Dining with Deb: Week 8, Day 5 - Dessert Before Dinner

Remember when I told you cakes were taking over my life? It didn't stop. I mean, it has now - temporarily - but I haven't finished telling you about the cake streak. So here's two more before a week-long lull. First, a cake for my son's friend's (or my friend's son's - confused, yet?) 4th birthday. I made a pirate ship cake and attempted to ice it so it looked like wood. It was great, too, because when looking at it you tend to assume it must be chocolate or vanilla of sorts, but no. This was a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. If I had been responsible, I would have snapped a shot of the cake baked, pre-decorating, or a shot after it was cut. I have never claimed to be very responsible, though. So, take my word for it - inside is a carrot cake chock full of 6 cups of carrot! I received rave reviews from it's ~~attackers~~ eaters. One person had me repeat "Smitten Kitchen dot com" three times before (like any smart man does) turning to his wife and saying "Will you remember that?" I even received texts later that night about the leftovers and further comments days after the party. All over carrot cake - who knew?

The next cake was for my grandmom's 80th birthday. I don't think I've told you about my grandmom - the one who, even at 80, has more energy in one day then I can probably muster in a week's time. The one who also is cooler than I in that she follows sports so closely we are taking her to a Phillies game in June with her decked out in the new jersey she received. It will be a wonder if I can name more than three players. Anyway, I made a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing (think I bought a lot of cream cheese this week?). I failed on the decorating. See, at this party my grandmom is "grandmom" to me but is also mom, mother-in-law, great-grandmom, and friend. Not wanting to be selfish and let the grandmom title trump all, I simply wrote "Happy Birthday" on the cake. Which is fine, except the cake is called a pink lady cake and is all cute and pink inside. But do you think I wrote in pink? Noooo - blue in fact - what was I thinking? And in retrospect, I really should have skipped it all and just drew a Phillies logo to go with the gift. Eh, I was told the cake was a lovely combination of strawberries and pound cake, so I'm thinking no one notice the icing faux pas.

Now that you've had your dessert, you need to eat your dinner. We've been chickening it up around here the past two nights. Tuesday night we had cranberry-walnut chicken salad tucked into soft wraps served with roasted sweet potato discs with a cheese, nut, and celery topping. I love chicken salad only when it's decked out with things like cranberries and walnuts. Always a bonus too when not only your husband is "Mmm"ing through dinner, but your kids are too. Last night we had chicken legs topped with a dijon wine sauce. Few things are quite as cute as watching your two year old chomp directly into his own chicken leg. But I think the salad was the kicker - a bed of arugula topped with green beans and potatoes. Something about putting potatoes in a green salad is new but genius to me.