Something About Nothing

 I had a big birthday this year: 60 years. My sister wanted it to be an especially fun birthday so she planned a fun weekend for the two of us. I flew to California and we went to San Francisco, one of our favorite cities to celebrate. We stayed in a beautiful little VRBO apartment in Mill Valley. My sister brought her cat too. We all had a wonderful time. We shopped at Dharma Trading Company , or rather I shopped, my sister watched. We ate well. And of course had to add lot of treats. We had delicious Cruffles at Sift. Especially loved the brownie Cruffle. I would definitely buy it again. Had my usual nausea riding the hills. Shopped at Flax Art Supply . Lots of beautiful books, bags and all the art supplies. My sister made the best chicken parm.. .  . . . And a homemade German's Chocolate Cake! My favorite!!! We spent a perfect day at Stinson Beach . . . . . with all the birds We had a good time naming them and giving them each their own voice. This is 60! There were a few o...

One of my family's traditions is to make a lamb shaped pound cake for Easter. There was a time when we bought these cakes from the local bakery but then one year Grandma bought a mold and a new tradition was born! When my first child was born I inherited the mold and began a quest for the perfect Lamb Cake.  The pound cake recipe I had never quite worked - either too dry or didn't rise enough or fell apart.  Always something!  I have tried umpteen different recipes but every year I have had a different problem. NOT THIS YEAR! This year the only thing we have had to deal with is UGLY. I can deal with ugly! This years cake is moist, it stayed upright and tastes absolutely delicious! I also found a fabulous frosting recipe - not too heavy, not too sweet.  Just YUM. I've posted the recipes for the cake and frosting over on The Lewis Family Recipe Club blog.

Baked Fudge. Deliciousness. Same thing. I read the recipe for Baked Fudge on The Pioneer Woman's blog almost six months ago and I have been drooling ever since. Yes, I know you've been wondering why I have been carrying this tissue around all that time, and now you know. I didnt' make it right away because I didn't have ramekins to make it in. The recipe says you can use an 8 x 8 dish but I think I just needed a good excuse to buy ramekins. When I went to Sistah's in July I found these cute ramekins for just 99 cents each at Chef's Warehouse . Score! After the fudge bakes for almost an hour you plop on some freshly whipped cream and. . . prepare to go straight to heaven. It's kind of gooey and rich and chocolatey and creamy and delicious. So worth the wait! I think I need to make it again right now.

A few weeks ago I ran across a recipe at The Pioneer Woman. She had a special visitor, Bakerella , who has created a recipe for Cake Balls . They looked so easy and fun that I filed away the idea to do with the kids during spring break. Today I unloaded the file and we had a great time! First bake a cake (we used a Devils Food mix) and let it cool. Play a game of Monopoly Jr. while you wait for it to cool. Once the cake is cool, crumple the cake into a bowl. The kids LOVED this part. And yes, I made sure they had all washed their hands first! Next dump in a tub of store bought frosting (we used cream cheese frosting). I forgot to load the picture of them dumping in the frosting and it's too much of a pain to load a picture into the middle of a post so I'll just totally skip that photo! They also enjoyed this part, and used a spatula to dump it in, not their hands, as tempting as that was for them. Mix the frosting and cake together until you get a nice crumbly mixture ...