Pear Cake

I made this yummy new recipe for a meeting at work on Friday. Too bad I didn't get to go (sick Kaitlyn again) I guess that means I get to keep all the cake for myself :)

Check it out: http://www.recipezaar.com/Apple-or-Pear-Cake-98869

A Great Article to Share

My husband passed an article on to me today from one of his favorite writers at ESPN. It wasn't about sports at all - it was about his dog. I will warn you - it made me bawl like a baby.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090122

The article was so well-written and it made me miss our Copper even more. It makes you remember that you need to appreciate every day with the ones you love - no matter how many legs they walk on.

The Inauguration

The inauguration was fantastic yesterday. I am so glad to be an American right now. I watched/listened to as much as I could yesterday. Several of my colleagues from DC were there and I have truly enjoyed looking and their pictures and living vicariously through them.

My older daughter got to watch all of it on TV yesterday. I was glad for that. She was in the voting booth with me when we elected our president. It was interesting to get an almost 10 year old's take on the events of the day.

• She and her friends were glad that Obama was not shot yesterday. With the inauguration following the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, assassination was on their minds.
• They didn't like the poem that was read by Elizabeth Alexander. I have to say that I am on the fence about it myself, although I did think of a lesson plan idea based upon it.
• They liked the Benediction. They thought he was a funny speaker and they liked that he rhymed even if the poem before him didn't!
• They paid attention to the clothes that everyone was wearing. I wish she could have watched the balls with me later.
• In her Time Magazine for Kids, she really enjoyed the new photo of the living presidents. Obama is sandwiched between George HW and George W.

She didn't mention it yesterday but she has commented several times lately - she doesn't think Michelle Obama is completely happy. The cover of the Sunday magazine insert featured a family picture of the Obama's. Maybe I agree with her in that case, but I thought Michelle looked beautiful, happy and proud yesterday.

What were your thoughts about the inauguration?

BTW - this is my 50th post. Who knew?

More on Recipes

Tonight, the girls and I updated my notebook. I seemed to have mainly appetizers and desserts, which makes sense. Those are my favorite things to make. I also had a number of chicken recipes. I know they are all things I would like, but I am not sure about the rest of the members of my family. We'll see. There were a number of recipes that I had printed or cut out that I wondered why I had done that. Some I saved, loosely in the back of the notebook. Others, I threw away. One I am on the fence about - a recipe for a Bloody Mary using pasta sauce. It came from an insert "50 Things to Do with Pasta Sauce". I am a huge fan of Bloody Mary's and don't know if I could do that. Maybe if someone else made it for me ...

Change of focus?

Sometimes I think I should change this blog to one about cooking and recipes. Those are things I make time for every day. However, I read other food blogs every day, and I know I couldn't compete with them. Instead today, I will share with you the best new recipe I have tried lately. It is from Paula Deen and it is Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/apple-butter-pumpkin-pie-recipe/index.html. Oh, it was so good! I made it during the holidays when my folks were here. I was lucky enough to have homemade apple butter from someone at my church. Mmmmm.

Reflections on NYE

Since we have been in 2009, it's about time that I write about New Year's. Out of all of the holidays, it has never ranked up there for me. One of our family friends has always called it "Amateur Night". I think I agree! When I was a kiddo, even through my early teen years, I spent NYE with my Gram. She was my favorite person in the whole world. She was the Margaret in Kelsey Margaret :) We had crackers and cheese and hot chocolate and watched Dick Clark. I have no idea if we ever made it until midnight, but we created some of my best childhood. As a teenager before boyfriends, I went to friend's houses for sleepover parties. Although we had fun, to me, they felt like just another sleepover. One year, I think we had a co-ed sleepover too. Since then, I have done almost everything to celebrate - house parties, progressive parties, hotel parties, club parties, etc. Still, I have never felt like NYE was any big deal. I told myself that this year, I would go into NYE optimistic and have a great time. We went to our friends' for a party - I think this was the third or fourth year. They recently remodeled their basement (it looks fantastic!) so a majority of the people were down there. I decided to hang out upstairs, near the food of course. Long story short - I am no longer in practice to hang with the big boys. However, I had more fun at this party than I have had at any NYE party in a long time. Thanks B Family!

Update on our Adventure

I finally have my pictures uploaded from Christmas and beyond so I can finally update my blog (thank you for being patient) On December 30, Dave and I made it to Lovell's restaurant.
It was really cool inside with all sorts of space memorabilia:

Dave had a $16 burger, I had a $17 chicken salad sandwich. We also had some yummy drinks with space names. Dave had an Apollo 13 and I had a Heat Shield.
At one point, Dave was excited to see Jim Lovell's son who is the executive chef. He came out of the kitchen to talk to the hostess about the dinner specials. Towards the end of our meal, we saw him - Jim Lovell! There was a little boy eating lunch at the restaurant for his birthday and Jim Lovell came over to talk to him. The little boy lit up! Then, Jim invited the boy to come and take some photos. I told Dave that we should hover and swoop in when the boy was done so Dave could have his picture taken too. Dave wouldn't do it. I did get to talk to Jim's handler though when she pointed out where more artifacts were for us to look at. I told her it was awfully nice that Mr. Lovell was talking with that little boy. She did not make the offer for us to talk to him though :)