A post in which I get a bit done*

Well I thought I had a good start to the day, but then I slowed back down. I have just been SO sleepy this weekend.

I was up early and saw Terry off to work. Then I went online to get my messages, and got sucked back into the Manhunt vortex. I ended up visiting a new guy that I had high hopes for, but not so much now. He's nice, and cute, but I suspect he may have a drinking problem. I don't know yet, but I'm leery. I'll probably see him again to make sure because he is such a nice guy.

By the time I left his house I had worked up an appetite. I came home and had a huge breakfast, and then had to have a nap. I got up and made a pot of spaghetti sauce. I put together a pan of stuffed shells to eat on this week because I am not going to have time to worry about dinners with all the cooking I have to get done.

Then I made a pound cake. I decided to make two today, and take one to Kimberly and Danny for their help during Poppy's funeral and freeze one for the camp out. I feel kind of betwixt and between about the camp out desserts. On the one hand I could get started, but on the other hand I want them to be as fresh as possible. Always the dilemma. It turned out not to be an issue. By the time I baked the two pound cakes, the stuffed shells, and made a serious run to the grocery store it was getting late for getting over to Kim and Danny's tonight.

I put almond flavoring in the pound cakes today. I haven't done that before, so when I got to Kim's I asked her to please cut the cake so I could taste it. It was pretty damn good, I have to say. I used Dannette's mother's recipe today for both. That is one fantastic pound cake recipe.

There is a reason for the change in flavoring. As many of you already know, "plain" pound cake has lemon flavoring in it. That's just the way it's made. When I'm doing what I consider a "classic" dessert, I don't mess with it. People expect it to taste a certain way, and many times they're disappointed if it doesn't - whether they realize what has been changed or not.

At the last camp out I did desserts for, however, I made the mistake of mentioning that the new recipe called for more lemon than my old one. You would have thought I had suggested substituting rabbit turds for raisins. The scrunched up faces, and the insistence that whoever it was only liked "plain" pound cake were legion. Of course, I had comments after that that the pound cake would have been "perfect, except for that lemon flavoring". Sigh. Sometimes living in the South makes me nuts.

When I got to Russ and Billy's last week, Russ made a big production out of having eaten "the BEST pound cake of his life" and how he would have to get me this wonderful recipe from the cake he ate that had almond flavoring in place of the lemon. No points for guessing Russ was one of the commenters that the lemon in my pound cake was too strong. Russ smokes over a pack of menthols a day. I doubt he could discern a lemon TREE, let alone a bit too much lemon flavoring, but I digress. For a minute or two he really had me going. The gauntlet had been flung. I worked hard to develop my pound cake technique, and I'm proud of it. Also, Dannette's family recipe is the best one I have ever tried or eaten. Then I realized what he was doing. But it is about pleasing the people and not myself. So I let Russ "trick" me into using almond flavoring in place of the lemon. And I have to say, it made a kick-ass pound cake. If I did bake it.

I had a nice visit with Kim and Danny, and Danny was tickled to death with the cake. I told him if he did yard work for cake, it could be the beginning of a great partnership.