Memory Lane - Mystery Box Challenge

Who would have thought we would already be competing in today's second mystery box challenge? This challenge is slightly different from the previous ones. Today, we must share the box ingredients and use a limited pantry to craft our dishes! The Boomers are ready to hit the road with just one box to share.

What's In The Box?

The excitement in the air is palpable as we gather around the mystery box, eager to uncover the ingredients that will spark our culinary creativity. Sharing limited ingredients brings a new dynamic to the challenge.

As we lift the lid, the anticipation builds. What treasures lie within? Each ingredient tells a story, evoking memories of past dishes and family traditions. This challenge is not just about creating a dish; it’s about connecting with our roots and honoring the culinary heritage that has shaped us.

Our box includes some beautiful Boomer classics: a loaf of white bread, potted processed meat, milk powder, Malty Milk (one of my favorites), bottled Italian dressing, a head of cabbage, instant coffee, and some nice-looking proteins. This box is a piece of cake, so the Boomers are ready to make their mark with these all-too-familiar ingredients...but wait, there's a twist.

The Twist

Becca gained immunity in the Cake Week challenge, so she has an advantage in switching up who gets to cook with the other generations' ingredients. Yikes! I hoped to avoid getting the millennial box, which mainly contains processed pre-packaged food. Spicy cheese puffs, bologna, and cheese spray were not calling my name.

The GenX Box was not much better; it contained wine coolers, popcorn, and more cheese puffs, but at least it held some fresh veggies and good proteins.

Did I Dodge A Bullet

Becca makes her choices, giving the Boomers the GenZ ingredient box. I feel like I dodged a bullet, but I knew my work was cut out for me with this box and its all-natural choices. This could go wrong as the box contains oat and almond milk, cashew cheese, almond butter, plant-based meat, gluten-free bread, jackfruit, and other "healthy" foods. These ingredients all lack taste and need special attention and cooking treatment.

Let's Make Breakfast

The Boomer men want to cook with proteins, so I decided to use Gluten-free bread to make one of my family's favorite breakfasts, stuffed pumpkin french toast (minus the pumpkin as there was none in the box or pantry) with a nut crumble topping and buttery jackfruit syrup.

Issues with my choices are that I usually use buttery brioche bread for the French toast and know that the gluten-free option has zero flavors and does not brown uniformly. I've worked with cashew cream cheese before, but the package is tiny, so I try to hunt down regular cream cheese in the limited pantry and find none. However, the jackfruit is a big surprise and tastes incredible. There might be some hope in the basket after all.

Stuffed Pumpkin French Toast Recipe

Four Required Ingredients

My four required basket ingredients are oat milk, cashew cheese, jackfruit, and Almond butter. I wish I had some canned pumpkin or fruit to boost the filling but the limited pantry offers little help to my quest.

A Few Bumps

I encountered a few challenges: the egg-soaked gluten-free bread took longer to brown and my filling of eggs and cashew cheese was very thin, to say the least. However, everything came together in the end. The cashew nut crumble was delightful, but my whipped topping melted straight away. The highlight of the dish was my jackfruit syrup. Before this challenge, I had never tasted jackfruit, and I was pleasantly surprised by its complex banana and pineapple flavors.

Lackluster Plating

As I’m plating the dish, it looks lackluster on the plate with too much brown. I'm thankful for the beautiful jackfruit syrup and confident the flavors will shine!

Times Up

Our time is up, and judging begins. The judges seemed to like the flavors of my dish, but Aaron asked if I thought my plate was creative enough! In retrospect, I should have left off the last-minute whipped cream topping and plated the dish differently by cutting the French toast in half. Four triangles would have looked far better. However, once the judges review the other contestants' dishes, I am pleased to say I am not at the bottom and stay another day based on my use of the basket ingredients.

Top Dishes

Horacia, Hailey, Daniela, and Michael

It was almost too close to call, as the judges loved all four dishes. I'm so proud of these four individuals for rising to the top today! Michael wins with his cornflake-crusted pork chop. Congratulations, Mike! Job well done.

Bottom Dishes

Dr. Christopher, Murt, Arthur

All three of the dishes on the bottom suffered from technical errors. Sadly, we say goodbye to Dr. Christopher due to the undercooked chicken thighs. He is the most honorable man I have ever met and an incredible cook. He was missed so much after his early departure.

Thankful For Another Day

One more challenge in the books, I survived to cook another day in the MasterChef kitchen.