Ignition!

I was in charge of lighting to oven today. When I went out to check on it, I was a little concerned to see flames shooting out of the front! It is breezy today and I had forgotten the shield for the front to damp it down a little.

Minor repairs

While Kyle was loading the oven in preparation for Mother's Day pizza, a big chunk of the doorway flaked off. Not a total loss but not exactly what he had planned for a project today.
Kyle says he saved the template for the front so he can cut a new door. Hopefully there is another yummy roast in my future.

Sad Beer

Part of Kyle's gift from me was six new beers to try from Gold Hill. Including this one from Italy. It says it is made with elderberries, not our favorite. It wasn't really bad, it just wasn't good either. So what do you do when life gives you bad beer? You make beer bread! The bread tastes much more berry and sweet than the beer. Kind of like a waffle.

Also on the list for today is a new recipe for madelines, chocolate this time. They are really good. Unfortunately it only makes 12 at a time! Guess I will need to make more sweets tomorrow.

Ready, set, go!

Liam (and Dad) finally finished the mouse trap car sent by Uncle Ken for his birthday. Liam and I started it months ago, but got stalled by lack of superglue, grip strength and tools. It runs great and Liam loves that it looks like it is jousting! We had lots of fun running it back and forth. Liam and Kyle were already speculating on where they could find more parts to make another one so they can race!

Birthday highlights

So I completely forgot to take a picture of our yummy birthday dinner shared with family and friends. Kyle requested barbecued chicken, beans, salad, salsa, and tortillas. When we lived in California, this was the menu from the mission fiestas. A lot of fond memories there! Kyle is hard to shop for, but we managed to find a few funny gifts. Stan and Lorna gave him a new wood box full of good BBQ wood, Valerie and Clint gave him .45 amo, the kiddos went with me to Lowe's and bought some random tools and supplies, David and Cindy got him a GOOD dictionary (something he has been wanting), Lily gave him the space cow, and I got him a piece of Vaseline Glass. Depression era glass that gets its pretty green color from uranium! (Because of this it will glow under a black light.) Not sure if we will actually use this piece, but it is definitely cool.

Kyle thinks this is so funny to have the space cow beside the uranium glass!

Success!

The lemon meringue pie turned out great! I should have chilled it a little at the lemon filling was too soft to cut properly but the meringue was fluffy and delicious! And Kyle liked it, which was the point :)

More Birthday Baking

I asked Kyle if he wanted to take a cake to share at work, he decided breakfast would be better. This cake should be called Leigh's best coffee cake. I have made it so many times I don't really need the recipe anymore. I used to make six of them at once when we were still feeding the army boys breakfast in California (along with breakfast casserole). It is one of those simple cakes where you dump everything in the mixer bowl and beat the heck out of it. It bakes up tender and golden every time. This is Liam's favorite too, he had to steal a piece before Dad took the whole thing to work.
Now onto lemon meringue pie, not something I have made before. Experimental baking, scary!