Hello Tangelo.
Today was a good day. The best day I’ve had for a long time. We started out with a lot of tangelos. And in my opinion, starting your day with tangelo’s and/or fresh squeezed orange juice is always a good idea.
My hair was not in a ponytail or a wad on the back of my head. For the first time since…. I don’t know when. I made it to the Post Office, finally. I’ve had two packages that I needed to send sitting on my kitchen counter for a full two months. It’s embarassing really, but when push comes to shove, the Post Office sometimes gets the shaft.
We played at the park for a good portion of today, which made my child all sorts of happy. And I maybe put her in my very favorite little leggings. It is getting close to time to give them up. They are a 12 month, and all her others are 3T…. but seriously, cutie little pear leggings? I can’t let them go. (They are from BabyGap last winter, skirt and shirt both thrifted.) And after our park date, we had a quesadilla date at my favorite Mexican place, and then an ice cream date with my friend, and then swung by the park again just for kicks.
And then when Scott got home from work I spent some time alone at the fabric store. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow. Holy smokes I found some cute things! All in all, not a bad day.*
*So, here’s the deal, I don’t always blog about my whole life. A lot of the bad stuff gets left out, not because I am trying to hide it, but because I really try to not focus on the negative. It is first of all exhausting and second of all pretty counter productive to my earthly happiness. But, I’ll just tell you, a pretty perfect day for me, like today, was also full of all sorts of crap. My child was awake from 4:00-5:30 this morning, we had no less than 5 two year old tantrums, she tripped on the sidewalk and cracked her head on the cement. She’s got an epic bruise on her forehead. Epic. And that doesn’t count all the snot on my shirt sleeves due to forgetting tissue when we went to the park. But if I focused all my energy on the amount of snot on my shirt that did not belong to me, well then I wouldn’t be much of a mother and it wouldn’t make me happier. Here’s the thing, the good always comes with the bad, and you can focus on the shiny parts of your life, or the muddy parts of your life. And depending on what you choose, it can make all the difference. Alright, that’s the end of my soapbox schpiel about honesty in blogging and sharing and life in general. Please don’t judge me for the snot on my shirt.
Stripes and the Sickies
First of all, thank you to everyone who left me such supportive comments on my last post. It has been a very long few weeks over here, but I think we are finally on the downhill side of the sick mountain. We had colds, flu, colds again, ear infections, bronchitis, another cold… basically a whole bunch of yuckiness. I ended up losing 15 pounds in about 10 days. Creamie lost a few pounds too, which is a much bigger reason to worry. But her appetite is back finally, and she has slept through the night for four days. Which is a freaking miracle. For both of us.
[ I clearly allow my daughter to dress herself. Clearly. ]
We still aren’t all the way better. My bronchitis is hanging on tight, and her runny nose is… well, it’s still running. But she doesn’t spend all day everyday snuggled up in my lap anymore. Which is good and bad, but mostly good. I’ll miss the snuggles, but I am SO SO GLAD she feels well enough to play. And I finally have the energy to play with her again, and make dinner, and leave my house (I went 12 days without so much as opening my front door). It might take me a little while to get back to my regular daily posting schedule. But I finally feel like it is a within the realm of possibility. Heck, getting dressed and walking to the mailbox on the same day is no longer an impossible task. And that my friends means we are moving forward. I’ll be back sooner rather than later. For reals this time.
Sick Day(s)
I know I haven’t been around here much. I’ve been snuggling on the couch with a sick little girl. And she has been snuggling with her sick mama and her sick baby.
I’m not sure when I’ll be back to my regular posting schedule, but I’m sure you understand. I don’t remember the last time I slept through the night, I haven’t left my house for more than a week and I’ve lost 12 pounds. Blogging sometimes has to take a back seat to all that other stuff. I hope this round of sickness ends soon. Though I will admit the snuggling and the weightloss has been nice.
Recipe: 3 Layer Neopolitan Birthday Cake
Do you want to know my big fat secret to this cake. Duncan Hines Cake Mix. With a little oomph.
Neopolitan Cake Recipes
CHOCOLATE AND VANILLA
For the chocolate and vanilla layers I used a Duncan Hines Devils Food and a Duncan Hines French Vanilla mix. And then I souped them up.
