(left to right: Mcghee, Charlotte, me, Clauwey)

I am so happy to say that I am getting together with my ladies today for an early celebration of Clauwey’s birthday, so I thought I would show a little love for the ladies and put them on the blog.  We met our freshman year (and, in the case of Winborne, our junior year) and after all the 18-year-old pleasantries, it was pretty much love at first sight.  Through the years we have had insane adventures, convinced ourselves that we’re possibly the funniest people that we know, fought like sisters, and made up like best friends.  I think that it can be a challenge for a group of women to survive the tail-end of the teen years and make it into adulthood, but somehow we have, and these girls are my family.  It’s been nine years since that picture was taken, and there are a couple of faces missing there, but I have this one on my desk at work as a reminder of the awesome women in my life and thought that today would be a good day to share.  Happy almost birthday Clauwey!

Jo Ellen gave Drew an awesome cookbook signed by the author as a graduation gift.  It’s The Encyclopedia of Cajun and Creole Cuisine by John Folse, and an encyclopedia it is.  At 852 pages and 9.5 lbs, I imagine that we will be trying new recipes, and soon to be old favorites out of this book for a long time.  We’ve been able to make a couple of dishes so far, and one of my personal favorites has been the Classic Carrot Cake recipe.  We had this for Christmas, and I was impressed with how moist it was and how tall it stood.  It calls for pineapple, something that I was slightly skeptical about in the beginning, but as it turns out, the pineapple is extremely subtle and serves as extra layers to keep the cake together and again, nice and moist.  The only drawback that I see with this cake is that I would soon be out of my wardrobe if I made it as often as I would like to, but beyond that…yum-o.  I added a little fresh nutmeg and ginger to the dry ingredients, I don’t know if it made a difference, but I always believe that a little extra dash of this or that is a-ok.

Chef John Folse’s Classic Carrot Cake

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PREP TIME: 1 Hour
SERVES: 8

INGREDIENTS FOR CAKE:

3 cups grated carrots

2 cups sugar

1½ cups vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tsps baking flour

3 tsps baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsps cinnamon

1 tbsp vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans

1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple

1 cup sugar

2½ tbsps corn starch

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil and flour four 9-inch cake pans. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream sugar and oil until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, whipping after each addition. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. Add a little at a time into the egg mixture, blending well until all is incorporated. Fold in the vanilla, pecans and grated carrots. Once all is well blended, pour evenly into the 4 cake pans. Bake 30-40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Remove and allow to cool. While cake it baking, make filling by combining pineapple, sugar and corn starch. Bring to a low boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Once mixture thickens, remove from heat and allow filling to cool. Remove cakes from baking pans and spread pineapple filling between layers. Ice with cream cheese frosting below and serve.

INGREDIENTS FOR FROSTING:

3½ cups confectioners’ sugar

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese

½ cup butter, softened

1¼ tsps vanilla extract

METHOD:

In a medium bowl, combine confectioner’s sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

**I added a little cinnamon and nutmeg to the frosting, and I’ve read other places where someone will put just a hint of orange zest in cream cheese frosting to erm, kick it up a notch.

photo courtesy of our friend, Tom Daly

I admit that I was surprisingly cool as a cucumber during the inauguration ceremonies yesterday.  I think that I was excited, and above all, I feel extremely ready for this new president and this new administration.  This morning though, I woke up and clicked on NPR and heared the oath again, and heard the voices from around the country saying what this inauguration meant to them and I got a little choked up.  I hope that as President Obama spoke yesterday, his words were able to resonate above and beyond partisan ties, and that folks, no matter who they voted for, are touched by this profound moment in history, and his dedication to giving it his all as he figure heads one of the more turbulent times in American history.  I feel enormously grateful to ALL of the people that set a standard in the generations ahead of me, so that I am not one of the voices that’s able to add to the din remembering what segregation was like.  I have never seen separate water fountains, alternate entrances, or barred diner counters among others, and for that I not only applaud in awe to the people that came before, but resonate with the conviction that there aint no power like the power of the people cause the power of the people don’t stop.  I think often my generation feels as if we’re living in the shadow of the cultural movements that defined our parent’s coming of age, but yesterday I couldn’t help but feel there’s still pleanty of work to be done, and that history, no matter how good its soundtrack, is never over.

