Oct 27 2023 - Fun Food

 

What would make food fun?  Is that something for children?  Like Minion Rice Krispies. What about Easy Homemade Funfetti Cake?   I guess Funfetti is edible confetti as the cake is multi-coloured like confetti.  Looks cute.  I have to scroll down a bit to get to the Pink Pickled Devilled Eggs. Devilled eggs are never left over at a party.  I usually ask a person to bring double.  But would you want to eat pink-tinged devilled eggs and it isn't Easter?  I don't think that's the kind of fun I have in mind. Maybe we adults are not slated for fun food. I think it might be the word "fun".  We are focused on weird things so let's consider that.  It might be that adults think weird is fun. Here's one:  chocolate-covered cheese with black sea salt.  Here's the scoop:  "Every time I make these for guests or for a cooking demo about real food made simply, people rave about them. They're surprising as an addition to an appetizer table—or even served after dinner paired with a nice cabernet or port. —Dorothy McNett, Pacific Grove, California" And the next one: Fries dipped in honey: "This weird food combination does taste good, and it’s a great way to balance a salty snack with a healthy dip. Honey is extremely good for you, so why not take those fast-food fries and dip them in some local honey to see what you think about this weird food combination that actually tastes good." This turns into American fast food and processed food stories.  Put peanut butter with burgers, or with mayonnaise, or with bacon ... And then put Coca Cola in milk.   There's an AI app called Plant Jammer - it finds recipes based on whatever food you input, or have lying around, according to the article's author who had three tomatoes, a sweet potato and asparagus.  It searches three million recipes to find often-paired items. It then consults a library of ingredients that the company has hired professional chefs to group by flavour - salt, umami, sour, oil, crunch, soft, sweet, bitter, spicy, fresh and aroma. I don't need AI to figure out a recipe for our author's ingredients.  They actually go together well. At the same time, maybe there will be an AI food app for adults having some fun with food.

I just loved that Red Velvet birthday cake at Pearl Morissette - made with beets, no chocolate.  It was delicious and a fun surprise.  Fun food for adults! Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Sep 4 2022 - British Cake

 

The Globe and Mail's Opinion section had an article titled "Britain bakes itself a sickly cake"  It says "Cakeism - a nonsense of that half-eaten scone of a man, Boris Johnsonson - emerged from his Brexit negotiations, when the Prime Minister promised that his country could have its cake and eat it, too.  It turns out that there's a long list of cake quotes when it comes to England.  How did I miss the "ambushed with a cake" defence of Boris Johnson?  He tried to play down his role at his birthday party on June 19 2020 saying he wasn't involved in planning the event and was caught by surprise.   That followed on the theme of one of Boris Johnson’s most famous lines which predated Brexit.  It often re-surfaced after the referendum. “My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it,” he said this while serving as Mayor of London.  It is a phrase which  started to become shorthand for his approach to politics.   Others picked it up.  Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond quoted former German leader Ludwig Erhard, who said, “compromise is the art of dividing a cake in a such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece.”  Hammond added that these were “wise words with some applicability to the Brexit negotiations, although I try to discourage talk of cake amongst my colleagues.” Bank of England chief Mark Carney weighed in by saying: “Before long, we will all begin to find out the extent to which Brexit is a gentle stroll along a smooth path to a land of cake and consumption.” Who would believe that Michael Caine would have something to say about cake and politics:  “When it comes to politics, I believe you have to cut the cake so that everybody gets a piece, but at the same time, you have to keep in mind that somebody has to make the cake.”  Margaret Thatcher:  "The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone." Looking further I find that  the Chinese had their own cake theory.It is listed in Wikipedia.  In  relation to the problem of the wealth gap, in 2010, one side of the debate thought that development should focus on 'dividing the cake more fairly,' while the other that development should be focused on 'baking a bigger cake.'

