Mystic Krewe of Saturnalia

And here is another chaotic situation that is completely caused by my manic, hyper-competitive friend Cyndi Brandenburg.  As we all recall, she was truly the driving force behind the Chicken Wing for Charity competition because of her smack-talking.  And now she's done it again.  Every year Champlain hosts an Iron Chef competition to raise money for a student organization.  Cyndi, as is her wont, decided that she had to get involved, and, putting aside our natural rivalry and history of antagonistic competition, she pressured me into being her partner.  We worked together to come up with a recipe and I supplied the team name - the Mystic Krewe of Saturnalia.  The entire thing is pretty complicated, so expect many posts.  Our team - including more than a dozen folks because of Cyndi's ability to cajole people - hung around the cafeteria from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. last night for preparation.  The competition is this afternoon, but we had lots of chicken and sausage to cook and sauces to prepare last night.  I also had to devote a goodly amount of time to hiding the green peppers so that they didn't find their way into the recipe.  I would love to show a picture of our friends and competitors, the Bayou Voodoo, the excellent Steve Wehmeyer and Mike Lange, but I don't think I have one wherein Lange is not flipping me off.  More later.

The team captain - and faculty senate president - Dr. Cyndi Brandenburg.

The hired help.