Ok, so if you know Drew and I, you know that we are somewhat worthless when it comes to our animals.  We love them, we personify them to fill our need/assumption that they love us and barring a few incidents, it’s nothing but a big old happy, shedding family in the Walton household (that’s the animals doing the shedding, of course).  Drew said the other day, in response to a question about children, that while he’s not sure about himself, he’s fairly confident that I would throw myself in front of a car to protect Grace.  This is a very un-survival of the fittest notion, and not one that I should probably parade around, but sadly it’s true.  I love that dog like a smelly, hairy, wiggly, intelligent child.  And in turn, Grace earns her keep with her dog pleasantries, her singing of the blues, her love of playing with the cat, her dedication to sleeping as often as possible and her perfect way of snuggling.  She’s a good mutt.  Well, somehow that long introduction works in my mind for this video.  This is yet another story about unlikely animal love, but it gave me a smile on a Wednesday and reminded me that while the love that’s around us in the human form is swell, sometimes there’s no companionship like a four legged friend with a big dopey dog grin.

It’s Thursday, but it might as well be Monday all over again! I came down with some kind of malicious stomach bug at the beginning of the week and now it feels like the end of the week and I have a lot of catch up to do. On the bright side, some of that catch up involves eating, a task that I am very much looking forward to today, and the rest of the catching up should be equally painless, it’s just got to get done.

While there aren’t many pictures that anyone would like to see from the Walton household over the last couple of days, there was a funny moment that I captured and thought I would share. Our dog Grace seemed (at least I think so, she may have had ulterior motives) very concerned about my condition and repeatedly brought me her favorite toys while I was holed up in bed or on the couch. She and Drew were quite the nursing team, and when it became clear to her that I didn’t know how to play with her toys she took them and lined them up along the periphery of the couch as if creating a boundary. I think. Who knows what makes that dog tick really, but it did warm my heart to think that she was boxing me in with the things that she loved. Here are a couple of pictures of Grace love:

And this just kind of cracks me up because it’s a Grace quirk and a sign that we are smitten pet owners…Grace does not like her toys to have accessories, she likes to keep them separate.  Mom gave her the current favorite pink sheep for Christmas, and Grace promptly removed the Santa hat though she now plays with the tiny Santa hat as often as the sheep.  Who knew?  Twice the fun.

Ok, blog post is off the list, now on to the thrill of breakfast, and then a whole big blustery day ahead!

I am busy getting the new site to launch so I only have a quick moment, but a friend sent this to me and I had to share. Happy Monday!

What’s that up there?  Sunshine?  Temperatures out to the 40s?  How very strange.  I don’t have a lot to offer today because there’s a lot going on (funny how that works) but I thought that after yesterday’s gloomy photo, the least I could do is step outside and snap a picture of this most beautiful day.  Also, as an aside, I caught a ride in a tow truck this morning and the driver talked to me about how diesel trucks (not unlike the one we were riding in) are responsible for driving the snow away.  He didn’t really make any further connections, just said, “Well.  I blame diesel trucks.  Useta snow all the time”.  Then we just looked out our respective windows and took in the sunny morning.

Today feels like something out of the 100 acre Woods, although dreary, there’s a whimsical side to all this dreary rain and cold.  There must be.  I saw this fire burning yesterday and thought the smoke looked so thick and blanket-like, as if the smoke itself were warm and inviting against the endless fog that is bearing down on us right now.

I like thinking about the fire that stays nestled in the root of winter—the core of each season driving change forward.  The world as a coal fueled train.  This winter my friends and I are starting the Jarch Club (January-March Club) so that we can get together during this down time of year and teach each other something that we know about.  Basically it’s a craft club, but I think I’m not ready to say that I’m in a crafts club, so instead we’re calling it Jarch and we’ll drink wine and make candles and sachets and other little what-have-yous, and before we know it the world will bloom again.  That’s the fire at the core of my January.

Well, it goes without saying that it was a wonderful trip.  We stayed with Jo Ellen in what Drew and I affectionately refer to as our Southern Plantation Home, also known as the Kappa House where Jo is the house mother for the Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter at LSU.  We spent New Year’s in Baton Rouge and had an awesome dinner at a little Italian Restaurant and then caught up with some of Drew’s high school friends to ring in 2009.  The rest of the trip was spent relaxing and catching up with everyone, and a particular highlight was getting to meet our little neice Charlotte who has graced the world for just about 6 weeks now.  I’m going to put up a few pictures now (click to enlarge) with the hope that this evening I’ll be able to add some more.  Happy 2009!