Recently, I had an amazing opportunity to head to the Dallas Cowboys game with Carnival and meet Rascal Flatts and watch a few local contestants compete with Guy Fieri in the Burger Battle! It was a fun competition and I had a blast watching it go down. I was lucky enough to interview one of the contestants and get some fun info from her.
Melanee Brown was nice enough to answer a few short questions about the Burger Battle, her cooking and Carnival Cruise Lines. The pictures in this post were provided by her.
What made you want to participate in the Burger Battle? When I saw the post from WFAA about a burger battle featuring Guy Fieri, I was sold. I am a huge fan of his watching him from the Next Food Network Star all the way up his newer shows like Guy’s Grocery Games. My son and I often tape Diners, Drive In, and Dives to see all the diversity out there related to food. With being an fan that I am, I knew this competition would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Any advice to new cooks? Be creative and don’t be afraid to try new things. If you don’t like what you try on the first go around, cook it in a different way and try it again. I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying, “Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover”, we need to think the same way about food. Don’t refuse a fruit or vegetable by it’s color. My kids didn’t like vegetables that were green, but today they love broccoli, asparagus, and kale. They learned to like these items by changing up the cooking method or adding different spices to them as they were being cooked. There is not right or wrong in creating a wonderful dish.
Where will you be cruising to with Carnival? I’m unsure at this time where we’ll be traveling but I believe that it will be on the Carnival Freedom boat. In looking at some of the destinations we will have options of going to Jamaica, Belize, Cayman’s, Cozumel Mexico, Key West, and Bahamas. I grew up a little in Key West, so I would love for my kids to be able to tour some of the locations still existing from when I was there, see the old house my uncle lived in, and of course have a slice of key lime pie on Duval Street. My son, my biggest fan out there yesterday, wants to go on a jungle tour so we might veer to a cruise that takes us through Belize. There are so many options and I don’t think it’s sunk in yet that I have a cruise trip waiting for me.
Have you ever cruised before? If so, when and where? I have never been on a real cruise. When I was little I would go on the casino boats with grandma but it was nothing like a cruise line. It was a smaller boat that drifted out to sea for an hour to two and then came back to shore. I’m so beyond excited for this future cruise and even more excited that it’s with Carnival Cruise Lines.
What are you most looking forward to on your cruise? Great question I would have to say EVERYTHING!! The other contestants and I have exchanged contact information and are thinking about traveling out and enjoying our cruise together. I could not have been paired with two better people to compete with in this competition. I’m also very excited to try all the burgers at Guy’s Burger Joint, and see all the different toppings he’s added to his burger. Who knows maybe one of our burgers will end up on his menu someday. Wouldn’t that be crazy? I’m sure there will be so many things to do on the boat, but if any reader has suggestions of what I should do, I’d love to hear from you. All suggestions welcome.
We had so much watching the competition, spending the day with Carnival and, of course, watching the Dallas Cowboys kick butt! Find more pictures from the day here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152832642879288.1073741855.341819104287&type=1
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