Flashback Friday: Summer Time Cakes

It’s hot here in the South.  I mean H-O-T hot!!  So hot that the only thing most kids want to do, is jump in a swimming pool and splash around all day.  And I mean, who can blame them?

So when my (distant) cousin, Caroline, was getting ready to turn another year older, her mother planned a great swim party for her birthday!  Ugh, talk about jealous!!  My birthday is in February, and when I was growing up, I was always so jealous of everyone who got a pool party for their summer birthdays.  My birthday was never that cool… [well it was cool, and that was the problem].

Anyway, her mother asked me to make a cake to look like their new pool, and also a few cupcakes on the side.  Looking back at these pictures makes me want to grab a yummy cupcake and jump right in a sweet, sweet pool for the rest of the day.  Enjoy!

Basil: Grown with Compost

A few months ago, shortly after I started this blog, my husband and I started vermicomposting.  I promised to get a post up about how we started it, since so many friends were interested.  But life happened and I didn’t.  I will eventually, I’m sure … but not yet.

At the beginning of the summer, on one of our last days before the baby was to be born, we took a trip to our local farmers market.  I love going there, browsing through the rows and rows of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and other homemade goodies.  Believe me, that was just what I needed when I already looked like this:

 

One booth we passed had fresh basil plants for a very decent price.  They smelled so good, I almost cried.  You moms out there know exactly what I mean.  When you smell something amazing, those pregnancy hormones hit a whole new level and you have to have it.  So we couldn’t leave that day until I got a few basil plants … and hubs got some roma tomatoes.

Usually these are the things that we were start ourselves, from seeds.  But with all the preparations for Baby, we just hadn’t had time to get the seeds started.

Fortunately, we had had time to keep our vermi-compost going.  I love the bin that we have – it makes harvesting the compost so super easy.  We took out the bottom tray, which was completely compost, and mixed it in with the soil as we re-planted the basil.  Ideally, the bottom tray, which has already been processed by the worms, should be worm free.  It’s not.  But it’s ok.  You can just add that right into your soil.  They can only do good in there.  We didn't measure anything.  We just divided the compost as evenly as possibly between the three pots that we had.

Compost bin.  Soil mixed with compost.  Purchased basil re-potted with compost.

So there you have it.  We used our first bit of compost.  Did it help?  You tell me.  The above picture was at the beginning of June.  This was taken at the end of July:

Our basil exploded!!  I can only assume it was from the wonderful compost that we got.  I’m so excited to have all this basil.  I’ve been making so much with it!  It’s so nice to be able to go out on our patio and pick dinner.  It doesn’t get more local than that!  With all the abundance of basil that I have left over, I plan on making lots of pesto and freezing it.  So this winter, when all I want is Chicken Pesto Pizza, I can have it!

Wordless Wednesday