Every so often I get a call from my mother-in-law, Ninny. She tells me that she is making our supper and will bring it over when we get off work. People I work with are jealous, as well they should be. Last week she called and was making a favorite of ours and it was one that I never make: Salmon Patties.

She also brought cabbage.

The meal wouldn't be complete without her beans and cornbread.

I realize how lucky I am to have such an amazing moth-in-law. A friend said I was spoiled but I like to say that I am blessed. I asked Ninny for her salmon recipe. My aversion to it is the process of picking out the bones. I obsess about it and never feel I get them all out, aside from it turning my stomach. But here is how she does it.

• 1 can of salmon
• 2 eggs
• sleeve of crackers
• onion
• corn meal for rolling them in

The first thing she does is debone the salmon. The more expensive kind you buy, the less bones you have. Then she adds the eggs, about half an onion, and crushed crackers until it is firm enough to roll into patties. Then the patties are dredged in corn meal and fried in hot oil until browned. Sounds easy?

I’m just thankful to have Ninny.

I think that the day Joy was born is one of the most fantastic days of the year. I celebrate this occasion whether she can make the three hour trek home or not. This year, we got some beautiful cupcakes from the Bakerman and hit the road. Joy’s cupcake was special, with a heart and some bling bling. It was safe in the posession of Joy’s namesake. (Boo is named after her aunt, who is named after her mother, who is named after her aunt)

Boo, meet cupcake.

Our first stop was for a diet vanilla coke and a cherry sprite.

Joy loves all beauty shops, but Peggy's is high on her list.

Rah Rah Ree!

I'm not touching it!

Somehow we ended up far away from the mall.

Our mission: Herding donkeys.

Dad and Mason, both unsure of what they were doing.

More family to celebrate Joy's birthday and herd donkeys.

The keeper of the cupcake neglected his duties, playing instead

Sadly, it was the end of cupcake.  It wasn’t the end of our fun though. We continued to celebrate Joy’s birthday with our cupcakes and a quick trip to the mall. It could have only been better if Joy had been here herself.

The story of my birth in 1978 actually starts around 1976, when Dena was 11 or so.  She decided that she wanted a baby sister.  She hounded Mama constantly and Mama responded with a resounding NO.  So Dena went to some church revival where the preacher said if you really wanted something, you had to pray for it.  Dena started praying and praying and praying.  She started saving Mama’s S&H green stamps and trading them for baby blankets, bottles, and diapers.  She made like a little altar of sorts (bizarre I know) of baby stuff and prayed every day that Mama would produce a baby sister.  This went on for a couple of years, and I wasn’t there of course but I can only guess how thrilled Mama was with Dena’s new found zealotry.

Then in the fall of ‘77, Mama had knee surgery.  I have no idea what it’s like but I know it’s hard to recover from even these days, and I am sure knee surgery was less than fun to deal with way back then.  Several months into her recovery, her doctor decided he needed to X-ray her and see how she was progressing, but in order to do that, he needed to make sure she wasn’t carrying a bun in the oven.  One thwarted X-ray later, Mama was told that she was in fact, having a 4th baby.  Needless to say this took EVERYBODY in our family by surprise.  My parents had kids that were 9, 11, and 13 by the time I came along, and they totally thought they were done with kids until I popped up.

Mama was actually about half way through being pregnant when she found out I was hiding in there, so clearly they were fairly unprepared for my arrival.  The day I was born, Dena was waiting anxiously in the waiting area and our brothers, Scott and Chad were running amok on the hospital elevators.  Finally, I was wheeled into the waiting area in my little bassinet for the world to see.  Being unready for me get there, Mama and Daddy had apparently forgotten one slightly major detail………………….a name.  Upon trying to take me from the hospital, one of the nurses told Daddy that I had to stay there until I had a name on the birth certificate.  Daddy instructed her to “hide and watch me take her out of her.”  And with that I was taken home, with the legal name Baby Girl Langdon.  (They fixed it a year later)

And now here I am 32 years later, telling your this story and sharing one of my favorite recipes with you.  My favorite cake for my birthday is yellow cake.  NOT yellow cake from a bakery, but cake right out of the box.  I have no idea why, but I love it.  The only way I could love it more, is by making it into a delicious cookie!  All you need is a box of yellow cake mix, 2 eggs, and a half a cup of oil.  I use canola but vegetable oil would work just fine.  Go through the dry cake mix and fork out any lumps, then hand mix the oil and eggs in.  If you use a mixer, the cookies will be way tough.  Then, mix in about half a package of chocolate chips.  I personally prefer Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips (I never did understand the point of a semi-sweet chip), but you can use whatever brand you prefer.  Once it’s mixed, stick it in the fridge for about 20 minutes, because the cookies will bake better from chilled dough.  Spoon them out about a tablespoon at a time, roll them into balls and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, more or less depending on your oven.  It usually makes about 2 dozen cookies.  As a side note, you can do this with any flavor of cake mix, and you can add anything you want into the dough, or frost them once they’re baked.  It’s pretty much the easiest cookies ever.

the finished product

Enjoy a batch, and feel free to do as I do and tell people the recipe to these is so complicated you can’t possibly remember it off the top of your head

Someone is having a birthday soon….

A few years ago when I was teaching preschool, on what just happened to be Fat Tuesday, one of my coworkers said, “Hey Community Bakery donated a king cake to us, you should try some.”   I didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention at the time because I had tasted king cake before and wasn’t impressed.  Of course I had never had it from Community Bakery and at the time I didn’t know what I was missing.

For those of you that don’t know what a king cake is, it’s a cake that is used to celebrate various celebrations around the world, most specifically the festival of the Epiphany in Europe, and in the US it’s used to celebrate Mardi Gras.  Traditionally it is a ring cake that is colored in the traditional Mardi Gras colors of yellow, green and purple.  It also has a little baby baked inside and the person who finds the baby gets the honor of providing the king cake for next year’s party.  Depending on where you get your cake, it can be more like a brioche bread covered in a frosting, or a puff pastry stuffed with nuts.

Before I had tasted the one from Community Bakery in Little Rock, the ones I had eaten were more like a bread, somewhat dry, and had a thick layer of frosting on it.  Anybody that knows me knows that I have an aversion to bakery icing because I tend to find it somewhat bitter, and so my experience with those king cakes was not what I would call a good one.  However, my mind was forever changed about king cake with the one from Community Bakery.   Theirs is a delicious cinnamon and cream cheesy pastry that is so fluffy and delicious I could eat the whole thing.  Then as if the cake itself wasn’t good enough they frost it with a thin and not overpowering icing, and top it off with crunchy colored sugar.  I got this picture snapped very quickly before my accomplice dove into it face first.

there it is in it's delicious glory

I have never been so happy to have to get food for research for this blog!  Also, in addition to perfect pastries, Community Bakery also makes all sorts of goodies, and has a cafe and coffee shop.  While I was in there picking up this cake the place was full of patrons enjoying the baked goods and atmosphere at their downtown location.  Their website is very good and can tell you everything you need to know about their services.  Being that Dena is the photographer and not me, I will direct you to their site so you can see for yourself how cool their shops are.   I hope that you and yours have a fantastic Fat Tuesday!

Love is...

Love is patient; love is kind

and envies no one.

Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude;
never selfish, not quick to take offense.

There is nothing love cannot face;
there is no limit to its faith,

its hope, and endurance.

In a word, there are three things
that last forever: faith, hope, and love;
but the greatest of them all is love.     1 Corinthians 13

Today there is no recipe or beautifully decorated holilday treasure. Just the timely reminder to enjoy what is truly important in life. Have fun together, even if it is messy.