As always at Hudson Valley, Saturday is NEBS competition day. Categories this year were the usual two traditional for Hudson Valley, pizza and apple dessert. In addition, the other two categories were Wrapped in Bacon and Shrimp. Lets move on to the scores and entries.
Here are our scores for this years contest:
As you can see, a mixed bag of results.
As we posted on here before, we came up with a really nice Chicken Fajita Pizza. So, we decided to enter this pie in the competition this year.
Being made.
Final result.
The above entry was good for a 143.3828 and 22nd out of 26 teams. I guess people in the Hudson Valley don't like Mexican flavors. One of the veteran teams said that you cannot go too far out of the box. They need a baseline for comparison. Maybe the enchilada sauce was asking too much. So, this pizza is retired as an entry in competition.
Next up was Wrapped in Bacon. We decided to use the Country Ribs, Wrapped in Bacon recipe that we posted on the blog a few weeks ago. Here were the results.
Is that bacon garnish you ask? Yes it is. At the last minute, we decided to ditch the lettuce and take advantage of the open garnish rule in NEBS. Hope put together a bacon weave and we cooked it on the smoker. Here is the weave on its own.
Truthfully, I was apprehensive. I was afraid it would crumble after cooking. But, Hope came through and we scored well in appearance with 5 9's and an 8. Plus, it was edible! The above box scored a 166.8344, good for 7th out of 26.
Next up was apple dessert, our past nemesis. This year, we went with an apple blond brownie. Here is the recipe we found. Here are the results.
The brownies were dense and moist. The light dollop of cream cheese frosting was perfect along with the fried apple slices. We have finally found an apple dessert that will work in a competition. All we need to do is work on a dessert garnish. Any ideas folks? The above box was good for a 165.7028 and 9th out of 26. Kudos go to Sandy with All Fired Up and Kicking Ash who took third with a Butterscotch Apple Cheesecake that was to die for.
Last up was grilled shrimp. We decided to enter a nice grilled shrimp taco.
We prepared a chili lime marinade for the shrimp and grilled for two minutes a side. Tortillas were grilled to a light crispiness. Shrimp was layered with grated queso blanco and fresh salsa. Unfortunately, we finished DAL with these. We scored a 141.0628, good for 26th out of 26th. Some of it was taste, some of it was that we think the salsa started to make the tortilla soggy while sitting in the box. Lesson learned. Our neighbor team, Ribs Within, entered an outstanding grilled shrimp presented in a shot glass with a horseradish Bloody Mary shot. I loved it, but as stated before, it was a bit to outside the box.
Overall, we scored a 616.9828, good for 20th out of 26. Some good, some bad. We learned and will move on for future contests.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
Here are our scores for this years contest:
As you can see, a mixed bag of results.
As we posted on here before, we came up with a really nice Chicken Fajita Pizza. So, we decided to enter this pie in the competition this year.
Being made.
Final result.
The above entry was good for a 143.3828 and 22nd out of 26 teams. I guess people in the Hudson Valley don't like Mexican flavors. One of the veteran teams said that you cannot go too far out of the box. They need a baseline for comparison. Maybe the enchilada sauce was asking too much. So, this pizza is retired as an entry in competition.
Next up was Wrapped in Bacon. We decided to use the Country Ribs, Wrapped in Bacon recipe that we posted on the blog a few weeks ago. Here were the results.
Is that bacon garnish you ask? Yes it is. At the last minute, we decided to ditch the lettuce and take advantage of the open garnish rule in NEBS. Hope put together a bacon weave and we cooked it on the smoker. Here is the weave on its own.
Truthfully, I was apprehensive. I was afraid it would crumble after cooking. But, Hope came through and we scored well in appearance with 5 9's and an 8. Plus, it was edible! The above box scored a 166.8344, good for 7th out of 26.
Next up was apple dessert, our past nemesis. This year, we went with an apple blond brownie. Here is the recipe we found. Here are the results.
The brownies were dense and moist. The light dollop of cream cheese frosting was perfect along with the fried apple slices. We have finally found an apple dessert that will work in a competition. All we need to do is work on a dessert garnish. Any ideas folks? The above box was good for a 165.7028 and 9th out of 26. Kudos go to Sandy with All Fired Up and Kicking Ash who took third with a Butterscotch Apple Cheesecake that was to die for.
Last up was grilled shrimp. We decided to enter a nice grilled shrimp taco.
We prepared a chili lime marinade for the shrimp and grilled for two minutes a side. Tortillas were grilled to a light crispiness. Shrimp was layered with grated queso blanco and fresh salsa. Unfortunately, we finished DAL with these. We scored a 141.0628, good for 26th out of 26th. Some of it was taste, some of it was that we think the salsa started to make the tortilla soggy while sitting in the box. Lesson learned. Our neighbor team, Ribs Within, entered an outstanding grilled shrimp presented in a shot glass with a horseradish Bloody Mary shot. I loved it, but as stated before, it was a bit to outside the box.
Overall, we scored a 616.9828, good for 20th out of 26. Some good, some bad. We learned and will move on for future contests.
Thanks for stopping by,
Bill
