Katie's Birthday Cake

This was Katie's birthday cake.

It's cute, right?

The white icing, the tiny flowers, the pretty springtime piping... the baby on top...

*sigh*

I went to Sam's Club with my mom and Jake to pick out Katie's birthday cake (she couldn't come for some reason... I think it was a church night for her) and I took about 15 pictures of *pictures* of cakes from their book.

And there were a. lot. of. cakes.  There were Dora cakes, Princess cakes, Fairy cakes, flower cakes... a huge variety and it was hard to decide which ones she would like, because I didn't want her to have too many options but wanted to give her enough options so she would feel part of the whole birthday decision process (since I decided on pretty much everything else, especially her cake decree.  I had to put my foot down because *three* cakes would have been excessive!).

So I was ready to sit with her and discuss the options and go with whichever cake she, the Birthday Girl, wanted.  Which I did.  I showed her the pictures and she weeded them out till we ended up with this, her dream cake:

I didn't know why the lady taking the order (on the day before I needed the cake, because I'm a planner like that) asked me if I wanted a baby with a pink diaper, blue diaper, or green diaper.

It made absolutely no sense to me at all... until I pulled up the picture on my phone and zoomed in on the center.  And realized I had included a baby shower cake in with all of the birthday cakes.  And *that's* the cake the Birthday Girl chose.

I think I stuttered a bit before asking if the baby really needed to be added to the cake... or maybe (in a very hopefull voice) they had some 4-year-old plastic kid decorations back there they could use?  They didn't. 

I was a little bummed but decided that it was still a really pretty cake and Katie chose it herself so I placed my order with... (after asking just once more if they had anything that could go in place of the baby.  They didn't) ahem, with my head held high.  Shower, smauwer!

Katie loved her cakes (I'm weak... the kiddos *needed* a cute Dora cake too and I knew we would totally eat it... eventually) and had a great birthday party and that's all I really wanted.

(Well, that and a little left over cake.  It was really yummy!)

Soil Bag Garden - Day 17

Drum roll please!

I have successfully NOT killed my two plants! In fact, they are the opposite of dead; they are thriving AND I saw some new stuff growing that doesn't look like a basic leaf. I'm not sure what it is yet... Maybe some googling is in order today to figure it out. (It's a long stringy piece... and it's not a leaf... hmmm.)

This is too exciting!
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Dinner How-To's for Lazy Mommies - Savory "Logs" Revisited

I just tweaked my previous "recipe" for the savory logs.  I guess I'll call them that.  I posted about the exciting experience here, not too long ago.

I wasn't willing to let these go, because I *knew* these could be an excellent dinner option in a pinch so tonight, after our taco dinner (yes, tacos again this Monday night!) I set to it.

I got out my ol' Jiffy mix (I've gone through two of these in the last two weeks... this is kind of a record for me) and whipped that up, then I put it into 12 muffin tins.  I know the package only says you'll get 6-8 muffins out of the box, but I wasn't sure how much those muffins would puff up.  And we've already experienced the savory logs being too "cake-y" so I erred on the less is more philosophy.

Then I added some hamburger meat to the top.

And then I went the extra step.

I added... taco seasoning on top of the hamburger.

I know!  Crazy, right?  Not even simmered in with the meat... just sort of... sprinkled on there because the hamburger was already cooked (did I mention that already?) and there was no way I wanted to re-cook that which I had already cooked just so I could add the taco seasoning.

I'll bet you're wondering why I didn't add it when I cooked the meat.

Well, I kind of forgot.  Both of the kids were acting all crazy and running through the house, the basketball game was on at a decibel high enough to make my ears bleed, and I was trying to load the dishwasher while cooking the hamburger.  Whew.  I'm tired just thinking about it.

Then I added raw onions (I figured the liquid from the onions would land on the taco seasoning and help it dissolve a little) and popped it into the oven following the Jiffy mix directions.

When they looked done, I added lots of shredded cheese and popped them back in for a few minutes.  (I can't remember exactly how long because... again with the crazy kids running around, and this time Grandpa was there working on Katie's new sliding door while I was trying to overload the dishwasher.)

They came out UNburnt (woo hoo!) and looked pretty good.  I called mom to see if she would like a taste test and she came up to check it out.  And she said they were...



GOOD!

Success at last (even though the celebration is on hold till John and the kids try them)!

Oh, and if someone already invented this recipe, please don't tell me.  I'm pretty impressed with my kitchen prowess and that could be a crushing blow to my self esteem.

Just kidding.

I would probably take it very well.  At least in front of the children.  They're so impressionable and so young too.  It would hurt them so to see Mommy upset.

*ahem*

I'm sure I would probably take it very well.