catheroominations

I have discovered a fun new reality show. No, wait…don’t go! Did I mention that this reality show is about cake?

The show is Ace of Cakes and it airs on the Food Network. Duff Goldman is an amazingly talented sculptor/painter/baker who employs some seemingly unrelated skills such as graffiti and welding to build his masterpiece cakes. As stressful as it can get for him and his team, they all seem to have a great time working together. If you want to take a peek at some of his work, check out his bakery online. Bring milk.

As I am completely obsessed with wedding planning lately, I originally tuned in to see examples of wedding cakes. But Duff’s cakes are insane. From an airplane-shaped birthday cake for his dad, complete with fireworks to simulate a jet engine to a pair of life-size flamingos for a zoo party, his work is something you just have to see. I have a newfound respect for cake designers, and now I realize why their creations cost so much. (OK, I still think they’re priced a bit high, but now I have a better understanding of the hours of meticulous work required.)

Oh, and if anyone would like to contribute to have Duff make our wedding cake, and deliver it to our venue, I would be your new best friend.

Please leave your answers in the comments.

Do you prefer:

• white turkey meat or dark?
• stuffing or mashed potatoes?
• yams with marshmallows or without?
• canned cranberry sauce or homemade?
• pecan or pumpkin pie?

Happy Thanksgiving! Now, let’s eat! Oh. Heh. It’s only 8:15 am. Uhm, let’s have a piece of toast right now or some cereal to stop this incessant stomach growling!

On this week’s Top Chef, for the quick-fire challenge, the chefs had to create an amuse bouche (a small bite to tempt your tastebuds before the meal arrives), using only items from vending machines. Each chef had $10 in quarters with which to purchase their ingredients.

Michael, the class clown of the group stuck a Cheeto into a Snickers bar to create a particularly phallic-looking, no-effort mouth teaser. Others were a bit more inventive, taking the fig mixture out of a Newton for sauce on a frittata, or creating a tostada from a Do-r-rito (roll the r) and some chicken salad out of a sandwich. The winning entry was a sunflower seed and carrot loaf with cilantro, sesame, and Squirt.

How do they come up with this stuff? This got me thinking of what type of amuse bouche I would make from vending machine foods. But all of my ideas were chocolate, or otherwise sweet. And as I learned from Top Chef, an amuse bouche is not supposed to be dessertish. For sure I’d sure try to find a way to use Munchos. Muchos are a highly underrated snack food.

What would you prepare?

While driving my sister to a bridal shop so she could buy a bridesmaid dress she’ll wear once, and then never again, our gripe session about the freeway traffic was interrupted by her ringing cell phone. This is what I heard:

Sister: Hello?
Sister: A cucumber mint sorbet? OK.
Sister: For lunch or dinner?
Sister: Is it an amuse bouche? Or for dessert?
Sister: OK. Yeah. I can do that.

keep reading Choppin’ broccoli

These photos make me hungry. Hungry for a Cathy sandwich on Jeremy and Dave bread.

One of the perks of my new cohabitation situation is that my commute has been quadrupled. No, really. It is a perk. My old commute was a mere two miles, so I never got to listen to Dave Morey for very long, or hear more than a couple of songs on my iPod (Stairway to Heaven? Wouldn’t even be able to hear the whole song). Besides, living so close to work, I could go home for lunch and that was bad. Once I was home, I never wanted to leave to come back to work.

Because I live so far away from work now, I can happily tune in to KFOG, or hear up to 12 iTunes on my kickass new stereo as I enjoy my 15 minute drive to the office. Bonus! There’s a Jamba Juice on the way! I’ve become somewhat of a regular since my friend June touted the joys of her daily dose of Jamba. Here is how she describes her favorite smoothie:

“I get the Berry Fulfilling…it’s one of the Enlightened ones and it really feels you up!”

You can see why June loves her Jamba. Doesn’t every girl want to start her day with a nice feeling up? I had to try this. So, every morning, I pull into the parking lot on my way to the office, maneuvering my way through the crooked parkers and bad puller-outers to enter the fruitilicious establishment that is Jamba Juice.

I’ve been getting the Berry Fulfilling every time I go and have yet to be felt up. I don’t know why this is, but I can no longer handle the rejection so this morning I switched to the Mango Mantra. I figured mangos are melons, and well, boobs are melons, so this will hopefully enhance my chances for gropage. So far, I haven’t gotten any action. But it is only our first date, and perhaps Mango Mantra is a gentleman. Or maybe he’s gay. Yeah, that would be just great. I’m just grateful that each time I visit Jamba, I get some booty. Yeah, Baby!

I’ll keep y’all posted as my smoothie and I become better acquainted.