Jump-starting July

It seems it took forever for July to get here.  Waiting on my gang from Kentucky seemed endless.  Now we are almost halfway thru the month and it seems a blur.  So, lest I forget, I shall start from the beginning and move forward (backward?), perhaps with sprinklings of "now" scattered in between. (or perhaps not). 

My boy didn't forget my birthday.  He left abruptly for town and returned with a birthday coffee for me from Starbucks.  He also took a giant leap in his culinary skills and decided to bake me a cake.  This is impressive in a couple ways:  1.  He doesn't like to cook anything that isn't chicken, pork, beef or fish related.   2. Putting something in the oven is NOT his cup of tea.

So imagine my delight when he decided to do this for his Mama.  The only downfall was the cake choice.  He was certain that Red Velvet cake with cream cheese frosting was my favorite.  Um, nope.  Not even close.  It's his dad's.  Bless his heart!  But, kudos to him for giving it thought.  The only way to fix that is to bake a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for his dad!

 

He's leaning on my baby!  Should I be concerned?

 

Scraping the bowl. 

 

Patting it out.  He said it is like smoothing concrete.  You pat it gently

to get the air bubbles out so it will "settle" nicely. 

I'm so grateful it didn't set up like concrete!

 

 

I love it when he cooks!  It means I don't have to he will survive on his own!  It was a delicious cake ~ even though it wasn't my favorite.  He did well.  He will be a keeper for some lucky girl. 

 

I got to celebrate it with Hubs, Ben, the Man, the Beast and Sarah Sponda.  She made sure I had candles to blow out on my cake and she made them sing "Happy Birthday" to me.  That was kind of like trying to force a child to eat green peas so nice of her!

It was a nice way to jump start our July. 

So, Alicia, keep a weathered eye open for upcoming events!

TTFN