madcity girl

Ryan and Jill hosted February’s Iron Chef Dinner on Wednesday evening. As a nod to the Month of Love, we chose the theme Aphrodisiac. Everyone was tasked with bringing a dish with ingredients that are known to supposedly increase sexual desire. I admit it was slightly awkward to reveal this month’s dinner theme to co-workers and family.

I learned a lot about aphrodisiacs during our recipe search. Aphrodisiacs are everywhere: almonds, arugula, asparagus, bananas, basil, chocolate, carrots, figs, garlic, ginger, honey, oysters, and wine…just to name a few. We covered more than a dozen in our meal. Heck, Julie and Matt covered six just between two dishes. When she arrived, Julie proudly revealed a post-it note listing all.

Our dishes for the evening included Strawberry Avocado Salad, Warm Brie with Ginger-Citrus Glaze, Glazed Figs with Almonds and Thyme, Avocado Garlic Spread, Goat Cheese, Fig & Walnut Stuffed Grape Leaves, Strawberry-Avocado Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips, Dried Fig-Smoked Almond Bark, and Pomegranate Panna Cotta.

Larry and I contributed the Warm Brie With Ginger-Citrus Glaze and  Pomegranate Panna Cotta. We served the brie with sea salt flat breads, savory rosemary crostini, grapes and sliced apples. It was an easy dish to whip up and made a great appetizer. Sadly, the Pomegranate Panna Cotta was a bit of a disaster. Somewhere between removing the panna cotta from the ramekins to walking the platter out to my car, they all fell apart (before and after pics below). But you know what? Sometimes it just doesn’t turn out, and that’s okay. Luckily, my friends still humored me with a taste.

We decided on chili peppers as the ingredient for March’s dinner. And it’s a quick turnover. Sunday, actually. Which means for the first time, we’ll be hosting two Iron Chef dinners in one week. Back to the recipe search!

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