MasterChef Casting Call Part 1

So for those of you who have been following my MasterChef casting call audition, here's how it went!  I have to preface it by saying that it was an awesome experience, and it meant the world to me to have so much support from family, friends and readers.  I was truly overwhelmed with gratitude, so a sincere thank you goes out to every single person reading this!

It began on Friday morning by hacking up a ridiculous sized piece of meat, pouring the marinade I made the night before over the hacked pieces resting in my beloved dutch oven, and packing it in the cooler along with all my ingredients for the mango salsa, pickled onions, banana leaves, and the rest of the marinade.  I wasn't sure how well equipped the kitchen in our hotel room would be, so I was careful to pack plenty of knives, containers, etc.  My sister arrived and joined Ashley and me for the car ride down.

We arrived at the hotel, which was about 20 minutes away from downtown, but very clean, pleasant and well equipped.

My cozy little hotel kitchen

We settled in, I made my salsa and pickled onions, and we got ready for dinner.  We drove downtown and decided to try out Moon River Brewery and ordered some amazing beers with dinner.  I had the Rosemary IPA (India Pale Ale), and it was incredible.  I love IPAs in general, but the very subtle rosemary in this one played so well off the citrus character of the hops and added a festive Christmas tree feel to it too!  Ashley ordered a beer that was better than a dessert.  Her Sweet Potato Ale was not sweet or spiced, but was a perfectly refreshing and full bodied ale.  The rim was dusted with a mixture of crushed nuts, spices and brown sugar and it made a huge impression!  Yum.  I don't remember what Lori ordered, but clearly it was not as good as mine and Ashley's... sorry, Lo.

Rosemary IPA up front, Sweet Potato Ale to the right, mystery (Belgian?) ale to the left.  Sorry for the fuzzy photo!

We gobbled up some standard pub fare, and headed down to River Street, which was looking pretty desolate for a Friday night.  Before heading back to the hotel to crash, we grabbed a beer to go...
Yes!  Wait!  Did you know about that?!  Savannah has an open container law that allows you to literally roam the streets of downtown with beer in hand.  Weird and wonderful.  I had to take a picture as evidence.

After heading back to the hotel, it was straight to bed.  Oh, did I mention that poor little sister was so sick she was hacking her brains out?  It's true.  No sleep for you!  Does that make me sound mean and cruel?  Probably.  But I really did feel so bad she felt so bad.  We tried our best to take care of her, but it turns out Mel and Ash care isn't as effective as amoxicillin.  I got up at 3am to line the dutch oven with banana leaves and wrap them around the meat like a present.  At least Miss Piggy can be all snug and warm in her sheets even if I can't.  I guess I should count my blessings that I wasn't snuggling up to sleep in an oven like this pork was.  Into a 275 degree oven until I clambered out of the bed again at 7.  I got up at 4.  WHAT?!  The oven light isn't on!  Tailspin into panic!  Turns out the oven light was just broken, and it had indeed been cooking and I would indeed get to present my dish as intended.  I got up at 5.  Good.  Still cooking.  Ash got up at 5:30, got Lo some water to ease her coughs and grumbled as she went to the bathroom and took world's longest shower.   Wet headed cousin climbs back into bed, I climb into shower. It's 8am and I am yelling.  Get up!  Am I going to have to go do this thing by myself?!  I'm so sweet in the morning.  It's 8:30 and we're all in the car on the way.  We pull into Savannah Tech Community College and everyone is toting the coolers to the door.  Awesome!  My hands are sweaty and now I am so nervous I feel the urgency of needing a bathroom STAT.  Sweaty is gonna look so sexy, how could they dare not put me on the big screen?
Stay tuned for Part 2, where I'll give you all the sweet behind the scenes details of MasterChef casting calls...