#JustAddOJ Event

A couple of weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to join other bloggers & foodies at The Kitchen NYC for this special #JustAddOJ event with special guests/judges - Mark Cotter from Florida Orange Juice, nutritionist Heidi Skolnik, and Food Network star Claire Robinson. (I'm still waiting on some official photos, so I apologize for the lack of quality of these iPhone pics.)

the judges :)

 In the beginning, we were treated with a special lunch consisting of foods cooked with Florida Orange Juice. Adding OJ to your recipes can help you reach your daily dietary guidelines you may not get otherwise and it can also be a replacement for vinegar. I learned that OJ can be a versatile ingredient since it has acidity but sweetness.

Later, we were paired randomly - forming teams of two and we had to undergo our own cooking competition! (Yikes! I am obviously an amateur cook - I definitely do the eating than the cooking.) Thankfully, my partner Carly is a culinary student. Our challenge was to create a dish and a drink containing at least one cup of Florida Orange Juice given one hour. We were also presented with two bags of ingredients and we had to use at least one of them from each bag for each the dish and the drink respectfully.

For the drink, which we named Bitter Orange, contained orange juice, ginger ale, and bitters. We rimmed the glasses with cocoa powder, paprika, and salt.

For our dish, we created a tilapia ceviche with a chamomile orange glaze and fresh tarragon alongside kale & beet leaves salad with toasted almonds and orange & lemon zest.

We didn't win, but I am definitely proud of our team and I'm still surprised I helped create this dish! It was such a nice time meeting other bloggers and really participating & seeing firsthand how easy it can be cooking with orange juice.

me, Carly (haha, we're in our awesome chef jackets) and the judges!

We got to walk away with a couple of cookbooks, including Claire Robinson's 5 Ingredient Fix and a cool measuring cup.

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