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Hiya Trashies!
Its a challenge week! Sprogs defying death at a theme park.Very likely it will highlight that the years between an 8 yr old and a 12 yr old are more like dog years, developmentally speaking and I expect the bigger sprogs to do well today.
Tosi drives the sprogs into the challenge area looking as calm and relaxed as a surprised rattler.
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Please don’t let any die until they’re out of my care
One little sprog claims nothing is being more important than being outside in fresh air. True enough but as most of us have to work in offices – and in the winter, going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, its better to forget about that pipe-dream and learn to love recycled air.
TG and Gordy are sensibly ensconced on the Ferris wheel as opposed to driving the sprogs in. It turns out that this is a birthday party for 8-13 year olds. Gordy’s and TG’s own sprogs will be non-voting guests. It might tilt the judging if one gets food poisoning though.
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Mental Note : Do Not Poison Gordy’s Sprogs
Nate and Addison are team captains, red and blue respectively.
Blue team is Kya the Grudge-Child, (thanks to JennaBoa for that one), Mia, Kaitlyn, Corey, Zack, Kamily and Tae Ho. (Seriously, he was last?)
Red team is Derrick, Sam Mowhawk Boy, JJ, Amaya, Jesse, Avery and Ian.
Leaving Tae-Ho to the end with Ian is almost criminal, but then again I think they might be picking their friends – I’dve avoided Kya purely because I think a long, high pressure, team challenge is a big ask for an 8 year old, no matter how talented they are. Kaitlyn in an impossibly sweet gesture tries to reassure Ian, who was picked dead last – that the best is saved for last. My childhood experience of being picked last for ball games at school would contradict that.
They’re cooking Fish tacos, chicken wings and a turkey burger with some minor dressings decided by the sprogs. I’ve still not had a fish taco so I can’t comment on the taste, but with all fish there’s a fine line between overcooking it to taste like rubber and under cooking it. Chicken wings and a turkey burger, nothing too hard there but as always its about the speed and consistency of catering for so many not the actual technical difficulty of the dish. I would say though that I know turkey is healthier, but if you’re going to have a burger just have a beef burger. Half measures on a burger seem like a waste of time.
Anyway those are the rules. They have 1hr 40 mins for cooking and service.
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Oh and Kya, you aren’t allowed to take anyone’s soul to the underworld.
Addison knocks out the menu in short order, she seems to have ideas for all the dishes and no one argues. On team Red, its not starting up so well. Nate has turned into a little butterball of panic. I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense I’m a more buttery butterball than he is.
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Ummm…We could try panicking?
Its getting bogged down into arguments, about tomatoes on burgers and so on. I have a vague notion, after cooking for my neices, how hard it can be to accommodate sprogs tastes. Well not for me, as I employ the ‘eat it or starve I don’t care’ tactic that my grandmother used on me. But Nate needs to make a choice as they do not have time for indecision. Instead he’s flapping about whilst the girls on his team start to roll out their opinions and not pay any attention to him.
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Team Red looks to its leader. Or not.
He does manage to point out they need to win and not argue, and to their credit this does seem to get them started. If it lasts. ‘Course, this is starting to seem like a typical Masterchef fake out – ‘Team Red where behind all challenge but now they win from behind! Wow!’
Gordy intervenes on Team Red, and suddenly Nate gets it sorted, after forty minutes though. TG is telling Addison her menu is too spicy, if that’s their worst fault maybe its not a fake-out after all.
On Team Red they’re nuking the chicken wings to tiny blackened chunks. I know some coatings can burn fast, and I think they used a honey glaze so that might be it, but bubbled black bits is a danger sign.
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Tastes like home
Gordy picks up the ‘too much spice’ on the fish dish theme for Team Blue. He’s waited until ten minutes left and they have no fish left unprepped. There isn’t much choice so Kaitlyn rinses off the old cumin and paprika rub and puts on one of olive oil, salt and pepper. Which sounds more boring to me, but more kid friendly I suppose. Beyond catching and filleting new fish that’s the best she could do.