Cheesecake Overdose

Those of you who have followed this blog for a long time may recall that we attend a cheesecake party every February. This was my commentary from last year that includes many of the rules and whatnot, so I won't bore you with it again. There were 13 entries (see photo above) and this year's theme was "True and False".  This meant that either your cheesecake title or your statement of rationale had to contain an element that was both true and false. I know, it all sounds a bit confusing...I only go for the fine dining (I bet that you're all picturing me wearing a bib and wielding my own silverware).

The gentleman who hosts the event...the same professor Larry that hosts 'Bad Movie Night'...is an academic, and many other eggheads academic associates of his were in attendance. One aspect of the evening was that everyone competing must make a small speech explaining how their cheesecake met the requirements of the theme. One gentleman, a professor of philosophy, stole the show by going on a Shakespearean rant explaining why he thought the theme was bogus because something can not be 'true and false', it can only be 'true or false'. Everyone was relieved that he cut his presentation down to two pages from it's original 50 pages...

Shown above is Sean's entry, Area 51, that  contained such odd ingredients as: honey, dates, lemon rind and the ever-popular tofu. In fact, it contained NO cheese at all. It didn't taste too bad either. He called it Area 51 because while he and his mother were making it, he exclaimed, "You'd have to be from another world to want to eat this!" 'V' and I went with the same Chocolate Almond Cheesecake that we have entered the past two years. Predictable yet yummy. If anyone wants the recipe for either of these just send me an email and I'll be happy to pass them along.

There were three newcomers to the event this year and I had a chance to chat with each of them. One man is from Houston and has been living here for five years. He works for one of the larger oil companies and has enjoyed his time on The Rock. He is an avid golfer and was disappointed to discover that you can only golf for about 7 months of the year. He was also a bit baffled as to how people here golfed in 40km/h winds.

Another young man attended with his wife and 6 month old daughter (I figured the baby should have been entered in the contest because she was a real cutie-pie...sadly, only cakes could be entered). This man is from Nigeria and has also been living here for five years. He has another year and a half to go until he completes his PhD in chemistry.

The third man was there with his two children. His name is Pete Stanbridge and he has his own company that manufactures drums. Wooden ones that you play, not the steel ones that you store stuff in. He hand makes them from exotic woods and ships them all over the world. Check out his web site if you get a chance, especially if you're in the market for a cool looking drum.

I think that it's really great that you can go to something like a cheesecake party and meet such a diverse bunch of folks from all over the place doing such different things. And here I thought we were living in such a remote location with little influence from the outside world (like an indigenous tribe in the Amazon--that would be the one in South America, not the one that sells stuff online).



Professor Larry brought the event to a close with the presentation of the prizes: all hand-picked from the bargain bin at Princess Auto. He was stunning in his tie-dyed shirt and pilgrim hat (I really should get him something more suitable, such as a fez, for next years festivities). We were not able to repeat our 'Best Overall Cheesecake' but Sean won a prize for Best Presentation and Ginny won a door prize. Sadly, I did not win the 'Most Cheesecake Consumed' award. This honour went to Professor Larry's 11 year old son. All I got was a sugar rush and a sore tummy.

 I'll close with a few photos from the evening. Notice the orange one on the right of the first photo. The mice on top are made from eggshells.  I thought that the Gold 'Boolean' Cake was kind of clever. The third photo has a tall, round cake in the foreground. That's actually two wheels of brie cheese stacked to top of one another, cemented together with a layer of Kraft Cheese Whiz. Interesting and effective.

The Royal Visit

I finally had the honour and privilege of meeting renowned #fridayflasher Cathy Olliffe Webster and her much publicized hubby Dave. I noted to him that there are probably more photos of him on the Internet than anyone else in the world, aside from Barack Obama. He disagreed, insisting that Lindsay Lohan and David Hasselhoff had more face-time than he. I had to concede the point.

I booked the day off Friday and drove them in a stretch limo my Dodge Caravan to the more popular places in the St. John's area: Cape Spear, Petty Harbour, Bay Bulls, Portugal Cove and Laurita Miller's place (yes, that Laurita Miller of Brain Droppings fame). For the 1st of October it was damn hot and humid here and my van was very toasty. And the A/C wasn't working. I normally would have driven about town wearing only my fez and a thong, but since it was my first time meeting the Websters I didn't want to give them a bad impression of Newfoundlanders. My fashion decorum was rewarded as Cathy & Dave presented Laurita and myself each with some lovely Lindgren pottery: A bowl and plate that were replicas of part of the dinnerware used at the G8 summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville this past summer. That was very sweet of them, V and I really love the pieces.

That evening, the Websters and Laurita (thanks, Laurita, for bringing along the spiced, red wine and the loaf of soda bread...they were great!) came to our place for a BBQ to help celebrate Cathy and Dave's wedding that had taken place six days earlier. We also invited Charles and Camilla but they graciously declined because of another engagement in India. Dinner was followed by cheesecake and writing gossip (wouldn't you #fridayflash folks like to have been a bug on the wall for that conversation).

