Stockton Days DO cook-off Aug 28, 2010

Gwyn loves to cook, and when this cook-off came up and Mark was not able to make it, I thought why not ask Gwyn to cook in it with me. We had so much fun...a day that we will both remember forever. We talked about what we would have for our menu. BBQ baby back ribs, Orange knots and Lemon Tart.

Here we are inback of the loaded up truck ready to leave. Gwyn spent the night, and we decorated shirts and aprons to match. That was fun! Mark helped load the truck the night before, so we are ready to head out.

Gwyn and I both like pink a lot! Don't you love our aprons? We even had pink tableclothes. LOL This is after we got everything set up, and the wind was blowing so hard that day. We really fought that all day. Gwyn was a trooper to help carry everything over to set up for the day. That is a lot of work for grownups and she is only 10.

I think that Gwyn is mixing up the dough for the orange knots. And then they brought pizza in for us, and Gwyn got a break for a few minutes to rest.

Gwyn is 'zesting' orange rind for the bread, and then eating the leftover whip cream. Looks pretty good.

Gwyn frosting the rolls, finshed rolls...when we picked up our lid from the judging table, it was empty. (All the cooks get to taste the food after it is judged.) So, we felt good about that.

The Lemon tart, and Gwyn's favorite, BBQ Baby back ribs. The tart has a little coal ash on it, it was the windyest hot day.

We are done cooking and waiting for the judges to judge the food. Gwyn is taking a much needed break. And yes that is the top to the easy-up that she is sitting on. During the contest, the wind blew so hard that it broke the easy-up and we had to take it down while we where cooking. There was times that Gwyn & I had to hang onto it so the wind would not take it away. Like a friend said, "Matching shirts and aprons $20.00, food for the cook-off $80.00, easy-up the wind destroyed $120.00, cooking with your Granddaughter...priceless". I couldn't have said it better myself.

Here we are in the winners circle. We took 3rd place. And this is pile of stuff that we won. I told Gwyn it was all hers, except the money, $50. so I could put it towards a new easy-up. She was so excited to have won all the prizes. And on the way home she was deciding who was going to give what to. And she was totaly excited that she now owns her own 12" Dutch Oven. There was about $200 in prizes. Not bad for your first cook-off.

Gwyn showing off all her winnings to her Dad. He sure was proud of her. So was I, it is a lot of hard work. But, fun hard work.