The New Adventures of My New BFF Cat Cora and Me

Yes, you read that right... Iron Chef Cat Cora and I are now BFFs. She cooked for me, we were photographed together. It's a friendship for the ages.

In the reality that is NOT my brain, Cat Cora visited the California Museum for History, Women and the Arts today as part of Maria Shriver's Women's Day events.

Let me tell you how much I love Cat Cora. Her Iron Chef episodes are the ONLY ones I watch. Sure, I have some love for Iron Chefs Batali, Flay and Morimoto. But really... there are only some many ways you can have Italian-insipred (Batali), grilled with chipotle (Flay) or Asian-inspired meals (Morimoto). The food Cat Cora cooks is creative and fun! She's always different and everything always looks so delicious. Never boring, never overly involved or difficult and never the same.

Cat's cooking demonstration (yes, Cat and I are on a first name basis) was supposed to start at 11:30 a.m. and when my coworker Tess and I got to the Museum 10 minutes early (!) she had already started. The audience was five to six people deep, so I couldn't get close up or good pics of what she was actually doing. I did, however, turn my camera on, stick my arm up to the heavens and start snapping away. I got a few good ones...

The recipe she made was the recipe on the cover of her cookbook Cooking from the Hip, Pork Skewers with Avocado Tzatziki. The only difference was that she used chicken instead of pork. Now, I'll be honest, I'm not a fan of avocado. In fact, it comes a close second to my hatred of tomatoes. However, I tasted this (there were samples for everyone) and was in heaven! It was delish! All the prep for the demonstations were done by Gold Rush Grille/Crisp Catering owner Joe Thompson and his staff. They get to do all the fun stuff. Not only do they feed the staff of the many different agencies around the capitol, but they get to actually cook for and with famous chefs!

I've also already gone through Cat's cookbook and marked recipes I want to try... although, it looks like the book threw up little tabs. I should just have a Julie and Julia moment and cook my way through the book... hmmm, that's not such a bad idea.

Okay, who is coming for dinner?