Busy Night!

Wow! I got A LOT of stuff done tonight! Right after work, I headed back to Lowes Foods. They are having a sale this week on raspberries and blackberries - 6 oz packages - 5 for $5!!! When we went to our usual store last night, they were out. I tried the Myrtle Beach location after work, and they were out, also. They were nice enough to give me a raincheck, and I found some blueberries on sale, so it all worked out in the end. Unfortunately, I had planned to use the raspberries later this evening for a special something...don't worry, you'll see what soon...but I ended up with a GREAT back up plan.

My son, Nathan, requested bacon turkey burgers for dinner tonight. Lucas threw these on the grill, while I came up with the sides. I used up the last of the potatoes from Saturday's party, with some jalapeno to cover the "fish" taste, as Nathan called it. Worked perfectly - spicy fried potatoes! I fried a few pieces of bacon for the burgers, and thought about the leftover leek greens from the night before. Though I had never done it, I know it's common to cook collards, or other greens in bacon grease. I did a quick search online to see what the thoughts were on the leek greens, since Alton Brown didn't tell us how to use them, and although no one seemed to be a fan, I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did - they were SO tasty. I'm sure that they'd be just as great sauteed in olive oil. We've got two leeks left in the fridge, so I'm sure we'll have them again, maybe with some of the baby bella mushrooms we bought! Some of those made it to the burgers, you just can't see them!


After dinner it was time to make my big surprise. It occurred to me today that I never made Lucas the birthday cake I promised him!! He can't eat sugar, and since we're trying to stay all natural, we try to stay away from any artificial sweeteners. I found a recipe for Chocolate Honey Cake that I wanted to try, with a sugar free icing recipe that came along with it. When I thought I was getting berries, I was going to add some raspberry extract, instead of the vanilla the recipe called for, and top it with raspberries. Since that didn't work out, I decided to use the strawberries I had. I'll post my (revised) recipe under another post, as I need to rewrite it. The changes I made to it were to add half a banana to the cake mix (the last honey cake we made was a bit dry, and I thought it would add an interesting flavor) and I juiced 5 strawberries and added the juice to the icing. You can see the pieces of strawberry in the icing if you look hard enough!




I was worried about doing the double layer cake, as I had never been able to do it successfully, but it came out perfect! I need a little practice at icing the sides, but it was pretty enough!


Lucas was very surprised, and very happy.

The cake was so moist! I wish the picture didn't come out so blurry!


While the cake was cooling, Nathan and I recovered the kitchen chairs. Nathan had pulled the seats off the chairs the other day, and pulled out every staple from the last cover job I did. There were LOTS of staples, since I really don't know what I'm doing! Lucas and I picked out the fabric and I covered them tonight, and put the seats back on the chairs, with lots of help from Nathan. Finished results:





Now we just need to buy some new accents to go with the chairs to pull everything together. I'm excited about the new look!

So, after all that, once again I'm exhausted. I'm even skipping my situps tonight. My back is aching from hovering over the chairs and I'd really just rather sleep!!

Good Night, Everyone!!!