Kitty Litter Cake and a Birthday

Last week was my both my sister's and grandma's birthday! It was sad not having AJ here for her b-day but at least she didn't have to eat this:

She got to eat a fancy pumpkin loaf instead (minus the poopsies). I actually made this cake a couple of days before the real birthday for Ken's family and I'm glad I did! Unfortunately, Ken's family got the gross version. And when I say gross, I really mean gross. It tasted nasty. I followed the directions in the recipe and made two cakes (white and spice), crumbled them up, mixed them together, mixed in cookie crumbs, and mixed in vanilla pudding. The texture wasn't appealing, it didn't taste like cake, and I believe everyone tried to eat it because they didn't want me to feel bad.

However, this simply meant I could make another cake..........a better cake! This time around, I made only the spice cake but instead of crumbling it up to make it seem like cat litter, I transferred it (well, mom and dad did it while I bit my nails in the background and crossed my fingers that it wouldn't fall apart) from the cake pan to the litter box. Success!!

After that I just frosted it with a cream cheese frosting and followed the same recipe directions to finish the top. So, in essence, both cakes looked the same in presentation, but tasted like they came from worlds apart. The second cake had a cake-y texture, tasted like cake, and I didn't get the "pity-eat." It was good! I presented it to Grandma like this: "79 years of this shit....happy birthday!" I was worried that it would be inappropriate but she got a good laugh out of it.

Overall, I think Grandma really enjoyed her birthday! My aunt and uncle came from out of town and we all got to reminisce over old memories and share a special day with a special woman!

My Lovey-est Lovey....

Oh, my poor lovey....

My sweet little baby had 6 sutures placed in her paw today. I went for a jog this morning and took the dogs because the chilly weather makes them frisky and they tend to stay out with me the whole time instead of running up back to the house. Unfortunately, the field of hay behind our house was recently cut. It is now a massive playground of new smells and friendly little critters peeking their heads out to see where their blanket of hay went. If not for Ken, I wouldn't have even known Sky was hurt. He was inside eating Tornados for breakfast and somehow happened to see Sky limping and came out to see why. 

He motioned to me that something was wrong. It just looked like weird waving to me so I kept jogging. He called me. I figured it was nothing that couldn't wait five minutes for me to finish and catch my breath (I figured it was about job interviews or dinner plans with a family friend that had come to visit). He calls again. I moodily stopped my stopwatch, stopped running, and rudely said, "WHAT?!" After I heard what he had to say, I sheepishly said, "Oh. I'll be right there.", and ran up to the house. 

Sky was bleeding all over the place (not really, but there was a little spot on the bed) and Ken showed me the cut which looked just about awful. I turned into Super-Mom that doesn't get upset about anything like blood on the bed and takes care of all emergencies with strange calmness. Somehow, she managed to slice the webbing between her claws in the hay field out back. 

Look at that face...

Don't worry, there will be lots of cuddles for this little love plum tonight!

Penne with Brown Butter, Arugula, and Pine Nuts

You can never go wrong with Giada DeLaurentiis. She's my fave (you know, because I have so many). I've tried a couple of her recipes now and they were a hit each time I made them. I think I gravitate towards Giada's recipes because they are pretty simple for me to follow (I'm not a good cook) and they utilize real, whole foods. They aren't over complicated with tricky cooking techniques or too many ingredients either. This recipe was so easy to make! I recommend halving the recipe if you are cooking for two. I bought all of the ingredients to make the whole thing, but knew that I would make only half of it one night and the other half another night (the two pasta dishes I've made from her have not reheated well but they are so good fresh!).

The recipe calls for penne noodles, arugula, parmesan cheese, toasted pine nuts, grape tomatoes, half of a lemon and its zest, capers, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

The sauce is made from the olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper. One thing Giada has you do is save about a cup of your pasta water (instead of pouring it down the drain when you're done) to use in part of your sauce. The starch in the pasta water helps take your sauce from homemade quality to restaurant quality. That's my own thought process, but I can't remember what she said about the starch in the pasta water and why it's important, but it's something I didn't know about before.

Looking at it in the pan, I wasn't sure how it would taste. It looked pretty but also looked like just a bunch of noodles with some salad and cheese mixed in. 

However, it was amaze-balls! Ken inhaled his. Before I met Giada and we became BFF's, getting Ken to come near my food was difficult. I can understand why. If he didn't know what "saute" meant on the back of a 11-minute meal box, I might not want to come near his food either. If I found part of the box in my 11-minute meal, I would probably run the other way, too. Just saying. But, but, but - I have come a looong way since those days, and have a couple of great meals under my belt now. This just happens to be one of those two meals. 

