Pinterest win, Pinterest fail

You gotta believe that I am all about a good tip or shortcut on Pinterest, especially anything involving an avocado! A couple of months ago, I took a pinner's advice and added a ripe avocado to chicken salad (using less mayo, plus I added a squeeze of fresh lime and some cilantro leaves). SCORE! Great twist on boring old chicken salad. Moreover, when I posted about it on Facebook, my friend Jay reported that he tried the same idea with tuna salad and said it was delicious as well. I haven't tried that yet, but as my favorite sandwich in the world is krab salad on top of an avocado layer, I can't see why that wouldn't be yummy.

The most recent "add-an-avocado" tip I gleaned from Pinterest was to mix Boursin cheese with avocado to make a delicious spread for an sandwich. The store I stopped at last night didn't carry Boursin, so I bought Garlic and Herb Alouette instead and mixed half a container with one large avocado plus a squeeze of lemon juice, and then I proceeded to make an awesome Sunday brunch...as is my way.

I bought a thick-sliced three-seed baguette from Panera, then brushed the slices with pepper-infused oil and broiled them until crisp, topped them with the Alouette-avocado spread, a slice of very ripe black tomato, and then caramelized red onions and local and organic yellow and red sweet peppers. I served this with over-easy eggs on the side, plus a Bloody Mary made from spicy tomato juice purchased at the farm stand down the road and garnished with my homemade dilly beans. YUM and YUM, I say!

Then for dinner last night, I tried another shortcut dessert that I read about on Pinterest--a lowfat creamsicle cake. It's super-simple: Blend a white cake mix (I used French vanilla), with one cup of orange juice (and zest, if you have it), and one cup of Greek yogurt (I used Oikos plain). That's it. Mix it up, bake 30-33 minutes, cool, and you can add an icing or just a dusting of powdered sugar, if you like.

I baked my cake in a bundt pan, then glazed it with 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar whisked with two tablespoons orange juice, a tablespoon of melted butter, and a splash of vanilla. It looked pretty, smelled great, tasted okay (it's sometimes hard for me to get past the artificial, chemical taste of cake mix), but there was something amok with the texture. It was kind of...I don't know...chalky? In the immortal words of Hugh Grant in one of my favorite movies, "Two Weeks' Notice," the cake was good--it "just needed more fat."  If you're desperate for cake and you're watching your fat grams, maybe this would satisfy you. But I don't need cake that often anyway, so I'd rather wait and have the real, full-fat deal! Tee hee.