Friends and Food, all in good Fun

I have spent so much time in the kitchen lately. And have I mentioned how much I love having the opportunity to do that? Being a full time wife has opened up so many doors for me to learn so many things.

Anyway, so yesterday I was reading my friend Lera's blog, and she had a recipe for Apple Cake that sounded SO good. Since the peanut butter cookies I made the night before didn't work out (NOT a fan of that recipe, for sure), I decided to make the apple cake. It was so simple. Here are some pictures of my progress:

The powder mixture

The liquid mixtureThe yummy apples (I love the peel, so I left it on.)

In the pan
(I made two round cakes, instead of a larger square cake. I baked for each for 20-25 minutes.)

The cake, fresh out of the oven. It smelled fantastic!

The topping

It tasted so good! I cute it into slices, put it on plates, and sent two plates to work with Selo today to thank the people at his work that helped him when he was sent to the hospital last week. This morning, it was just as moist as it was last night. I'm thinking I'll pull out some vanilla ice cream and enjoy another piece in a few hours. Thank you, Lera, for the recipe!

My friend Heidi came over last night. We had taco soup (sorry, I didn't get any pictures of it) that I had made, and then had homemade smoothies. I combined fruit and juice, blend together in the Magic Bullet, and serve. Other items that can be used are yogurt (Selo likes vanilla yogurt with his), ice cream, milk, or chocolate (syrup or powder). The one in the picture was made with strawberries, peaches, mangos, pineapples, and orange juice. Here are some pictures of the smoothies:

The Fruit

And the smoothie, made with the Magic Bullet mug.

(Great kitchen item. I use it ALL THE TIME.)

And, I wanted to give an honorable mentioned to my sweet friend Valerie. She came up for breakfast on Wed (yum, french toast!), and she brought me this bunch of flowers. She totally brightened my day, and her flowers brightened my kitchen. lol Val brought her new little man, and I think I learned more in those few hours than my brain could handle. We have plans to get together for lunch next month, and she's going to take me to Babies R Us to help with my registry, at which time I plan to have a paper and pen ready to take notes. Here's a picture of the flowers she brought me:
Thank you, Val, for all of your help and sharing all your knowledge.