A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dan hit me up about doing a cake for his wife for her birthday. He requested we bring it to dive club meeting last week. I said, okay… any ideas. He said no. I said, okay what does she like or what doesn’t she like? He told me chocolate and coconut. That immediately made me think of German Chocolate Cake. But I wasn’t sure, so I went on a hunt for cakes.
That lead me to send him 10 different recipe ideas. Okay, now, which one? He narrowed my 10 down to 2. One was a Cannoli Cake and the other was a Strawberry Dulce de Leche cake from Life Love and Sugar. I looked back and forth and finally decided on the Strawberry Dulce de Leche cake. (more…)
Last week I described the cake on the left of the above picture. If you need a reminder, that’s a Chocolate Dulce de Leche cake. Yum! It really was an exceptional cake and I was extremely pleased with how it turned out. Although… maybe the bright birthday candles on it look weird… who knows.
Right now I’m sitting here watching recorded shows of Best Baker America. Their challenge was a mind-bending cake with Vanilla being present. Looking at my cakes above… I fail. Oh well! haha.
But today, let’s focus on that Funfetti cake on the right. And wow, there’s a lot of thoughts covered above in just a short period of time. haha… some days that’s how my mind goes. My husband jokes that I am the queen of Random! (more…)
The picture above showed up in my Facebook newsfeed this morning. Now it wasn’t a still photo, it was a video, but it wouldn’t let me add the video, so you get a screenshot.
Those words, “Never stop trusting God and His plans.” Wow, they ring soooooooo true right now. Since December there has been a lot of ifs, ands, or buts in my future and it’s really been stressing me out. I’ve mentioned it a few times but said how much of a hypocrite I am because I wasn’t ready to talk but was asking for prayers. That’s the thing that annoys me the most when people do that. Yet, here I was, doing just that. Shame on me.
But one aspect that I’ve been dealing with, I’m finally ready to talk about. I told you I would and I’m going to try and do this as openly but as honestly as I can without whatever. I’m not really sure, I don’t want it to sound like I’m petty and childish or something. But… Here we go. Bear with me! I’ll give you some back details too. It’ll help fill in some of the dots missing.
Backstory
When my parents bought the property they (we) live on, we became really good friends with the neighbors. At that time, we lived in a rental house just on the west side of the property. That house shouldn’t have had tenants living in it 20+ years ago, yet we did and more people have since then. Another story for another day.
Around 2009 he was losing the house to the bank. At that time, my dad told me I should have bought it. They wanted something like $67K for it. I was afraid then, being a single girl, that I couldn’t make the payments. The guy I was dating wasn’t close to even proposing to me and I wasn’t about to live with him, unwed. So I had no one to help with the bills. Needless to say, someone else bought it. Looking back, I should have bought it, but with what I made at the time, I couldn’t do it and didn’t want to get myself into a bind.
It’s that time of the month… that one where I discuss the top posts of the month and the year. I just can’t help it. I get fascinated by this stuff. And it’s fun to have a record to look back on! So without further ado, let’s get this show on the road!!
Here it is, midnight. My family is sleeping and I’m sitting here typing away. Why? I just finished book number 10 for my 12 book challenge this year.
Ok first off… let’s address the 12 book challenge. My sister in law challenged me to 52 books. I knew I couldn’t do that. Truthfully I wasn’t sure I could do 12. Most of them have been on the Kindle that I’ve finished so far. I can read in the dark while my husband snores and keeps me awake. #truth. And yes, I still love the feel of real books, but the Kindle is nice when it comes to nighttime reading. Plus you can carry multiple books around with you at once. Win-Win!
Okay, now… when I went into reading tonight, I was at 74% of the book read. I couldn’t put the friggin thing down. I got to the point, even though I knew what was going to happen, I couldn’t wait to see how it played out.
Finally, this was another one of those Hallmark movies… although it would have been on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries while the other two would have been on regular Hallmark. Royal Date would have been a Christmas movie. Royal Chase would have been a spring fling movie. This one would possibly be a Christmas movie or else maybe a fall movie or a January, just after all the Christmas movies go back into the vault for the year. I’ll have to get back to you on that thought… (more…)
Hi! So I didn’t do #BlogMarch. I guess I forgot. That’s okay… This is mainly done for just me. Although, it’s a great way for you to see what blog posts you missed. You’re welcome. I’m also debating redoing my Cook with Me page because… it’s a pain in the butt. Grrr… Don’t ask. I guess blog work is never done.
