Iron Chef and the Secret Ingredient is . . .

Welcome to Kitchen Stadium, Omaha style.  With an oven, stove, knives, and a lot of Holy Spirit anything can be done.  Two lasagnas, two salads, rosemary/garlic focaccia, COW bars (chocolate, oatmeal, walnut cookies), and ice cream made for quite a feast.  We practically made everything from scratch except for the cheeses, ice cream, beer, and wine, but if we could have we would have!  The lasagna noodles were even made from scratch.  

As a part of the program, the interns host a dinner and a blessing of the house.  We had a budget of $100, but had no idea of the amount of people attending, so we planned for about 21 or 22.  We decided on an Italian theme, which lead us to make one meat lasagna, one zucchini lasagna, a watermelon and feta salad, a spring mix salad with home grown garden vegetables, focaccia bread, and for dessert COW bars plus ice cream.  Because it isn't a good Iron Chef episode unless someone using the ice cream machine.  Plus, I will admit COW bars are not Italian, but one batch makes a lot of cookies.

So here is the play by play: the night before, we began the focaccia bread, allowing it the time to develop flavor and structure.  The day of, we made the marinara sauce.  Since one lasagna had meat and the other did not, we separated the sauce in to two batches and added ground beef seasoned with salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, and Worcestershire sauce to one pot of the sauce.  Both lasagnas were layered with mozzarella, ricotta, and parmesan cheese.  While allowing the sauce to simmer, we made the noodles.  Simply combining flour, egg, water, olive oil, and salt together and kneading it for 10 minutes, letting it rest for 30 minutes, and viola pasta ready for boiling water.  The focaccia bread went into the oven first, followed by the lasagnas, then the cookies.  We assembled the salads and HOT DOG!  Time is up.   

It was brilliant, like a puzzle coming together from three different directions.  We worked together against the clock, and truly made dinner together.  We conversed over our lives and futures, then we laughed over making the food, then I would become super nerdy when trying to explain certain details of making the food (I can't help it), and they put up with me, but it was a great community building experience.  Making dinner will not be that extravagant every night, but as long as there is conversation and food, there will never be a problem.  And in the words of my uncle, "A LA CUISINE!"