Cream Cheese Cheating

According to an urban legend, cream cheese was invented by an American who who was actually attempting to make neufchatel cheese, a cheese common to Transylvania. When the attempt failed and produced cream cheese, I believe the American promptly abandoned all attempts to recreate the foreign cheese. He probably made a bagel, toasted it with butter, and then slathered it with flavored cream cheese. I know I would have.

I am proud to be a part of the wildly successful and totally fun neighborhood cooking club, known to the world as "Iron Chef Bountiful." The club is a cooking competition group and is open to all women in our neck of the woods. The hostess chooses the theme ingredient. The women show up with a dish, making sure not to tell anyone what they made, pick a number and give their culinary creation a title. We then say a blessing on the food, and pig out. When we are so full we think that we might explode, we vote on the entries. The top three chefs get to have the gold, silver, or bronze trophy in their home for the month. A trophy is also given to the dish with the best presentation. Incidentally, I always think it's funny when I get the presentation trophy, but not the gold/silver/bronze. It's as if the group is saying "Golly, your dish was sure pretty. Too bad it didn't taste as good as it looked."

We women in the neighborhood have been meeting for over two and a half years. It is crazy fun and delicious. I had the honor of winning the gold trophy just three nights ago. The theme was Oats; my entry was Oat Crepes filled with sauteed apples (four varieties), topped with fresh whipped cream, drizzled with warm Nutella, and toasted almonds. But I had a hunch that my dish would do well. I cheated. I used a secret weapon: cream cheese.