Here it is, the Gourmoo Cookoff finale! It seems like a lifetime ago that we filmed this and it was only this past December. Really great memories that I’ll never forget.

Spoiler alert if you haven’t watched it…so go back now…you’ve been warned ;-)

I’m so happy for Morena! She did a consistently great job throughout the competition and really deserved the win. Of course, it would have been easy for Laurie to win; she’s a pretty fabulous cook with a lot of experience. It was such a tough call for us as judges since it really could have gone either way. Ultimately it was the flavor of Morena’s souffle that put her over the top. I just wish they both could have won!

And I can’t forget Nicole & Robert. I would have loved to have seen what they would have come up with for their wild card dish! Nicole was pretty solid throughout and Robert just kept improving that I’m dying to know what they would have made. I’d have to say that seeing the growth in Robert was probably my favorite part of the competition – it was just an awesome thing to see.

Each time an episode has been released, a different food blogger promoted it on their site. A virtual dinner party of sorts – with each episode as a different “course” – I was asked to host the finale. And I’m proud to do it, as I’m very proud of the work we did and the final product. It was a lot of work and took a crazy amount of people to film, edit, and well…eat all that good food!

So, welcome to the “Wild Card Challenge” where anything goes. I was asked to host this challenge for obvious reasons, and in accepting I agreed to post what I would have made had I been a contestant in this round. This is similar to another question I’m often asked: “What is your specialty?” or “What type of food do you most like to cook?” And it’s a question that I find incredibly difficult to answer. Most chefs and food bloggers lean in some sort of direction, whether that’s healthy foods, a particular ethnic cuisine or even family-friendly. My specialty tends to be whatever mood I happen to be in at any given moment: healthy, family-friendly, ethnic, good ol’ meat & potatoes…it doesn’t really matter as long as it sounds delicious! So I really had to think about what on earth I would cook if I were, as they put it, “cooking for my life”, and what I came up with is that I absolutely adore cooking appetizers and small bites. They’re always the most fun to cook and definitely the most fun way to eat, too!

Here is what I would have made…drumroll please…

• Mini Crab Cakes with Chipotle Sauce
• Seared Scallops with a Lemon Buerre Blanc
• Raspberry Lemon Pudding Cakes

I know, I know…it sounds like a lot for only having an hour to cook. But I’ll tell ya’, having personal cheffed it for awhile now I’ve gotten to the point where I can really knock out a few dishes pretty quickly. I would definitely start with the pudding cakes since those have to go into the oven. They’d take up my biggest chunk of time – probably 12-15 minutes – so getting them out of the way and into the oven would be a must. Next I’d whip up my chipotle sauce – about two minutes there. Mix up my crab cakes – four minutes. The buerre blanc will take a good 10-15 minutes so that’s next (I’d keep it warm in a thermos, it works wonders!). Now is where things get a little crazy: brown the crab cakes, while that’s going on I’d pat dry my scallops (an absolute MUST for scallops or you’ll never get a good sear), pull the pudding cakes from the oven and set them on the plate (one long rectangular plate for my dinner trio). Pull the crab cakes and plate them then sear the scallops (I’d possibly brown the crab cakes and sear the scallops at the same time in separate pans depending on time). Plate the scallops, drizzle sauces over cakes & scallops, garnish pudding cakes with fresh raspberries and the seafood with finely chopped fresh parsley for color. Voila! My dinner trio in under 60 minutes. Whew!! I’m exhausted and hungry just writing that! (And, of course, both sauces and the pudding cakes would have had yummy Lactaid swapped out for boring ol’ milk ;) !!

To celebrate the finale, we’re giving away a $50 Amazon gift card (plus some Lactaid coupons!) to one lucky winner! How cool is that?!! I scored one, too, and with it I’m buying a kitchen torch and a 16 inch Carbon Steel Hand Hammered Wok – can’t wait to try them both out!

It’s easy to enter – just leave a comment! Please…make sure to include your email address so I can contact you if you’re the winner! For an additional entry you can tweet the following:

Watch the exciting finale of the #GourmooCookoff and enter to win a $50 gift card! http://bit.ly/eiy3M5 @thewickednoodle @moovision

Thanks for watching our series! It was sooo fun to film and I hope I get to do something like this again very soon! You can also check out some behind-the-scenes pictures and some dish!

Cheers,