Yep, I’m still alive and doing lots of fun cooking stuff…….

And it rained and it rained….for the Beringer Wines Great Steak Challenge in Newport, RI on Sunday, August 19th. But we didn’t let a little rain dampen our fun or competitive spirit–it was great! The cook off was held during the Newport Wine Festival down town and it was so much fun–those Beringer Wine people know how to throw a great cook off, even in the rain.

The event began with a lovely waterside “meet & greet” the night before at the hotel that they arranged for us with copious amounts of wine and lovely snacks. As it was a regional cook off (the winner goes to Napa to compete against the other regional winners) so it was fun to meet other cooking friends from New England, one who lives as close as Sturbridge.

Anyway, the day of the cook off, it rained, and it rained and then it rained some more but when it’s go time, you have to go, rain or shine. There is a law in RI that grills cannot be under any covering such as a tent or awning so we were grilling in the rain whether we liked it or not. There were 10 contestants divided in to two heats and I was grilling in the second heat. Bless my first heat friends–they grilled in the pouring rain. However, the true spirit of sportsmanship was displayed with my friend and fellow competitor Lisa held the umbrella for my other new friend Veronica while she grilled:

Here I am, observing my competition before my heat:

And then it is my turn to cook. Thankfully, the rain had let up a little. I got my ingredients ready to go and then it was time to cook!

The steak is seasoned and on the grill with beautiful sliced tomatoes that had been brushed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper:

and then I put the ingredients together to build a panini and used the panini press to grill it on both sides:

While the sandwich was grilling, I made a nice garnish from rosemary, fresh tomatoes and olives and voila, a Grilled Mediterranean Steak Panini–YUM!

So the judges loved my sandwich–I scored 5 out of 5 for my food but unfortunately, my wine pairing was a little off. I paired the sandwich with Beringer Merlot and only got 3 out of 5 points for the pairing. I am very very proud of my efforts and came in third–not too shabby for a girl who usually cooks seafood! And congratulations to my friend Lisa Keys from CT that came in first and will be traveling to Napa in a few weeks to represent New England and compete for $15,000 in the finals!