Let The Battle Begin!

Minus a few bonehead moves on my part, this weekend has been a great one.  And I'm definitely glad I decided to make it a 3 day weekend -- having Friday off was a welcome break from the bedlam at work.  I have no clue as to what I'll walk into tomorrow but I'm going to try my best to walk in with a clear mind and a positive attitude and just see what happens.

As for the weekend, I spent Friday night and a good part of yesterday out at my Dad's.  The local Catholic Church was holding their yearly picnic and it's a family tradition to spend some time enjoying the festivities.  I got to hang out with my bro and 4 cousins and had a blast joking around and goofing off with them, especially since it's not all that often that our schedules work out to where we are all around at the same time. For teenagers, they have busy social calendars!

Today, I got back into my routine and hit the gym first thing this morning for a much needed workout.  After only taking a day off from there, I missed my stride elliptical workout and was happy to hop back onto it as well as push myself through my weekend weight-lifting.  I really needed the good workout this morning after I found out what was in store for my weekly food-themed date with Broccoli.

If you remember, last weekend he cooked for me.  The weekend before, I cooked for him and probably everyone else in the bi-state region (based on the amount of dishes I made for different functions).  This weekend, he had a competition of sorts planned for us -- think Chopped and Iron Chef America rolled into one.  While we could use ingredients I had in my kitchen to make our meal, we also went to the grocery store to pick up 2 ingredients we had to use in our meal. 
The secret ingredients from the store --  boneless pork loin chops and navel oranges
Our challenge --  our meal had to include an entree with a vegetable and a fruited dessert and it must be completed within 40 minutes in my tiny galley kitchen.

It's a challenge enough for both of us to be in my kitchen at any given time (and neither one of us is big by any means!), let alone both be cooking a separate meal to wow the other person with, but we completed the food challenge and had so much fun while doing it.  Broccoli's Iron Chef impressions are hilarious too and I spent a good part of my cooking time just laughing like crazy -- he's the Chairman, Alton Brown, Kevin Brauch all in one!!
So without further ado, I give you our creations for the We're Inspired By Food Network meal challenge.
Broccoli's dinner -- Taco Pork Loin Chop and Chocolate Cookies with Orange Marmalade Sauce and Whipped Cream

My dinner -- Grilled Pork Loin Chop with Peach Chutney, Mozzarella-topped Grilled Zucchini and Sour-Cream and Orange Glazed Sugar Cookies

Both meals were amazingly yummy and while we know we're amateurs in the kitchen, this definitely allowed us to experiment a bit.  I know it also proved to me that some of the food ideas that I have in my head, may actually be successful in practice.  And as you've probably guessed already, we're working on our next cooking challenge.  Stay tuned!

In any case, hope you had a terrific weekend!  I'm off to watch the new episode of Iron Chef America, which ironically is featuring the secret ingredient BROCCOLI.  :)