Almost the best food picture ever

Last week, I posted that great naked chicken picture from The New York Times. So how do I follow that act? Meet Ellie Mae.

I'll be on the road for the next week and half, first at the Association of Food Journalists conference in Charleston, then on vacation in Charlotte and New York. I'll be sort of in touch and generally checking e-mail. And I'll be active on Twitter, @kathleenpurvis.

Before I left, I wanted to leave you with something. So I'm leaving you with Ellie Mae. When photographer and photo editor Wendy Yang was shooting the pictures for Wednesday's story on bologna, she took a stack of mortadella home to work on it. She was shooting a detail when Ellie Mae got into the act. Yang actually has three dogs, but only Ellie managed to reach the food.

No, we couldn't run that picture in the Food section -- some people get all squeamish about the idea of food and dogs. But it was such a cute shot, I couldn't resist sharing it for dog lovers everywhere.

See you soon, and remember: Ellie Mae says, "Wag more. Bark less."