Reed Family Update: Engagement Parties and How to be Chopped!

This is going to be quite an exciting year for our family.  My son Noah and his fiancée, Hannah Birmingham, will be getting married on May 6, 2022.  My daughter Hannah and her fiancé, Matt Koster, will be getting married on September 10, 2022.  Four months apart, and lots of intense wedding planning, which is so much fun!

Since both of my children and their beloved having been living independently for some time, they both declared that they didn't need wedding showers, so we decided to hold engagement parties for them instead.  And as we talked about fun things to do at an engagement party, we all agreed that our family's love for cooking shows would be a fun theme.  So, on November 27, we held a "Chopped" Engagement Party for Noah and his Hannah; and on February 20, we held a "Chopped" Engagement Party for Hannah and Matt.  We had grandmothers, aunts and uncles, parents, siblings, groomsmen and bridesmaids and their significant others and more!  Both parties were really a lot of fun, so I'm sharing this with you with bunches of photos!

If you aren't familiar with the show Chopped, the idea (which we modified for our own delight) is that teams of two have to cook with mystery food ingredients, in a limited amount of time, with a variety of sabotages that can also be thrown their way.  Then judges judge the food based on taste, presentation, and the use of the mystery ingredients.  They had to cook with artichokes, plantains, tomatillos, and other fun ingredients for the entree; and for the dessert, they had to figure out how to make a tasty dessert with root beer, pomegranate, Cheetos, and other fun ingredients!

The sabotages they had to deal with included having their hands tied together (with a garter of course - it's a wedding theme!) for the whole cooking round; for one member to have to hold a bouquet in one hand for the whole cooking round; to wear "Team Bride" glasses, which have very limited vision, for the whole round, and more.  There was tension, laughter, frustration, and fun, all wrapped up in what turned out to be very successful and tasty dishes over all!  

Enjoy these pictures!  I'll put Noah's engagement party pictures first, then Hannah's engagement party pictures.  

Noah and Hannah Birmingham's party:

Those who cooked for Noah and Hannah B's party - Hannah Reed was the MC.

The bride and groom to be...and yes, Noah felt left out of festive dressing, so he is wearing the veil.  (Is he a little bit like his dad?  Absolutely!

Some of the beautiful plates of food, and the judges for Noah and Hannah's party (including the bride-to-be, and my husband Michael, who both did a great job!)

Hannah and Matt Koster's party:

Brother and sister, getting married four months apart.  Love these two!

 

Hannah and Matt opening a few kitchen presents that could be used for the Chopped party, and then would end up in their home.

The Grooms team - Matt with his groomsmen as well as his sister, who will stand up for him - cooking for Team Groom!

The bride's team - Hannah's maid of honor and bridesmaids, as well as her brother who will stand up for her - cooking for Team Bride!

Bride and groom as judges, as well as one of Hannah's bridesmaids and Matt's grandmother!  (And yes, you had to be a bit brave to eat this food, so I give her props!)

Noah and one of Hannah's bridesmaids trying to cook while tied together.  Not easy to do!

Trying to make a dessert while holding a bouquet!  Mwah ha ha ha ha!

The Team Bride sunglasses, which only has pinholes through which to see.  But the pie looks pretty good, doesn't it!

All in all, a fun time.  We have decided that we will do these types of competitions on our own as a family, as we enjoyed it so much.  But not until after the weddings!  

Bob is not far from our thoughts with all of this - his missing these upcoming events with his children and our missing his presence and input.   He has missed so much already in the last twelve years.  While the amount of time since he left us continues to grow, our missing him at these big events does not lessen.  But God is still good!