kate rothwell

As soon as I can figure out how to upload the damn pictures, you'll see a glorious batch o' flowers. I mean, wow. Roses and more roses and some kind of gorgeous purple orchid-thingy. Two of my sisters sent me flowers for my birthday and they take up most of the dining room table (the flowers, not sisters, who aren't here, unfortunately). Last time I had this many bouquets I'd given birth. Speaking of which, it's the boy's birthday too. Boy1 = best present I ever got, hardest to unwrap. He's not getting flowers. I got him computer games and cold, hard cash--very cold. I wrapped the money around a batch of lime popsicles, his faves. What else is happening? Doug's birthday, too. He's running a contest over there. What is it with bloggers and contests? No don't answer because . . . I'm going to give away an eb00k copy of The Knight's Challenge . ** Comment below and in a couple of days I'll pick a winner. Really, even if you don't ...

hey, no point in doing a Thursday Thirteen. It's Friday. I've been doing the real life thing far too much lately. Sick people, birthday boys. We have another today (BB, not sick person, thank the lord) and I made his cake last night. Thing is, he wants his best friend, who's got celiac disease? syndrome? to have some cake too, so no box mixes allowed. Here's the recipe I used. 1 lb chocolate, bittersweet 1 cup strong coffee 2 cups sugar 1 lb butter melt the above, then add 8 beaten eggs. Bake at 255 for almost two hours. Result = a honking big chocolate brick that throws several pounds onto anyone who even looks at it. I'm going to make a fluffy sort of mousse event, pour it onto the cake (I have a tin foil collar), let it sit for a while, then cover the whole mess with genache.

My youngest is. . . (God, how did this happen?) ten today. Jesus. Also coming soon: the talented one in my family.