The blizzard challenge

Michael, assigned a butternut squash. Jeff, assigned lobster tails. Russ, assigned as sous chef.

Quite crappy little clearwater tails. You grab what you can in a storm.

Michael deftly peals and pits the squash....

And then shows his knife skills. He could easily go for the expected squash soup...

But wait! A russet potato introduced. He is going for a gratin!

Meanwhile, Jeff cracks open the tails and sits them on top of their shells, with paprika...country club fashion.

And macerates apples and shallots in rum. Good rum. Very good rum.

Back on Chef Michael's side, he is reducing a cream sauce with shallots, thyme and aromatic, fresh grated nutmeg.

And he is layering closely cropped squash with potato and salty pecorino cheese.

And then soaking with his rich cream base, and baking...

Out of the oven. A huge hit! The nutmeg is the star, mating the starchy potato with the sweet and tender squash.

And bringing up the rear, Jeff's broiled tail with a rich lemon cream sauce.

More snow, please.