We started the night out with the dreaded cheese drink. We
had been willing to eliminate this category for this ingredient because… well…
“cheese drink.” Who wants to try that? Well, Cara took this as a challenge, and
I’d say she was surprisingly successful in making a tasty drink with cheese.
Her Strawberry Cheesecake smoothie used cream cheese. It was well balanced
because even though you could taste the cheese, it didn’t dominate the flavor.
This was way better than the dirty cheese martinis we were afraid of. (Sorry about the blurry pic, I had some light issues on this one).
The appetizers were the place to be, since both of our winners of the evening had this course. Chelyen made Caesar Chicken Salad in Parmesan Cups and walked away with her first Iron Chef win! It was a good thing she made seconds. The Parmesan cups were a really creative way to serve the chicken salad and were deliciously crispy even on their own. I think Chelyen was hoping to take some leftovers home, but no dice!
We did the sides and mains all together, so I’ll just go through them in no particular order. Morgan’s side was a spicy, Cheesy Cornbread Muffin. I love me some cornbread (we’re in the South, come on) and this was a good rendition. I think it was cheddar and jalapeño, which is a combo I could never be mad at.
Kim made a really flavorful cheese soufflé. I have never made one, but I hear that they are pretty difficult to pull off, so the degree of difficulty was high here. Plus I’m a sucker for the “breakfast for dinner” thing so she got me there. Didn’t really photograph well on those red plates, but it really did taste great!
Jen made “Company Chicken,” a name I really love. Ok, so it is not the most beautiful looking food—but it was really good and homey. Had that “stick-to-your-ribs” feel to it. Definitely the kind of dish you would make to impress guests.
Finally, we had two desserts. First was Doan’s Cream Cheese Brownies, and really, you can’t go wrong with that recipe. They were fudgy and decadent—everything you want in a brownie. And I know that we ate almost the entire pan of them by the end of the night, so you know they were good.
It was a great night of food, and wonderful to try recipes with such a well-loved secret ingredient. I was really happy with the variety and creativity that everyone showed, and it was good to get together again. The next Iron Chef hasn’t been planned yet, but be on the lookout! And if you have any cool ideas for ingredients, we’d love to hear them.
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