Maybe it's because I'm Polish?

Or just because I'm anal....hmm. We're having some old friends come over this weekend and they have never seen our house. So, of course I am doing a major clean sweep. It doesn't matter that I just cleaned up for our company last week or that I told myself I woudln't re-do things that still looked good-yeah right. I am in overdrive. Even my everyday weekly chores (when we won't have company) are slightly outrageous. I need my house to be spotless and if it's not I apologize profusely to whomever sees it a mess. Even my mom said to me today that she doesn't know why I worry, I won't have much to do because my house is always clean! YAY!!!! I've succeeded. It's funny she should say this because she is probably the one to blame for my behavior :) We always joke about it being our old "Polish Mom"...we're 100% Polish in case you didn't know! This is a woman who wouldn't let us leave on vacation without a clean sweep of the house. After we were done packing us three kids had to be sure the floors were vacuumed, beds were made, clothes put away and dishes washed and I won't even tell you my parents' reasoning behind this! I have another purebred Polish friend and we lived together in college and I think her and I understand the best where the other is coming from. There is a book, a great piece of fiction for anyone raised in a very Polish household and it's called The Clarinet Polka. While at times it can be grotesque and brash it is also very humorous to a Polish child as myself. The first time I read it I picked one passage out the sticks in my memory today. The narrator, a young man living at home in the 60's talks about HIS Polish mother and her cleaning habits. How she insisted that the house always be clean just in case anyone dropped over. This would be fine he said but no one ever dropped by because they were all too busy at THEIR homes keeping them clean just in case anyone dropped by!! This is so true! And, as I moved furniture around to dust and polish the backside of it I realized that I had finally come to live out this personality trait that I so gleefully used to tease my mother with :) I am hoping that what everyone says is true: that when you grow older and once you have children you won't care if your house is that clean all the time anymore. Gosh I hope so.

If you've got kids you need to see this!

Or, if you are sans kids and are just a big kid yourself like me! I made this cake for a get together this weekend to suprise one of my friends for her birthday that had just passed. It's called Raibow Cake and when I first saw the recipe I couldn't wait to try it. Everyone at the get together thought it was great (even Brad was amazed!) so I promised to post directions and pictures.

Preheat oven according to the directions for the cake mix.

You will need to prepare TWO white cakes mixes according to the box directions. I did one box and divided the batter and then did the other box and divided it. Once you make the batter scoop one cup (or there abouts...just want it to be even) of batter into SIX separate bowls. Next you will color it and I highly suggest GEL food coloring not the liquid kind I grew up with. I wanted to do traditional rainbow ROY G BIV but for some reason my fancy schmancy cake decorating gel set didn't have a traditional orange and I didn't want to make it too weird with the other colors I had to choose from so I went with Pink. This is not something I would do again since it came out almost exactly like the Red color :( Anyway this is what you should now have. Yummy and pretty!
Next you will need two round cake pans sprayed and ready to go. Take your first pan and start with whatever color you want. I chose red to go in the order of the rainbow. Take about half of the dyed batter mixture and plop it right in the center of the pan. You DO NOT need to spread it or shake the pan or anything...just let it be a big blob in the middle! Now take half of your next colored batter and plop that right on top of the middle of the first color. Continue to do this for all of the colors....just keep putting it right on the top of the last color. Repeat for the second pan with the other half of each colored batter BUT go in the opposite order. So whatever was the last color you put into the first pan now is the FIRST color in the second. When you are done you should have two cake pans that look something like this:

Like I said you don't have to spread the batter. The more batter you add and the heavier it gets, the lower batter sections will spread out all on their own!

Now, bake it according to the directions on the box. When they are done and you take them out have a cake board or plate ready. You can use whatever kind of icing you want. I cofess I did actually do the canned route since I wasn't even entirely sure how the cake itself would come out so I put all my creative skill into that! I iced it with vanilla and added a bunch of rainbow sprinkles to the top.

Now, I didn't tell anyone what kind of cake it was so when I cut into it to serve it they were all pretty surprised and excited to see this!

Like I said, this was the hit of the party and it got rave reviews!! I am so excited it worked and I think it is so much fun! You can use whatever colors you want and have fun!!

Spring has sprung!

It's officially spring now...we went fishing and took the boats out this weekend! I was having a bunch of college friends over and having spent most of the week killing myself to get the house ready there wasn't much to do come Saturday morning. So, with the sun shining and the air warming up my hubby couldn't help but want to fish. We were out there for about 30 minutes but we officially kicked off the season; no fish though-I told Brad I thought they were still in hiding. That and the fish in our lake hate me :). He also spent a ton of time cleaning the paddle boat and the canoe up in case anyone wanted a ride that night. Well, they both went out and I can't wait for the warm weather to stay around now!

Four months later...

and I am still working on wedding projects! We've ordered our photo albums and prints!!! Now, I just have to wait four more months to get them back!! It took me/us FOREVER to make the final cuts. I had all 1200 photos spread out on the floor for hours last week going through them all. Plus, we now have our picture CD so if you want prints let us know!

The Easter Bunny came to our house early...

Can't believe I forgot to post this. These are the new treats I am making...yes, it's all edible and the inside is cake! Everyone who bought them came back with rave reviews after Easter!

It's not delivery...

It's not even Digiorno! I am so excited I was able to make this work. This all started out as a ball of frozen pizza dough and I did the rest. I've never tried before but was happy with the result and it was quite delicious. Plus, I only burned myself twice in the process so kudos to me!

Welcome Home Brad!

Brad spent the past week in Indiana, again. But, he is home and I am not even mentioning anything about how long he might be here for fear of the jinx. I stayed home and missed him terribly and couldn't wait for him to get back. This is the longest we have been without the other since our wedding. I made it the whole week and don't want him to leave me again. So, to entice him to never want to leave home I made an AWESOME meal for him on Saturday. He is still talking about how good it is and has had it THREE times since I made it yesterday. For anyone who knows me you can look at the picture and know how much I love my man for the sheer fact that I don't eat much of what is in this meal. No to cooked carrots or anything covered in gravy. But, I did partake in some of it with him and am so proud of myself for making something so great! I even threw in some Red Lobster bisquits that were true to name. I love being the happy homemaker...for now. And, now I give you my fabulous pot roastI can just hear you 'ooohing' :) Now, we just have to wait and see if it worked and Brad will want to stay home always to eat such good food.

Happy Birthday, little April Fool!

Yes, it's a few days late but we celebrated a lot this past week. Our little niece Ania turned one on April Fool's Day! She LOVED her cake; both at her party and on her actual birthday. She really dug in and enjoyed it. She is already turning out to be much different than her big sister who cried her way through all THREE bites she took of her first birthday cake. Plus, Ania is what Brad calls a 'little stinker'...she is so full of drama and mischief! The first picture below is on the day of her party (I made her a Winnie the Pooh cake hence the orange icing)and the second is on her actual birthday...