"A good spicy challenge strikes a balance between flavour and fear." ~ Adam Richman

Sweet and Spicy BITE - hosted by Chris, who thankfully had air-conditioning! We spent quite a bit of time catching up on each other's lives as we all seem to have had things going on since we last gathered - all good! When it came time to take pictures of our food, I found that my camera would not focus. I was distressed to be sure, but quickly switched to my cell camera. Happily a photo friend swung by today and showed me that the problem was as minor as I hoped - thanks Jerry!

We began our eating portion of the evening with Ellen's salsa - what a beautiful presentation - and so fresh tasting!

Pineapple Salsa

Next was Tierney's side-dish which tasted as wonderful as it looks! The dressing had a wonderful kick to it!

Sweet and Spicy Rainbow Thai Salad

For our main course, Chris did a take on traditional sloppy joes, but used ground turkey rather than ground beef, and the sauce had a terrific bite to it!

Sloppy Joes

I ended our meal with a Mexican chocolate pudding cake. I have decided that I really could write a blog on cooking disasters! I won't share my most recent ones with you here - though they were funny. It's fair to say that is is a good thing that I had plenty of ingredients on hand! Anyhow - the final (and second) result was wonderful. Any recipe that calls for about an inch of boiling water to be poured on top of the other ingredients before it's all placed in the oven - well, it looked awful, but it really was delicious and I know that this is a keeper. Ooey, gooey, chocolatey - wonderful! I will say that I changed up the final try a bit after having tasted the first go-round. So - I used 1 full teaspoon of Mexican chili powder, and I used 1 cup (rather than one half) of brown sugar in the second layer. 

Mexican Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

We are going to be skipping September as some of us will be on the road. October takes us to Tierney's with India as our theme. I think the timing is perfect - Indian Summers will be coming to Masterpiece at the end of September!