Utah State Champions

Well we did it again. We won the Utah State Dutch oven Championship. It was held on September 27th, 2008 at Calbela's in Lehi, UT. We started the day at 5:00 am. We had prepared and packet most everything in the truck the night before, but had to pack a few other things. Then we had to make the drive. Of course it is a 1 hour plus drive. We did stop for our traditional MCD breakfast. Ben is superstitious. But it gets our energy up.




We setup in front of the store and met with the other cooks at by 8:30 am. There were 6 teams. We haven't cooked this year and there were a few cooks that we hadn't met. There were a few we did know. The first thing I noticed was that the wind wasn't blowing. As soon as I said something the wind started up. Normally it blow hard but that day just a light breeze.


Cooking started at 8:45 am. What did we cook? Desert is judged first. Desert we cooked Italian Cream Cake. This a four layer cake that is filled with pecans and coconut iced with Cream cheese icing. We had to have it done by 12:00 noon. It turned out perfect.








Bread was judged second. It was due at 1:00 pm. I cooked a white bread with 5 toppings on it. I called it Five topping braided bread. There was poppy seeds, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, dried onion flakes, and Kosher salt on top. It has a great flavor. It was nicely browned. You couldn't tell where the braid started or ended.







Main dish was judged third. This was due at 2:00 pm. Ben cooked a dish called Spicy Pork Tenderloin. It has pineapple juice, lime juice, jalopenos, and cayenne pepper. It was very tender and had a kick to it.

Calbela's employees judged the individual dishes for everyone.






Sonya can by to watch during the Desert. Ryan, Halsie, and Sydney came by during the bread. I got a cute picture with Sydney.







The camera battery stopped just at the first of the awards ceremony. So you will just have to believe me on the awards.

The award ceremony was at 4:00 pm. They announced the individual dishes first. We Got First in our Desert and Main dish. $25 gift Calbela's certificate each. Then we got 1st on the overall prize $250 prize Calbela's gift certificate. I think we won the bread 1st too but they wanted to share the wealth a little.

We also won the chrome plated dutch oven trophy. The Trophy is a traveling trophy and since this is the third time we have won it we get to keep the Trophy. We won this cook off in 2004, 2006, and now 2008. But we can not cook next year in this cook off.

The good news is we have qualified for the World Championship which happens in March 2009. We took off last year. We are going to try again. Keep your figures crossed.