Pork Is a Nice, Sweet Meat

I decided to try pescetarianism (eat seafood, but no mammals or birds) for awhile. A short while. Turned out to be only two weeks. The problem wasn't so much that I missed eating chicken or cheeseburgers. Or that I had gone about misspelling pescetarian as pescatarian. Alas, I began to experience heart palpitations, and since I am not in love that I know of, except perhaps with Lee Pace after my weekend Pushing Daisies marathon, I attributed the flutters to my change in diet.

So I decided to fall off the wagon with a pork salad, which created a gentle enough thud, being mostly tortilla, rice, beans, cilantro, lime, guacamole, dairy, and just a little of that sweet, sweet slow roasted pork.



I feel fine with the relapse.

Pull Yourself up by Your Apron Strings

Mike is my photography mentor. When we met, I possessed only a lowly Canon PowerShot A550, but my photography has improved under his tutelage. I am his foodie mentor. When I met him, he was a steak and potatoes kind of guy, whose favorite dessert was a chocolate-peanut butter no-bake cookie. He still loves all of those. You can't change a man.

I've entered a couple of cooking contests with Mike now. Neither of which we've won. If I can't even pull out a victory in his office cooking contests, I might as well hang up my apron.

First, there was a salsa and queso contest, in which we entered a Roasted Tomatillo Salsa and Queso Flameado.




Mike said I went overboard with the lime in the salsa, and I sadly agreed with him. After the judging, when our salsa and queso placed in the middle of the pack, he said that his office-mates prefer food out of a jar anyway, and I happily agreed with him.



The real blow came when I baked two identical white cakes with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream to enter in the office baking contest and charity auction. The top two awards were announced, and my cake was not named among the victors. Perhaps from now on, I should be the one to take pictures and not take the cake.

April Fool's

I made another pilgrimage to Cake this week. Their cupcakes are so delightful. On April 1st, they had April Fool's Day Cupcakes.

• Spaghetti and Meatballs (red velvet cake, Rocher hazelnut truffle for the meatball, and strawberry jelly for the sauce)
• Lox and Bagels (lemon poppy seed cake, and I think the bagel was a halved donut hole)

• Potatoes and Gravy (caramel cake)

I didn't eat or even sample all twelve cupcakes I bought, which I've actually done before. I only tried the lox and bagels cupcake. Very tasty! I ran into a friend in the store as I was leaving. She had never been to Cake before, and I'm sure she was embarrassed to be seen talking to me. I had twelve cupcakes in hand, and I was going on and on about how wonderful their cupcakes are, and naming and describing the flavors she just had to try. I've gotta stop hitting the desserts so hard.