Vanity oh, Vanity

After the last cake for a friend's birthday I made, I found out that one of the guests had posted an image and a statement about my domestic acumen that made me blush on their blog, and so, OF COURSE, the pressure was on for this one. I have been wanting to make an 'icebox' cake for ages, since seeing the recipe on smitten kitchen, referred by popcorn and apples. You layer chocolate wafers between whipped cream. I LOVE whipped cream. Marie wanted chocolate so I made the whipped cream chocolaty. It ended up not lovely as the image in smitten kitchen, but UGLY and mis-shapen!! I know it was my first try and I would get better, but how could I present that for my blogging friends? My vanity was at stake, so I made another batch of regular whipped cream and spread it over and around the ugly cake to make it pretty (is that make-up for cake?). I then dusted it with a little chocolate powder. Voila', a pretty cake. It tasted ok, but I preferred the crepe cake, this one was a little sweet for me.

Trish had to leave for another engagement, so Lena, Marie (birthday girl) and I walked downtown to the Gallery Stroll. I will be honest, one reason I love the gallery stroll is the art, but another, I always run into people I know, usually cousins, and that makes me feel popular. My cousina Clare did have a print up in the basement of Slow Train, a music store, it was very good. Of course saw cousins there. Same thing at the farmers market. I always see ward members and/or cousins and I like that.

I hadn't had dinner and so around 10 we ended up at Sage's, a vegan restaurant, and Brad joined us and we sat outside enjoying mushroom escargot and later our vegan dinners. I don't know how the conversation went there, but cannibalism came up. After all what is a more natural topic of conversation at a vegan restaurant? Marie and I are both perverse or practical enough, that we were fully in favor if necessity dictated. Lena and Brad were against. Oh, well.

How Green Was My Valley

The title of a book/movie placed in Wales. I have lived in Wales and it is lovely, but I have never read the book nor seen the movie. Today though a group of friends went hiking up the Bonneville Shoreline trail. This veiw is overlooking City Creek Canyon. It is more green than usual due to our wetter than usual year. We were trying to look like bold explorers, but the camera-person was a little slow on the taking and everytime I thought she had taken the photo and began to move, etc. she would claim I had ruined the shot. Here I am passing my binoculars to some terribly persistant fellow. Lena and I tried to dodge him the whole hike up, but oh, boy didn't he persist. BOTHER!! Then we hurried down the mountian and went to Cucina's, a little deli in the Avenues. It was 5 minutes before closing, but they let us in. Lena got a delicious s'mores brownie (which she shared with me) and I got a little chicken penne salad as I had not had dinner yet. We then sat outside on a bench and enjoyed the summer evening. There is nothing like a summer evening to make you feel glad to be alive.