Oscar potluck and Food porn

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Please note, the following post may contain content not suitable for younger viewers, depending on how you look at things. Otherwise, it just contains tasty food pictures.

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This past Sunday, my friends and I gathered, as we often to, to have a potluck. We like to watch the Oscars together, playing movie-themed bingo and commenting on the fashion sense of some of the attendees, but mostly, we get together because we like food and we like to eat. We also like to challenge ourselves when it comes to potlucks, choosing a theme to which we have create our contributions. Past examples include finger foods (complete with fingers!), Mexican, Canadian, the letter P, Ragin' Cajun, and Geek. This time around, we properly challenged ourselves with the suggestive Perverted Potluck. Not really Oscars caliber, I know, but I decided to go a little more classy with my offerings, focusing primarily on good food turned dirty, as opposed to making perverted food classy.

I made a delicious squid salad the day before, which gave the squid a whole day to marinate in the lemony dressing, and added the garnishes Sunday morning. (inspiration came from this recipe on Epicurious, as well as some delicious seafood salads I tasted on a recent trip to Italy)

Next, I piped gruyere choux pastry in double mounds for the gougere "boobies" and cut pepper rounds using a spare decorating tip. Once bakeds, the little puffs made the perfect accompaniment to the salad. (Recipe found in the book French Women for All Seasons by Mireille Giuliano)

 

 And the piece de resistance, my red velvet cake and strawberry brochettes, served with sweetened whipped cream. I used a cookie cutter to cut rounds of cake from a jelly roll pan, and strung four pieces of cake and one well-shaped strawberry onto a bamboo brochette stick. I stuck each stick into a half papaya on a serving platter. I am very proud of this dish - it came out exactly as I had hoped, as well as getting the reaction I had hoped for. (The recipe for the cake come courtesy of the lovely Bakerella)

Don't they look delicious topped with a little cream?