Cake. (This Post Not Related to Poetry [subtitle: the post with "sarcastic quotations" {followed by parenthetical statements}])

So when I'm not raking poetry from the bottom of heaps of notes and sketches, I like to bake. I started getting really into cooking one summer between semesters in college when, unable to find work and unable to sleep, I'd hide inside my air conditioned Tucson apartment (which was ironically situated on Water St. Seriously, who decided a street in Tucson, AZ should be called Water?) with my Kroger "Peanut Butter" and Kroger 88c/loaf "White Bread"sandwich for that day and marathons of Food Network programming. This is the only time that I, as a vegetarian, have ever craved a steak (I'm talking to you, Grill It! with Bobby Flay).

When I moved to Portland, and finally found a job, I, for the first time, had enough money to buy ingredients, and that's when I really got going.

Here's a bit of my latest fooling around between shifts at work and panic attacks about how to afford to go back to school.

I baked this cake "for my room mates birthday" (because I like to make cakes). It's chocolate devil's food with a cooked meringue "marshmallow" frosting. And I did it without a single appropriate spatula, and with only one whisk for my hand mixer! I'm kind of grateful I've never had endless money to have all the supplies I need to cook, because now I can basically make anything work (I baked my first loaf of bread in a toaster oven in my kitchenless studio apartment in Tucson).

Spiiiiiin! Thanks to my roomie for finding a nice, cheap, cake table at Rose's in Portland. Also, pardon the Jolie Holland in the background. I forgot to turn down my music.