ABC Wednesday - I is for Incredible Indulgence

Thank you for your kind indulgence at this show and tell of the food my sons cooked last Saturday at the Taste of Tillamook over on the Pacific coast. Lamont got invited to participate in the Chef's Blackbox Competition, and he asked his brother Leland to be his assistant.

Incredible appetizer--sautéed prawns (a secret ingredient), freshly made salsa verde, and sautéed leeks with bacon.


Incredible salad--quarter-sized cucumber slices surround a mound of match-stick-sliced fennel and Granny Smith apple, topped with paper-thin slices of red onion.


Incredible entree--pan-roasted cod (a secret ingredient), spinach sautéed with garlic and capers, and roasted fingerling potatoes.


The requirements were to make three demonstration dishes, using a different secret ingredient in two of those dishes, then prepare more of the same for the five judges to taste. At the end of an intense hour for the four cooks, Mama and I won the bidding competition for the demo dishes (a fundraiser for Food Safety in Tillamook County) and got to pick which chef's dishes we wanted to eat. That's a no brainer, right. While their food was delicious--we cleaned the plates in no time--the judges made the other guy the winner by 11 points.

Mama and I are incredibly blessed to have Lamont and Leland in our lives, and it's not just because we've not had to cook a single holiday meal since we moved to Portland, although that is absolutely nothing to sneeze at, right? All you always-the-one(s)-who-cook-holiday-meals know what I'm talking about. It's that and so much more. We love those two kind, creative, caring, talented, responsible men!

Thanks to Lindsay for taking these great photos.

A symbol of one of the secret ingredients rests outside the building

Outside the Tillamook County Fairgrounds rests a symbol of one of the things the area is best known for--cheese. That's a giant baby loaf of Tillamook medium cheddar cheese in the grassy circle surrounded by National Guard vehicles. And how about that American flag, flying high over the whole thing? Neat.


As Mama and I left the fairgrounds after the Chef's Blackbox Cooking Competition, I noticed that cheese and pulled into the next driveway so that I could walk back and get these photos.

Lamont's efforts, and those of his brother Leland, were judged second to his competitor's at the competition. All of us took the decision in stride. We went over there to have a great time, and we did--even the guys who worked creatively hard at something they love to do.

Stay tuned. I have loads of photos to look through and details to get straight with the guys so that I can post them for you in the next day or so.