madcity girl

Yes, I know. It’s taken me an eternity to write this post. Or two weeks. But it feels like an eternity. So like I said earlier, Jill and Ryan hosted the February edition of our Iron Chef dinner series two Fridays ago. Peanuts were the “secret ingredient”—although I’ll let you in on a little secret: the “secret ingredient” is actually no secret, as we all come to a consensus on an ingredient at the previous month’s dinner. But still, I insist upon using the word “secret.” It makes me feel all official and sleuth-like.

Now peanuts might seem like an easy ingredient to the untrained Iron Chef—I mean there’s countless recipe options that incorporate peanuts, right? But therein lies the challenge. It could be argued that there are simply too many options and recipes from which to choose. And as I recently learned during a presentation by behavioral economist Dan Ariely (author of Predictably Irrational), too many options overwhelm people (I believe Ariely actually used the word “bamboozle”). But luckily, my friends are not easily bamboozled.

Consensus among the group was that this was one of our best Iron Chef dinners yet. There was a lot of harmony among the dishes—they all played together very nicely with complementing flavors and textures. Certainly it helped that most of the dishes were of Thai origin. Following is a list of all contributed dishes:

African Peanut Butter Stew
Candy Circus Peanuts
Iso Peanuts
Peanut Bacon Brittle
Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Spicy Peanut Soup
Thai Chicken Salad with Pita Bread
Thai Chicken Satay Skewers with Peanut Sauce
Thai Pork with Peanut Sauce (over a bed of rice noodles)

And if that spread doesn’t make your mouth salivate, I’m not sure what will. The dinner was fabulous. My personal favorites were the Thai Chicken Satay Skewers (with three varieties of dipping sauces) and the Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Banana Bread, both of which Jill contributed. Sometimes I think the host has the upper hand with access to an oven and the ability to avoid transportation challenges, but Jill clearly deserved top honors. Especially with those three dipping sauces—when she named off about twenty ingredients in each, I was impressed.

Lauren also introduced our new mascot (see picture, above). She recently received the “iron” knife and fork set as a gift from one of her clients (Lauren owns a personal training gym). Obviously it’s the perfect match for our dinner series. We’ll have to figure out a way to incorporate the set into the mix.

So what’s up for next month? Instead of a single ingredient for March, we’ve decided to switch it up in honor of Saint Patrick’s Day. So Matt and Julie will be hosting an Irish-themed dinner. I’m guessing we’ll have some Irish soda bread, corn beef and cabbage, dumpling stew, and maybe a little green food coloring. It’s time to get in touch with my Irish heritage!