Cooking - Iron Chef Style! (last year)

Cooking? Me?

Two years ago if you had told me I'd be having a ton of fun getting together with a group of friends in a cooking competition - I'd have laughed - and asked you what you had been drinking.

A year ago, everything changed. We were invited to a "Iron Chef" style competition some friends of ours have been putting on for a number of years now - and since we had nothing else to do that Friday night - and we had not seen the hosts in some time - we figured what the heck - give it a try.

That was a definitely a night to remember - and the start of something FUN!

Neither the wife nor I had ever seen the TV show "Iron Chef" and still have no real desire to do so - but if it is half as fun as what we have been doing - maybe I might some day.

Our first competition last year required us to create a main dish around BABY OCTOPUS! We were told that there is one strange ingredient night per 4 week season - and it was just our luck that was the night.
Seeing that it was over a year ago - my memory is a little fuzzy - but I know we came up with some sort of casserole dish using our supply of baby octopuses (octopi?) and that I even gathered up the nerve to eat one - while my wife took my picture as proof.

Imagine a pale white gelatinous rubbery mass about the size of a thimble. Now imagine it has 8 little legs and you just popped it into your mouth.
Trying very hard not to gag - I swallowed it whole - since I really, REALLY did not want to chew into the thing.
The highlight of that night was the secret ingredient a teammate of ours added to our casserole (his initials are Dave) which so badly seared ones palette - that you completely forgot you just ate a mouthful of baby octopus - and instead went running in pursuit of some liquid fire extinguisher...
We have taken great care that from that day forward he is no longer allowed anywhere NEAR the hot sauce!

***

Not all of the meals we made last year required something with more legs than should be legal - we actually had a night where we had to make home made pot pies - which amazingly enough - were pretty damn tasty!

I had never known what a shepherd pie really was until I tasted one - I had always thought it was something you were careful to not step in ;-) (My grandparents raised cows - so I should be forgiven for that erroneous conclusion)

As it turned out, we were damn glad we took the chance and attended last year - we met a lot of new friends - and two of them were even motorcyclists like we are!