During the pandemic, there has been a 12-week long The Seattle Times Pantry Kitchen Challenge, where people were encouraged to cook something up and send in a photo and their recipe. The contest was clearly modeled after the Food Network show "Chopped," where in each round you have to use four ingredients to produce a creative, tasty dish. When that contest concluded, The Times announced a special one-week contest for young chefs in an article back on July 14. The must-use ingredients were buttermilk, blueberries, maple syrup and any kind of cereal.
Annabelle struck upon the idea of using crunchy Cap'n Crunch as breading for the homemade chicken nuggets portion of the dish. At that, it was decided that the waffle should be savory instead of sweet, so CJ pitched a waffle with a bountiful amount of bacon and some chopped up almonds for crunch.
On the evening of July 23, they made their dinner. First, they made the dipping sauce. Using rhubarb from our garden and organic blueberries, plus the must-use ingredient maple syrup as a sweetener, they made a sauce on the stove top. The process was much like making a jam.
Annabelle coated and fried the nuggets, while CJ whipped up the waffled (using our Death Star waffle iron). Once his waffles were done, a 2-inch circle cookie cutter was used to make the waffles more bite sized. They took short skewers and put one chicken nugget and one mini waffle on each skewer, with a side of the dipping sauce.
It looked great and actually tasted terrific.
Annabelle emailed a photo of the finished meal and a little write up to the Seattle Times. She wrote:
My brother and I are submitting this recipe for The Seattle Times Pantry Kitchen Challenge! This recipe flips the script. The chicken is coated in a sweet cereal, while the waffles are savory, with an earthy Ethiopian spice. A summery blueberry and rhubarb dipping sauce is the perfect companion. We thought it was an interesting twist on a staple food combo, and we hope you enjoy it as much as our family did! We had a lot of fun figuring out this pandemic pantry puzzle.
Imagine how thrilled they were yesterday when they found out their creation took top honors via an article posted on The Seattle Times' site!
Another nice line for their resumes - which already include a number of culinary-related honors.
SPLASHDOWN SUCCESS!: Sunday morning through early afternoon, we had NASA TV on, as we wanted to monitor the action regarding the return to Earth of the SpaceX Dragon capsule and its two human inhabitants.
Annabelle can tell you a bit more about it.
NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken recently returned to Earth in Dragon Endeavor. Their capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico after having spent 2 months in space. The return flight from the International Space Station only took 19 hours overnight. Reportedly, the astronauts said that the reentry was remarkably similar to what they had been trained for in the SpaceX simulations. This was the first manned spacecraft splashdown in 45 years, and the first manned spaceflight from American soil in several years as well! This launch, flight, and splashdown were the finals test for SpaceX's astronaut capsule before it can be cleared for regular spaceflight. The capsule will be thoroughly inspected and refurbished before it can hopefully make the grade and be used again!
It was super exciting watching the capsule's descent Sunday morning. We tracked their descent. The re-entry burn was scary, but successful, thankfully. The drogue chutes deployed as planned, and then the four big chutes came out just as planned.
The capsule had a safe splashdown and bobbed beautifully in the Gulf of Mexico.
A specially-equipped barge came and plucked the capsule and its inhabitants from the water.
It looked a little worse for the wear, but it was intact and the astronauts were safe, so mission accomplished! 
SODO SCENES: Below are a couple bonus more shots from my hours spent in the Stadium District from Saturday through Tuesday morning while working at the Vote Center at CenturyLink Field Event Center.
I sure wish this marquee's promise were true.
And here's the left field entrance sign, as seen through the jumbo copper glove sculpture on the corner of Royal Brougham and First Avenue.
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