Limoncello Cake : Yum!

I needed a break after all the work to get my house ready for the market.  A former neighbor, who lives on the coast, invited me to spend the weekend.  We had a blast. It was such a wonderful diversion from my life of late. We slept in both days, ate plenty of {fresh} seafood . . . . mmmm, had pedicures {I chose the reddest nail polish I've ever had!}, walked on the beach, visited South Port, a quaint seaside community complete with many antique stores, talked way into the nights and also did some smocking on a christening gown she's making. It was all so good.

My friend is an expert at making limoncello, the Italian lemon liqueur.  OMG!  It's like liquid gold!  Served icy cold, you've never tasted anything so smooth, and one feels it warming your throat as it trickles down.  We not only imbibed some one night {2 glasses each, but teeny glasses}, but she GAVE me a bottle to bring home.

As an aside, my first introduction to limoncello was a restaurant so named, in my home town of Cape Town - it stands out with its bright yellow exterior. Shannon lived up the hill from there for a while, and we had a memorable dinner there one night, but we drank cinzano and vermouth instead!

Needing to make a work colleague a birthday cake when I got in last night, I got this bee in my bonnet wondering what a limoncello cake would taste like.  So I added limoncello instead of vanilla, and lemon rind and lemon juice too.  Confession here: I used a bought cake mix and doctored it up.  Then I made a buttercream frosting with butter, flavored with, yes, limoncello, and swirled it onto the layers...Mwah!  It was good, and a hit at work today too!

Visitors at my bottle tree

Last week I was in the kitchen early, making a cup of {coffee} and as I was waiting for it to brew, I walked over to the bay window and absent mindedly looked out into the back yard.

I was happily surprised to see no less than THREE deer sniffing my bottle tree!!!

I watched for a couple of seconds, but just had to run for a camera.  When I got back, 2 of the deer had moved on, but I did snap these.  {Not so good, early morning light-cell phone camera combo.}

Deer are regular visitors in our yards these days.  It hasn't always been that way.  It excites the soul to see these majestic creatures roaming or leaping with their family in tow.  But, alas, when they eat our beautiful, healthy daffodils, impatiens or hosta down to the nub, they leave one a little bit a lot with mixed feelings  :(

Blessed

Shannon
2 weeks from tomorrow til I see your lovely face and drink tea in my favourite kitchen (no matter how it looks)! I foresee a madeline baking in my near future... X!


5 hours ago ·  ·  · See Friendship



This is a Facebook message from Shannon who, as you can surmise, is coming from South Africa to visit in 2 weeks.  I can hardly wait to hug her, hold her, bake madeleines and do what she pleases in the 3 days I'll have her home!

What is less endearing about this time is that, due to circumstances out of my control, I'm having to sell my house and eventually move.  It is one of those times in my life when I get out of bed in the morning and do what I have to do to get through what feels like is another crisis.

Only, I have the most stellar friends in the whole wide world helping me, again, and I don't know what I'd do without their counsel, help {physical and emotional}, support and love.  You should have seen my house bustling with my friends and Susannah pitching in this past week, and they all have such busy lives. I am humbled beyond words.  And I am so blessed.  I was describing this pure Grace to my mother who then said :: "I hope you're thanking God!"  To which my answer was :: "Oh, yes I am!"

I am on my knees.

As far as my blog and my creativity....it's slowing down out of necessity for now.  It's impossible to get creative juices going to sew, craft, cook, or whatever when you have the responsibility of a move from a home you've lived in for 29 years, raised 3 children in, truly lived very busy lives to the fullest in and have accumulated too much stuff to sort through and pack.  Period.  I hope that in a few weeks, when the dust settles, I can devote the time again.

'til then... XO

The things smoothies are made from

I typically don't indulge in smoothies.  Don't order them out.  Don't make them at home.  I can't afford the calories.

I've mentioned this little problem before, ahem  ::  the lack of sugary snacks to eat in this house!  It's intentionally rigged to not have temptations that will make me gain weight.

Tonight my sweet tooth was talking to me enticing me to look for a fix.
I looked in the pantry.  Nothing.  You ate all the Iced Zoo cookies, remember?
Nothing in the fridge OR the freezer...pretty desperate. I did, however, find a bag of frozen mixed berries.

Frozen berries in the freezer; homemade yogurt in the fridge....those are the things smoothies are made from.  I tossed half the bag of berries into the blender and a container of my homemade yogurt.  As it puréed, the yogurt became frozen from the berries and in no time the blender was labouring.  So I added milk.

What a delicious purply-raspberry colour.  A taste test revealed it was tart and not satisfying enough for a sweet tooth.  To be expected with....unsweetened berries and unsweetened yogurt. So I got out the sugar bowl and added some sugarrr!

What a treat.  Utterly d-i-v-i-n-e!  I'll have to remember this healthy way to satisfy a craving.