Summer is in full swing, at least in California it is. Temperatures in the 90’s to 100’s. Time to pull out the boat, dust off the water skis & fishing poles. Air out and clean up the camping gear and picnic baskets. Water, sun and fun are the buzz-words of the season.

School is out, kids are under foot. Here is a great idea for a girls' sleep-over.

Iron Chef Sleep-Over by April Mettler

My daughter Lexi wanted a sleep-over for her 10th birthday party. Nine girls were invited so I decided to put them in a tent in the backyard. It was a good thing too because they all showed up. For dinner it was “make your own Mexican food” with ingredients for everything from burritos to nachos.

Later in the evening we had the Iron Chef competition. When I made the invitations I told the girls of the competition and gave them the ingredients, but not the secret ingredient. Most of the girls had seen the show on the Food Network, so very little explaining was necessary. I recorded the show for the girls who had never seen the show to watch as they worked. There were too many girls to hazard the use of the stove, so they had to make desserts.

Their creations would be judged on presentation, flavor and they tell how they came up with their creation. They also had to taste it also, to make sure they didn’t get carried away.

The ingredients and supplies used were:

• Toothpicks	• Nilla Wafers
• Mint candy	• Paper plates
• Powdered doughnuts	• Triple cream brie
• Chocolate syrup	• Grapes
• Balsamic	• Caramel syrup
• Nuts (check for allergies)	• Nerds candy
• Coconut	• Graham crackers - regular & chocolate
• Chocolate chips	• Marshmallows - large & small

The secret ingredient was fresh strawberries.

With fewer girls I might have let them use the stove with supervision, but a small army of ten energetic pre-teens presented too great a risk. Not to worry, though. As it was we all had a great time. It was a sleepover, and some of you probably remember what that was like. Not much sleep, but a great time.

This is an exceptionally good mustard with a hint of the fruit, floral and spice flavors of Gewurztraminer Wine from Navarro Vineyards. A superb choice for the mustard connoisseur. Here is a great recipe for it:

Put all ingredients except the chicken breasts in a large ziploc bag. Close the bag and shake to combine. Open bag and add the chicken breasts. Close and shake bag to coat the chicken evenly. Let marinate about 30 minutes.

Heat a grill or grill pan. Grill chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes on each side. Now enjoy.

In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, to blend flavors.

Heat a grill or grill pan. Grill chicken until cooked through, about 5 minutes on each side. Now enjoy.

• I use fresh white sweet corn. It gives the salsa a wonderful sweet hot flavor. I also blanched the fresh corn kernels for 45 seconds in the microwave first. Cool and add to salsa.
• Jalapenos will not make this salsa hot unless you add the seeds. If you want ‘hot’ add habanero peppers instead.
• Canned tomatoes will give you more juice than the seeded fresh but both are good.
• Diced red bell peppers or roasted red peppers are good if you want no ‘heat’ at all.