I created this a few years ago and named it Birthday Cake in Pink. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

April 4 2022 - Earth Not Round

 

The earth is not round.  So the BBC Earth Facebook channel tells me in a short video. Does that mean it is flat?  No, not that either.  They say that it is an oblate spheroid. And that it isn't a fixed shape.  This makes me think of my Flaming Pear Flexifly filters, as they all have mathematical names.  There's an oblate one or two. The tallest mountain, Mount Everest isn't the highest mountain from the centre of the Earth.  Mt. Chimborozo turns out to be the furthest from the centre of the Earth.  So there we are with another scientific correction. And what do scientists call the Earth's shape? They call the Earth roundish.  Doesn't science has its own way of being precise and being vague.   In comparison to scientists who are able to get more precise about the exact shape and its fluctuations, the members of the Flat Earth Society make up wild unproven theories that physicists can only scoff at.  Like the "US model" where the Sun and Moon are 50 km in diameter and circle the disc-shaped Earth at a height of 5500 km with the stars above this on a rotating dome.   Poor scientists, here they are with the tools to describe all the amazing aspects of the Earth and how its shape functions.  And what awaits them? The simpleton, child world of Flat-Earth conspiracy followers who are growing in numbers.  It turns out that conspiracy minded people are tuned into flat earth ideas. There is great worry over the growing number of conspiracy followers rather than science followers and this could overturn political and education systems. The advice within the science community today is to engage flat-Earthers thoughtfully and respectfully - a process acknowledged as going to be excruciatingly painful.  I just don't think that a sounds feasible or reasonable, either. I went another route, and spent a bit of time with my Flexifly filters, finding an oblate series. This is oblate north pole and then the oblate south pole to present the Pearl Morissette Menu.  This matches up with the Earth being more like a football than a soccer ball.   The bottom picture?  The beet red velvet cake with sorrel and false cardamon.  You can see how miniature it is with these paper thin layers of cake and filling.  An amazing experience.

Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblog.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Nov 30 2021 - We Never Count the Flowers

 

Have you thought about flowers on cakes?  Sylvia Weinstock, famous American cake master, died at 91 this week.  Ten foot tall wedding cakes.  Baker and cake-decorator are understatements here.  Her specialty was buttercream and stencilled patterns.  Sometimes there were thousands of hand-painted sugar flowers.  The repeated quote is:  "We never count the flowers on a cake. Rather, we add, and add, and add until it pleases the eye." The wedding cake for Joe Manganiello and Sofia Vergara's wedding was estimated at $50,000. That's US.  If you search for Sylvia Weinstock most famous wedding cake and look at the images, there is an amazing display of creativity and vibrant colours.   More like floral arrangements.  Who would guess a cake is beneath these flowers.    The world of extravagant wedding cakes is covered in this article HERE. There seems to be quite a few wedding cake makers who are sculptors of sugar.  She didn't make the largest wedding cake of all times.  That was chefs at Mohegan Sun Casino - 6.8 tons of cake in the US in 2004. These all remind me of the Christmas trees at the Fantasy of Trees. The trees are like confections, pleasing the eye. Here's Santa from a few years ago.  This year it was outside with distancing so not the best scenes.

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Dec 28 2020 - Piece of Cake

 

I hadn't considered how boorish Boris Johnson is. So I went hunting for his words to figure out the extent of this behaviour.  I find some of his statements are whimsical, nonsensical, and absurd, and therefore, very entertaining.  Here are my chosen few:   I have as much chance of becoming Prime Minister as of being decapitated by a frisbee or of finding Elvis. I've got more in common with a three-toed sloth than I have with Winston Churchill. There is no easy comparison with any modern politician. The more you read about him, the more completely amazed you are about what he did - his energy, his literary fecundity, his ability to work - just unbelievable energy My friends, as I have discovered myself, there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters. Never in my life did I think I would be congratulated by Mick Jagger for achieving anything. And who would guess that cake is the subject for words of wisdom and comment.  Boris Johnson has weighed in on to the subject of cake.   My policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it. Many people - authors, comics, and others - have words about cake: If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion. Elon Musk You know you're getting old when you get that one candle on the cake. It's like, 'See if you can blow this out.' Jerry Seinfeld You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake. Bob Hope All the world is birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much. George Harrison For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake. Alfred Hitchcock Photographing a cake can be art. Irving Penn  The most dangerous food is wedding cake. James Thurber It makes sense that there are lots of Cake Celebration Days: a National, International and World Cake Day.  There's Ice Cream Cake Day, Chocolate Cake Day, Cheesecake Day, and I would guess a celebration day for most of the kinds of cake.   Think of one and look it up.  Carrot Cake?  February 3rd.  Pound Cake Day?  March 4th.  Tiramisu Cake Day? March 21st.  I rest my case.     I consider the Amaryllis to be a semi-official flower of Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere.  Here's one from the Niagara Falls Showcase Greenhouse last Christmas.   Purchase at: FAA - marilyncornwellart.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca