Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Even though he's sick with Mono, Adam still needed a cake for his birthday. This is my mother's recipe, "Abby's Fabulous Chocolate Cake." Only I didn't make that cake. I bought a box mix. But the delicious sea-foam icing I did make myself!

I made the cake last night to let it cool.

 Sea-foam icing is so fun. It's shimmery and a little sticky.

Then, on top of the icing I wanted to drizzle some chocolate syrup ... Nope! I did not do this!

 I melted a square of semi-sweet chocolate and a tablespoon of butter and drizzled it on top.
Happy birthday, sweetheart!

 I painted Adam a sweet card. "I love you more ..."

 "... Than Bunny Poop!" I wrote that because our dogs love love love to eat bunny poop in the yard. Ick.

Not the best birthday of his life, being sick, but we are praying him better every day.

Eating Japanese

This post is honestly for my daughter who spent two years in Japan and knows so much about the food of that lovely country. Tonight my son took a bunch of us out to dinner at a very nice restaurant, Two Ten Jack, in celebration of the upcoming birthday of another of my children. We had so much fun.

First, I'll show you most (but not all!) of the little dishes that arrived at our table.

pork

chicken/green onion skewer

pork dumpling

some sort of fabulous beef?

sushi - I didn't eat this one

These were like hush puppies with little cubes of
 octopus inside with a honey glaze on the outside.

There were tater tots in this dish - oh my goodness, SO good.

salmon with some sauce and a slaw on the side

ramen bowl with pork

ramen bowl for a vegetarian

birthday dessert!

This meal was superb for two reasons: the food was brought to the table and shared among the five of us, and the food itself was phenomenal. Sharing food makes the meal very fun -- exclaiming about a bite, showing it to your neighbor, comparing to something else, having so many various dishes and not too much of any one. It was delightful, and the knowledgeable waitress was a huge help, while making our experience delightful. 

More Wedding Week Fun ...

Gramm (Anna's fiance) arrived last week. Yesterday, our next wedding guest arrived -- Kara!

She drove the length of North Carolina to be here early because she's Anna's matron-of-honor. Plus, she's just wonderful to have around :)

As you see, Adam is in his apron; he's begun wedding cake baking this morning. I did a WalMart run for ingredients:

This cake is heavy in eggs and almond paste, and quite light on flour, so it's fabulously soft and light and delectable. Here's the first big layer:

It has parchment paper on top (well, actually, on its bottom, as he flipped it out of its pan onto the cooling rack). We were surprised that he turned it out so soon. Well ... after I took that photo, it quickly began to fall in the middle. We were quite sad.
Adam investigated. And look what happened -- the cake (so very soft) actually fell through its cooling rack. Nooooo!

It was a relief to discover the cake was not underbaked, because Adam would then have had to re-evaluate his recipe and cooking. As it is, we need a better cooling situation.
Of course, the tragedy is that now we have a big wedding cake (minus the marmalade, meringues, and cream cheese frosting, sadly) that must be eaten. We are up to that!

And Adam will bake it again, and I will probably dash back to WalMart.

Anna and Gramm went to the beach yesterday. They had no success putting up our sunblocker tent, so they were in the sun all day. Yes, Anna returned home with a hot red sunburn. She tans well, but this was quite a burn. Why do brides do this with such regularity before their weddings? I think they imagine a nice brown tan as part of their bare-shouldered attire. 
Anna said, "Mom! I need green goo!" (that's Healing Herb Ointment to the rest of the world). And this morning her burn is only mildly pink, and doesn't hurt. Phew!


On to the wedding flowers! I'm studying my yard and wondering if some flowers will be in bloom by Saturday morning.
Will the hostas cooperate?

 I had not considered lantana ... perhaps?

 To my surprise the bee balm is flowering, but it might be too short for this wedding arrangement.

 We have a large pink Knock-Out rose bush, but its blooms were a bit beaten by our heavy rains (which also murdered my baby's breath absolutely, boohoo!)

 I'm watching my purple coneflower closely. Will it bloom in time?

 

Other plants are in full bloom right now, but who ever heard of putting cilantro in your wedding arrangement?

 Or oregano?

 Or pale lavender onion blooms?

 Some flowers miss out on all the fun.
The dahlias are going strong; I'm hopeful.

 

The zinnias (above right) are so green, but where are the flower buds? I'm on tenderhooks!
I do have a few pretty sprays of eucalyptus.

 And my new, long and drapey fern will be perfect.

 We have elephant ears galore, in all sizes. Does anyone ever put them into wedding arrangements?

On Friday and Saturday, Mother and I will stroll around the yard, seeing what there is to use. I've never known a better person with the skill to take a few weeds and three sprigs of ivy, and make a pretty arrangement. She's a wizard.

Oh - one more birthday thing. I've been using this paint set for quite a while. 14 colors, which does limit the visual complexity of the paintings a bit.

So for my birthday Philip and Kara bought me more and better watercolors! These are Japanese paints.

They came in this beautiful box. It feels and looks so Asian - I love it.

And look at all those colors! There are even 3 metallic ones.

Now I'll have to think of what to paint with them. Writing my children's stories is helpful in this regard because the story dictates what pictures to paint, and I don't have to sit there with an empty head, wondering what vapid image to put on paper. When the wedding is over, and the summer has calmed down, I hope to write and paint more again.

Today Adam's mother arrives on a plane from Nebraska. She's been so excited and supportive with the wedding from the beginning. She and Adam have been plotting the cake and decorations. Wait till you see!

It's June 1st - It's the White Skirt Club!!

Today is important. Right now, Anna and Gramm are down at the courthouse, procuring their marriage license.

It's also my birthday! This morning Adam gave me my birthday card.

Anna had a fabulous bridal shower on Wednesday, given by the ladies in our church. More about that later.

What does a girl-of-certain-age do on her birthday?
Spin, of course:

Go to the thrift store:

I found those two pillow covers and loved them. ($1 each)

The light fixture will go over our kitchen sink. I knew that if I waited long enough I'd find something at the thrift store. It's old-fashioned and just my cup of tea. Also $1!

I picked these tomatoes 

this morning in my garden.

Last year on my birthday I ate my first little cherry tomato from the garden. I was quite "chuffed" (as they say in Britain) -- that means excited and happy -- to have such an early tomato. This year?
I have this many tomatoes because I dug 3 volunteer plants out of the garden last fall, put them into big pots, and overwintered them (rather badly) on the front porch. But their root systems were ahead of the game when I put them back in the garden this spring. They're rewarding me with tomatoes now - a handful! They have recovered marvelously and will produce all summer. I like this plan and think I'll do it again this coming winter.

A coupe of you asked about my white skirts from the thrift store. I'm wondering if this might be a new fad. Do we need a club, ladies? I decided to show them to you with a video because it's easier: