Category Archives: Holidays

Accidental Cake

Happy Halloween!  I was organizing my spices and shelves and saw that I had some ingredients that I wanted to use up so I thought I’d document how I made a cake for the first time in my life completely UNINTENTIONALLY!  I tried to read the instructions, but just didn’t have the patience to do it their way, so….

I put virgin coconut oil in a cake pan. Manually mixed 3 packages of cinnamon muffin mix, added (I don’t really measure, because I”m Italian) about 5 teaspoons of extra white flour, 3 jumbo eggs, one cup of milk, a few teaspoons of cinnamon, a few packages of chocolate chip oatmeal. Baked at 400 degrees for 16 minutes. I took this picture and then I sprinkled a little more cinnamon on top and applied vanilla icing on each piece individually.

The muffin-ish cake is amazing!  It’s not even over-the-top sweet, but the moisture and thickness is divine.  I’m sure I could probably not have this kind of luck the rest of my life, but it was great to use up those ingredients and at least for now we can enjoy something very tasty for the holiday.

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Father’s Day

Had brunch with my daughter and son-in-law in Berkeley.  Shando and I later went on a schooner ride from Sausalito (a belated birthday gift of his).  It was a glorious day.  On the schooner I got to see Angel Island up close for the first time ever.  There are also some great shots of downtown Sausalito where we stopped for coffee and gelato, as well (with Italian tourists even).

2013 Thanksgiving Dinner

My daughter prepared a mostly vegan meal the day after thanksgiving, which was more convenient for everyone who was not hanging out with their in-laws on Thanksgiving Day this year, which also would have been my father’s birthday.

I paid for the groceries and Alexandra did a lot of the work, with Rob’s help, especially cleaning up.  My daughter featured this on her blog prominently and was happy to mention that none of the family or friends who also were able to partake even asked where the meat was because it was so fulfilling and tasty, despite being very healthy.