Posted by Littleton Independent, CO on June 13, 2008 at 08:06:39:
Culinary Creator Littleton resident makes winning mix with organics
By Paige Ingram, Staff Writer06/12/2008
A recipe for jalapeño peppers peppers, stuffed with brie cheese and raspberries and drizzled with organic chocolate, was Moore’s winning entry to a national recipe contest.
It was on a last-minute whim that Melissa Moore entered the Green and Black's Organic Chocolate Challenge.
She had been watching the TLC show "Take Home Chef," with host Curtis Stone, who also works with the chocolate company, and heard him talk about the challenge.
"I went online and read about it and it was the week before the deadline," Moore said. "Basically I decided I wanted to go to the grocery store and see what I can come home with. I just grabbed a bunch of ingredients."
The result was jalapeño peppers, stuffed with brie cheese and raspberries and drizzled with the organic chocolate - a concoction that earned Moore one of five top accolades and a trip to New York City.
While it was the first cooking contest for the Littleton resident of 27 years, it was certainly not the first time she's come up with a recipe.
"I'm from the South, so usually Southerners are really into cooking and having a lot of family meals," Moore said. "My mom, ever since I was a little girl, always showed me how to cook."
The organic label on her ingredients is something she picked up in later years.
"I began to pay attention to what I consumed when I started to notice all the extra ingredients, and most often hard to pronounce ingredients, listed on the packages of the food I ate," Moore said in the essay that accompanied her recipe entry.
Now, she's hooked on the taste.
"If you can grow your own tomatoes it's so worth it," she said. "That's what organic provides. You're actually tasting the fruit."
Moore does grow her own tomatoes, artichokes and the raspberries in the winning recipe - all of it with a thumb she admits is far from green.
"My family had to buy me an indoor plant that you basically don't have to water," she said. "If you just start with the basics, you get a rich soil mix, plant it, water it occasionally and it's really easy. Our weather is pretty good for growing."
Moore sees the organic trend catching on, in Colorado and beyond.
"Colorado living and that lifestyle kind of complements it," she said. "But I think overall, throughout the U.S., people are becoming more aware of what they are eating and that we really do put a lot of chemicals in our bodies. Do we really want to do that?"
With grocery prices rising every day, Moore said finding ingredients in the backyard also helps save some money.
But for the weekend in New York City, it was all about extravagance.
Along with the four other winners, Moore and a friend flew into JFK International Airport, where a car was waiting, enjoyed a day of shopping with Curtis Stone and a seat at the black-tie James Bier Foundation Award ceremony - known as the Academy Awards of the food and beverage professional world - hosted by Kim Cattrall and Bobby Flay.
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