For me, the cheesecake is always the highlight of any civilized gathering (sorry Cathy & Dave...you're nice folks 'n all, but you don't outrank the chocolate cheesecake with amaretto). I am only allowed the delicacy once a year, on my birthday, as it's loaded with stuff that's bad for me and it costs so f&%$ing much to make. This one was pretty much same as the cheesecake we usually take to the annual cheesecake party. For those really obsessed with cheesecake, you can link to that blog post here. Sometimes I fantasize about cheesecake...a darkened room, soft music, candles and a plastic sheet on the bed with me alone frolicking with my favourite cheesecake...er, sorry, digressed there for a moment. Did I really say that? Apologies, only meant to think it.

*Coughs*

But enough about me. The highlight of the weekend was the time spent with Cathy, Dave and Laurita on Friday. It was fantastic and I'll remember it for a long time. I'll post a few photos below, but you can link to a much better account of the day, and nicer photos, at Cathy's blog Life on the Muskoka River.

On a side note. I'm sure that at least one reader will be interested to know the outcome of the recent accidental husband-bear shooting incident court case that has been ongoing here in Newfoundland for almost three weeks now. The judge passed a verdict of 'not guilty' on the charge of criminal negligence causing death in the 2006 shooting of the Pennsylvania man. Justice LeBlanc noted that the Crown did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. You can link to the full CBC article here.

Cathy Webster at Cape Spear. Looking up the hillside, wondering why there are two light houses...


Dave returning from taking photos near water's edge (I caught Cathy glancing over their life insurance policy...specifically the 'rogue wave, sweeping loved-one to sea' clause).

No. Cathy hasn't had too much to drink. She is trying to line up Dave for a photo with a ship beyond so that it appears that it's sitting on his head. Nice.

Dave, just fussing lovingly with Cathy's hair. In the top right corner you can just make out 'the narrows'...the entrance to St. John's harbour.

Laurita, Cathy and myself. This is my favourite picture. I have my arms about two lovely women, so I can't explain why I'm not smiling. Perhaps I was thinking about cheesecake...

Cheesecake Redux

Sorry, couldn't resist that little bit of drama. You can link to the Batman Comic Generator here. I 'borrowed' it from the Townie Bastard (home of the weird, the wonderful and current events in Newfoundland and Iqaluit). I'm thinking that each of you reading this should create a current events sort of comic and post it on your blog. That would be very cool...and I'm dying to see what Natalie Sin would have Robin say...

Since yesterday's posting about the cheesecake extravaganza of Saturday night (we know how to have a good time in Newfoundland, I tells ya...) a friend of mine posted some photos on his Facebook page. I copied a few for posting here.

Mad Cow/Dolly the sheep, which was apparently in 1996...

Come Home Year (for Newfoundland) in 1966. A nice citrus cheesecake.

I Have a Dream. Martin Luthor King's speech in 1963 about racial harmony. Oreo ice cream cheesecake.

CN Tower. Beginning of construction of the CN tower in Toronto in 1973.

29029-The Ascent. Our chocolate cheesecake (V was the 'architect and I did the one page write up that was to accompany it...) The mountain on top is broken bits of meringue with white chocolate drizzled on top.

Sorry they are so small (I'm Canadian and feel compelled to apologize) but that is how they copied from Facebook. And I promise to never do another cheesecake story again...until this time, next year of course.

Let Them Eat Cheesecake

I must apologize for the cliched and somewhat cheesy title to the post but I couldn't resist. I had cheesecake for supper last night and must admit, it's not every day I can say that!

We participated in the 5th Annual Bobo* Cheesecake Competition held by friends of ours.

*Note: The family name, in fact, is not "Bobo" but I thought it best to change the name to protect the innocent and all of that...

This is our second event, and it proves to be an entertaining (and filling) evening. The theme this year was "an event that took place during the year in which the principal cheesecake architect or baker was born." The year was to be kept a secret and those attending got to guess at the year base on the presentation shown on the cheesecake. My wife slaved for hours on creating a cheesecake depicting the scaling of a certain tall mountain in the Himalayas for the first time by two climbers. I'll say no more about the event, or the year, as it may save me a smacking from the "cheesecake architect" if she reads this and finds that I've divulged her age (but you can do the math...)

Anyhoo...prizes were available for

• Best interpretation of theme


• Best presentation


• Best chocolate cheesecake


• Best non-chocolate cheesecake


• Consumer with the highest CPC (cheesecake piece count)


• Rube Goldberg award for the most unusual combination of ingredients


• Best overall

I'm please to announce that our cheesecake one in two categories. The best presentation (ours had a small mountain of meringue covered in melted white chocolate on top) and best overall. Apparently a small trophy is on the way. The highlight for me, of course, is skipping supper and going right to cheesecake. I managed to sample 9 of the 11 entries (not that 5 had to cancel out due to the blizzard on Friday). Sadly, that quantity did not qualify me to win the CPC award. The presentation of the awards is a fine event with Prof. Bobo looking impeccably attired in his tie-die shirt and pilgrim hat. He then hands out the prizes purchased from Princess Auto. We got a small set of stainless steel cups, a whisk for sweeping car mats and a pair of welding gloves.

This post obviously has nothing to do with writing (as you may have noticed) and I commend you if you have made it this far. I would post the cheesecake recipe here, but since this is not a cooking/baking blog I won't subject you to that. I have my limits. However, the winning cheesecake was of the baked variety and contained chocolate, sour cream, cream cheese and had amaretto in both the filling and the glaze. For anyone wanting the recipe, you can email me and I'd be happy to send it to you. I forgot to take our camera to the event, so the cake shown is a generic chocolate cheesecake I pilfered from the web.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.