ladysprite | Deep Down Inside, I Am Evil

I don't like to admit it, but I have a fondness for reality cooking competition shows. In particular, I have recently developed a shameful interest in Chopped - especially the current All Stars edition.

(For those not familiar with the show, each episode involves four chefs competing over 3 courses; for each course they get a set of four ingredients they have to use. Some ingredients are good, some are... at best random.)

And this is fascinating, and it's a cool exercise in creativity, and I love playing along at home and trying to think of what I would make if I were in their situation. But just once, instead of the standard collection of excellent and bizarre ingredients, like skirt steak, turnips, sweet potatoes, and fruit leather, I'd just love - just once - to see something truly bizarre and prankworthy.

I just have a vision of the contestants' faces as they open their basket and the voiceover announces, 'Today's mandatory appetizer ingredients are..... Branston Pickle, Cocoa Puffs, Sawdust, and The Contents Of Some Random Tupperware We Found In The Back Of Bobby Flay's Refrigerator. Your 20 minutes start..... NOW!'

This is how I know I am secretly a bad person.

(Also, I just love saying Branston Pickle. If I had a son, I would name him that. This, in turn, is how I know I should never reproduce.)