Saturday, February 8, 2014

Milestones and chocolate cake...

My son turned eighteen today.

EIGHTEEN.

Wait.. what?

Yeah, you read that right.  Eighteen.

Half my age  -_-

We went out to dinner and had an excellent meal at a nice little Italian place by my office and I was nice enough not to embarrass him with the waitstaff singing happy birthday and making a scene.

I asked him earlier in the week what kind of cake he wanted and he requested a chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream.  I have an excellent chocolate cake recipe that I've been using that is the moistest, most decadent chocolate cake not to mention comes together quickly and bakes up without a hitch every time.

I made the cake when I got home last night, split it this morning, filled it with ice cream, wrapped it in plastic wrap and set it back in the springform pan this morning and took it out when we got home from dinner.  He's got a few friends who got here a little later than expected so while they're watching TV I had to put the cake back in the freezer.

While the cake firms back up I decided to sit here and share the recipe with y'all :)



Super moist dark chocolate cake

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Instructions:

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla.

 Beat with electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes.

 Remove mixer; stir in boiling water by hand.

 Pour the thin batter into a greased and floured 13x9x2-inch baking pan or two greased 9-inch layer cake pans or three greased 8-inch layer cake pans.

Bake at 350° for about 35 minutes for a rectangular cake or 30 to 35 minutes for layers. A wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center should come out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes in pan on rack then remove from pan and cool completely.

Frost as desired.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

One day I'll have a dog again...

But for now I get my daily dose of 'puppy therapy' from Facebook. My first dose came through a friend who shared a beautiful pittie girl who was in need of some rescue named Selena.  Selena was rescued by Fighting for Dawn  as a heartworm positive stray who was scheduled to be euthanized and was pulled right before.  I was in love at first sight with that baby and I've been following FFD ever since. The good and bad thing is they're in Georgia. Good because I know there's no way I can bring a dog randomly home to my honey one day (I can't have pets where I live, but he's got two cats). Bad because I wish there was more I could do to help and volunteer.

While I can't have a dog of my own, what I can do is share my love for the FFD family and all the rescues I follow, share the good they do and spread the love. From Dawn's story to the story of Marilyn and the Muttleys and all the babies (not all are babies, but all dogs are babies to me that deserve love and companionship) that they rescue daily. A lot of these dogs come into rescue in poor shape, they need donations to pull the dogs from the shelters, for vetting and are always in need of fosters.

I follow a few rescues and most are out of state to me... Except one...which I know when the time is right and I see that baby that I know will be mine I'm gonna go and get her from there. 

I miss having a dog, The Kid loves dogs and gets his dose of puppy love whenever he visits his friends with dogs (which is a good lot of them)  I, on the other hand am puppyless :( so I get my puppy fix from pages like Fighting for Dawn, Puppy Breath Rescue, Big Fluffy Dog RescueAngels Among Us Pet Rescue ,New York Bully Crew, Bama Bully Rescue and the shelter/rescue where my honey got his oldest Kitty Tyler The Little Shelter.  I admire so much what these rescues do and I donate when I can.

If you're an animal lover, do what you can to support rescues like these and support your local shelters & rescues.  Shelters are always in need of supplies like blankets (but usually not comforters) Fleece blankets that you can get on clearance at Walmart for $2 sometimes or less. Collars, leashes, food, puppy pads and the like.  I know FFD has an amazon wishlist.

This is my Tuesday Shoutout to all these rescues.  I'm showing my love and respect for all they do and all the babies they save on a daily basis.  No dog deserves to be thrown away because they're sick or old, no dog deserves to be starved to death because the owners are too poor to afford food or just don't want the dog anymore.  No animal deserves to be left out in the cold to die because the people don't want them in the house.  If you can't take care of your pet find someone who will.  They are all living beings and deserve a good life.  Over these past few months I've seen some really sad stories, pictures of these babies when they're rescued and then of their amazing recoveries and have cried when they just couldn't be saved.

These animals can't speak for themselves so we have to be their voice.  Lets do the best we can for them.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Alright Winter, that's enough.

Since 2014 started I've missed now 4 days because of the snow.  This.is.Insanity!!

Due to a bunch of stuff that's been going on I am still without a car and I've been hoofing it to the train every day when I realized I was wasting $25 every week by taking the bus when it was faster to just walk to the train myself.  The only problem?  The train is over 2.5 miles away.

Under normal circumstances this isn't a horrible walk and I can get there in under 30 minutes.  In 5-8" of snow though, it's not impossible but frustrating.  The plows don't come around regularly, people neglect to shovel their sidewalks and while it's sometimes "safer" to walk in the street... it's really not because people can be real jerks.

So... once again today I'm home.  I couldn't catch a ride to the train and catching a bus proved to be unsuccessful without walking totally out of the way, getting splashed with slush from rude drivers that mock people that have to walk or not falling flat on your face on unshoveled and untreated walkways.

Today is one of those days when I'd (believe it it not) really rather be at work.  I have stuff to get done in my office, and while there's always stuff to get done at home I really didn't want to take another day off because of the damn weather :(


Just saw the snow totals for the area and we're averaging 3.5" already.

What's Your weather like?