Cooking under pressure, a breakfast scramble and grocery card giveaway

Long title, huh? But they all have something in common…

I recently attended the Safeway Culinary Kitchens Search for Our Next Chef regional cook-off event in San Francisco where four contestants tried to cook their way into the final. At the final cook-off, the winner will be given a full-time job in the Safeway kitchens and their skillet meal will be turned into an actual product sold through Safeway’s Open Nature product line. I’d say that counts as cooking under a bit of pressure, wouldn’t you? Especially when you have Le Cordon Bleu Executive Chef Mike Weller looking over your shoulder, like this.

Gulp.

Just watching this made my hands sweaty. Not only were the contestants cooking under Chef Weller’s stare watch, but also Safeway Culinary Kitchens Executive Chef Jeff Anderson’s. And then more nail biting as the dishes went to the judging table where they were dissected and evaluated. Again…gulp. I’ll stay in the comfort of my own kitchen, thank you very much.

In the end, Chanda Clark’s chicken creole dish impressed the chefs and got her the win. You can read more about the cook-off and my interview with Alex Guarnaschelli, who will be one of the final judges, here.

Onto the breakfast scramble. Before I start raving about this dish and these products, let me first be clear that I was NOT compensated for this post. I just happen to really, really like them.  I’ve been a fan of Open Nature products since I attended the product launch last year, so I was happy to try out this recipe developed by Executive Chef Jeff Anderson.

This was one of the best breakfasts I’ve had in a long time, and the flavor of the Andouille sausage was perfect with just the right amount of kick to it. We will definitely be making this again.

Open Nature Andouille Sausage Breakfast Scramble with Pesto

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Servings: 2

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic, freshly minced

2 Open Nature™ Andouille Sausage, cut into small dice

1 tablespoon Open Nature Pesto Sauce

4 O Organics™ Eggs

1 tablespoon finely sliced scallions

2 cups Open Nature Hash Brown Potatoes or oven roasted potatoes (optional)

Heat olive oil in medium skillet; add garlic and diced Andouille sausage. Cook until hot.

Scramble eggs, add to the pan and cook until it reaches your own desired degree of doneness.

Stir in pesto and allow to warm briefly.

Serve over freshly prepared hash browns or oven roasted potatoes.

Top with scallions.

Notes: I used only 1/2 tablespoon minced garlic and extra pesto to taste.

Now for the good part: the giveaway! I have two $50 grocery store gift cards to give away, good at any Safeway Companies stores in the U.S. or Canada (Safeway, Vons, Pavillions, Genuardi’s Dominick’s Carrs, Tom Thumb, or Randalls). Giveaway will run through midnight PST on Friday, May 18 and I’ll pick a winner at random. Winners must have a U.S. or Canada mailing address.

To enter (come back and leave a separate comment for each entry):

• Tell me if you think you could handle the pressure of a cooking competition.
• Check out the Open Nature products and let me know which one looks good to you.
• Tweet the following: Enter to win a $50 grocery gift card #giveaway from @tastytrials here: http://bit.ly/KQcShQ
• Follow @tastytrials on Twitter
• Pin this post.

Disclaimer: Safeway Companies provided gift cards for this giveaway, but I was not compensated monetarily in any way. All opinions are my own.