Red Velvet and Dark Chocolate

My oldest child's spectacular birthday is tomorrow. Hence the reason I am up at 9:30 pm baking. I am making two cakes. A red velvet and a dark chocolate fudge both with fresh homemade whipped cream made the way my Grammy taught me.



This is my sample for tasting tonight.


Happy Birthday Baby!






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Cosmic Forces

My best friend died on Tuesday. And as a mutual friend of ours said to describe it, "Cosmic Forces are at ultimate suck level today." I wholeheartedly agree.

She was 40.

When I talked to a nurse friend yesterday she told me that some stars shine so brightly that they don't last very long. I thought it was an apt description.

I spent the last few minutes of every night talking to my friend. She made everything right in my world. Whatever had gone wrong was made better by Kerry. I won't ever forget how much she meant to me.



Kerry Halva Cash 1969-2010

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The Gateway Drug to Gardening

Recently I heard a friend quote a special from NPR that called tomatoes the "Gateway drug to gardening." So true.

I planted my garden tonight and over half of the space was devoted to tomatoes.

I planted three different tomatoes,







carrots, melon,






cucumbers,





eggplant,





cauliflower, and peas.





There will also be a watermelon and pumpkin patch planted this weekend.

I can't wait to tell you the stories of this years' seeds. Reading the seed catalogs in January while it is snowing always gives me hope for the next summer of joy.

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Friday Night Food Porn

Somewhere in the depths of my brain a huge spark flickered today and started to burn brightly. I was reading a recipe for homemade Graham crackers. This was something to add to my recipe bookmarks to try. I make lovely marshmallow creme. Lately, I've been dreaming of nutella...



And thus we have "Friday Night Food Porn."

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Parenting with Love and Magic

One of the grandpas in our family always does the magic trick with the coin that you suddenly find behind the child's ear.

Today I caught my husband doing the same magic trick with our youngest.

It reminded me of how much love and patience goes into this parenting gig.

Muddy shoes tromping through the house, tired kids who can't walk another step, towels thrown in the laundry because it is too hard to hang them up. These everyday frustrations build up over time. It is hard not to feel upset that someone is spending every minute wrecking what you spend every minute cleaning.

This weekend I watched my husband pull off one of his great daddy moments. We had gone for a bike ride on a local bike path. He had two of our kids in the buggy behind his bike. The third was riding on his own. We had reached the turnaround point and it looked as though the rain was coming fast. He put all three kids into the buggy, strapped the child's bike with plastic wire ties to the back of the buggy and took off. He was now pulling 135 pounds behind him. And he was moving quickly for the parking lot.

I followed and was amazed. Strength (all 3 by bike), ingenuity (who carries wire ties in their pockets?) and well (blushing) the view wasn't bad either. The nice part of following is that it gives you time to admire the leader.


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One More Reason to Get Married

One night at the dinner table Daddy says to the kids, "Isn't this great? I make dinner and your Mother does the dishes."

To which our daughter replied, "I am never getting married because I don't ever want to do the dishes." We laughed.

Today, we were in a fabulous homemade ice cream shop getting our cones after a long sunny bike ride. The clerk handed me my husband's cone while he was paying her. I started licking the cone. My daughter said, "Why are you eating Daddy's ice cream?" To which I replied, "That's one of the nice things about being married."

She looked very thoughtful for a moment. I gave her another more serious example of something kind her Dad had done for me the last time I was in the hospital. It sparked a thoughtful look.

I wonder when she'll realize that being married isn't just about who does the dishes.


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Date Ride

We bought new bikes. Probably crazy. Definitely necessary. I feel so guilty for spending money on something for fun. But that's what we are having. We went for a date ride this weekend. An easy 13 mile ride on a nearby bike path. We got to talk, uninterrupted. I was very tired when we got home but I still managed to bake, sew and scrub.

I hope we'll go again soon!


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