summer sweatin' (and a cake recipe)

I went outside this morning with the full intention of going for a run, and then I almost drowned.  Not because I fell in the pool (puh-leeze!) but because the humidity was about 1,000% and the air was so hot it felt like someone opened the door to the steam room and threw me in.  So.  Gross.  Soooo yeah I didn't go running.  HowEVER I did convince Scot to run the Firecracker 5K with me last Thursday (happy birthday, 'murica!) down in Sanford at the community college.  He decided to get a 3.5 mile warm-up run in the day before (which I found out the reason it ended up being a 3.5 mile run is because he missed his turn on the route) because he hadn't run AT ALL since Thanksgiving, when we did our last 5K together.  You can imagine how this turned out.  My warm-up run the day before was 5 miles and I felt great, actually ran the Firecracker twice around, for a total of 6.2 miles that day.  He finished his 3.1 about 5 minutes after me and was completely incapacitated the rest of the day.  HAHA.  But he's in Phoenix now  for a week to work on some stuff with the Airbus or whatever so I'm actually kind of sad.  And his legs are still sore.  But that makes me laugh.

We trekked over to Dallas for my family's annual reunion last weekend, too.  My great-grandparents had 3 kids, and now we have 66 family members, all from them ("Ya'll are just a real fertile bunch" Scot has said to me on more than one occasion).  58 of us were there- this was the 33rd year we've done the reunion and believe it or not, we all look forward to it!  Everyone gets along, no one's in jail, there's no drama, everyone has some class....it's quite a nice time!  I snapped a pic of my grandparents in the hotel lobby- they have 2 kids, 5 grandkids, and 3 great-grandchildren and they're the best ever!

Scot and I wandered around the town of Grapevine, TX where we were all staying and stopped at this wine bar for a late lunch- it was called Into The Glass and it was fantastic!  I had sea scallops on a bed of farmer's market vegetables and an amazing wine that I've posted a picture of.  I can't find it anywhere so if you see it (probably in Texas) mail me a bottle or 3!  Part of the vegetable on my plate was called "fiddle ferns" which are actually just...ferns.  Baby ferns.  Like, before they uncurl and look all fern-like.  I was hesitant to try it, but I actually discovered that I really like ferns!  I don't think my WalMart carries them, though...

 Buy me this.  Seriously.

Look at the widdy biddy ferns!  

This year the 4th of July was of course on a Thursday, which is a work day for me so that was super-lame.  It was hot and windy and disgusting so I was glad to get home and enjoy some of this cake I made.  I've posted the recipe below- you can probably change the jell-o colors to work with any holiday- strawberry and lime for Christmas or something like that.  Easter colors.  Whatev.  But it was delicious!  I had my former co-worker Doug along with my boss and his family up for fried chicken and watermelon with this cake, before we walked down to the park for fireworks.  It was nice.  Hot, but nice.  On the other hand, we did book our cruise for September.  60 days to go.  I hate the fact that we have to get through August.  It's all fun and games til my shoes melt to the blacktop out on the aircraft ramp.  

Try This Cake

Cake ingredients

1 pkg white cake mix plus required ingredients (use egg whites)

2 3-oz pkgs of Jell-o (I used strawberry and berry blue)

Whip cream topping (because using Cool Whip is pathetic)

1 pint heavy whippin' cream

2 capfuls of vanilla extract 

2 TBSP sugar

Bake the cake in 2 9-inch rounds as directed on the box.  Let it cool in the pans for about 20 minutes then poke holes all up in it with a fork or a skewer or whatever.

Mix the jellos separately with 1 cup boiling water each, stir to dissolve, add 1/2 cup cold water each, then pour the hot liquid over the cake so it gets all in the holes and runs over the side.  The cake will absorb it all up so don't worry if it's runny.  

Put the pans in the fridge overnight to let them...uh, marinate.

Next day, make the whip cream

Beat the crap out of the pint of heavy whippin' cream, the vanilla, and the sugar with an electric stand mixer.  It'll get all thick and fluffy.  Taste with with your finger when it's done.  Uh huh.

Assemble and frost the cake, store it in the fridge.  Top with fruit and stuff.  It's just the treat for a hot afternoon!  Enjoy!