Williams Sonoma Strawberry Huller

 

This little find is just amazing!  You all know what a kitchen gadget junkie I am and how I salivate every time I get a Williams Sonoma Catalog, so this was at the top of  my "must have" list as soon as I saw it.  It has fantastic reviews, people love this little huller, and the price is right, only $7.95.  But wait, you all know how thrifty I am, so I went to Amazon, sure enough they had it on Amazon Prime for $7.95, with free ship no tax.  I ordered this puppy so fast, it arrived in two days and it does it ever work well!

You just plunge it into your berry, twist it, and that white core comes right out.  It's a good thing, ladies, and 'tis the season of the strawberry, so what are you waiting for!

Oh, the link, the link - here you go...

Williams Sonoma 

Amazon - Free Ship/No Tax

 

Easter and Lemon Coconut Cake, it's the perfect combination….

The women in our family love cake, especially any kind of lemon cake, well actually we love lemon anything.  The guys love lemon, too, but they're more of pie/cobbler/cookie guys, cake just isn't their thing.

So it's time to bake for Easter, and of course it has to be lemon, and coconut, I must have lemon and coconut for Easter, it's just the way I roll.   I was searching for a new recipe, and I found a really popular one on Pinterest, complete with 7-minute frosting, which I haven't made in years, and 7-minute frosting is just delightful, light, fluffy, yummy frosting, not heavy like cream cheese frosting, it's what mother always made when I was a child, good memories.  

After many discussions with my friend, Carlene, about this cake, I decided it was the "one" for Easter.  After all, it was filled with lemon curd, and we all know that lemon curd is absolute nectar of the gods, this cake had to be good.  So I made the lemon curd and popped it in the fridge the day before the family arrived, and got up Saturday morning to make the cake.  The house was busy, the kitchen a bit chaotic, as it always is when family is home, but it's the way I like it.  I got all the ingredients assembled, found the pans, lined pans with parchment, sifted, separated eggs, beat the ingredients separately, are you getting the idea, here?   This cake was a royal pain in the patootie!!!!

I took it out of the oven, it was lovely, I put it on the racks to cool, we left for lunch, my cake was sitting there with tea towels draped over it so it wouldn't dry out.  Later in the day, in between playing with Abbie and smooching Ben, I made the 7-minute icing, which actually requires ten minutes of beating with an electric mixer, eight of which is done over boiling water on the stove.  Egads, no wonder I don't make that frosting anymore, but oh, it's delightful.

The recipe called for splitting the layers of cake, and filling all of it with lemon curd, but I was pretty frazzled by this time,  and decided to just put both lemon curd and frosting between and on top of the cake.  It would work fine, right???   Wrong!!!!!  I had a heck of a time, the combination of lemon curd and frosting made the layers want to slide sideways, and  I had to keep adjusting, but it's a cake you chill, so I knew once I got it in the fridge, it would be fine.  Naturally, I forgot to take pictures *sigh* but it was a beautiful cake with a heavy dusting of moist coconut on the top.  But, oh, it was such a pain to make, I told everyone that they had better enjoy it, because I was never making it again!

By now it's Saturday night, the cake had chilled nicely, I cut slices of it, Lindsay took a bite and moaned, then Deanna declared it was one of the best cakes she had ever eaten, and I'm thinking, OH, NO, they like it, they REALLY like it!  And the guys, meh, not so much, but they're not cake eaters, remembers.

So will I be making it again?  Oh, sure I will.  My girls loved it, and that's what mothers-in-law do, they do special things to make their sweet daughters-in-law happy.  But the next time I'll make the entire cake before everyone arrives, I think it will be much easier that way.

And since I didn't have a picture of my cake, I emailed the originator, Celeste, from Sugar & Spice Blog, and she graciously let me use her picture. 

I'm posting the recipe on Jan CAN CAN Cook.  If you want a really spectacular, sinfully decadent cake, this is it, ladies!

