Ina's Carrot Cake

I adore carrot cake. So does my mom. For years though, we were the only ones who did- that, and pumpkin pie. The rest of my family? They want CHOCOLATE, so that's usually what I made for holidays and birthdays. I got tastes of carrot cake here and there- a teacher at school makes a great one and would bring it for staff parties. Occasionally, a Costco carrot cake might be served at a party- it's surprisingly good, with a delicious apricot mousse sandwiched between its layers. But I never really bothered with making one myself- I hadn't found a really good recipe that was worth dragging out the Cuisinart to shred all those carrots and one cake really is much too much for just one person.
I'm not sure how carrot cake came up- Munch has certainly been on a carrot kick, but I may have just been thinking out loud again as I perused recipes. She got really excited though at the mention of carrot cake. Turns out her daycare lady likes it, too and has made one for the kids (most likely, carrot muffins). So, with the prospect of two carrot cake lovers in the house and specific individuals we could share slices with, I decided to hunt a recipe down. I didn't have to look far to find Ina Garten's recipe for carrot cake with chunks of pineapple (yum!). All her recipes are incredibly delicious and pretty simple, so I figured it was worth a try!
Getting the ingredients together-

This recipe make a humongous cake! I think I'll halve the recipe next time. Also, the frosting was REALLY soft- I don't think I'll let the butter and cream cheese sit out to soften as long AND I'll plan for some time to chill the cake to firm it all up- it slid a lot when I frosted the layers and cut the first pieces.


My happy taste tester! The cake was DELICIOUS!!!

Family Fun

We spent a really fun day in Sacramento's Land Park. I was wholly unprepared for what a nice, family-oriented place this would be. The park has several attractions- the Sacramento Zoo, a 9-hole golf course, large fields for soccer, volleyball, picnics, and parties, a small amusement park for younger kids, and Fairy Tale Town. We saw pony rides as we turned in, and I have a feeling if we explored further, we'd find even more to do. We started off at Fairy Tale Town-

It was a really cute park, with different play areas based on various fairy tales and nursery rhymes-
Kind Arthur's Castle


then Munch got the chance to do a little watering in Mr. MacGregor's Garden

Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter Rabbit were safely in their hutches

Up Jack and Jill's hill we climbed where Munch could pump some water from the well

My favorite was walking the crooked mile-

Next we headed out to the fields for a nice picnic lunch-

Followed by a couple of hours at the zoo-

After a nice treat, it was time to head home-

Lettuce Be Glad!

As I've mentioned many times before, Munch is a great eater. Her Grandma just commented this past Mother's Day on how Munch happily crunches down her fruits and especially the veggies. But the one item I have not been able to convince her of is lettuce. She'll give it a try (that's our house rule) when it appears, then says, "No more salad, thank you". And she is adamant that it does NOT belong on her cheeseburger (ketchup only, please). I think it's a textural thing- they way the lettuce slides, the flatness of it- it made for a difficult chew. So, I crossed my fingers when I served the Munchkin a heap of taco salad last night. She'd already seen AudioDad and I enjoy bowlfuls of it a couple of weeks ago- after her mandatory "salad" bite, she polished off the beef and bean taco filling with a few chips and lots of black olives. We assured her the best way to enjoy her salad was to mix it up with the filling and crumbled chips- to our surprise (and great pleasure), she announced, "Mmmm it's good!" and finished every bite- lettuce and all. Even more of a surprise? The "crunchies" that she swooned over (and stole out of the salad bowl) were not the crumbled chips (as we'd assumed)- they were the matchstick carrots! Gotta love that little bunny in the making!

Treasures

Check out this random assortment of Munch's current treasures. She has definitely begun a collecting stage. Now that I realize it's not just a bunch of junk to her, I find it really endearing to see the way she marvels at the beauty of a parking lot rock or admires some grocery store trinket. Among her treasures in the picture above are: a cow eraser, a grow capsule, plastic keys, a few pieces of jewelry, a police officer trading card, a painted rock, a dice, a Christmas ornament, and a plastic bride. Thank goodness for a cute little backpack to keep it all in!

The Best Part of Mother's Day...

...is being Munch's mom! It still surprises me how much in love I am with my sweet, sweet girl!

I spent most of my weekend sleeping away my head-congested fog. Munch's new bed was quite cozy and I zonked out there while we were playing in her room. Sweet girl left me to sleep and went out with AudioDad to run errands. We had my parents, sister, and Munch's cousin over for Mother's Day lunch, which was quite tasty- chinese chicken salad, fruit salad, and a mushroom asparagus quiche. The kids loved picking out yummy chocolates from See's while they gave Grandma their gifts and cards- both discovered the awesome scotchmallow, which AudioDad gave me a box of for Mother's Day, along with a new meyer lemon tree.

Afterwards, the kids headed out for bike rides and bug hunting in the yard-