Meat Cake

A male friend of mine made me a pie once, which was so awful I had to blog about it.

Recently, he had a birthday party and informed me he was making a "meat cake." I was horrified when I heard this. Given his past history, I imagined a revolting concoction of ground beef, cake batter and frosting.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that he baked a rather good meat loaf in the shape of a cake, and then covered it with mashed potatoes to resemble frosting. The cake was decorated with peas and carrots.

It was rather clever and tasty, and I'm very glad that he is no longer making "magic pie."

Europe Here I Come

Today, I'm leaving on a trip abroad.

I plan to eat my way across Europe. Much of my spending money is earmarked for weird, foreign candy.

I'm going to try out the scheduled posts thing. If it works, there are a few stories in the queue that will pop up like magic, without my intervention. If it doesn't work, then this blog will go silent for about 2 weeks, but don't worry, I'll be back!

With my luck, there will be at least a few wackos in my tour group.

Geek Fun With Condiments

Do you dream of a Jetsons-like future, where your meals are served to you by robotic servants?

Now you can be one step closer, with the STAR WARS R2-D2 Soy Sauce Bottle!

Just fill your trusty little robot with delicious flavor, and give him a little squeeze.

Yes, this is a real product you can buy. From the Strapya-World.com description:

"Ever dreamed to go space journy with your R2?? Unfortunately, such a dream can't be true at the moment. But now this tiny R2D2 can serve you Soy Sauce by your one-hand little move, leaning the R2 body a little to put appropriate Soy Sauce on Chinese or Japanese fried rice."

How can you resist the earnest little suggestion they make? "Let's Pre-order today and buy Kikkoman while waiting ;)"

Let's get our "one-hand little move" ready!

Pizza Misfits

I was with a group of friends and we decided to order a pizza.

I'm allergic to tomatoes, so we couldn't have sauce.
One friend is a vegetarian, so we couldn't have meat.
Two people keep kosher, so we couldn't have dairy and meat on the same pizza.
Some other people are simply picky eaters who veto certain toppings.

We finally settled on a pizza with dough, cheese, green chili peppers and bell peppers. It was the strangest pizza I've ever had, but it could have been worse. We had two friends that were not present at the gathering:

One is lactose intolerant, so we wouldn't have been able to get cheese.
The other has celiac disease, so we wouldn't have had wheat dough.

Mmmm, bell peppers with chilies.

Goodies in the Rain

Although it's a gloomy, rainy day today, I've been significantly cheered by an international parcel that was delivered to me this morning.

Remember the French girls who subletted my apartment during the summer? One of them sent me a big package with a box of European treats:

Daskalidés Chocolatier chocolate in a pretty yellow box, tied with brown satin ribbon imprinted with the maker's logo.

Barnier Caramel Pomme au Beurre Normandie (apple caramels), in a round wooden box (like the kind cheese comes in).

Trésors de Fruits Confiture Peches vanillées (peach vanilla jam), in a glass bottle, with fruity paper wrapping.

Tanguy Galettes et Palets de Fouesnant (cookies) in a hinged, yellow biscuit tin, with a picture of the French seaside

Mère Poulard Les Galettes au Chocolate due Mont Saint Michel (chocolate-covered cookies), in a red paperboard box with pictures of castles and cocoa pods.

Lanvin Paris Rumeur Vaporisateur, Thierry Mugler Alien Eau de Parfum and Clarins Paris Gelee Auto-Bronzant Express all in a black and white Sephora shopping bag.

Please excuse me. I have some packages to tear apart.

Cheesecake Wars

Last night I went to a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner party. (I am not Canadian, nor do I live in Canada, but when your Canadian friend says "Turkey, eh?" who am I to say no? Especially when it's fresh turkey, not frozen).

I like bringing desserts to dinner parties, but there is someone else in the circle who makes OMG Fabulous Desserts. Mr. Cook has all potential dessert-bringers intimidated.

However, when the hostess told me Mr. Cook was bringing a "chicken dish," dessert plans were go.

I decided to make pumpkin cheesecake bars. I thought, "No one else will make pumpkin cheesecake." To make them extra special, I even made a gingersnap crust.

At the dinner, I discovered Mr. Cook brought a chicken dish and a dessert.

It was pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust. Really.

And it was better than mine.

I can salvage a bit of comfort from the fact that my crust had crushed almonds, and his did not. Plus, tonight I'm bringing pear bread to a party he's not invited to.