So...

... I'm being totally lazy this weekend. At least as far as the global culinary adventure is concerned. I'm taking the weekend off from exploring obscure foreign cuisines. My focus: My Next Iron Chef premier party.

I designated a chairman and asked him to pick a secret ingredient - peppers, any kind except the ground black kind - and invited some fellow foodies over to watch the premier on Food Network. The goal is for everyone to bring a dish with the secret ingredient.

I've spent much of the past week figuring out my menu for the event. The place to start looking for pepper recipes was obvious, especially to someone who has an autographed Bobby Flay cookbook in her possession.

From the Mesa Grill cookbook, tomorrow I'm going to try making some chickpea stuffed chile rellenos in a mushroom sauce and a tapioca pudding that involves serrano peppers and a mango blackberry sauce. A few weeks ago I saw Brian Boitano make this italian sausage polenta appetizer with red pepper salsa, so we'll be giving that a whirl.

The temptation to whip up some brownies with chipotle chile powder was just too strong. The recipe from Emeril was so easy I figured I should do some of those as well.

So anyway, that's what I'll be doing Sunday. Pepper mania. Stay tuned ...

Tonight, I'm taking it easy. Got some takeout from Bonefish Grill (got to use my free bang bang shrimp birthday coupon) and am watching the first season of Next Iron Chef marathon, getting geared up for tomorrow.

In the interest of feeding myself brunch in the morning I do plan to whip up this quiche from Emeril. The highlight of this quiche is the potato crust, which makes it awesome for breakfast. It's like a complete traditional breakfast in one neat little square. Instead of the salmon, I'm going to use prosciutto to get that full breakfast vibe going. That means I'll also be nixing the dill.