Enter the Kitchen Stadium!

Tomorrow marks the kick-off party for our Halloween planning for 2006. (Well, actually, we've been doing a bit of planning, but now, it's time to get our butts in gear - Walgreen's and Big Lots already have their Halloween junk for sale!)

In order to start it off right, we're having an Iron Chef Competition. That's right, two Iron Chefs and their assistants will be doing battle in our own version of the kitchen stadium right here in New Mexico. Thus, the name of the competition is Iron Chef New Mexico. Here's the logo:

Our house will serve as the judging center. Tomorrow at 1pm, the Iron Chefs will gather at the judging center and we will unveil the secret ingredients for the challenge. The Iron Chefs have five hours to go to the store, buy any additional ingredients, prepare three dishes, and return to the judging center for plating. At exactly 6pm, the plated dishes must be set on the judges table, and then the judging begins!

In a twist on the usual theme, this competition will have three secret ingredients, and each must be the primary focus of one of the three plates: an appetizer, a main course, and a dessert. It's up to the Iron Chefs which ingredient to use with which plate - should they be safe and use the sweetest of the three for the dessert for flavor points, or should they go for originality points by bucking the obvious choice? We'll find out their choices tomorrow!

We're sending video cameras home with each Iron Chef so that we can edit it together into a show. Let's hope we get some great footage!

Allez cuisine!