I just reversed one hour of exercise by going from the gym to the office, where I ate two slices of birthday cake.  I know your body is supposed to be a temple, blah, blah, blah…but this temple needed some BIRTHDAY CAKE!  I looove birthday cake.  Especially the frosting.  I always have to have a flower off the cake.  That aspect of my personality hasn’t changed much since I was 5. 

Here are the foods I would want to take with me if I was on a deserted island.  (I haven’t worked out the particulars of how I would get these foods onto a deserted island, but just work with me here.)

1.  Birthday cake.  With buttercream frosting, not the whipped cream kind.  And the cake part has to be white cake.  This goes back to my childhood, where my Dad and I had back-to-back birthdays (and we still do, LOL).  At family gatherings, I always had a white cake with white frosting, and my dad always had a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  My mom and grandmother always made the cakes from scratch.

2. Kettle cooked sweet potato chips.  Preferred brand – Utz Natural Gourmet Medley.  Hey, nice people at Utz – can you sell a bag that is just sweet potatoes?  Because I have to dig through every bag just for the sweet potatoes.  And yes, I know this burns additional calories, but please.   Wait!  I went to Utz’ website and it turns out they DO have sweet potato chips!  Oh happy day!
http://www.utzsnacks.com/products/kettlechips.html

3.  The grilled pineapple from Ipanema.  I swear, the first time I ate this I think I had a spiritual experience.
     Here’s their website.  Going there is a dining experience.  http://www.ipanemaocala.com/

4.  Roquefort cheese.  From Papillon.  When you eat Roquefort at Papillon, it tastes so much better.  And it’s already amazing, so…  Here’s the website: http://www.roquefort-papillon.com/  If you are ever in France, do the cave tour at Papillon.  Fascinating.

5.  My mom’s Reuben sandwiches.  We don’t put Thousand Island on our Reubens…I’ve never understood eating a Reuben with salad dressing on it.  Ick.  And my mom gets it toasted perfectly on both sides.  Mmmm…

6.  My grandmother’s Schaum Torte.  It’s a German dessert (or Austrian, depending on the person you ask and their allegiance to that particular country.)  It’s baked meringue with fruit and whipped cream on top.  Luckily, my grandmother taught me how to make it before she passed away.  Schaum torte making is not for beginners.  Part of the baking involves brown paper bags.  Enough said.  (And no, you can’t substitute parchment paper for the paper bags.  Nice try.)

7.  Any chocolate with a cocoa content of 70% and above.  For those of you that are addicted to chocolate, you will find you will need less chocolate to get your full chocolate fix.   

8.  Any Thanksgiving food prepared by my grandmother or mother.  They would get up at 5am on Thanksgiving morning to finish cooking.  Yes, to finish cooking.  My grandmother made all the pies (and well, everything) from scratch. 

9.  Macaroni and cheese.  I am a mac & cheese connoisseur.  My favorite mac & cheeses – Boston Market, and a restaurant (whose name I can’t remember) I went to that served mac & cheese with melted gouda.  Yum.  They called it noodles au gratin.  Please.  It was mac & cheese, and it was delicious. 

10.  There are so many others.  I think I’d be doing some of those foods/meals injustice if I named just one.

To give you an idea of how much I love food and cooking, when I make a meal out of a cookbook, next to the recipe I write down the date, comments about the meal, and any additional changes I made to the recipe.  Scary, I know.

Tags: birthday cake, deserted island, Food, Roquefort, schaum torte