Photo and original recipe courtesy of Celeste at Sugar & Spice Blog

Grandchildren…

These little precious souls are the most amazing things.   I haven’t posted newborn pictures of any of my girlfriend’s grandchildren in the past and I regret that because they are all just wondrous, and the older I get the more I realize how fleeting these moments are.   I get so excited when my friends become grandparents, it’s the next best thing as to when mine are born!

So without further ado, let me introduce you to Aubrey Evelyn, 7 pounds, 8 ounces, 20.5 inches long, born just before dawn to my friend Nisha’s daughter Mandi, her husband Eric and her big sister, Gabby.  Is this not the most adorable baby picture yet?  It’s the do rag, oh, how darling this child is!!!!  Congratulations, family, she’s just perfect!

 

I couldn't have said it better….

Someone near and dear to my heart sent me this first thing this morning.  It's just too funny not to share with you all.  I know, I know, I'm dropping the "F" bomb, but some times a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.  Know what I mean, Vern?

 

Facial Hair, Ughhhhhhhh….

My favorite lady on YouTube, that crazy Miss Tammy has done it again.  She posted a video that most women would never do, in fact, we all cringe at the thought of post-menopausal facial hair.  It happens, ladies, and it's not pretty, but this gutsy lady not only addresses it, but shows how she shaves the peach fuzz off her face.  I'm in awe...

 

Okay, I hate to even admit this...

I downloaded the AARP App for my iPad. I know, I know, so bad. But you know what's even worse? I like it.

 

~ Jan here, kicking and screaming, and not going silently into old(er) age.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Have you bought bath towels lately?

 

I'm convinced that towel makers are now making towels longer to accommodate America's expanding waistlines.  Seriously, I think they must be.  I bought new towels recently, and every style I looked at were sooooo long.  And it's a good thing because they go around my body, however, when I put them on my head  to dry my hair, it's just not right.

It looks silly, that big wad of towel wrapped around my head, and it leans to one side, it's just wrong.  I'm thinking they need to make "hair" towels, because "hand" towels are too small for the turban wrap.

That is all, just bugging me and I had to vent….

Oh, I am SO amazed by this child….

You all know that I’m a computer nerd who spends her days just playing, well and working, too, on the computer.  Abby has always loved to sit at my desktop and watch YouTube videos, it’s the big screen, I think, and the fact that she can sit up close to view everything.  I always wondered how long it would be before I could teach her how to actually use the computer, but it turns out I didn’t have to teach her at all, she figured it out for herself.

Imagine my surprise when she was watching Tom and Jerry,  grabbed my mouse and started moving it around, actually putting it on different videos.  I showed her how to left click and she was off to the races.  She figured out the hand/eye coordination immediately and I was just blown away.  She started clicking and going to different sites, and looked up at me and just beamed!  And of course, I just beamed right back and told her how smart she was.    Then she started mousing over my bottom dock, and pulled up FaceTime.   I’m now convinced, more than ever, that she is actually going to be the rocket scientist that we always thought Mandi was going to be.  (private joke)

Dem Grandbabies came for Easter….

 

We had such a wonderful Easter.  The whole family came, it was a cool Easter, but the sun came out and we were able to be outside.

 

Abby put on P-Pa’s favorite t-shirt and dyed Easter eggs.  It was a huge success, too.  She put on glitter and stickers, it was so much fun for her.

 

Abby’s all dressed up in her Easter bonnet, complete with Mary Jane shoes and ruffled socks.  Such a sweet little girl.

Ben is all smiles, he’s a happy, giggly, drooly little baby, and don’t you just love those bare feet .  He’s just precious at almost eight months.

 

The guy’s took Tootie’s hardtop off.  It goes on at Thanksgiving and comes off at Easter.  Little Miss Poser is having a great time pretending to drive.

 

 

Grammie and P-Pa got Abby a butterfly kite for Easter.  Is there anything cuter than a little girl and a dog, running through the sunshine.

 

The wind wasn’t cooperating, but Uncle John managed to get the kite in the sky and Abby loved it.  It’s a great kite, if anybody is interested in it for their grandkids, here’s the link.

Trisher came over and took a family picture for us.  We don’t do this often enough. 

And that was our Easter, I hope you all had a good one, too…