Garlic Knots and Puzzles

Way back when we decided to make our very own garlic knots (like we had in Dallas). We didn't have a real recipe, but this is what we came up with:

• pizza dough (either homemade, frozen/thawed, or from the can)
• melted butter, Italian seasoning, garlic, Parmesan cheese

Roll dough out, slice it into about 1x1inch squares w/ a pizza cutter. Bake in oven until dough is cooked (don't over bake). Tear squares apart and pour butter mixture over. Stir and eat. Yeah, they are not very healthy, but they taste way good. Yummy!We also did our first puzzle together one Sunday afternoon. We're a pretty good team. Here's the finished product:

Iron Chef Couple Style

As Erin and I contemplated what our next IronChef competition should be, we concluded to have one with another recently engaged couple that we knew very well, Kourtney and Brett. The secret ingredient was decided on Saturday morning (Side Note: this competition took place back on the 1st week of June). The ingredient turned out to be LIME!!!

Each couple was required to make one dessert and one main dish with the secret ingredient. We went over to Kourtney's place on Sunday to do the competition. She has two kitchens, one upstairs and one downstairs, where the cooking actually took place. The competition was tons of fun and both teams came out with a victory. The following is what everyone made:

Erin & Ryan
Cilantro Lime Steak - 4th Place Overall, 2nd Place Main Dish
(Side Note: This ended up being a very strong sauce we used for the steak; however, we learned how to cook steak without a grill. We ended up pan searing the steak on each side and then put it in the oven for approx. 8-10 minutes) The steak turned out very good!)

Key Lime Pie - 1st Place Overall, 1st Place Dessert
(Side Note: Surprisingly to Erin and I, Key Lime Pie is delicious and very easy to make. We were glad we chose this dish as our dessert.)

Kourtney & Brett
Lime Marinated Salmon with "Hint of Lime" in Rice - 2nd Place Overall, 1st Place Main Dish
(Side Note: They did an excellent job bringing out the lime in both the salmon and rice. I was very impressed and was excited b/c I love fish!)

Fruit Smoothie - 3rd Place Overall, 2nd Place Dessert (no standalone photo b/c it came out too dark...sorry)
(Side Note: This was a great drink; however, the lime taste was mixed very well with all the other fruits added into the drink.)

We had a great time doing this competition with Kourtney and Brett. We hope to continue such traditions with them and other couples. Please let us know if you would like to compete in an Iron Chef competition and we will see what we can do.