Funfetti Ice Cream Cake: It's your Birthday

This year, I went all out on our birthday tradition of making cakes for one another. Nick loves funfetti cake ( who doesn't?) and after 8 years of making funfetti cakes, I wanted to switch it up a little. I kept his old reliable, and made a 9 inch round of funfetti cake, but also used the 9 inch round cake pan to make a layer of ice cream.

To make an icecream layer for a cake, just line your pan with saran wrap and fill with semi-softened icecream ( I acheived this by nuking it for 20 second intervals). Transfer to the freezer over night. Once frozen, fill the bottom of your sink with hot water about 1 inch high. Submerge the bottom of your cake pan in the warm water. Flip the pan over and the icecream round should pop out. Peel Saran wrap off and you have your layer!

Place leveled cake on top of ice cream round. Trim any overhangs. (I didn't take a photo of this step, it's hard to hold a knife and camera simutaneously), I used semi-softened vanilla bean icecream to "frost" the top of the cake, instead of frosting because I had another wild hair to try something else new on this cake. One of my BFF's, Liz, over at A crafty bee, did a tutorial on using bubble wrap to make molded chocolate. After seeing what she did with her cheesecake, I was just waiting for Nick's birthday to come so I could try it on a cake! So, I salvaged some bubble wrap from a Christmas gift. Cut it to the height of the two layer cake. Melted semi-sweet chocolate ( I used the microwave but suggest a double broiler instead) , sprayed the wrap with PAM spray, then spread an even layer of chocolate over the bubble wrap. I let it set up for a minute before transferring. I wrapped each half of the cake with a strip of chocolate covered bubble wrap. It was a bit tricky manipulating the flexible wrap without smearing chocolate all over, but I somehow managed to get the placement right.

Then I transferred the cake back to the freezer for 15 minutes to let the chocolate set up. After 15 minutes, I took it out of the freezer, and pulled the bubble wrap off. Voila! Bubble Wrap molded ice cream cake, no frosting necessary!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUNSHINE! MAY YOUR 33rd YEAR BE THE BEST ONE YET!

Give a man a fish..

..and if it's NZ, he'll make Ceviche!

Nick and his pop played hooky from work one day last week and went fishing off the coast of Santa Barbara. One of the benefits of living where we do is definitely the proximity to the ocean, and the freshest fish, ever.


They brought home a bag of fish, and instead of doing fish & chips, NZ opted to make a super healthy (all raw ingredients) Ceviche, and it was to die for. Marinated in citrus juice, the juice "cooks" the fish..It's a wonderful appetizer, or if you're like us, throw in a bag of tortilla chips ( or homemade chips, will post those later) and make it a meal!

Nick's Ceviche

3-4 c. raw white ocean fish. Cut into small pieces, about the size of a dice.

2 c. chopped tomatoes ( same size as the fish)

1/2 c. diced white onion. Keep the pieces the size of an eraser head or smaller.

3 garlic cloves cut into small pieces. You want these to give flavor but not have big pieces in any one bite.

2 medium jalapenos. Same size pieces as the onion.

1/4 bushel of cilantro, finely chopped.

8-10 Lemons & limes

Add everything to a mixing bowl. Add citrus juice until it coats everything in the bowl. You don't want to have the ingredients swimming in the juice, but you also don't want them to be dry. Nick uses lemon and lime in his. 4 limes to every one lemon seems to be a good mix.

My inner Eeyore

As an earlier post of mine mentioned, I have been blog-stalking NieNies dialogue's for the past few nights, and am almost caught up to the present...and the discovery of this blog could not have been timed any better.

This week, simply put, has been a woe-is-me week.

Woe-is-me that I'm not a teacher with a summer vacation to spend chasing my kids around..God I long for those days...and it was my plan, long ago..to become a teacher and a mom, but a turn of events in my early twenties put a hold pattern on my plans to become an elementary school teacher. I did teach pre-k for 3 years, nannied for 2, and abso-freaking-lutely adored those years. I got to be creative, have some fun, and laugh A-lot...Someday, I will be able to enjoy summers again, with my own children (there's some positve thinking), and maybe even meet up with their dad for lunch at the park..But for now, hubby and I slave away at the office, hoping that those days we look forward to become a reality.

Woe-is-me that I'm STILL not pregnant.

Woe-is-me that I have a wedding to attend this Sunday, and no one willing to do hair and make-up, so therefore, I will attempt to do my own while watching a youtube tutorial on "smokey-eyes" through my computer screen..pretty sure I am going to look my my nemesis, the raccoon..but, I have to try..because hell, no one else is going to do it for me.

My hair, well, let's just hope for a good hair day, and patience in myself for doing a complete blow-out..on.my.own. I usually get lazy half way through and end up with the front looking like a party, and the back looking like I touched a light socket. But hey, I love the new color..so that's a plus.

I have a few other woe-is-me's, which include not having my sunshine to kiss me goodnight ( I really love his kisses), or to talk-his ear off during supper, or to debate whether or not we feel like going to the gym for a workout vs. grabbing some Taco Bell and watching 30Rock ( gasp! Yes we eat T-Bell). He was in Spain this week. He was home last week. He was in France the week before..and the week before that, he was throwing a bachelor party for his little brother, and the week before that, I was gone at the coordinating bachelorette party..So uhm, yeah, I sorta miss his face. Like , A lot.

Snivel, Snivel, Snivel.

And then...I read NieNie's Dialogues.

And I watched a clip of her appearance on Oprah, and an interview she has done with a lady who joined her for a tour of her home and daily life/struggles. And in the interview, the lady comes across a photograph of the Nielson family..A photo of the family BC ( before the crash), and OMG! they were the posterchild for Anthropologie ads..BEAUTIFUL. The lady starts to get teary eyed as she tells Stephanie ( NieNie) how beautiful she used to be..and asks if Nie Nie feels like that is a different person than who she is now..and Nie Nie takes a minute and points to her husband and her children in the photo, and tells the lady that she has everything she needs right there in that photo. The crash took away her looks, but it did not take away her family.. and hearing her say that puts it all in perspective.

And all at once, I felt bad about my woe-is-me week. The Nielson family has it all right and I am thankful for their blog for pointing it out to me..I need not reach any further than my own family and close friends, and I have everything a girl could need.

Moustached Paisanos

I couldn't NOT post this photo my sister just sent my way.

Jimmie Vendrame (Brie's grandpa) sometime in the 80's....

Nick-2009

There's about a 30 year chunk of time between the photograph of my grandpa sportin the handlebars, and this one of my sunshine..but they both rocked them equally well. Think the the trend might catch on?