Welcome to a very MOFO edition of Chopped/Vegan. This one is gonna’ be off the hook for so many reasons. (That is, if people even say “off the hook” anymore.) Number one is: it’s Chopped/Vegan and it’s always an amazing time! Also, it’s the Post Punk Kitchen 10 year anniversary and I want to give away prizes like nobody’s business. And finally, this Chopped/Vegan is super duper special because it’s neither an entree round or a dessert round. Yet you can make something savory or sweet. It’s a friggin’ riddle, and I’ll give you a moment to catch up.

OK. Have you guessed what it is?

That’s right, it’s the Chopped/Vegan BRUNCH ROUND! Which means, you can go either savory or sweet here. Heck, you can go BOTH! OK, now lift your jaws up off the floor, sweep up the confetti and compose yourself.

So…before getting boring and going into the rules and stuff, let me announce the mystery basket ingredients. (But you still have to read the rules, ok?)

The four mystery basket ingredient for Chopped/Vegan Brunch are… (drumroll please, but like a synth-pop Depeche Mode kinda drum roll.)

Butternut squash, popcorn, fresh rosemary, and apricot preserves!

Ooh, I think this is gonna be a good one! Now read the rules and then we’ll get to the other fun part…the prizes!

Here’s the deal:
Create a BRUNCH utilizing all four ingredients as little or as much as you want. You can also use any other items in your pantry.

Here’s the rules:
You must use from-scratch, vegan ingredients to the best of your ability (if it’s covered in packaged vegan cheeze and made out of trademarked faux-meat products, sorry but you won’t win.)

Submissions will be judged on perceived taste, creative use of the mystery ingredients and presentation. The photograph is important, so if you’re not a professional photographer, use natural light where you can, try to use a real camera (not a cell phone) and remember, flash on food photos is rarely appealing.

There is no time requirement, so take all the time you need. This competition and the prizes are open to everyone, everywhere!

Here’s how to enter (please read carefully):
On Sunday Oct 14th at 5pm EST, you can begin to post your entries in the comments of this thread. Please don’t post before then because a) you don’t want your ideas stolen do you? and b) it makes it harder to go through when entries are interspersed with questions and other comments.

Your recipe can be posted anywhere, so long as it’s public and everyone can  see it  (your blog, Facebook, FlickR, Geocities, etc.) All entries must be in by 3 PM EST on Monday Oct 15th. Please make sure when you leave your comment, that a valid email is used so that you can be contacted if you win. I will pick the winners on Tuesday October 16th and announce them in a brand new thread.

Your entry must contain 3 things: the title of your dish, a picture of your dish (you can have more than one pic), and a description of your method. Please mention all ingredients used, not just the four mystery ingredients. Describe what you did as best you can so that people can recreate it if they like! A recipe would be ideal, but not totally necessary.

The Chopped Champion will receive:
~Fame, respect and the Chopped Vegan title
~A $50 Vegan Essentials Gift Certificate
~A signed copy of any of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s (um, that’s me) softcover cookbooks
~A Post Punk Kitchen Apron
~I’ll throw in some other prizes, like vintage spatulas, candy, drawings and whatever I feel like sending you. It’ll be good, promise!

And this time, there will be prizes for 10 Runner-Ups!
~5 cheftestants will receive a signed copy of any of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s (um, still me) softcover cookbooks
~5 cheftestants will receive a Post Punk Kitchen apron!

If you need a little inspiration, here are two past Chopped/Vegan competitions from my Facebook. The entree round and the dessert round.

And if you have no idea what Chopped! is, then you can read about it here, and watch a few episodes (warning: lots of animal products, sometimes pretty gruesome looking ones.) There are also episodes on Hulu.

Ok everyone, good luck, and your time starts….now!!!!