I made up a contest based on a TV show we saw maybe 2 times called “Chopped”.  “Chopped” is a cooking contest where the four contestants get mystery ingredients that they have to make into a dish in 30 minutes.  Our version of “Chopped” isn’t quite the same, but us kids and our cousins had lots of fun playing it!  Here are the rules:

1.  Anyone who doesn’t want to cook, or who isn’t able to can be a judge.  It works best if there are 3 or 4 other people who cook.

2.  Depending on how many people are playing, there are a certain number of rounds.  There must be one less round than the number of cooks (like musical chairs).  Here are some ideas for the different rounds: Drink, Dessert, Side, Snack. (You can’t really have a main dish because one of the rules is that you can’t use meat or eggs or anything that might be harmful if it’s undercooked.)

3.  The judge chooses two ingredients that the cooks must use.  Make the ingredients relevant to the round (Don’t use tomatoes and corn for the dessert round ☺).

4. The cooks have 7 minutes to make a dish containing the ingredients the judge chose, plus up to four more ingredients of their choice.  You may make the time shorter or longer as you wish.  The minimum of ingredients is 4 and the maximum is 6.

5.  When the time is up, the cooks have stop what they’re doing and bring their dish to the judge.  They have to have used at least 4 ingredients, not more than 6 ingredients, and the ingredients the judge chose; if they haven’t, they’re out.

6.  The cooks explain their food to the judges, then leave the room.

7.  The judge(s) decides which dish they think is the worst, and put the dish under a big bowl so that it’s hidden.  The judge calls in the cooks.

8.  The judge takes off the bowl hiding the dish, and announces who is “Chopped” (out of the game).  The player that got chopped gets to help judge the next round(s), and the other cooks get to keep cooking!

9. When it’s the last round and there are only two cooks left, whoever wins the round wins the game!

I hope you have as much fun playing this as we did!

***Allison***