Chopped. Inspired.

I love watching cooking shows. Cooking is like art, science and emotions all rolled into one. Since I became a stay at home mom, I developed the interest in cooking and baking. The pleasure of seeing my daughter eating what I made or my husband cleaning out his plate during meals is just special!

But this post is not really about food. It's about how I found my "getting inspired" moment from Chopped. For those who doesn't have any idea about what I'm babbling about, Chopped is a cooking show contest. There are 4 competing chefs given a basket of ingredients. Each will have to do an appetizer, main course and dessert. One chef is eliminated on each course. So you ask, how the heck did you get inspired by that? It's their mystery basket of ingredients that they are required to use that got me:

In one recent episode these are the ingredients in the mystery basket:

Appetizer: huckleberries, black beans, green plantains, octopus

Seriously, for the life of me, I can't think of any dish that I can make with those ingredients. 


Then these 4  contestants come out with beautiful, yummy looking, jaw dropping plated dishes. And one by one they answer the judges' question.... "WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION?".  Really? Can anyone find inspiration in that??? Then, they answer with ease and shares with everyone what inspired them; their mom's cooking, their cultural background, their children's fav food, etc.


As I was watching this, I suddenly thought about my life: the complains I have, the problems I thought I have, and all the other stupid little things in my head. Surely,  my life's "mystery basket ingredients" are far better that the ingredients above, yet I fail to find any inspiration. Chopped made me realize that creating something beautiful, yummy looking and jaw dropping should not depend on the ingredients life throws at me. I should be more like those chefs, finding that inspiration that would make my life a reflection of who I am and come out with a plate of life's deliciousness!


Then there, right in front of the TV... Inspired, I was.