So here’s a funny… I just forgot what I was going to type. Funny, right? haha. Oh… This thing says I write in too much passive voice. The thing is… that’s something I got “in trouble” for in Grad School. You’d think I’d learn not to write in Passive voice but apparently not. ha! Let’s not focus on my passive voice… instead, let’s move on to the top blog posts of April 2018.
I’m a sucker for a good romance novel. There are those that have sex scenes and then there are those that don’t but you don’t miss them. It’s true. That might be my infatuation with Hallmark movies. They are good for all ages. Just a thought.
I recently read Royal Date by Sariah Wilson. While some of the writing and description felt redundant and made me want to scream, it was a good book. I know that when you’re writing a book, you have to describe things so that people can use their imagination. That way they can see the story as they are reading it. So I knew I wanted to read the next book in the series.
The next book in the series is Royal Chase. There were two main female characters in Royal Date, Kat and Lemon. Lemon, right? Who names their kid Lemon. Well obviously this gal’s parents, that’s who. haha. Royal Date followed Kat’s story. Her story was a little hard for me to relate to even though like I said, I really liked the book. So much so that I couldn’t put it down. Royal Chase though, it followed Lemon’s story. Much more relatable for me. In fact, I stayed up past midnight last night reading it. I just couldn’t put it down and finally had to make myself. I knew I needed my sleep. (more…)
Recently I was reading a blog post on the Top books to read in Spring 2018. Of course here lately it seems like I’ve really gotten into reading so I needed to check out what her suggestions were. One was Royal Date. I thought, okay, I’ll bite. I have a 30 day free trial on my Kindle for Kindle Unlimited and this book was on there so I thought, why not… Although it’s only $1.99 to buy I think so it’d totally been worth it buying it either way.
Kat MacTaggart is a girl who has a plan for everything—including her holiday ski trip to Monterra with her best friend. Everything is going according to plan until she finds herself careening out of control down a mountainside and being rescued by a guy who looks like Superman’s hotter Italian cousin. (more…)
Oh, Julia Child. I sooooo would have loved to have been your friend in real life! Dang.
So, prior to reading/watching Julie and Julia I knew the name Julia Child, but truthfully I didn’t really know who she was other than a chef. I knew nothing about her. Then I read the book and watched the movie and kind of became intrigued in learning more about her. In fact, here recently I rattled on about the Nicole/Julia project. haha. Truthfully though, after reading this book, I’m even more intrigued in cooking my way through her book. My question is… what will I ever do on the foods I don’t like. Maybe I don’t like them because I haven’t eaten them properly… one may never know…
The bestselling story of Julia’s years in France–and the basis for Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams–in her own words.
Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia’s unforgettable story–struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year-long marriage that took the Childs across the globe–unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia’s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America’s most endearing personalities.(more…)
Over Easter weekend I was able to listen to The Time of My Life by Patrick Swayze and his wife Lisa Niemi. When this book came out in 2009, I remember I just had to have it and wanted to read it. I started reading the intro pages and immediately I put it down because I was in tears. I had a feeling this book was going to be so sad that I guess I never picked it back up. In fact, I gave it to my mom to read, she had the same reaction and neither of us read it.
Jump forward 9 years to the year 2018. Hubby drives a lot for work so he gets books on audio so he can “read” while he’s driving. Me, I’d be jamming to music, but he’s listening to audio books. Smart guy he is! Anyway, he decided he was going to get The Time of My Life. Bingo, that means I can listen to it too! I can’t read in a car. I can barely sit in a car for long drives. So I listened to this book.
Now here’s the thing… if you listen to this book, Patrick Swayze and his wife Lisa are actually the narrators. How cool is that?
The thing I’ve been trying to figure out is… I remember when they did the interview with him as this book was released. I also remember he said he was going to be the narrator. But what I can’t remember is how long it was between the time this book was released and when he passed away. I really want to say just a couple months. (more…)
