Stick a fork in me...I'm done!

Today we celebrated my mom's birthday. Well, part one of the celebrations. Tomorrow is her actual birthday and I will be making her a cake. As much as I love to cook and bake, cakes are not my strong points. They taste just fine but decorating is just not it for me. I would love to know how to decorate and every time I am going to take a class, it just seems like it is so expensive for the few times I make a cake. But I am wandering...as I said, we celebrated her birthday today and we celebrated by going to brunch. I love brunch...I love the thought of brunch...I do not love the feeling like I ate so much that I will never eat again. I know, I don't need to eat that much but there is so much yumminess! (Is that even a word) It's not the dessert table as sweets are not my thing....today my thing was the carne asada. Yum!

We went to a great brunch at the Pomona Valley Mining Co. They had a Mexican food station, omelets, fruit, salad, the usual bacon, eggs etc. Not badly priced at $26.95 and with a coupon I had for $5.00 off, I thought definitely worth it. My family had a great time and we would definitely go back.

Once we rolled out to our car we headed home only to find myself restless at home. I think because I am home so much, I felt the need to get out. But the question is...what to do? I love to people watch. I toyed with the idea of walking the mall (I am not a big shopper but like to walk) or heading over to Downtown Disney and people watching. In the end, we decided to go play some trivia at a local restaurant. I love to play games and trivia is one of them. We enjoyed our late afternoon competition between my sister, my daughter and my husband. Not much people watching going on but it did get me out of the house.

Now today's special day! It is National Gingerbread Day! I know.. you would think that would be in December but it's not.

Recipe for Old Fashion Gingerbread:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup hot water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses.
3. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
4. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

Thank you to Allrecipes.com for the recipe. I love their site. It is one of my favorites.

Allrecipes.com

I could probably manage this cake. There isn't decorating going on except some whip topping. I think I could manage that. My husband and I were watching something on television the other night (what it was I can not remember) and they were showing things from the 70's. One was a birthday cake that was baked, frosted and decorated in the 9 x 13 pan. We were laughing so hard we had to explain to our daughter that most of the time, that's how we got our birthday cakes. We didn't always of course but we remembered the "cake in the pan" cakes.

I had the thought yesterday that I am truly getting old or at least I feel old. My daughter is at the age where she questions what we had when we were little and really understands what is different now.

I took my Girl Scout troop to Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour yesterday as a celebration for a great cookie season. This is a new Farrell's as the ones of my childhood no longer exist. The menu is the same and everything looks the same it just isn't the same. We ordered the zoo (which is still delivered the same way which is why I love it).

The Farrell's Zoo:

So huge it takes two strong people to deliver it to your table. Four flavors of our famous ice cream: three fruit flavor sherbets, four delicious toppings, whipped cream, bananas, nuts & cherries.

It says that it feeds 1-10 people. Luckily we had 10 because we still had a bit left over. They run through the restaurant with sirens and drums to deliver this thing to you. All I can say is after eating it; I felt the need for anything that wasn't sweet! The girls had a great time with it though.

Before we ordered the zoo for the girls, we ordered a little treat that we told them they had to share. Behold the chicken dinner!

We thought it looked great and the girls gave me a look that told me I was crazy until they realized it was all fake! The "mashed potatoes" were a scoop of vanilla ice cream with caramel "gravy", the "chicken nuggets" were a Butterfinger type candy and the "peas and carrots" were candy peas and carrots.

I think they enjoyed it almost as much as the zoo.

Well, I think it's time to sign off. After all, I have a cake to mangle bake tomorrow. But I assume it's like a gift, it's the thought that counts.