Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Summer Cake - Take 3


Prior to our trip, I decided I should bring some sort of baked good as a hostess gift for Joe's mom in Indiana, and this cake from Smitten Kitchen looked easy enough. I am enamored with Smitten Kitchen. The cake requires your standard baking ingredients combined with strawberries. I could make it while simultaneously making dinner. How domestic am I?

Cut to: an hour and a half later, cake batter ruined twice, simultaneously mixing the dessert with one hand and stirring the hash browns for my breakfast salad entree with the other hand. Joe shows up as flour flies everywhere.

Joe: "Maybe we could just buy her a nice bottle of wine."

But I wouldn't be deterred. My first mistake was that I didn't read the recipe carefully and mixed the butter and sugar with the flour. That went in the trash. Then I redid the whole thing, but I used a tablespoon for the baking powder instead of a teaspoon. Doh!

Everything seemed to go okay the third time around, but perhaps I made a mistake that I didn't notice. "What if it's terrible?" I asked Joe. "Will your mom pretend to like the cake?"

"You'll never know," he said.

What a polite Midwestern mom. The third time was the charm and the cake was terrific. It really was. And if you actually read the instructions carefully, it will be easy, I promise.

File Under: Other People Can Hear You

During my commute to work on Tuesday, I passed a middle-aged man in a suit walking down the sidewalk in downtown D.C., singing in a stage whisper along with his iPod. Singing, mind you, not humming. I got close enough to hear a bar or two, and guess what was he singing?"Your sex is on fiiiiiiire."

Tunes Tuesday: Fitz and The Tantrums

Remember "Rich Girls," that short-lived MTV reality show from way back in the 2000s? No, of course you don't. No one does. It was terrible. I watched pretty much every reality show on MTV, including this one and also "Surf Girls" and "Sorority Life."

Where was I going with this? Ah yes. That show was lame, but the Motown-inspired "Rich Girls" by Fitz and The Tantrums is a decidedly good time. My friend/music soulmate Emily suggested Fitz and The Tantrums' "Moneygrabber," which is also fiscally-themed and a barn-burner. But I am picking Rich Girls for this week's Tuesday Tune because I have been fretting about my budget lately and I aspire to have a "doorman/elevator/penthouse/alligator/shoes and a driver" but I'm currently closer to the "low rent underground/pad lock studio blues" tax bracket.

What a bargain though, this week you get two songs for the price of one!

Farm Wedding

Here is my another foray into a fashion-blogger-esque outfit post [cowers, ducks].

The occasion? Joe's friend's wedding held at a dairy farm in Indiana. This little sheer jacket is one of my prized possessions. My mom and I found it while cleaning out her grandparents' farmhouse in upstate New York. It was hanging in the closet next to a bearskin coat. Looks pretty 30's to me. The front is pleated with crystal buttons and the back is completely sheer.

This is the only dress I have that matches with such a dainty jacket. It's Charlotte Russe circa high school. I crossed my fingers when I tried it on and it still fits, phew! I guess the jacket could work with any floral dress but it matches this one so well. Any other ideas on how to wear it?

I tried to take a picture of my new shoes, but it was the most unattractive picture ever. My ankles looked like ham hocks. Here's the shoe:

DV by Dolce Vita, Toni

They are so comfortable and they have fun tassles. Recommend!

The wedding was held in a spruced-up barn, with white paper globes and white lights for decoration. It was a nice effect for what seemed like the nicest couple ever, not to mention one of the smartest. They are both in medical school. Smarties!

It was hotter than Hades though. Why can't old barns be air conditioned? Luckily it poured outside later in the evening and that cooled the temperature by about 20 degrees.

Tunes Tuesday: "Obsessions," Marina & The Diamonds

I first heard this song on a mix from my friend, the fabulous DJ Lani Love. Take a listen to the original version here. It's an operatic but peppy take on all the little nagging thoughts that bug poor Marina every day of every week. If I told you that the chorus is "We've got obsessions/ You never told me what it was that made you strong and what it was that makes you weak," would you still believe me when I say that this is a lark of a song?