Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Food, Football and Autographs


How many channels do you have access to?  I grew up with 2 channels and sometimes we’d get a third, depending on the weather.  Today there are no great shows like the shows I grew up watching: The Cosby Show, The Waltons (my favorite), Starksy and Hutch, The Brady Bunch, MASH, Hawaii Five-O, Adam 12, Kojak, Sonny and Cher, Disney on Sunday nights and Wild Kingdom..I could go on and on. 

We watched cartoons every Saturday morning, now they have what they call cartoons, on every day.  SpongeBob needs to be canned.  The shows that are geared for younger audiences, have sexual tones and are not appropriate for kids.  These shows don’t teach any lessons.  Every episode of The Cosby show had a lesson.  Kids learned that it was not okay to lie to your parents, and punishment was given so you’d learn to respect them and learn to do what is right. 

Our kids often watch those shows about food – Chopped, Cupcake Wars, and others of this type.  They enjoy them and I get a kick out of them bringing what they learn or watched into our kitchen. So wouldn’t it be cool to go to a Battle of the Chefs competition? That is what we did. Sunday, we went to the Cornell School of Hotel Administrations 3rd Battle of the Chefs competition.  Honestly, it wasn’t the food that convinced me to buy tickets to this event.  It was one of the judges.  Kevin Boothe.  Kevin is an NFL football player for the New York Giants.  Yes, I bought tickets and we went.  It was fun.  There were five teams competing and each team made an appetizer, a main course and then dessert.  We had 15 tastings and the kids had fun trying and talking about the foods.  They tried foods that they would have if I had made it at home. For example, a cold cucumber and strawberry soup. It was different and very good.  They tried foods and mingled with the college students as seating was an issue.  And then the judges appeared from the conference room.  We were first in line to get autographs.  Here’s proof:

 
Kevin is very nice.  He even took his Super Bowl rings off and set them on the table so we could pick them up and try them on.  They were huge, heavy and beautiful!  Something to be very proud of!  They kids had photos taken, received a signed photo of Kevin and enjoyed the afternoon.  It was a relaxed meeting and very casual.  An unforgettable afternoon!

Olivia got to meet another alumni from the school who is a chef.  He recently competed on Iron Chef America where he battled against Bobby Flay.   

What a way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

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