Weeks 31 and 32, Woo hoo!

This week ended with a 2nd place win at a pie contest! Woo hoo indeed! More on that in a bit...

211: Sunday started with some red velvet cake, the dessert I never got to the day before. It was a mouthful of sugar, and not in a good way. Not going to that bakery again.
212: Another dinner at the desk, with some panini left over from lunch.
213: My favorite go to, noodles and broth, topped with a farm egg from Grandma's ranch
214: More soup, ran out of noodles though.
215: Dinner out, sushi! I could just eat this photo.
216: Happy hour! Oh, glorious happy hour. Pisco punch and apps at Le Mar.
217: Homemade strawberry and blueberry wheat pancakes for breakfast.
218: Had pizza the night before at Jake's, a high school hangout. Tastes good the next day too!
219: A huge plate of pasta with all the fixin's!
220: Made an eggplant zucchini parmesan. Not bad!
221: Enjoyed the tomatoes and basil from my garden. I need to do some homemade mozzarella since it is so much better than store-bought.
222: My favorite (well, my only) roasted chicken recipe from Emma. My dogs love it too.
224a: Missed a day! Thinking too much about pie, here's my entry for Omnivore Books pie contest.
224b: Celebrated my second place win with mango cheesecake. But could only stomach a mouthful after all the pie.

So I entered another food contest yesterday. Third time's a charm, and I tied for second place! Helps when 1/2 a dozen of your friends come by to root you on.

I made a version of Eat the Love's Cherry, Apricot and Plum pie. I had made it a few weeks ago, my first attempt at an old-fashioned pie. Thought I'd try it again, although this time, I had to go to the store for the fruit. No cherries in mine, and unfortunately most of the plums were not ripe. Plus I only had one pie pan, so I ended up making some pie "cupcakes" as well. It all seemed to turn out well in the end since there was barely a crumb left! (I think bringing ice cream helped too!)

So much fun! Thanks Omnivore Books and Eat the Love!

Cupcake Contests

When I was in Napa last weekend, I dined at Morimoto's, which was fantastic! I especially remember the dessert, kabocha squash cake. I put a note amongst the 5 million other ones in my head to try to make this at home.

Then I came across an announcement this past Friday for a cupcake contest at Omnivore Books. I've wanted to visit Omnivore Books for a while. And I've been dabbling in a few cooking contests. Ok, just one, but I've been wanting to do more.

Sooooo, I thought I'd kill like ten birds in one. Make a kabocha squash cupcake. Compete in a cooking contest. Visit Omnivore Books. Well, that's three. And do it all in a few hours.

Saturday morning, I headed over to the farmer's market and got some squash. The plan, freshly pureed squash, replacing the pumpkin in one of my favorite cupcake recipes. (Actually, it's the only one I've made in the last six months.) The kitchen was a mess, as I was experimenting with some frosting ideas along with trying to roast the squash and get it pureed.

I decided on a marscapone frosting. But unfortunately, it came out lumpy, which I believe is due to the fact that the ingredients were not at room temperature. With no butter left and only 20 minutes left before I had to leave, I just used it since it still tasted good. I knew I wasn't going to win any contests, but what the heck was I going to do with 70 mini cupcakes?

I got to Omnivore Books just as the contest was about to start. The place was packed! And not just with people, but with cupcakes! Holy cow, I was floored!

I was contestant #31. I think there were 33 total. And about 100 people jammed into a teeny space, which by the way, was adorable!

I think the white one with the purply frosting won. It was quite a pretty cake, but too lemony for me. The tally was released...

Woo hoo, I got some votes!

So where's my cupcake you ask? Well, after all was said and done, I never got to taking a good shot of mine. But I have a few extras left over, so when the light is good, I'll take a few and post the recipe.

After the contest, I stuck around and perused the shelves.

I bought a book on chickens. I'm getting chickens one of these days.