here are the participants with their dishes:

Scott & Lena Starr:

California Pizza Kitchen Egg Rolls (made from scratch)

James & Natalie Powell:

Honey Mustard Bacon fried Chicken

Paul & Adri Nye:

Chicken Kiev topped with bacon

Curt & Holly:

Bacon Wrapped Smokies

Curt & I decided just to provide a "special-ingredient"-related appetizer and sides instead of participating in the competition, and it worked out well. Here is a view of all the delicious food before we dug in:

Something new we also tried this time was having score cards to make the judging a little easier. Each person filled out a sheet for each dish, rating it for its 1.) taste, 2.) presentation, 3.) incorporation of the special ingredient, and 4.) creativity. Ratings were fair, good, and great. This scoring system was fun, and we ended up with a two-way tie! After counting up points based solely on the taste scores, the Starrs were crowned winners:

It was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed getting to know these couples a little better. And bacon was a hit! We're already starting to think about next month's ingredient and trophy...! If anyone is actually reading this post and wants to be invited next month, let us know!