food network: cake challenges

once in a while i succumb to the desire to watch the cake challenge shows on food network. they have to come up with some interesting pieces of engineering to solve the structural problems of making super tall squishy [technically] edible things.
so on the sex and the city 2 cake challenge there's one woman making decorative cake panels of out pastillage which is so hard that they can't cut it with an x-acto knife.
and another whose cake is squishing and sliding off the dowel that run up the center to keep the tiers stacked.

so why hasn't anybody made pastillage tubes with bases to go down the center of the cake to provide extra structure? would it work?
i mean, a tube affixed perpendicular to a base the shape of the tier. center the cake tier on the tube, resting on the base. stack 'em like one of those old donut ring toys on the central dowel.

has anyone seen this done?

tabletop cooking

finally got my metal patio table set up a few weeks ago and was enjoying the last cool weather before summer. metal table = non flammable surface.
i have a lot of things that i can put small fires in. fire is good for making things hot. yay fire! so i did.

first off is fuel. this post is about the burning thing on the right in this picture. i haven't had a lot off success using the mini hibachi yet. so the thing i made my dinner with was actually the ... chicken feeder. that's right, chicken feeder. when i saw it in a thrift store i had no idea what it was. just looked like it would hold fire. it does. REALLY well

hard working fridge

i like to make the outside of my fridge work as hard as the inside.
to this end, i have long since discovered that my fridge is a feasible dry erase surface.
as you can see, it's currently hosting my shopping list on the right side door.







but i kept losing my big fat dry erase markers and it was hard to fit everything on there with big fat writing.
so i went to american science and surplus for 25 of these dandy magnetic pen holders for about $1. you can also get a three pack for a couple of bucks at your local office supply store [but why pay that much?]


























to get a fine point erasable marker that fits in them i had to get wet erase ones. no big deal, it's the kitchen and there's plenty of water. except... i am soooooooooo lazy. well, that and walking is starting to really hurt with the warmer weather. since the water dispenser on my fridge doesn't work, i wanted a better way.
enter the cheap mini spray bottle i had lying around from the last giant bag o' travel sized containers i bought.
and a mix of flat and spherical super strong mini magnets i bought at dealextreme































































as you can see when the light shines through it, 3 sphere magnets dropped into the bottle are just right. serendipitously they happen to stick to the metal spring in the spray mechanism which holds it in the right place to keep it from tipping over on the fridge door and hanging with the spray top pointing perpindicular

the entire photo set with notes can be found here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/catastrophegirl/sets/72157623981183093/

i feel like an idiot

i can't believe it took me all these years to think of shaving cucumber slices with a cheese plane. it's perfect for the job

paper thin!

by the way rest of that is a flour tortilla, bacon, sunflower seeds, brined sheep's milk feta, greek yogurt with dill and lime juice, montreal steak seasoning.
mmm, it's like junk from my cheese/meat drawer pretending to be greek food