Cake 8- Banana Crumb Cake

Today Willie turned 8 weeks old! I can't believe how quickly time is passing. If it were the middle of the school year I would have been going back to work which is incomprehensible to me. I couldn't leave this little buddy if I wanted to!

In celebration I made Christy Jordan's Banana Crumb Cake. It wasn't the first time I've made it, in fact I think I'm developing a reputation for making and sharing it, but really all my best recipes come from her. The reason I made it today is because we are going out of town on Sunday, Brian to Aruba, Will me and my mom to the Valley. I wanted to bring cake to my grandpa when he gets to meet his great grandson for the first time and this recipe makes two 8x8s or two loaf pans. I made an 8x8 for us and a loaf to bring down to family. The other reason is that Brian's work threw a shower for us this week and sent us home with a huge chocolate cake that we've been eating on since. There's an awful lot of cake around here but I couldn't break my plan so soon.

This is a perfect way to use up too ripe bananas and goes great with coffee as a breakfast cake, but makes a fine dessert too!

The flood of 2010

A year ago today the Guadalupe river, which we lived across the street from then and now, rose from 4 to 29 feet in a matter of an hour and a half. It was just a few days after Neely and Chad had come to visit and we had tubed the river and swam and boated in Lake Dunlap. Both would be closed for most of the rest of the summer. Our house didn't get any water in it but I was home alone to watch the waters rise closer and closer. There were only a few inches that kept our front door step out of the water. Many people did lose their homes, boat houses, RVs, and one man lost his life.

Living in this town, you often hear people refer to the flood of '98 when just about all of New Braunfels was under water, including the house we live in now. I wonder if people will speak about the flood of 2010 in the same way, or maybe not since it wasn't the worst we've had, and there is always the chance that it will happen again. It seems that no matter where you live there is a chance of some disaster or the other befalling unsuspecting residents. It makes you sensitive to those who have been hit recently, by tornados, wild fires, earthquakes, hurricanes that will land this summer. God promised not to wipe out the earth with a flood again, but when it is your own family and your own home in danger, it probably doesn't feel very different.

St. William of York, pray for us

Today, June 8th, is the feast day of William's namesake, St. William of York. I had forgotten to celebrate, but thankfully a dear friend reminded me. So today I am thankful for the example of the archbishop of York and will ask him to intercede for my son.

St. William, you never took your eyes off of Christ and his will for you. You devoted yourself to a life of prayer and mortification and you showed forgiveness and love to those who had before been in opposition to your election. Please help us follow your example of perseverence and forgiveness so that we may forgive our transgressors and always persevere in the Lord's will. Amen.

Learn more about him and other Catholic saints here.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Crispy eggplant with mushroom marinara over orzo, with sauteed beet greens

Tuesday: the Ham and Tomato Pie I didn't actually end up making last week, blueberry and cantaloupe fruit salad

Wednesday: chicken enchiladas from my new cook book! pinto beans

Thursday: Pork roast, roasted beets, new potatoes

Friday: corn and crab chowder

Weekend Recap

Friday morning Will and I joined three other mamas for some play time with their babies. Will mostly watches at this point, but it's nice to know he will have so many friends built-in as our friends' children to start off with. We talked about getting together more regularly which I hope will happen as I thoroughly enjoy their company, but sadly I'm worried my house won't be a good place to play. The littlest babies would be happy here, but we don't have the big baby toys to keep the older ones entertained. They would be terribly disappointed by the toy selection.

Unfortunately a good chunk of our playtime was carved out by annoying phone calls back and forth with Perfect Bridal. I was going to pause the recap here and tell you the story of the dress, but on second thought, I'm just going to put it in a separate post.

Friday evening I had every good intention of going to my first real dance class in 9 years (that's excluding the semester of ballet I took in college for credit)! A local ballet studio offers free dance classes every Friday evening in a different dance style each week and the first was jazz. I was pumped. I told my mom and my friends I was going, I invited another friend who loves and misses dance like I do to go with me (she ended up not being able to). I dug out my jazz shoes and some suitable dance clothes and check and double checked with Brian to be sure he was going to be able to watch Will for an hour and a half. It would be the first time I left him since a botched trip to Kohl's early on. Off I went, only to arrive at the studio and realize I had all the details right except that the first class of the summer is June 10th not June 3rd. Not to waste my freedom, I stopped on the way home and got my eyebrows waxed and a 10 minute chair massage at my nail salon. I'm planning the do-over for this Friday.

