Try This Challenge: Iron Dorm Chef

Sometimes, I really love college. Tonight was one of those times. Almost every Tuesday the RAs have some kind of program and I couldn't resist tonight's program - Iron Chef. There was a table covered in possible ingredients, including things like pre-cooked pasta and chicken to help everyone meet the 35-minute time limit. The secret ingredient: corn.

I have never had so much fun improvising before. My roommates were in a separate group, and I was paired with three strangers. (They were good sous chefs, though, just in case anyone who knows them is reading this.) When the secret ingredient was announced there was a mad dash for the ingredients table and I grabbed an apple and a can of whole kernel corn, thinking, "I can make something with this, right?"

One of my teammates started dicing the apple, another opened and drained the corn, and I started beating an egg. I added a splash of milk, a tiny bit of vanilla extract, and asked my third teammate to grab the box of cake mix. Extra points for anyone who has already guessed what I was making, just from this partial list of ingredients: Apple-corn fritters. After a few false starts I got them to fry up beautifully, these little buttery, battery mini-pancakes studded with sweet bits of apple and corn. For added sweetness I also included a sprinkling of demeraro sugar, and some whole wheat flour to thicken the batter further when the first fritters fell apart. And remember, kids - when frying, use an oil with a high smoke point, like canola or peanut. This is the one place where olive oil and butter are not your friends.

It was an exercise in applied theory, because I had never actually made a fritter before, but I plated the nicest three and my teammates worked on presentation while I figured "Why the heck not?" and fried up the rest of the batter.

My roommates put together an impressive feast: caramelized onions and red pepper with cumin in improvised tortilla-crepes, fajita style. (The wrappings were made with a combination of pancake batter and creamed corn.) For desert they had chocolate popcorn balls - yum. Smart girls that they are they snagged the leftover choco-popcorn and it is tempting me from next to the fridge. Somehow, though, my modest apple-corn fritters won the day and I have no leftovers to nibble. I do, instead, have my share of the grand prize: a purple inflatable ball shaped like a hippopotamus.