Annual Cook off for Lizzie’s birthday!

One of our marriage goals was to have another cook off. We decided to merge it with my birthday party for friends and family.

We decided to have two categories to compete on. 1. Gumbo  2. Chocolate Chip Cookies. How can you go wrong with either?!

Doug and I cooked and cleaned the house. There is nothing like a party to get your house sparkling. Below is a photo of my gumbo being prepared. I used my Uncle Earl’s recipe. (Uncle Earl was a “famous” southern chef and if you are over the age of 50 you might remember him on TV when you were younger.) Next to it is the 3 (yes, three) batches of cookies I made to complete with. I will tell you the story later.

Once all the people and competing foods arrived, we dug in! We had 7 Gumbo’s competing for the title.

Then there was the coffee table of cookies! We had 8 cookies competing for the title.

As for the cookies, I entered 3 different cookies into the contest. Why you ask? Well, because Doug asked me to. Doug had made three different vanilla extracts from the vanilla beans I gave him for Christmas. He made one batch in Moonshine, one in Vodka and one in aged Rum from the New Orleans Rum House. He had been asking me to make cookies to compare the flavors. 

My girl, Amanda, gave me her DELICIOUS cookie recipe a few months back and we had been making her cookies on and off. So we decided to make Amanda’s recipe for the contest. I made three separate batches of Amanda’s cookies and the only difference was Doug’s different vanilla extracts. It is pretty amazing how they flavored the cookie so differently.

Everyone tasted the gumbo and voted. And then they attacked the cookies and voted.

We had 19 people in my little condo. It was cozy and fun!

We did play a round of Telestrations. It is my largest game to date with 19 people!

Then we had a little birthday “cake”. I asked for a fruit cake. It ended up looking rather phallic, but oh well! ha!

Mom also brought the traditional age cake. See my “33” cake!

I had a blast. Thank you to everyone who came!!

To my great husband, I love you! Thanks for making my birthday rock!

Never a dull moment with these kids!

Oh, yeah. If you are wondering who won the cook off….The Gumbo winner was Brandon P (I also loved Ryan T’s!) and I won the Cookie competition with my Rum flavored Chocolate Chip Cookies. Recipe by Amanda B. So actually, I just baked them while Amanda and Doug won. Ha!

Congrats Brandon, Amanda and Doug. You guys are amazing.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the cook off/my birthday. I loved having you over. 

Love and Hugs, Lizzie