The other recipe of Giada's that I highly recommend is her Fusilli with Pecorino Romano and Black Pepper. It is to die for. You can find it here. The one I made in this post can be found here. Simple, easy recipes for inexperienced cooks like me to dabble in, call their own, and take all the credit! Thanks, Giada! BFF's for life!

Motivation Monday

http://singingmysong4u.tumblr.com/post/5824457471

I've come across this quote a few times now and it still makes me chuckle (and re-read it at least three times, every time)...but if you think about it, it speaks of determination, will, and drive to succeed and to be the best you can be (even if you have to rely on your inner mean girl to tough it out with a pretty little smile on your face). I think we all need that sometimes, no? 

I hope everyone's Monday finishes fabulously! I started mine out with water pouring out of an air vent in our downstairs ceiling onto the floor, directly underneath our dishwasher/sink upstairs, that was still dripping every couple of seconds when I made it home later in the day. Thrilling...

Still look like a flower hair do, Anonymous?

Just Because...

Monday's Mansion from a Mole Hill

This is my first post that actually goes along with the theme of my blog! Today's Mole Hill (a.k.a. problem) happens to be an extremely dead plant smack dab in the middle of our front landscape. Here lies a very dead bush:

R.I.P.

If you look very closely below, you can see that Mr. Frog is very lonely without his usual bush to keep him company:

Soooo......I created a Mansion (a.k.a. solution to our little Mole Hill) for him to be Head Butler at! He is taking to his new position very quickly given the poor economy:

I'm really excited about having a pot in the middle of the landscape instead of an evergreen perennial! Now I can change out flowers with the season with extra pops of color and holiday flair. We have a neighbor that has gorgeous landscaping, but...they cheat. They have several potted annual flowers that overflow with color all year round and scream, "Look at me!! I am part of a big beautiful landscape with lots of color and beautifulness!!" Well. Do they have a Head Butler Frog? I think not. 

I'll be sure to update you when the above mums look like the ones we already have below!

A Wedding (But Not Mine)

Before time gets away from me and I never get it done, I am posting these pictures of my cousin Tina's wedding from last month. Being the copy-cat I am (and knowing that my sister won't mind),  I have put them into photo collages. It's a world easier than posting them all separately. Enjoy!

The Ceremony

Cake Cutting

Special Dancing

Portraits of Very Important People

***For the record, I did not get married on September 30th.

To Share, or Not To Share?

In the interest of making waves, I have decided to share. Apologies in advance to the folks! I expect a phone call shortly. Anyhoo, I'm married!!!!!! NOT!!!!! But we sure had a good time pretending last Friday. Anyone need to go to the hospital for anxiety, heart attack, or anger? Mom? Dad? Anyone? No? Mom? Okay. Fabulous. I shall resume my story.

To add Ken to my insurance plan, my company said that we must be in compliance with a common law marriage in the state of Kansas. Since we are, adding him to my insurance made it feel like it was sort of official! To celebrate, we had a chalk drawing contest in the driveway!

Finally a smile for the camera!

Which color should I pick?

Here are a few "during" shots:

And here are the "after" shots (at this point in time I welcome you to post who's art you like better in the comment section):

Ken's art with a story and true to size trees that get smaller as the horizon gets farther away.

My art, with no story. Just a commemoration of our love. And fake wedding anniversary.

The happy bride and groom!

Thinking we should do fun chalk stuff more often...

Here I am getting tricked into thinking this would be a cute kissy picture.

FYI. Do not use the pads of your fingers to blend chalk into rough concrete. When it starts to hurt and feel raw, stop. Do. Not. Keep. Using. The. Same. Fingers.

P.S. I'm a runner!

Or at least I think I am. See my tough I'm-a-runner face?

I ran (ahem - jogged...very slowly) for 20 minutes without stopping yesterday! I'm so proud! See my proud face?

As for updating you with wedding pictures, that will have to wait until next time. Apologies! But, here's a teaser for what's to come:

My, How Time Flies...

Looks like we need to catch up on some quality time together, you and me! It's been a busy couple of months and a lot has been happening! I recently came across a quote that said something along the lines of, "Don't waste your life waking up every day just to be miserable." Obviously, those who know me know that I'm not always happy with my job. Do I think it's what I'm meant to be doing? Not really. But I do believe that I'm supposed to learn something from it and take away lessons and skills that I will need to know about later on in life. There's a reason for everything! Anyway, the quote made me realize that just because I'm stressed out with work and other life happenings, doesn't mean that I have to be. I am in control of how I view my stress load and I'm currently working towards lightening up about it. Ain't no thang but a chicken-wang on a strang!

Hope to be back later this weekend with a picture post of my cousin's wedding and we can curl up together and reminisce about old times!