Stacey Reunion: Rainbow Cake

I was in charge of bringing a desert to our Stacey family reunion. I was so excited. I saw this idea a few years ago and have been looking for an excuse to make it ever since. Turns out Doug and I don't eat 6 layer cakes all that often. The recipe I used was good, but not outstanding so I won't include it. You could do it with any white cake recipe- just divide the batter into bowls and color with food coloring. I just bought some pans from the dollar store so I could bake all the cakes at once. (just be sure to line the pans with parchment paper because the layers are super thin!)

The final product was really fun. We used it as a birthday cake for all the August bdays in the family which was also fun considering I don't remember ever celebrating a birthday with all my siblings around the table. (I guess that's what happens when your brother goes to college the same month you start kindergarten...)



On a slight side note, I've been experimenting with different types of buttercream frostings (just so you know, the stuff you get at the grocery store that is called 'buttercream' is as much buttercream frosting as Kraft Mac and Cheese powder is real cheese. Little pet peeve of mine. They have ruined the name of buttercream and I think they should be ashamed!) so this time I made a Swiss Meringue Buttercream. It was ok- the taste was a little too buttery for me and the consistency couldn't hold up past about 70 degrees, not so great of a summer time frosting. So in three years from now when I have an excuse to make another 6 layer cake I'll try a different type in my quest to find the best type. Any suggestions? I've done Italian buttercream- it's my favorite so far, and want to try the French version. Are there any others?

Happy Pioneer Day!

I never know what to do for Pioneer Day. Doug doesn't get the day off work, and even if he did it seems to just slip into all those other Summer go-to-the-park-and-have-a-BBQ holidays. Now that I actually live in a place that benefited from Pioneer Day (as opposed to being the only Mormon girl my own age in my Ohio ward- a trial I endured because of the events we celebrate on Pioneer Day) I figure we should start celebrating. Since I can't get out of the house much, our celebrations usually revolve around what we're going to have for dinner. This year we celebrated Utah with chicken, beehive shaped corn bread, baked sweet potato fries served with fry sauce, and apple pie salad.



The apple pie salad isn't something I've had before. It's our new Pioneer day tradition- invent your own Mormon 'salad'. We don't have the exact measurements down yet, but here's the basic recipe-

Combine cool whip, vanilla pudding, and chopped green apples in a bowl. Add 1-2 crushed personal apple pies. Serve with dinner.

Best salad I've ever had. We are totally taking this thing to the next ward potluck!

Love You Grandpa Chris

Happy 4th!

Sunshine, homemade fried chicken, red, white and blue ice cream sundaes, and a whole lot of spraying water.

I love summer!



These are our little nephews (Doug's sister's boys). Their family came down to our place along with Doug's parents for a July 4th picnic. Aren't they just the cutest? We were so glad the sun decided to peak out of the clouds just as they drove down. After all, summer just isn't summer without a water fight.

Happy Birthday to Doug

This year's birthday festivities were great. We started the week before Doug's birthday and celebrated until the week after. I love having an excuse to celebrate something!

We started up in Idaho with Doug's family. We went up there to help get Doug's parents house ready for renters and decided it was a convenient time for the first round of birthday cake and presents. We had a great birthday dinner with Doug parents, brother Carl and his Grandma Willis.

This year's birthday cake was an encore of the Blueberry Buttermilk Tart (it's that good) and mini Raspberry Almond Tarts.


I liked this picture of Doug because somehow the candles reflected in the photo to make it look like he's blowing fire! (and yes, we do own a camera that is way beyond our photography abilities...)


The rest of the week included lots and lots of free food (I love birthday week). Our favorite is still Fuddrucker's free burger. This year's biggest birthday week disappointment: Coldstone went buy one get one free on us. Sigh.

The big day included apple turnovers for breakfast (ps- we got 'birthday plates' for the bday person to eat on and I just love them!) and a delightful assortment of Ben and Jerry's in the evening. (don't you love how my summary of celebrations include what we ate and nothing more? I know I sure do)

And now we plan to diet until the next birthday week to make up for it!

Gardening

When we first bought our house I was really surprised at the necessity of having an entire conversation's worth of information on grass ready at a moment's notice. Who knew you could talk about grass so much? But it's certainly the hot topic around the neighborhood all summer long. It makes a lot of sense really, you have to put a lot of work into having lawn here (not like in the East where your only thought is to make sure it doesn't grow out of control) so of course people will want to swap stories and tips all the time. I've learned a lot the past few years and am proud that I can almost hold my own when it comes to grass gossip.

Going with the grass talk is garden talk. And I'm happy to say that this year I can participate in that a little more. This spring Doug built us these awesome raised beds and we have had so much fun growing vegetables. These pictures are from the day we planted everything, and it's so fun to see the difference between now and then. It's just a wonderful, wonderful thing to NEED to eat fresh cilantro every couple days to keep the plant under control. Right now we're only harvesting herbs, but coming soon will be tomatoes, peppers, carrots and hopefully even a watermelon. I'm so excited.

Not Mother's Day

There are a few holidays that I've always wondered about. Isn't it weird that we devote an entire day for couples who are already happily in love to celebrate their wonderful lives, forcing everyone who isn't happy to sit and watch and feel miserable? Whose idea was THAT?

Valentine's day isn't my only complaint, as I'm sure you've put together after reading the title of this post. I'm all about giving mothers credit for all they do. In fact, I think it should happen way more than one day a year. As a childless adult, however, Mother's Day is a day I plan to happily avoid for as long as possible.

This year Laura, one of my best friends from college, came down from Portland to share in the avoidance. We spent the weekend in extreme girliness. A day at Gardner Village (including way too much time at their awesome quilt shop), a night in the cutest hotel in downtown SLC, room service for breakfast and church at the institute building at the U where no Mother's Day talks could be heard. I do believe it was the beginning of a beautiful tradition.