Happy Shark Week!

My housemates and I don't watch television. We do have a tv, but it's used almost exclusively by my roommate Greenbriar for obscure films and the occasional video game. Tonight, however, we all gathered around for the first night of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel! We ordered an anchovy pizza, channeling our inner shark, and started the countdown to the new Mythbusters, which would mark the first time our television was plugged in to the cable since GB brought it into the house.

I've been known to take any opportunity to cook for my loved ones, and kitchy theme dishes are kind of irresistable. Couple this with the Berry Invasion of the past few weeks - gorgeous local strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries being basically given away wherever you look - and the creation of a shark-themed dessert was basically a given.

(I wonder how many more of these gratuitously sensual berry photographs I can distract you with before you start questioning my actual cooking skills.)

I decided to be a little punny and make... Strawberry Sharkcakes. I used a shortcake recipe from a 2006 issue of Gourmet, and was kind of disappointed with it, so I'm not going to post it here. The berries and wonderful cream from Norris Dairy redeemed the dish, and the gummy sharks swimming around the plate were pretty awesome. My favorite part of the dish was the berry coulis, which I made the night before. I had a bunch of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries in the fridge from the market yesterday, and some of them were looking a bit past their prime. I threw them all in a saucepan with a bit of raw sugar and honey and mashed it all with an old-school potato masher. I let it simmer for an hour, and strained it through a mesh sieve. Yum! I could eat this on everything from pancakes to ice cream. I bet it would also make a great salad dressing. Anyway, back to the tv. It's not often my friends gather around a screen, but it's all in the name of sharks, and I don't want to miss anything!

Happy Shark Week, friends! Eat Well. Like a shark.