it's my birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me! With all of the craziness that is my life these days, (you know, new job, new apartment, etc.) I was thinking my birthday was just going to pass me by this year, relatively quietly, filled full of packing or some other kind of work. Not so! I have been able to see friends, (although we haven't done much except hang out at my new place, eat peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes -- thanks, Courtney! -- put up new curtains, line shelves, and wait for IKEA to deliver some new furniture,) and eat great food!

Here was my fabulous pre-birthday dinner last night:

For the main course . . . TACO SALADS!


And dessert . . . APPLE PIE!


(Don't think I went too crazy for myself on my birthday -- the crust was store-bought, and I had a bag of filling in my freezer all ready to go from last fall! Delicious!)

Today should be filled with more good food, and hopefully some hiking, if the weather clears up this afternoon (which it's supposed to.) Hope those of you who have a long weekend are enjoying it! If you feel compelled, have a slice of cake (or a cupcake) in my honor! ;)

Happy Birthday, Dan!

Today is Dan's (35th!) birthday, and we went camping this weekend to celebrate. Dan chose Glacial Lakes State Park, about 3 hours northwest of the Twin Cities, for his birthday vacation. We had a great time! The park is gorgeous, and even though the campsites are not very well-screened, we managed to have mostly quiet neighbors, slept well, and enjoyed beautiful weather.

If you're curious, the park is tallgrass prairie and oak savanna, with small lakes, (caused by melting chunks of glacier,) and crazy glacial formations like kettles, moraines, eskers, etc. Translation? Beautiful rolling hills, plenty of sunshine, and wildflowers galore! Photos . . .



















I may edit this post later and write more . . . but right now, since It's almost 8 pm and I haven't even unpacked the cooler yet, I need to fly! Hope you had a great weekend, too!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Sorry I've been MIA this week -- I have a huge backlog of food photos and hiking photos from last weekend to share, but have had NO time this week. Why? Well, my birthay is this weekend, and I've been busy preparing to celebrate!

I ended up making the vanilla cupcake recipe from VCTOW, and they were a HUGE hit with the kids! I don't think many of them have ever had a chocolate-covered strawberry before, either. :) Wahoo!

Dan and I are off for a little camping action this weekend; I'll be back next week with a slew of photos and other assorted fun!

Happy Birthday to Me!

a home run!

I brought Missy's cake into work this morning, and we promptly sliced into it for breakfast. I cut an enormous slice for Missy, having a more conservative taste, myself. (I wanted to make sure Missy had plenty of cake to take home with her for the weekend!) Her breakfast today:

As modestly as I can say this, this has to be the BEST cake I've ever made. By the end of the day, there wasn't much left for Missy to take home, because our coworkers nearly devoured the entire cake! Everybody kept exclaiming how moist the cake was and how perfectly balanced the frosting was -- not too chocolatey, not too intensely coffee-flavored, either. I must confess that I, myself, did have two pieces -- two slim pieces, but still!

AND, everybody was shocked that it was vegan! Pleasantly shocked, but shocked, nonetheless.

I'll be filing this one away for future repeats, that's for certain!

Happy Birthday Missy!

Even though my coteacher, Missy, won't celebrate her birthday officially until Sunday, she's getting her birthday cake tomorrow! She took Friday off to enjoy her birthday weekend, so I wanted her to be able to take her birthday cake home with her to enjoy all weekend long. :) I asked Missy what kind of cake/treat she wanted, and all she said was, "CHOCOLATE!" I can do chocolate! I decided to go with a double recipe of Moosewood's Vegan Chocolate Cake, in three layers. (If you want the recipe, click on the link and scroll down -- it's the fourth recipe.)

I must confess, however, that I SUCK at splitting cake layers. I think I must have a malfunctioning cake-later-splitting gene or something -- I've always managed to completely destroy cakes in the past. So, one day I had a bright idea -- I just bought more cake pans and now bake cakes in individual layers. I own four 9-inch cake pans, but decided to only use three for this cake. I used roughly two cups of batter per pan, and they baked beautifully! (I shortened the baking time, of course.)

Look how rich and chocolatey they appear . . . the magic that is Valrhona cocoa powder. I did also opt for coffee instead of water, per the recipe instructions.

After work, I whipped up a quick Mocha Buttercream frosting using Earth Balance, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and Toddy coffee concentrate. (I know I've waxed poetic about my Toddy in the past, so I'll spare you.) Here's the cake, mid-frosting:


And the completed masterpiece, garnished with a few simple sprigs of mint:


I am so thrilled I was able to so easily and expertly (if I do say so myself) whip together a simple, decadent, homemade treat. AND, it's completely vegan, too! Sugar- and fat-laden, of course, but cruelty-free and (nearly) cholesterol-free!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISSY!

P.S. In unrelated news, I've joined the Daring Bakers Challenge! I'm SOOOOOOOO excited. I can't wait to find out what my first challenge will be!

A Birthday Adventure

(I still haven't fixed my keyboard, but am copying and pasting spaces for the time being. Time consuming, but effective!)

The Minneapolis Public Library has been offering passes to museums, zoos, and other local, cool places to visit for check-out! I think it's the coolest program, and have only recently taken advantage of this service.

Dan and I checked out a pass to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and had a little adventure on Wednesday to celebrate his birthday! We packed up a picnic and LOTS of water, since it was so hot and sunny, and drove down to Chaska. As usual, I took lots of pictures (this being a small sample, of course):








(Dan really wanted the koi in the pond in the Japanese Garden to nibble on his fingers, but they didn't seem all that interested, once they discovered he didn't have any food.)


(One very cool thing about the Arboretum is that they incorporate art -- sculpture,mainly -- into nature. There's a statue of a bird well-hidden in this pond!)










We stopped at the "weeping trees" display along the 3-mile drive and enjoyed our picnic of iced tea, fruit, nuts, and a cold soba noodle salad, underneath this willow tree -- a breezy, shady spot!




The view from "high point."


This year's main attraction -- a living maze. Tricky, but fun!


Lastly, a view of a neighboring farm, with a perfectly-painted barn.

Next on the check-out list for us is the Minnesota Zoo . . . and I have a bunch of food photos to post, too. Stay tuned!