Birthdays, Baking and Binding

Last weekend was B's birthday so a group of us headed down to San Diego for some beach camping. She asked for a carrot cake and I was happy to oblige. I used a recipe from the Complete Americas Test Kitchen TV Shop Cookbook. This cookbook has never let me down - I cooked most of Thanksgiving dinner from it in November to rave reviews. The cake turned out perfectly - the book even suggested cooking it in a square pan for easy transport. This kept the cake nice and most even on the beach. I still have some work to do on my cake decorating skills.. luckily by the time we served the cake it was dark (and the car with all the flashlights had not arrived yet!) and no one was able to see my writing anyway. So Happy Birthday B! Thanks for letting us share your big day.


Meanwhile, Jeff's baking has gone from hit and miss to excellent. I've been the lucky recipient of Cherry Danish's, pasta, pizza crust, and, just this weekend, soft pretzels. I can't find any pictures of his creations - although I'm sure I took some - so when I find them I will post them. Anyway...

When I got back from camping I had the newest complete quilt waiting for its binding. I love to get a quilt bound - it just doesn't feel complete until its all finished. I had some trouble getting motivated but finally put on some old movies and just sat down and pushed through - I did the finishing stitches in between turns at game night.

The pattern is Random Reflections and the fabric is Central Park. I should have made two of these - because for some reason it screams "put me on a twin bed in a little girls room." haha. Maybe its just me.

This afternoon, with the finished quilt in hand we went on a little adventure to the park. I had fun taking pictures on the jungle gym and later relaxing on the new quilt in the shade - I even tied it to the back of my bike, all rolled up, to ride home.

So.. in the words of John Stewart "Here's Your Moment of Zen."