Happy Birthday BFF!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful friend Jenny! I hope you have a great day!  Love Ya!!

Red Velvet Trifle

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of my favorite kind of cake is a red velvet and one of my favorite kind of dessert is a trifle. So, when I came across the red velvet trifle I thought JACKPOT! Trifles are great because they are so incredibly simple to make, and they look nice.  I made this red velvet trifle for Valentine's Day and it was really yummy! 

I used the Paula Deen red velvet cake recipe but you could use any red velvet cake recipe (or there's even a red velvet box mix now!)

Red Velvet Trifle
For the cake:
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 ounce red food coloring (original recipe calls for 2oz. I used 1 and it worked out fine)
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

For the filling:
1 (3 oz.) envelope cheesecake flavored instant pudding
2 cups milk (I used skim milk)
2 cups whipped topping (I used lite cool whip)

Garnish:
Shaved Chocolate (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Prepare three 8” round cake pans with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, beat eggs, butter and sugar until creamy. Add cocoa and food coloring. Mix until well combined.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternating with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla.

In a small bowl, combine soda and vinegar and add to batter. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tests done. Allow cakes to cool completely.

Meanwhile, prepare instant pudding according to the package directions using 2 cups milk. Allow pudding to set up in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Using a spatula, gently fold in whipped topping.

To assemble the trifle, cut the red velvet cake into 1 inch cubes. Place an even layer of cubed cake in the bottom of a trifle bowl. Top with 1/3 of the pudding mixture. Repeat the layer process so that the final layer is pudding. Top with shaved chocolate. Chill until ready to serve.

Adapted From:Paula Deen

RIP Whitney Houston

I am saddened by the death of Whitney Houston.  She was a such a beautiful woman and an incredibly talented performer.  Her voice was truly amazing.  I grew up listening to her and love her music.  My heart goes out to her family especially her daughter Bobbi Kristina. RIP Whitney.

Pink and White Zebra Stripes

In honor of Valentine's Day I made a pink and white zebra striped cake.  You don't have to make it pink and white you could make it any color (or flavor) combination you want.  It's really simple, it just takes a little bit more time to do.  I cheated and used a box mix but you could certainly use your favorite from scratch cake recipe.

Here's what you do:

Prepare cake mix.

Add desired food coloring to half of the batter.
I used neon pink.

Give paddle attachment to husband to eat leftover batter.
(yes we know it's not good to consume raw eggs)

Alternate dropping batter in center of greased cake pan (My pans are 8").
I used 1/4 cupfuls.  The batter will spread as more batter is dropped on top.
You won't use all of the cake batter. You'll have maybe 1/2 cup left.
Throw away, make a cupcake or two, or give remaining batter to husband.

This is what it should look like when you're done.

Both pans filled.

Bake as directed.

Frost as desired.



 How cute is that?!

Parallel Parking

I am simply amazed by those who can do this. As much as I've tried I can't do it.  Luckily for me I live in a city where I don't really need to do this all that much. And if I do, well I will just drive around until I can find a spot where I can drive right in (drives the fam nuts).

For those of you who can parallel park I know you are thinking what's so hard about it? Well for those of us who can't. THE WHOLE DANG THING IS HARD! Not to mention when you have an audience (people behind you) it makes it 10x harder.

I was picking up the girl from school yesterday and someone not only parallel parked their car with busy after school traffic and pedestrians all around (audience). They also pulled into a space that looked about half the size of their car (well it did to me) and they did it without even blinking. I'm thinking this is some kinda super hero power.

Don't even get me started on semi drivers and their mad back up skills... I can barely make it outta my own driveway somedays...

Learning to Crochet

A week ago my friend Alexis showed me this awesome scarf she was crocheting and I thought I NEED to learn how to do that!  So I asked her to teach me and Friday we sat down and she started my lesson.  Well, the yarn we had on hand was very soft and fuzzy and very hard for a beginner to work with so ya it was a big fat FAIL! I did manage to learn how to 'chain' (ya I felt pretty awesome walking around saying ya I know how to chain), even though I just couldn't get my hands to cooperate and it just felt awkward. I thought how do people do this?! Why do people do this? She told me it would get easier once I found a way to comfortably hold the yarn and hook. She told me to go and get some different yarn and we'd resume my lesson this week. 

So that afternoon after the hubs and I picked the little lady up from school I told him we had to go to Hobby Lobby. I needed yarn and my own hook. I was overwhelmed by all the different yarn colors and the hubs was annoyed it took me so long to pick out a color.  I mean after all this was just for learning purposes.

We got home and I got impatient. I couldn't wait until next week to learn. I had to learn NOW! But what was I gonna do call the emergency how to crochet help line? Ya cuz that exists...And I'm sure no one is going to wanna rush to my house on a Friday night to give me a crochet lesson. So I did the next best thing I watched tutorials on youtube.

I would watch and then try and I just couldn't figure out what they were doing. Yarn over, yarn through? Yarn what? What are these people doing? I was getting frustrated. I decided I would just have to wait for Alexis to teach me.

Saturday morning I got up and decided I should try the crochet thing again. So I did. And guess what??

Not too shabby hey? I still haven't managed to really figure out how to go to the next row hence it not being completely even, but I think I've got the double crochet stitch down.  I'll have Alexis teach me more this week. Then I think I may just have to try and make an infinity scarf... I'll let you know how that goes.

I Did It!

To save a little money, I decided at the start of the month I would put myself on a little shopping ban.  I couldn't buy anything that wasn't an absolute necessity. And, as hard as it was, no, I didn't try to convince myself that really I couldn't get on without another pair of jeans, or the new Urban Decay Naked 2 palette.

In the beginning, it was a piece of cake. I thought, no biggie, it's just a month.  We even made a special Target shopping trip at the start of the month and made sure to buy enough "Target stuff" we usually buy to last us the month so I wouldn't have to go back and be tempted. And let me tell you that really ended up being a good idea because I don't know about you but when I make my weekly trip to Target lots of stuff not on the list always ends up in my cart, because well I need it, duh! So the less trips the less impulse buys!! Smart hey?? And if you're lucky enough not to give into impulse buys good for you, I am not always that fortunate.

So, back to the shopping ban, it all started out great, but, by mid month things were starting to get a little bit nuts in my head. It wasn't so much of me not buying anything but just for the simple fact that me and the little guy like to walk the stores and we haven't done that lately since I didn't want to tempt myself.

By the end of the month I had simply gone downright MAD I tell you MAD! For anyone who knows me I like need to shop. Plain and simple. I felt as I was going through what I would imagine a smoker would go through after quitting cold turkey.  Well maybe not that bad, but it was bad.

However, now that it's done and over with, I'm pretty proud of myself and I may just do it again this month.  And then again maybe not. I may do it and give myself a couple of free passes.