- 1 cake mix
- 1 3.9 oz (small box) instant jello pudding ( choc or vanilla respectively)
- 2 TB flour
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 cup applesauce
Combine dry cake mix, pudding and flour in mixing bowl, then dump in everything else. Mix on low for 1 min, medium for 2 minutes until well combined. Prepare a 9″ round cake pan with cooking spray and a piece of parchment paper cut to fit. Pour half the batter into the pan, and then make 12 cupcakes. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Or you could make two layers, but I didn’t need five layers of cake. I didn’t need 24 cupcakes either, but those were easy to deliver to friends and family!
STRAWBERRY
For the Strawberry Layer I used this recipe for pink cupcakes. It made one 9″ round layer for my cake. If you think you need ANOTHER 12 cupcakes, double it.
- 1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 egg whites
- 1 tea vanilla
- 3/4 cup sliced strawberries. Puree in blender
- 1/4 cup milk (mix with strawberry puree)
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tea baking powder
- 1/8 tea salt (omit if you used salted butter)
Preheat the oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl cream butter and sugar with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Combine the sliced strawberries and milk in the blender. Starting with the wet ingredients, alternately add wet and dry in batches, mixing well after each addition and ending with the last of the dry stuff. Scrape sides often, and mix well. Pour into a greased and parchment lined pan and bake for 26-30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
DELICIOUS PINK FROSTING
I started by whipping about a cup and a half of whipping cream into very stiff peaks with a few drops of red food coloring. Then I beat together in my mixer 1 8 oz package of neufatchel cheese (the low fat cream cheese substitute) and a cup of butter. When that was nice and fluffy I added a splash of vanilla and about half a 32 oz bag of powdered sugar. Then I folded in the whipped cream, and added more powdered sugar until it was as thick as I wanted it. I kind of made this up as I went along, I don’t think frosting is an exact science. It made enough frosting to do this big three layer cake, and frost all 24 cupcakes. Once your cakes are all completely cooled layer them up with a lot of frosting and decorate! I used Strawberry Whoppers to decorate around the bottom edge of the cake. After I was done frosting everthing I put the whole cake back in the fridge to help the frosting firm up a bit. And getting a three layer cake on a pedestal to fit into the fridge was probably the hardest part about the whole cake making experience. It was time consuming (hello, you are making three different kinds of cake!) but not hard at all.
And it turned out to be a perfectly delicious cake for Creamie’s party. Enjoy!
Recipe: White Chocolate Raspberry Birthday Cake
I am finally getting around to posting these birthday cake recipes from Creamie’s party a few weeks ago. Enjoy!
White Chocolate Raspberry Cake
(modified from tasteofhome)
- 3/4 cup soft butter
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, melted and cooled
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together dry ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tea baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk (don’t mix with dry stuff)
Add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternately with buttermilk until well combined. Divide batter evenly between two well greased and floured 9″ round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 28-32 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
FILLING
- 2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 TB cornstarch
In a small saucepan bring raspberries and water to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Strain raspberry mixture into a separate bowl, pressing berries through a fine sieve and discard seeds. In the same saucepan combine sugar and cornstarch, and stir in raspberry puree until smooth. Bring mixture to a boil, cook and stir for two minutes until thick. When cool, spread between the cake layers.
FROSTING
- 1 8 oz package cream cheese (or neufatchel cheese)
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, melted and cooled (or you can use vanilla chips)
- 1 12 oz carton container of cool whip (or use 1 1/2 cups very stiffly whipped cream)
Beat cream cheese until fluffy, add chocolate chips and then fold in whipped cream. Spread over cake and garnish with fresh raspberries. Store in refrigerator.
Spring Cleaning
We’ve had a few days of exceptionally warm February weather. And yesterday we spent all afternoon outside playing.
But today my house feels like this, and I’m staying inside to try and put things back together. Creamie found this skein of yarn a few days ago and this is how she left it. She came running up to me, so excited and said “Look mama, I open it for you! I break it! For you!” Her new helpful (and totally adorable) attitude is part of the reason we are doing some serious straightening up today.
Happy Valentines Day
Happiness is homemade Valentines.
And this face. Have a great day!
Day 6: Hanging Hearts
Today was a near perfect day. The fantastic way to start my time as a 28 year old.
[ photo by Laurraine Yuyama ]
Day 5: i heart toast
It’s a slow morning at our house, with a late brunchfast and lots of laughing. A perfect day.
Day 4: Puffy Hearts
Now I just need to make about 100 more of these pom pom hearts so I can make a pretty garland.
Have a good weekend. Mine will be spent with scissors and yarn, cuddled up on the couch with my hubby and a movie.
pinksuedeshoe 