Saturday morning brought a trip to the farmer's market here in town. We go every week that we can because it feels like not just food shopping, but a date and entertainment as well. That's how we justify the slightly higher prices on produce. We ended up getting a pretty good selection of fruits and veggies as well as some honey, some grass-fed, hormone free, yada yada beef and the best tortilla chips (fried in coconut oil) I've ever had in my life. It was the trial run for our new stroller, and I was very pleased. I had wanted an alternative to the Bob Revolution that I could take shopping and on neighborhood walks that was less bulky than the Bob. I compared several brands and decided on the Inglesina Swift who's primary advantage ended up being the color. I love this green!

Will was very comfy and the handles are tall enough that even Brian could push it easily.

We went grocery shopping to fill out the rest of the menu at HEB. I was so glad that Brian was with us. Mainly because it's so much easier to shop with an extra hand, but also because he got to see first-hand how often we get stopped to talk about the baby, the sweet comments and the stupid ones.

We spent the rest of the day doing little projects around the house. Will and I were Daddy's assistants in the shop.

Sunday I was late to Mass because I ended up having to feed Will in the parking lot before coming in during the Homily. Apparently Will was cute enough to make up for it, everyone around us fussed over him. We relaxed hard core, and managed to eat every meal outdoors. Brian BBQed a chuck roast with a super yummy espresso rub on it for dinner. Will kept me entertained in the meantime. He learned to roll over from front to back yesterday! Here's the proof.

I hope you had a weekend as nice as mine!

Cake 7- Pioneer Woman's Pig Cake

On William's due date I made him a strawberry cake that I was hoping would be a birthday cake. When he turned 1 week old on Good Friday (no one around here was very good at being penitent) I made a Duncan Hines chocolate box cake that happened to be in my cupboard. I had a terrible fever and a one week old so that's about all I could muster up. At that point though I had an idea, or maybe Brian suggested it, why don't we have cake every week for William's birthday, all year. Great idea! 52 cakes!

There's a chance that I'll give up at some point, or miss a couple weeks. There's a good chance that my son will be pretty upset with me when I'm limiting his sweets when he's 5 or 6 and he finds out that there was a cake every Friday for his first year t

hat he didn't even get to eat. But there's a great chance that I will enjoy celebrating my son as he grows this first year, and that my husband will appreciate having cake in the house all the time.

Here's what we've had so far:

Due date: Strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting - delicious!

1 Week: Duncan Hines chocolate with chocolate can frosting

2 Weeks: Blackberry Coconut Cake - it was supposed to be raspberries but blackberries were on sale. it was a little dry, but looked beautiful under my cake dome.

3 Weeks: Aunt Sue's Orange Juice Cake - by far one of the best cakes I've ever had. I want it again already. Made in a bundt.

4 Weeks: Chocolate Pistachio Cake - I hated it. It was like eating unsweetened cocoa powder- dry and bitter- even after I added a chocolate glaze. My recommendation would be to use less pure dark chocolate even though that's the who

le point. Brian and his cousin loved it though.

5 Weeks: Lemonade Layer Cake - it came from a Junior League cookbook and I can't find the same recipe online. I cheated and made it 13x9 so I could travel with it. It was excellent!

6 Weeks: Store bought white cake with whipped icing for Will'

s Baptism. I don't think it's cheating since I was hosting a brunch for 30 people.

That brings us to Week 7. Happy birthday William!! I just finished making Pioneer Woman's Pig Cake. It is so sweet and moist and almost refreshing. I love the whipped topping. Her's is beautiful, be sure to click over and check out the pictures. Here's mine.

Will this morning

Is he just the cutest baby you've ever seen (except yours of course)? I love having a little boy to play with! There was more smiling and batting of the giraffe than I could capture on video, but you get the idea. He'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow.